Weekly ERP Poll Results: Biggest ERP Challenges
What is the Biggest ERP Challenge Your Organization Faces?
Just as reporters in the US are looking at early Election Day results this evening, I thought I would share some preliminary results from our poll. Based on respondents’ responses, lack of employee buy-in is the biggest problem facing ERP project teams. 38% found this to be the most challenging issue. A large group also found lack of ERP expertise to be the biggest problem (33%), while 19% identified a lack of project resources. Only 10% indicated that lack of project budget is their biggest problem.
Perhaps the most surprising result is related to executive buy-in. Not a single respondent identified executive support as their biggest challenge, which surprises me since I have been involved with at least a few projects where this was a huge problem. And, I suspect that a lack of executive support may be the root cause for at least some of the people that identified employee buy-in as their biggest problem.
These results underscore the importance of thorough project planning and effective organizational change management and training as part of the overall ERP preparation process. I have worked with several clients that underestimated the importance of planning and organizational change, only to find this to be the reason for lack of buy-in and ERP expertise.
Below are the detailed results. Of course, these results are preliminary, so there’s still time for you to voice your opinion.
ERP Poll Results
- Lack of project resources – 19%
- Not enough executive support – 0%
- Lack of employee buy-in – 38%
- Too small of a budget – 10%
- Lack of ERP expertise – 33%
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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.
