All living things change as they grow. Until they die. Sometimes rapidly, sometimes very slowly. Organisations also change as they grow, to meet new challenges and to take advantage of new opportunities.
Software alone cannot change your business, but it can help. You need the software to meet the needs of your organisation and for all but the most basic software that means that you need it to be properly configured for your needs, and trained in how to make the best use of it in your situation. A great implementation team can help, but ultimately the best changes come from within the organisation itself, by those that best understand it.
Why do organisations have software? In addition to the productivity software that empowers staff to be effective, business software (for the benefit of the business rather than the users) is adopted for two key reasons: to provide high quality information and to help control their processes. If you want to improve either of these then software will help if it is properly chosen, implemented and used.
Unfortunately many business change projects don’t deliver what was intended. IT projects in particular are notorious for taking longer, costing more and delivering less than was planned for. We want your experience of change to be as smooth as possible, and so here are some observations we have made about successful projects.
With well chosen phases for a project you can help to minimise the impact of the change. Having an iterative approach also helps to mark progress towards the end goal in manageable steps. It s better to take several steps and arrive safely then to make a leap and risk falling.
It’s easy for the scope of a project to be extended, especially when dealing with powerful and flexible software like SAP Business One. This is one of the key reasons we recommend an iterative change approach, keeping each set of changes contained and achievable. It’s usually better to incorporate new ideas into a spearate phase that can be scoped and managed than to extend the scope of work already underway.
Although having clear goals may seem obvious, often the goals of a project can change part way through ... which is one of the reasons for project creep. If you are adopting an iterative approach it’s important to have a clear understanding of the end goals (as well as they can be determined) at the start so that decisions are not made in earlier phases that create problems in later phases.
For continual improvement change must be exepcted. As phases are delivered, you should expect that the review and improve cycle will identify opprotunities for improvement you may or may not choose to adopt. This is also likley to be true as more users are expeiosed the project as different phases are rolled out over time.
To realise the beneifts of new software users must adopt it and use it as intended. Who are the key people that could disrupt a project? Often it’s the users that are overlooked that cause the most trouble for a project. Ensure that users buy in to the benefits you are trying to achieve, and the process of change as a means to get there.