Global ERP Implementation: Tips for Organizational Change Management

Organizational change activities often have tangible results on the success of an ERP implementation. Some aspects of change are more important than others and have a more immediate impact. There are five specific steps that companies should take in order to develop, actualize, and sustain the long-term organizational changes needed to best realize measurable business improvements enabled by new technology:

1. Business process standardization. Companies with global offices, particularly if those locations were acquired from another company, often have very non-standardized business processes. A global enterprise software implementation provides an opportunity to standardize processes across locations, but it can be very challenging to make that change happen. Organizational change management is crucial to overcoming such challenges.
 
2. Balance of local needs vs. standardization. Optimization of ERP benefits requires standardization in order to achieve a positive return on investment. But it's is also important to understand the local situation to ensure that the standardized operational model of the new system will accommodate these local needs.
 
3. Localized delivery of employee communication and training. Global operations may officially speak English, but it is important to communicate and train in the language of each location. New ERP software takes enough time to learn without language barriers, so translation of key messages and training will typically pay dividends in the long run.
 
4. Rely on your change agents. Each major office should have a local representative that acts as the change agent for the project team. These change agents will represent the local interests of their offices, validate how standardized business processes will work with their location, and communicate key process and organizational changes to their respective stakeholders. This employee representation is key to a successful implementation.
 
5. Leverage performance measures. Performance measures should be used to quantify the results that are expected from the ERP software investment and how each local office is expected to contribute to these improvements. These benchmarks become important in identifying opportunities to improve results after go-live.

Adapted from: Panorama Consulting Groups 2010 ERP REPORT Organizational Change Management http://bit.ly/ba2isg