ERP Expectations Headed for Trouble
By Eileen Strider

It's a classic pattern: ERP projects create expectations 
that are impossible to meet. Two to three years down
the project road, people at all levels are feeling 
disappointed, disgruntled and sometimes even deceived.

Here are 4 ERP expectation myths debunked, based 
on our experience reviewing ERP projects and our 
own humble opinion.

1. Data entry will be faster and easier
You won't get this benefit automatically as soon as you 
implement. It's possible to meet this expectation through 
skillful tailoring of the user screens and user practice 
with the new system. Many legacy systems were built 
before the days of Windows and graphical user interfaces. 
They were built using “green screens” crammed with 
cryptic data and designed for users who spent their 
lives with their heads down entering data and who 
knew all of the short-cuts. The new ERP systems have 
point and click user interfaces with features such as 
buttons and drop-down boxes. You can't cram as 
much information on one screen and so users have 
to work their way through multiple screens to enter 
data that used to fit on one green screen. Often more 
data must be entered than in the legacy system. 
On top of all this, sometimes the data is now being 
entered by people who are occasional users who don't 
know as much about the data they are entering. 
However, all ERP packages provide ways to tailor 
the screens for ease and speed of entry based on who 
will be entering the data. But often the up-front design 
work of tailoring the screens is not well done. We 
can't tell you how often and loudly we've heard that 
people feel misled with this expectation. Failing to 
manage this expectation alone can sink an ERP project.

2. Consistent, accurate data as well as analytic
and decision support reporting
You can achieve this benefit through careful attention 
and up-front design work early in the project. Reports 
don't automatically appear. Reporting needs often get 
little attention during initial implementation. This is due 
to the project focus on data entry and processing 
transactions, not on the back-end reports. Users don't 
realize this until they don't get the basic reports they 
expect after go-live. Legacy data must be cleaned-up 
and converted or re-entered in preparation for initial 
go-live. Before you can do this, managers have to 
agree which legacy data to keep and how much to 
convert. These decisions can be highly political and 
difficult to resolve.  Once the data is in the new ERP 
system, often it must be moved from the ERP 
transaction-oriented database to a data warehouse 
that can efficiently slice and dice the data into new 
reports that can be used for analysis and decision 
support. To create highly sophisticated reports, you 
will likely need a few data warehouse reporting experts. 
Data clean-up and conversion is typically underestimated 
and often delays implementation. And don't expect 
people to give up their shadow systems until your data 
warehouse is cranking out reports that look like the 
reports everyone was used to getting.


3. Streamlined business processes with 
integrated workflow and approval
You'll get these benefits only if you are willing to dedicate 
the resources necessary to redesign the workflows 
and settle the arguments about who controls and 
approves specific transactions. Streamlining business 
processes raises very real control and trust issues 
across functional silos in the organization. Skilled 
attention to human change management is critical to 
help people work through these issues, maintain or 
fix human relationships and achieve the benefits. 
We have seen cases where managers didn't understand
 what they had given up until the system went live. 
Then workflow became a huge political nightmare. 
Many projects wait to start workflow until things have 
settled down after initial implementation. This can be a 
wise approach but delays realizing the expected benefits 
of streamlining.

4. Integrated systems across the organization
Be careful what you wish for. Many people don't 
understand what integration really means in terms of 
changing who controls the data and transactions. 
Departments are used to being able to control and 
manipulate the data and transactions within their own 
legacy system. Departments defined the data to fit their 
needs and then argued about whose data was the “right” 
data while their executives' frustration grew. ERP 
systems are designed to have the data entered correctly 
once at the point of origin. This can be a fundamental 
change in how work is performed. It means that some 
departments will have to give up control of data as well 
as particular transactions. The work load will shift in the 
organization. Here is where an organization shows its true 
colors in terms of working together across functional 
boundaries. We have encountered implementations where 
two functional organizations actually disintegrated their 
ERP integrated software instead of working out their 
differences.

Well, there are certainly more than four myths, but these 
are four of the most critical. For now, four is probably 
enough to ponder.  If you'd like to discuss how to set realistic 
expectations and achieve them, we'd be happy to talk with you.