TOP 4 Best Practices for a Successful Enterprise Implementation

A successful enterprise implementation is not rocket science. But many companies, in their haste, fail to fully understand what they’re getting into. And so they wind up paying more on the back end:  they pay financially; they pay in increased risk. They pay in slippery schedules and gut-wrenchingly painful implementations that never quite deliver.

This is the 70% of IT projects that fail or fail to meet expectations. What could have been a successful enterprise implementation often plays out like this:

In the excitement and flurry of having a project and a budget, insufficient due diligence is performed up front. The team doesn’t realize there is a disconnect between technology and business processes, technology and usability, technology and budget, and/or technology and IT environment.

Surprises during implementation lead to cost overruns to bridge the most glaring gaps. Moneys that should be spent on high-value integration of the delivery chain are instead spent on bridging those gaps, making the app perfect, or on out of scope tasks.

The solution’s benefit to the organization is not apparent. Executives perceive they are “throwing good money after bad” and cut the purse strings. The solution languishes, never realizing its true potential.

So what are the TOP 4 Best Practices to prevent the above scenario?

1.  Before looking at technology, take the time to understand your operational sweet spot. This is the list of most frequently repeated tasks, performed in the most frequently repeated sequence. While many solutions on the market will undoubtedly be able to perform most of the tasks you need, it’s usability while sequencing from one task to the next that will either increase your efficiency tremendously or drive you crazy. Increase productivity in your operational sweet spot, and you’ve got your ROI, and your user adoption.

2.  Integration can easily run 3-4 times the cost of the software. It takes some thought to derive which integrations will bring the greatest value to your operational sweet spot and to the business justification for the project. It also takes very strong management skills to prevent perfectionist gap-filling, feature creep, loss of focus and other derailing behaviors. Think data transfer, easy access to other frequently used applications, and data flow that is visible to your customers. Allowing double data entry, for instance, is the perfect example of what you want to avoid.

3.  Take the time to complete a comprehensive TCO before committing funds. This will help to eliminate any disconnect between budget and technology. It will reduce the likelihood that the Project Manager will keep having to go back to the well for more money. And if the CFO knows how much it’s going to cost up front, he’ll be far more focused on progress and impact rather than dollars.

4.  Think and act small, focused and iterative. Achieve success in your operational sweet spot before introducing less frequently used capabilities to other areas of the organization. Make the solution demonstrate its value before investing more into it.