The cornerstone of success of your investment in ERP is the way the ERP is implemented. A clear, well understood, tried and tested implementation methodology is fundamental to such success. It has been said often that ERPs are not good or bad, it is the implementation of the ERP which makes it good or bad.

ESS therefore places huge emphasis on the way it implements ebizframe ERP.

Most of our clients are first time ERP users. Many have used standalone Accounting or Inventory packages which have had limited functionality. Thus, bringing on an ERP which spans multiple group companies, multiple locations, multiple factories and sales office, all working off an online integrated database, is a huge challenge. This requires our team to develop deep understanding on how to work with people and technology together. Our success lies in our ability to merge people's needs with all the requirements of a successful ERP implementation.

Business Objectives

ESS starts the implementation with the first step of identifying the business objectives and priorities in implementing of an ERP. This is a very important step and helps ESS relate the Business objectives to specific functionality in the software. If Business objectives and priorities are not defined, it can lead the implementation in a wrong direction. After the Business Objectives are identified, ESS does a broad system study to understand the existing systems and business practices of the company. This will help ESS identify the closest fit "baseline software" from its repository. The identification of the right baseline software minimizes the implementation time and effort, helping the company go-live faster.  Once the baseline software is identified, ESS starts with the customization capturing procedure and incremental deliveries model as explained below.

Deliveries (Incremental Delivery model)

The ERP is implemented incrementally feature-by-feature, Module-by-Module. The Incremental Deliveries ensure that Users start using the software very early during the implementation and do not have to wait for the entire ERP to go live. Therefore, the benefits of ERP start coming to the user organization within a very short time of starting the implementation process. This also helps in greatly building the customer confidence in this new technology, and ensures a positive mindset during the challenging process of the ERP implementation.

The approach taken by ESS is an Output Driven Approach (Reports).   Reports form Tangible

Deliverables and thus help drive the ERP implementation by Clearly Definable Objectives . Without these Tangible deliverables, the Project tends to chase the bigger and unclear targets, jeopardizing the Project progress. This approach has been found to be extremely effective in situations where knowledge of ERP is at its early stages in the User group.

Project Management Team Structure

The entire implementation is done onsite by ESS team. During the implementation of ERP, ESS maintains a one-point interface between ESS and Client. This interface is the Project Leader from ESS(PL).   ESS recommends that the Client should have a Central Coordinator (CC) for the entire project. A CC is essential and should be a driver for the entire project. He/She may decide to have 2-3 members in his Central team. Along with these members there should be rotating members, who should be from the Departments where a particular module is being implemented.

Customization Requirements Capturing

The PL along with the CC, interacts with the Functional Departments in a couple of sittings preferably having all relevant users of that module and the Head of that Department. During these sittings, PL demonstrates the relevant module of the ebizframe software to the Users with stress on Reports, Transactions (Business Processes) and Masters. If there are no changes asked for, the Users can start using the module as it is after entering the Masters. ESS advises that at the early stages of the project, minimal, and if possible zero changes should be made to enable the users to learn the depth of the software, and how their objectives can be met without any change to the baseline. If at all Users do want any changes, they are discussed between the PL and the CC.

ESS customizes the software onsite as per these Requirements. On delivery of each Requirement, the User is expected to do an acceptance test by entering real data to make sure that delivery is as per the Requirement. Once satisfied, CC should give a sign-off against that Requirement. ESS would recommend that CC should get the sign-off done within a week of its delivery by the PL.

Project Reviews

Project is formally reviewed between the PL and CC on a weekly basis or at an agreed frequency. Minutes of meetings are maintained for all meetings. The PL reports to a Chief Manager in ESS who is also the escalation route for the client.