Identifying

the problem
and setting Selecting a User and Go-
up a B-Plan Defining a project System Live(Prod
core team team testing uction)

Forming a Choosing ERP Staging 6 weeks of post-

steering the ERP Development production
committee consultant support by
developers

Stages of ERP implementation explained:

1. Identifying the problem and setting up a Business Plan: In this stage, meetings were conducted
so as to understand the issues that are plaguing the firm and trying to understand the potential
solutions for them. It is to ensure that everyone was on the same page and the goals are the same.
One important step here is to make the blue-print of the entire implementation process which will
serve as a guide for the whole project and ensure that there are no deviations.
The Key Performance Indicators (KPI) have to be scrutinized in order to understand the need of the
software intervention. Key objectives are necessary considering both future and present projections
in the requisition list, which allows a business to factor in the scalability and accommodating
changes in the future of the business/industry. Hence it is essential to identify the problem or the
exact need why ERP implementation is of utmost need.

2. Forming a steering committee: A steering committee was set up which took the leadership in ERP
implementation aligned with organizational trajectory and culture. The committee makes sure to
meet regularly and consistently. For ensuring the attendance of all stake holders, CEO’s presence
and commitment in the steering committee has to go hand in hand.
The following people are part of the steering team:
a. CEO- To show commitment towards the ERP implementation
b. CFO- TO take care of all the finances, budget during implementation and the ROI post
implementation

3. Defining a core team: In this stage, the core team was defined, which consisted of the following
members:

 Project Manager: The one who leads the entire project

 Application analyst: The member responsible for Data Migration and Data cleansing
 Application developer: The member who ensures that the system is customized to fit the
needs of the organization
 Quality Assurance Engineer: The member who is in charge of Testing the system and
analysing the performance, to ensure that there’s no deviation from the set standards.
4. Choosing the ERP consultant: (You can write this in your own words, as per the factors chosen
by the company) Some of the factors taken into account while deciding the ERP consultant are:
a. Flexibility: The ERP system chosen needs to be flexible and allow for modifications and
development of new features to meet the requirements of Emerson.
b. Preliminary costs and running costs: Costs such as setting up of the software, wiring, developing
hubs are some of the preliminary costs, while costs like Licensing, security, customization and Data
Backup are running costs, incurred on a regular basis.
c. Time: Time taken to implement the whole ERP and get it running was an important factor.

The ERP consultant chosen was Oracle Corporation and the strategy chosen was Parallel
Implementation.

5. Selecting a Project team: This consisted of key members from various departments like finance ,
operations, human resources, administration, IT, marketing, sales. The final ERP system was basically
the integration of all the systems by creating a single system This was done to ensure that changes in
one system would automatically change other systems too.

6. Development- In this phase, key users and competence center team mapped the existing
functional processes with the functions available in the vanilla ERP application, in conjunction with
the vendor team. Broadly, it included the following activities:

1. Process mapping
2. Gap detection
3. Work-around identification
4. Organizational impact analysis
5. Deliverables
6. Business Model through flow chart.
7. Customization Design Specification document for identified modifications.
8. Draft Procedure Manual
9. Acceptance Test Plan and Data

7.Testing-
Acceptance testing- The focus is entirely on whether the system is working in various stances. Many
times it happens that the system crashes when the load of the program is more. It’s essential to
check the final quality of the ERP programme to determine whether it is working as expected or not.
Sidewise, a manual has to be documented and updated regularly if any problems or defects are
noticed. A manual has to be maintained also for the sake of others to know how the system works.
Migration-
Since parallel implementation is adopted, Data from existing manual/legacy operations are
transferred to System’s database while keeping the old systems as it is because otherwise the risks
are too high. The following activities will occur:
1. Data conversion & loading
2. Establishment of Access Rights and Passwords

8. Staging:
9. Go-Live: Once the Final Business Model was ready and database is loaded, the system was ready
to go live. This phase allowed users to work on the application software with real time data. The
following was ensured:

Loading all the required data onto the ERP system

Training the workers who’d be using the system on a daily basis
Ensuring that the live-trial was successfully implemented.

10. Post-production support by Oracle: Oracle has provided 6 weeks of Post-production support to
Emerson.