Don’t skimp on training. “The most critical element of an ERP rollout is the people,” says Curtis Thornhill, CEO, Apt Marketing Solutions. “Create a full plan to train and onboard stakeholders. Ensuring implementation resources remain assigned for the first six weeks is essential to supporting end-users, managing change requests and addressing points of failure. Appreciable support is the most important factor for ensuring successful adoption of a new ERP system.”
“Make a solid investment in training,” says Hansen. “This is another key element to successful ERP deployments and should not be overlooked. If employees are undertrained, they will often fail to take full advantage of the tools they’ve been given, and can become frustrated, abandoning the system and resorting to manual workarounds that drain time and resources and create islands of information,” she explains. Therefore, it’s important to create “a training program that is appropriate to each user’s role within the company, with specific goals and outcomes defined.”