Not changing your company's management team!

Implementing a brand new ERP means a lot of changes within an organization. The first change is the software the company is using. This will affect the people that use the ERP intensively and they will be probably worried about the project and how it will affect their daily tasks.

But this is not the only change that the company will face. While changing the ERP, you will probably change some processes or you could even change who is responsible for doing certain tasks. Usually, these changes are not easy to make. You will have to take some actions in order to reassure people and help them during the change process.

For example, on an implementation project I was involved with recently, the company had an employee whose major task was to post all the sales invoices in the system after the user "checks" whether everything is correct with the invoice before posting.

With the implementation of Dynamics NAV, it was proposed that it made more sense that the warehouse staff post the invoice along with the shipment so that the invoice can go along with the shipment. Now, that particular employee will probably feel that they are going to lose their job, so they may start avoiding the project instead of helping the implementation.

We had to assure the employee that their position will evolve. Instead of checking each order for their pricing, address information, and so on one by one, the employee will now be responsible for setting up accurate pricing into the Customer Sales Price, maintain the different addresses in the Ship-to Address, and maintain their credit up to date. This means that instead of checking each order one by one (sometimes up to a thousand orders a day), they will be managing the setup data for the customer. This was a much better use of their time and it definitely increased their productivity. The checking is done beforehand, not at the time of posting.

The first thing you need to do to face a change in management is to identify all the stakeholders of the project. After that, you need to analyze their needs and their expectations from the project. You will also have to determine whether they support the project or not and what actions you can take to change their position.

Usually, communication is the easiest way to face changes. Keep all the stakeholders informed on what the project is all about, why the company has decided to implement Dynamics NAV, how will it affect them, and how the project is advancing.

If communication is not enough for some stakeholders, you will need to take other actions. Getting them involved is usually a good way to change their vision of the project. Think carefully about how you are going to handle all those changes. People are the most valuable asset you have to make a project a success.