Welcome to the dark side of ERP, where you can learn from the ghastly, macabre, and often fatal mistakes of past ERP implementations. We will unearth three horrific implementation scenarios that will make your skin crawl and bring on Halloween-quality nightmares. But! If you listen carefully, you’ll discover ways to beat back the evil-doers of ERP.

The Boneyard of Dead Inventory

Managing inventory is complicated when your business has a large number of inventory items, such as those found in retail, medical distribution, and mail order companies. In process industries, it can grow even more complex, as batches must be separated and ingredient changes accounted for. A modern ERP system can associate a set of master data with each item in your warehouse and provide bin-level inventory management features to keep your inventory alive and breathing.

The benefits of bin-level inventory management with modern ERP are easy to spot, including:

• Accurate inventory tracking across an unlimited number of bins
• Exact knowledge of inventory location in real time
• Reduced errors in put-away and picking
• Optimised picking efficiency
• With modern ERP managing all the financial and operations information for your items and products, you can chase away that old monster of an inventory management system that’s been hiding in your basement.

It’s great that modern ERP can do so much more than older ERP, but don’t overreach in your initial ERP implementation, for if you do, you open the doors of your business to something even more ghastly than dead inventory – the zombie Implementation!

The Zombie Implementation

If you have never crossed paths with an ERP zombie implementation, consider yourself fortunate. Those with an eye for danger turn tail and run when they see one. They don’t want to come close – much less touch – one of these zombies, for they know their reputation as career killers.

But what do they look like? A real-life zombie doesn’t just jump out at you, as Hollywood would have you believe. Instead, they play dead and never appear to move. But what turns these once seemingly nice ERP projects into zombie implementations? The answer is always the same from the near-survivors who manage to eke out a few words of warning before their dying breath ─ “Scope creep … creepy scope changes.”

Yes, sadly, zombies are the ERP implementations that never went live because the scope always changed. Which ultimately means that these zombies are created by man, giving us hope that we can learn from their mistakes and vanquish zombies forever!

To avoid dealing with zombies yourself, map the critical operations and processes you want your potential ERP system to manage or support. Don’t simply purchase the base system and add-on modules you deem important; instead, take the time to engage an expert (or experts) with demonstrated success in multiple ERP projects in your industry. If the stars are in your favour, you may even find an expert who has performed the rare zombie exorcism and turned it into a real, living implementation.

Ghosts of Project Teams Past

ERP ghosts are the most common spooky phenomenon. These phantoms show up to haunt even the best-planned ERP implementations. Why? Because people change roles, move between departments, or depart the company, leaving hints, rumours, and secretive evils hidden in dark corners of back-end functionalities and processes.

When these ghosts appear but can’t be tracked down and sent back to their netherworld, the ‘cost demons’ appear. They take your people hostage and force them to grow budgets for retraining, delay projects, and prevent you from filling knowledge gaps; if you have integrated a custom solution with your ERP, things turn really ugly.

To keep out the project ghosts and cost demons, it’s necessary to ensure continuity across all critical aspects of your ERP implementation, which is why it’s better for you to leverage a modern ERP system that encompasses the full breadth of functionality and makes using the system intuitive and simple.

Moreover, if you enhance modern ERP with an implementation partner who knows how to fend off the monsters, zombies, ghosts, and demons, your ERP system will guide you unharmed through the Halloween horrors, delivering you to the season of giving thanks.

If you are looking to replace your current ERP or business management solution, contact us today.