Day Two Report from ERP Boot Camp
Yesterday was the second day of ERP Boot Camp, which was another success packed with tons of information. We started the day with a case study of a recent ERP failure and lawsuit, which prompted a lively discussion about the fallacy of customizations, the need for organizational change management, and the whole issue of global standardization versus localization.
That discussion led to a 4-hour session and exercise to cover organizational change management and benefits realization. We reviewed the six major workstreams of organizational change, along with some standard plans and templates. We then went through an exercise to critique a sample organizational change management plan in groups and present the findings. The teams applied the concepts learned in the organizational change session to identify a number of holes and risks in the intentionally-flawed plan.
We then facilitated a session on how to manage global ERP initiatives, including pitfalls and challenges unique to multi-national implementations, such as globalization vs. standardization, global organizational change management, and assembling global project teams.
Finally, we closed out the day with another lively and informative expert panel discussion with participants from Panorama, Epicor, and Rebound Solutions. We covered a lot of ground and diverse opinions in these 90-minutes, including project governance, organizational change management, tips for training end users, project leadership vs. project management, and the dark side of ERP software customization. One of the highlights was a humorous and semi-cynical view of how PMP certifications and project management technical skills alone will not get the job done on a complex ERP implementation; instead, strong project leadership and direction is a prerequisite to success.
All in all, another great day. Watch for our last update on Monday after we close out this year’s ERP Boot Camp today.
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About Eric Kimberling
After 15 years of ERP consulting at large firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers and SchlumbergerSema, Eric realized the need for an independent consulting firm that really understands ERP. He began his career as an ERP organizational change management consultant and eventually broadened his background to include implementation project management and software selection. Eric’s background includes extensive ERP software selection, ERP organizational change, and ERP implementation project management experience. Throughout his career, Eric has helped dozens of high-profile and global companies with their ERP initiatives, including Kodak, Samsonite, Coors, Duke Energy, and Lucent Technologies to name a few. In addition to extensive ERP experience, Eric has also helped clients with business process re-engineering, merger and acquisition integration, strategic planning, and six sigma. Eric holds an MBA from Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.
