BilkentMBA2010, Lessons Learned, Week 3, Rostislav Smolin

OCM

One of most valuable assets to an ERP project is sponsorship. Project managers must involve and support sponsors from day one. Even a seemingly successful implementation can be halted if sponsors lose their influencein the company, so project team must inform executives about project successes allowing sponsors to maintain and grow their pro-ERP coalition.

Next in order of importance is the communication with the core team. These people will, hopefully, work long and stressful hours to make the implementation happen. They need to be trained, supports and informed about flow of the project.

End users training can be the most expensive item on the OCM budget, depending on the number of people trained. Effective training schedule can minimize costs as courses are grouped in related topics.

One important aspect of OCM is mitigating the risks associated with company culture. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast every day”, and sometimes cultural and structural changes in the company must be implemented in parallel with ERP.

ERP specialists can backup themselves politically by timely informing management of arising risks. The usual way to present risk is to follow risk, impact, probability and mitigation sequence.