How do you plan your SAP Business One implementation?
- Identify what you need an ERP for and make the necessary preparations
- Establish a team who will handle the bulk of the ERP implementation
- Establish a change management strategy
- Forecast your implementation costs and budget
- Start migrating your data
- Start training the people who will use your ERP
- Go live
- Evaluate the success of your ERP implementation
SAP Business One is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that provides a comprehensive solution for managing various operational areas of a business, such as financials, sales, inventory, and customer relations. As SAP Business One allows you to manage your entire operations effectively and efficiently, implementing it can be a complex endeavor.
The built-in modules in SAP Business One connect different areas of the business and provide real-time data, enabling better decision-making and streamlined processes. As with any major initiative, failing to plan it properly can have many adverse—and expensive—effects.
Here’s how to plan your SAP Business One implementation and ensure its effectiveness in your organization.
Establish a team who will handle the bulk of the ERP implementation
While everyone onboard will benefit from SAP Business One, that doesn’t mean your entire workforce needs to be involved in the implementation. In fact, more heads might just complicate the process.
Your ERP implementation team needs to consist of a project manager or leader, an application analyst who will handle data cleansing and migration, an application developer who will customize the system, and a QA test engineer who will handle system testing and performance efforts. These are your core members, and although you can fill other positions within the team, these are the ones you will definitely need.
Establish a change management strategy
As with any big change, the transition to SAP Business One cannot be sudden and forced, or it may end up being ineffective.
You want your ERP implementation to be done in steps so as not to shock anyone, and you want your workforce to be able to handle what comes after. To achieve this, you need to practice clear communication among parties (including regarding the steps you will be taking to implement your ERP) and provide adequate time for user training.
Forecast your implementation costs and budget
It might be hard to set a budget for SAP Business One —or any ERP for that matter. In fact, according to statistics, over half of ERP implementations are usually over-budgeted. Still, a good starting point is to set aside at least 1% of your enterprise’s annual gross revenue and then build upward from there.
Consider these factors when you build up your cost: hardware and network upgrades; training, consultancy, and customization fees; data storage; and even overtime pay for your staff.
Start migrating your data
Migrating your data is the part of the SAP Business One implementation that ensures you have a solid foundation upon which you can continue the rest of the process. Therefore, this is very important.
Your application analyst should take care of the following sub-processes: data cleansing, setup of the database, mapping legacy data, data transfer, and testing and verification of both legacy data and new data input. It sounds daunting, but any professional application analyst would know what to do for data migration.
Start training the people who will use SAP Business One
User adoption is very important to the success of your ERP implementation, so you need a suitable training plan.
There are two general ways to train your workforce for using Business One: through in-person methods or e-learning. Either way, you’ll want to accommodate the following features for a truly successful training program: role-based training, clear communication all around, and opportunities to give and act upon feedback.
Go live
First, you need to test your SAP Business One. You need to identify metrics for evaluating your system, create a communication strategy for the downtime of the system, run network speed and reliability checks, and create data backups. Of course, some of these you can do before the actual day, but regardless, you’ll want to do them before actually going live.
Evaluate the success of your ERP implementation
Finally, once you've gone live, you need to evaluate your return on investment to determine if your ERP implementation is effective.
If implemented correctly, you should expect a significant improvement in productivity, a reduction in human error, and an increase in customer satisfaction. These are the benefits you will reap from a successful implementation of SAP Business One.
Key Takeaway
If you think you’re ready to implement SAP Business One in your enterprise, ask yourself: have you gone through this list of how to plan your SAP Business One implementation?
If the answer is yes, and if you’ve already finished every step, then congratulations. You’re ready to implement SAP Business One, the best enterprise resource planning system available today. Contact DynamIQ, the most reputable provider of SAP software in the Philippines, for a quote today.
