8.11. A post-implementation audit
A post-implementation audit was conducted during the spring of 2000, ten months after the
‘‘go-live’’ date. The objective was to determine what areas needed additional assistance in order to more effectively utilize the Baan system. The audit was based on intensive interviews with 51 managers, supervisors, and key employees across 11 different functional areas. A specially designed survey questionnaire was used in all interviews. The interviewees were asked to give both objective and subjective responses to a series of questions covering various aspects of the ERP system and the implementation process. The interviews were conducted by a very capable university intern who had no previous knowledge or biases about the operation of the company. The analysis of the survey responses revealed a number of interesting results.
• The majority of employees felt that the implementation process was not over. The general belief was that there was still much to learn about how to use the Baan system.
• Effective communications was a major issue throughout the plant. Most employees felt that the Baan system has great potential, but many found it necessary, or convenient, to go around the system. This caused a ‘‘domino effect’’ of poor information flows throughout the entire company. A number of employees recommended stricter controls and discipline for employees that do not use the system correctly.
• Additional training was commonly identified as a significant need across the organization. While the pre-implementation and cut over training appears to have been adequate, significantly more post-implementation training should have been conducted. A common complaint was that the process of finding needed information was too time consuming. As a result, many users had developed numerous effective, but often inefficient, ‘‘workarounds’’ for problems they encountered. Another common complaint was ‘‘the system will not do that’’ which usually translates to ‘‘I do not know how to do that within the system.’’
• Despite the fact that the majority of the employees stated that they were comfortable with their knowledge of the new system, the most frequent suggestion for improvement within their functional area was additional training.
Spurred by the survey results, tighter system controls have been established. More importantly, widespread additional training was initiated.