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Why is ERP change management so difficult?
We all know that change management is essential to creating successful ERP projects. Why is it so hard to get this right?
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6 Answers
In the world of IT, ERP and OCM are in opposing corners. To have an "easy" and successful OCM effort in an ERP Project you need a person at the top that fully understands and embraces OCM. If that is the case, as more often than not is, where you have IT professionals that see Change Management as the “fluffy” stuff, then one or more of the following things can happen:
- The OCM team is engaged late as an afterthought to check the "We are doing OCM" box but relegated to the bottom of the priorities.
- The OCM team is engaged early on but not properly sponsored which makes the whole effort unsuccessful
- The OCM team is expected to deliver great results without taking any time from the rest of the team, the executives, the managers and the front line employees.
OCM’s primary goal is to help the employees at all levels to overcome fear and uncertainty, communicate the purpose of the project “the Why” and address the “WIIFM” (What is in it for me), to help gain acceptance, adoption and active participation.
If instead it’s seen as a waste of time and resources it will make doing change management in a project where there is an inherent added layer of complexity due to the project's nature, a very difficult enterprise.
ERP change management is difficult because the implementation of an ERP system is usually accompanied by business processes changes and/or changes to the data structure. To understand the impact on the user and organization, a change management team must understand the current business processes, the realistic skill sets of end users and the size of the learning curve that it will take for the users to learn the new processes and systems to successfully do their jobs in the new environment. This is difficult because:
1. Most organizations underestimate the amount of change required for users to successfully do their jobs in the new system and overestimate the user’s ability to adapt to change.
2. Change Management activities are often at the mercy of other parts of the project and may get information at the last minute to incorporate into training or communications – which results in not having time to fully prepare due to rushed implementation schedules.
3. As Adriana pointed out in her response, there is a pretty big gap between ERP professionals and change management professionals. To be successful, the change management team must be comprised of people who understand change management, ERP and the organizational culture.
4. Most organizations do not budget enough for change management activities and try to do it themselves. This often results in doing the minimum to get the users trained on the new system.
The degree of difficulty in change management is proportionate the amount of change. An ERP requires massive amounts of change and are therefore, extremely challenging for change management. If the scope and degree of change can be reduced, so will the erosive effects of change management. It is difficult, if not impossible, to reduce the scope of an ERP project as by its very nature it should be touching every aspect of business.
The degree of difficulty is dependent on numerous things including:
1) Does the ERP implementation have full executive: a) support, b) sponsorship, c) participation?
2) Have project tasks/responsibilities been assigned and accountability expectations set?
3) Are the resources assigned to the ERP project sufficient for the project such that project and the day-to-day jobs are adequately staffed?
I single these three things out, because if the answers to all three questions are "yes", then employee resistance to change will be significantly reduced and focused resources will be increased. This will improve employee morale and company focus and therefore yield better attitudes, solution alternatives and ultimately results.
I believe the challenge is that project teams try to use one methodology/approach to address all the needs for an ERP implementation. What is required is an alignment between the methods used in an ERP project. For additional information please see the following blog article:
http://gbeaubouef.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/when-erp-methodologies-go-wrong/
Steve Christensen's comment inspires this observation...
Because ERP change management touches all aspects of a business (as Steve says), it also impacts the lives of every C-Level and VP level executive.
The need for executive sponsorship is almost always mentioned in the list of requirements for successful change management. In the case of a new ERP implementation, you need executive buy-in and 110% support not only from the CEO but also from *EVERY* C-Level and VP level executive.
Failing to secure that initially or failing to maintain that throughout the project will net you one or more powerful bad apples in your project barrel...
and you know what that(those) bad apple(s) will do to your project barrel.
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