People, process and system together forms an Organization and it’s existence depends on the proper interdependency between them. So an effective Change Management properly educates people about the change and makes them aware of the need, benefits and growth.

Change Management in ERP Implementation

An ERP system brings lot’s of change in business organizations regardless of its size/type of industry. Resistance to that change is quite common during ERP Implementation. Employees will have anxieties about optimizing resources, how it will benefit them, the impact on future growth etc. ERP system increases employees exposure to new data and processes. This will bring changes in their daily tasks and will have a learning curve. Hence an effective Change Management plays a vital role in ERP Implementation.

An ERP implementation in an organization introduces drastic change in your Company’s operational and functional behavior. This transformation will not be natural and resistance to this change can occur from all levels. Hence Change Management handling becomes crucial during implementation of an ERP.

Top 5 Change Management Techniques for ERP Implementation:

1. Employee Engagement

An important part as employees are the frequent users whose dedicated actions make a ERP solution successful in your company. The data and records created by employees without failure is the base of the implemented ERP system. Hence the cooperation and participation of employees should be ensured. This can be achieved by selecting a Change Manager from the In-house team created for ERP Implementation detailed in Best 10 ERP Selection Criteria.

2. Management Engagement

Management shares an equally important role like employees, in an effective ERP Implementation process. Change Management risk can be nullified  if immediate Managers in every department accepts the change and make positive steps to ensure the complete acceptance of this change by his team. This demonstrates the idea that an organization’s use of ERP will be fully realized only when all relevant parties accept the change and integrate the new system..

3. Effective Communication

Effective Communication plays a vital role in convincing the need of change and accepting the same by all. For this the Change Manager should be able to answer the questions raised and clear the fear of employees. Change Management requires a soft, empathetic and understanding approach.

Team leaders of large organizations need proper Communication plan for an effective Change Mangement. So team leaders can communicate effectively to their teams to convince the need. Company’s goals and objectives, employees working style, culture, language, level of understanding, education etc are the key factors which determines an effective Communication plan of your company. Change managers need to recognize the concerns raised and address them with due respect. Proper answers provided to team will gain the confidence which makes change management hassle free.

4. Training plan

Organizations has to make training plans in advance. It should include several theory & practical sessions, and workshops that helps to automate specific business process of your organization’s industry. The training should ensure that end-users have gained adequate knowledge, skills, and state of readiness. Their performance will be improved as required as a result of this training. Past Experience on your organization or on similar industry can be taken into account which in effect will support Training plan preparation.

5. Change Management Progress Plan

A standard Change Management Progress Plan is not practical in an ERP implementation process. Since changes will differ based on many factors like industry type, size, location, business process customization etc. Even then a roadmap will give a fair idea to manage expectations, customization and training. This in turn helps in analyzing the involvement of every stakeholder, stage wise progress, change impact assessment, training plan preparation, policy change requirements, future business processes etc

In conclusion, Change management helps your company to understand the reasons behind the change, its implications and benefits. Change Management is a customized strategy for each stakeholder to support the business objectives and adopt the change without fear. Hence a standard set of practice or protocol can be a Change Management Progress Plan.

Business intelligence can manage enormous volumes of data in order to assist find and evolve new business prospects. Taking advantage of these new chances and implementing a productive strategy can bring a comparable market benefit and long-term stability.

Early commercial programs had their own databases to serve their tasks, and organizations quickly recognized the analytical utility of the data to which they had access. These organizations identified that by automating more systems, more data would become available. However, due to system incompatibilities at that time, gathering this data for analysis proved difficult. As a result, an infrastructure for data interchange, gathering, and analysis that could provide a unified picture of an enterprise’s data was necessary.

DATA WAREHOUSE IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

The data warehouse is a stand-alone scheme that is the repository of all of the organization’s data. It is in a format that can be effectively analyzed so that substantial accounts may be created for administration and other department workers. Data warehouses are the backbone of data storage in business intelligence. The database of a data warehouse was intended to enable the analytical operations required for business intelligence.

Complex inquiries and data comparisons are used in business intelligence to inform everything from daily choices to organizational-wide shifts in emphasis. Typically, business intelligence applications are used in conjunction with business ERP applications. To know more about ERP System please read our Article – What is an ERP System ?

The following are important challenges of to make this happen.

• Data must be gathered from numerous systems. Some systems may be compatible, however some platforms may not be.
• The same piece of data may exist in databases of different systems of different sorts. A same data item may not only be represented in different forms, but its values may also be different in different databases.
• Data is always changing in an organization.
• The volume of data is enormous. As a result, it is not easy to analyze and display.

 ETL (extract, transform, and load)

ETL is an acronym that stands for extract, transform, and load. An ETL tool in business intelligence extracts data from one or more data sources, transforms and purifies it to make it suitable for reporting and analysis, and puts it into a data store or data warehouse. The ERL’s primary function is to read data from one or more data sources. It can read data from practically any data source, including databases, flat files, RSS/ATOM feeds, Web services and even from spreadsheets. These programs, as the name implies, extract data from source databases, change/transform it into the widely used data warehouse format, then put it into the data warehouse.

Multiple data sources can be consolidated into a well-structured database for complicated analysis using the ETL function. The ETL process is carried out on a regular basis, such as daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on the demands of the organization.

REPORTING

A data-mining engine’s information is useless unless it is quickly and clearly communicated to those who want it. The digital dashboard is a popular method for showing information. But here are many formats for reporting information and knowledge results. It gives stakeholder with the input required to propel the firm forward. It shows the client a graphical representation of business operations. The user may then drill down into the data at any time to learn more about a certain procedure.

DATAMART

In business intelligence, a data mart is the access layer of a data warehouse. It is used to provide users with data.  A data mart is a special type of a data warehouse. It is narrowly focused on a specific topic (or functional area), such as sales, finance, or marketing. Whereas data warehouses provide enterprise-wide depth, data marts only include information for a specific department. Constructing a data mart is less expensive than implementing a data warehouse, making it more suitable for small businesses.

Business Intelligence not only supports the most recent information technologies, but it also offers ready-to-use application solutions. It focuses on the access and distribution of corporate information to end users. it also serves as a resource for both information suppliers and information consumers. It allows access to all types of corporate information, not only those held in a data warehouse.

To know more about beneifts of ERP System please read our Article – What is the benefit of an ERP System?