BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 4, Nurcan Bozkaya

In the 4rd week we discussed about the strategic ERP implementation types such that;
• The Big Bang Method:
This method requires that doing the implementation one at a time in whole company. It requires relatively shorter time period than phased method of implementation. This generally helps to the long term cost shortages. Doing the implementation shortly also leads to less painful adaptation period. But also since it is a shorter time adaptation, the intensity of the pain might be more. Additionally this method is more risky than phased method and the result is less satisfaction with the crucial system’s abilities. Generally, applying this method can cause extra working costs and opportunity cost of not working since while implementing this method very fast might require most of the employees to have their full concentration to that job.
• Phased Method:
This method is followed slowly relative to Big Bang Method. This method is less risky than Big Bang method since it consists of the steps of implementation in a long term. Thus, if there is a big problem with the project, it allows stopping the project, and with this way the company can avoid from extra cost. On the other hand, making the implementation slowly may cause “change fatigue”, and employees may lose their interests about change.
Moreover we discussed about leadership, “what is leadership and what is leadership different than management?” subjects. And also we talked about the shared leadership concept;
First of all leadership is defined as “influencing others understand and agree about what should have been done, how this can be done effectively, and it is a process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish a shared objective” by Yukl. The difference between leadears and managers are; managers have formal authority but leaders do not, they have the inspire and influential affect on their employees. From the point of Global ERP implementations’ view, in global teams there are issues we should have to deal with. For that reason Self-managing virtual teams (SMV) are becoming more and more common. SMV team members have abilities on work methods, task assignments and schedules and also compensation and feedback.
There are 2 types of leadership behaviours which are:
1. Task-Oriented Leadership: Task-oriented leaders are focused on accomplishments. At this type of leadership the success depends on to the leader’s ability about demonstrating the competence and commitments to the team members.
2. Relationship-Oriented Leadership: Relationship-oriented leaders focus on the relationships among the team's members. At this type of leaders creates an atmosphere which formed by trust, dignity and respect. The leader encourages the members to build constructive relationships with each other also.
The other subject we discussed is about ASAP methodology. ASAP means Accelerated SAP which is proven and successful approach to implement SAP solutions across industries and customer environments.And also ASAP provides content, tools, and expertise from former successful implementations. ASAP methodology has 5 phases:
1. Project preparation:
In this step the objective is to provide initial planning and preparation for the project. At this stage project team trained and the initial hardware is ordered. The output of this stage is the high level project plan and the project team organization.
2. Business blueprint:
This stage is the documentation step which will be used while doing configuration in the realization phase. Blueprint workshops and prototypes are being done at this stage. FRICE (Form, Report, Interface, Conversion & Enhancement) control list and the business process definitions are the outputs of this step.
3. Realization: The purpose of this phase is to implement all the business process requirements based on the previous stages outputs. Unit tests, training the process owners, FRICE developments, integration tests, and data activities are being done at this stage. Final user acceptance is the output of realization.
4. Final preparation: The purpose of this phase is to complete testing, end-user training and finalize the readiness of the company before go live. During this phase, final system rehearsal, help desk support preparation and cutover should have been done.
5. Go Live & Support: At this stage the data is migrated from the legacy systems, the new system is activated, and post-implementation support is provided. During this stage, review system processes and continuos improvement, help desk support and review issue log should have been done.

BilkentMBA2010, Lessons learned, week 3, Nurcan Bozkaya

The Organizational change management has five initiatives. The OCM is consisted of both the hard (Blueprinting, configuring, client strategy, transports, testing, code changes, more transports, more testing, etc.)and soft stuff (Training, communications, security authorization, super user organization, business process procedures).

Here are the initiatives of the OCM;

· Business Process Procedures: is the documentation process of business. How each transaction is going to used in ERP system? Each documentation processes should be done properly and data should be stored also it should also be easily reachable.

· Communications: Communication is one of the most important part of the OCM. A good communication plan should involve these topics;

§ What is the content/ message?

§ Who is the audience?

§ How do we tell them?

§ What is frequency of the communication?

§ Who will deliver?

§ Where will it come from?

§ When are delivery dates?

· Training: training involves the core team training, management seminar, and end user trainings. The most of the budget which allocated to training is used for end user trainings. The core team training and management seminar tools are being done before the end user training. Also the end user training involves some analysis, their course contents must be developed well, after they deliver the training courses they should have done practices before they go live. Training has also several elements as follows;

· Core team training

· Management “seminar”

· End user training:

o Training needs analysis

o Develop course contents

o Deliver training courses

o After training - practice before go live

· Super User Development: For super user development firstly we should determine the objectives of the super users, and then identify the criteria. Super users has to good communication skills and they should be volunteer. %10 of the end users must be identified as super users. Super users are the links between the core team managers and end users so they know how and where they can get help.

· Security/ Role Development: The role developers role is to determine who will authorized to access the data and how many data that they can access according to the needs of implementation.

Risk Assessment is one of the most necessary element in a project. According to the results of the risk assessment we are going to give colors about how the risk of the project is high and take the precautions to lower the risk or leave off the project.

Risk assessment involves these steps;

1. What is the risk?

2. What is the impact of the?When it happens, what would be the damage?

3. What is the probability of the risk?

4. What is the risk index?

5. Create a mitigation plan

Resistance to change & Culture:

To overcome to change resistance it is very important to give information to the employees about the benefits of the new system. With this way they will be willing to do change management and they will be the part of the change management. Additionally company culture must also be take into the consideration while doing change management in the company. Because of the culture the viewpoints of the organization changes. Company’s culture is formed by the values, behaviors, beliefs and norms (norm means the unspoken rule of the culture) that permeate the group, for example entrepreneurial vs. bureaucratic. And it influences the companies approach and the way that they solve the problem. Also by the customers behaviours affects to companies culture.

Additionally communication is one of the other important way to deal with resistance to change in the organization. With good communication skills people can be convinced about the benefits of the new system and it is also important for understanding the employees needs and satisfy their demands.

BilkentMBA2010, Elevator Speech,Week2

Hi, I am Nurcan Bozkaya. I help companies to do their production processes
much more effiecient by optimizing them. Thus, they increase their profit
margins and stengthened their competitive strength and place in the market
share.
Would you like me to optimize your workplace?