It was the best of times; it was the worst of times … Company A and Company B are both implementing new enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. On paper, these companies, and the ERP solutions that they are implementing, are the same. And yet, if you ask employees at the two companies what they think about these modernization efforts, you will get quite different answers:
If Company A and Company B are essentially the same, why are their employees reacting so differently to their respective ERP modernization efforts? The answer is that Company B is making change management a priority and Company A is not.
In fact, the two companies diverged long before the new ERPs were implemented. While Company A waited until the new system was actively being rolled out to begin communicating to the affected employees, Company B started communication long before, and they started at the top. A successful change of any kind starts with getting executive sponsorship. At Company B, the CEO made the announcement that they will be implementing a new ERP and talked abouit the overarching benefits that this will afford to the company as well as to individuals. Throughout the selection process, both the business and users were involved, with their feedback captured and valued. Change leaders were identified and played an active role in championing the new ERP. And Company B made training mandatory, investing the time and resources to make it applicable to users’ actual jobs. Company A did none of these things — waiting for the new ERP to be selected to announce it, not engaging other members of the business or users, failing to designate change leaders, and making training optional and generic.
Company A wanted to cut costs and corners by not investing in change management during its costly ERP implementation, allowing seeds of discontent to take root. The result? A small fortune was spent on a new ERP that no one likes or is willing to use. Company B, on the other hand, recognized that investing in change management pays off in the long run and is now reaping the benefits of a modern ERP solution being employed within the company.
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Find out more about ERP change management best practices in the report, Change Management For Modern ERP. If you would like to discuss ERP change management in more detail, please schedule an inquiry or guidance session.
