BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, Week 4, Derya Kaya

ERP Implementation Strategy
Big Bang and Phased Implementation

• Big bang: There is focus in the organization. It is needed to take too much attention Phased: Phased implementation doesn't take too much attention.
• Big bang: It provides integrity; because all the modules are implemented together. Phased: In case of conflict, it is necessary to go back to old system. Because each module is implemented separetely.
• Big bang: Huge change might be difficult to handle with
• Phased: There is learning and the first one will help to second round.

Staff/Resources (Outsourcing/In-house)

• It should be get consultants for their expertise but ERP experts should be kept for in-house support. (after go live)

Customization Level
Customization level should be decided well before customize the system. If it is strongly needed to customize, then it should be done. Because everything you customize, you change yourself. It is not easy to handle very much customization. Customization brings higher implementation and maintenance costs including more time with itself.

Leadership
In the new leadership approach, the important thing is 'extending the pie not sharing the pie.' There are two kinds of leadership behaviours: Task Oriented Leadership and Relationship Oriented Leadership. In addition to those terms, it was interesting to learn that at this era, the leaders were just showing themselves without being pointed as leader, and they had different points for leadership. They did not have all the leadership features but they had some of them. Therefore, it could help to create value in the organizations more than before.

ASAP Methodology (Accelarated SAP)
ASAP methodology has five phases:

• Phase 1- Project Preparation (Obejctives, key activities, key deliverables should be defined)
  
• Phase 2- Business Blueprint (Business process documentation) (This could be old documentation+ BPR)
  
• Phase 3- Realization (Unit tests, Integration test, Stress Testing)
  
• Phase 4- Final Preparation
• Phase 5- Go Live&Support (The new system is active and post-implementation support is provided) (Parallel processing is good way to survive on crashes if something goes wrong; but the disadvantage is double maintain and it is costly.)

!The organizations should always think about continuous improvement. It should be asked to consultant: 'What other functions there are that could be useful?