Wow - I just realized it has been forever since I last posted on my blog.  In between business, family, and other stuff sometimes blogging just did not have any priority..funny, that is the same analogy that you hear from ERP project teams.  Replace blogging with "I should be focusing on the ERP implementation but am getting sucked into my day job/project/meeting/latest fire of the day!!"
I am in discussions with a small company client about assisting the customer team with an upcoming ERP implementation - this discussion was driven out of initial business readiness conversation about whether the company team is really, really, and I mean really ready for an ERP project.  Initial conversations were, sure, old Joe and Mary can handle it.  But then I go talk to Joe and Mary and to no surprise the answer is "are you kidding me I can barely keep up with my day job".  The problem, especially in small companies, is that people wear a lot of different hats and it is very difficult to just pull them out of their day jobs.
When executives ask me for advice I suggest a few ideas to explore:

• Is there someone working in another area that has been looking for a new opportunity?Sometimes a good person to bring up to speed and backfill a key ERP project team member is right under your nose but maybe is in another department?  We found a great distribution warehouse person on a recent project that was a shipping clerk but had a great background and wanted to get into the logistics/distribution side of the business. They knew the business very well and it was easier to backfill the shipping position than find someone who knew the business model as well as they did - they quickly learned the ERP specifics of logistics and were a star on the team.
• To lose weight they say you should always track your calories!!  The same applies to trying to reduce workload. I helped a person document a week in their typical job to see if they could find a few more hours to dedicate to an ERP effort. It is sometimes amazing what comes up for areas to explore: Lots of meetings, time spent on reports of questionable value, duplication of tasks in multiple departments, etc.  A careful note is that these findings are not a reflection on a person's ability but a reflection on the company use of their time - big difference.
• Get help.  Ok, maybe a shameless plug but it can work well for the right situation.  Find temporary workers to do any tasks that require little business knowledge but take up a lot of time (i.e., data entry, etc.)  Find consultants that know your business model and have experience that can "extend" your customer ERP team.
• Backfill.  Ok, I know most execs don't want to discuss hiring to backfill for an ERP project.  But sometimes that may make the most sense, especially if the potential ERP team member has career desires to explore other areas of the company.  Prime example is we took a financial person on one project who had interests in getting into sales/marketing.  They backfilled her position to make the move. She became crucial in configuration of sales/marketing reporting and analysis which takes a solid financial understanding anyway - after the implementation she moved into the sales team and did great as a account rep.

No easy answers but these tough conversations need to happen sooner rather than later!
Thanks for listening - let me know your thoughts.  Ed

“You would make a horrible user car salesman”. This was my wife’s response after we talked about my latest potential opportunity with a small business. The client had called me convinced they were ready to move forward with ERP enhancements and other IT projects (and was ready to sign me up for a long duration!). However, when I started asking management questions it was evident they had no plan for how it all tied together (i.e., an IT plan or strategy). Knowing that I may get some pushback from some of the management about being “too much like a consultant”, I enlisted the help of the CFO who was acting as the executive sponsor for most of the IT projects.  I reviewed a sample IT plan for a small business and reviewed areas such as prioritization, business plan alignment, effective use of resources (both internal and external consultants), and using the plan as a communication tool with management and the company. We also discussed the need for it to be extremely focused, brief, and most importantly result in actionable tasks that can be completed in the near future (1-2 yrs.).  He agreed and then took my proposal back to the CEO who gave it a 100% thumbs up while also admitting that he had been “skeptical” of some of the planned projects!!

Now this probably sounds like common sense for most of you out there with mature businesses. But in my experiences with small growing companies, it is very common to have no formal or documented IT plan.  Common reasons include they feel it is planning overkill, waste of time, or it will just slow them down (especially since they already know the answers).  Or another common reason is that the small business IT staff (if they have any) is more technical/tactical thus maybe less likely to push the need for a plan. And to their credit those are valid reasons to be weary of an IT planning exercise. 

So the challenge for both consultant and company is to bridge that gap. In my example above, we openly and honestly talked about the pros and cons of such a plan.  We came to agreement on effort and duration (both internally and externally) we would expend and specific results we needed to achieve to reach the objective.  A cookie cutter IT plan will not work – you must adapt to the specific client, understanding their growth, capabilities, and business goals. 

Having no plan is a bad answer not matter how small the company.  I encourage you to consider this if you are accountable for IT at a small company. Whether you seek outside help or use internet self-help planning sites or research, you and your company will be better for the experience.

Hey, maybe I might have sold that car anyway – might have just been a different car. They really did not want a sun roof.

Thanks for listening and would love to hear your experience.

Ed

One of my clients is a small B2C company that is trying to establish an interesting metric - the ROI of niche customer data.  Not just your typical everyday customer data but specific data such as buying habits, why they use their products, and recurring product sales history that can then be associated with a specific personal customer attribute such as health, having pets, allergies, do they have kids, where they live, age group, etc..

This has led to very interesting discussion among management as we started to put our finger on what is the true value of this data?  The reason for the discussion is the implementation of a more robust IT solution which includes components of ERP, CRM, and other niche players in the B2C industry.  We have established and feel good about improving our ability to establish processes and tools to capture the required data elements and perform reporting/analysis on that data.  So some might say that is great and that by itself should be the "ROI" of a new solution - but is it really?
The elephant in the room is when you ask the management team to zoom ahead in the future. We now have this great IT foundation capturing all of this great customer data and know everything we ever wanted to know about our customers.  So now what????  Too late if you are just now asking that question.

During any evaluation or IT strategic process you should be asking questions concerning ROI of customer data at the very beginning stages while interviewing stakeholders to get their expectations. I prefer some open ended starting questions that will lead to more specific conversation or follow up. These might include questions to the respective senior stakeholder:

CFO -  "How much more revenue do you expect with this new data?"
CEO - "What new markets or growth are you after with this new data?"
VP of Marketing - "How will this change your marketing campaigns?"
VP of Sales - "How does this help with your outbound sales efforts?"
VP of Product Development - "How does this help your product lifecycle and/or development?"
VP of Operations - "How does this help with inventory optimization efforts?"
VP of Quality - "How does this help enable quality improvements"?

As you can probably guess, it leads to interesting conversation and meetings among executives. As you try to answer these questions it provides a foundation for an informed and realistic discussion about what is true value a company wants to associate with this new found richness of  customer data.

Would love to know your experience.

Thanks for listening - Ed

I recently partnered with Software Advice as a path for clients that are looking for a quick and easy to use site for free short list advice or general ERP selection help.  Check out my Free Software Advice Page for some tips and starting points on how best to use their service. 

I recently came across a CRM review article by Lauren Carlson of Software Advice suggests five CRM SaaS model clients that might be good candidates to evaluate against Salesforce.com.  I think that is a great starting list and would have no problems putting them on a potential short list depending on specific client key needs. I would also consider some smaller players such as Acumatica and Aplicor, up and coming SaaS ERP/CRM combined solution providers,  SAPByDesign, and Commence CRM that a few other commenters mentioned.  As always there are more choices that could make your list depending on your specific needs but this is a good place to start your research!  
 
In my humble opinion, CRMs can be one of the most difficult IT strategies to implement.  The key stakeholders are usually widely varied in expectations, tons of ad hoc processes, and potential integrations to other systems and/or every device known to man (iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, <<insert your device of the month that the VP of Sales MUST have integrated!!), and resource time/commitment can be difficult to obtain.  If you are considering a CRM system allocate lots of upfront time to make sure you capture key stakeholder expectations and fully discuss openly with ALL management PRIOR to even looking or considering packages.

Thanks for listening - Ed 

 As I meet with executives about ERP software selection it is becoming apparent that "younger leadership" in small to mid markets are most open to the SaaS model.  Many are already using Google apps, hosting, several niche web subscriptions applications or services, and most have some outsourced IT functions.  They have grown up in the internet explosion!  The discussion about the pros, cons, and risks associated with SaaS tend to be less education and more about the whether it is a fit for their specific business.    It has been an interesting dialog and has actually led to a key criteria in some cases - the vendor must have a SaaS option.   They did not go as far to say they would only consider SaaS, but the option had to exist.  Not just hosting - true Saas subscription service.  Not sure if this is a trend but I think the younger generation leaders I think are going to start asking "Why not" a lot more during evaluations..... Let me know what you are seeing.  Ed

As I am currently working through an ERP software selection for a small business, I am always reminded of the extreme value of the Business Readiness phase where you capture key stakeholders thoughts and expectations.  The open discussion and debate among company executives about key general topics always leads to great insight and expectation setting.  Past clients have told me this was the most valulable excercise they went through as part of the process.
I like to ask very simple open ended questions to executives such as:

1. What do you expect from the new solution?
2. What are the key business processes or challenges you expect a new solution to address?
3. Is this going to accelerate or enable the company goals?  If so, how?
4. How do you measure success?
5. If the implementation does not do <Fill in the Blank>, it will not meet my expectations.

Some clients are impatient and want to jump right into the application functionality and comparison, etc. but sometimes forget about this critical and very important element of a software selection.  If you are currently being asked by your management to conduct an evaluation please be sure to incorporate this line of thinking into your project.

Please let me know your experience on this topic - Ed

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