The most common misconception of a new ERP system implementation is that it reduces the
amount of manual work involved and is going to mean less work for the users.
This is not entirely true, though a system's role would be to make life easier
for the user, over the years the primary role of a system is to help organize business
processes, eliminate non-value adding activity, capture the information/data
flowing through the business, analyse and project this date to the management to provide
better insight into identifying trends, highlight business challenges and areas where management
need to give special attention to.
In essence, once the system is up and running, the above
would actually push the management and users to move onto the next level to
make sure that the analytics performed are done on a sound basis to ensure the
information used in decision making models is relevant.
A successful implementation of a new system will always bring
to light new areas, processes and business challenges which the users didn't
know before existed, this then gives them the opportunity to focus on improving
these areas & processes in order to be to get the best out of them.
I've come across many users who have initially mentioned
that their workload has gone down dramatically but in a couple of months time,
they are running reports which have brought to light many areas in which the
business can do better at and this leads to new work (opportunities) to get
those areas improved as well. An ERP Implementation is a continuous improvement
process, there is always room for
improvement which might highlight a critical piece of information that could
take the business to the next level, and these improvement opportunities will
not always be identified by an ERP system, most of the time it will be
highlighted by a hard-working super computer, the "Human Brain".
So remember an ERP system is more than just making life
easier it is about taking the business to the next level, if users expect an
ERP system to do everything that they do, there wouldn't be a need for a user
to come in to work at all.
Have a nice day.
