Give Your ERP Go-Live the Best Chance for Success.
A lot can go wrong when an ERP system goes live. That’s why we’ve created our 9-step ERP implementation go-live checklist for a smooth, seamless go-live. Critical severity defects, security holes and other technical problems can cause disruption, wreak havoc on operations, bring your business to a dead stop, and even result in multi-million-dollar lawsuits. With careful planning and process, however, your go-live can be a smooth, seamless experience.
Best Practices for an Effective ERP Implementation
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Successful ERP Go-Live Readiness Checklist
Are you prepared to successfully implement your new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system? Your ERP replacement journey may be hiding potholes along the way, just waiting to throw your ERP project off track and set your business back. But by putting all the necessary elements in place before go-live, you can avoid these risks:
- Increased cost
- Delayed implementation
- Lack of end-user adoption
- Disruptions to business operations
- Failure to realize ROI and expected benefits
Our ERP go-live readiness checklist is a convenient guide to help ensure the technical and operations aspects of go-live are established and configured adequately. By following the critical ERP success factors—including data migration, user adoption and testing—you can ensure you’ve optimized the chances for a successful ERP implementation go-live.
Before flipping the switch, pay attention to these critical ERP success factors on our ERP Implementation Go-Live Readiness Checklist:
1. The Big Bugs Have Been Squashed
In a perfect world, there will be no bugs at ERP system go-live. But, in reality, you won’t be able to catch everything; and that’s okay. As long as you’re able to fix the severity 1 and severity 2 bugs, which can completely wreck your data, you’ll be able to flip the switch safely and begin addressing the smaller bugs afterward.
2. All Tests Have Been Completed—and Passed
During the implementation phase, you’ll conduct a series of ERP systems testing: unit tests, process tests, system integration tests and user acceptance testing. All these tests are designed to ensure that the configurations, customizations and integrations won’t fail in the production environment. But when you’re creating tests, make sure that they cover enough use cases. Bring in users to help develop user acceptance testing, for example, so that you know you’re testing what will matter to them once the switch is flipped.
3. You’ve Practiced the ERP Data Migration and Cut Over
Just as you wouldn’t go onstage without rehearsing your lines, no ERP system implementation should go live without having extensive dress rehearsals for the data migration and cut over. This is a chance to flush out any issues with corrupted, messy or duplicate data, which you don’t want to bring into your brand-new production environment.
4. The Data is Ready to Go
At some point, you’ll have to draw a line as to what data will be migrated. While you’re practicing the data migration, you’ll also want to decide on a cut-off date and time for any transactions in the legacy system to be added to the initial migration data set. That way, you can populate the new system with data before the switch on the go-live date, then migrate over new transactions in the legacy system later.
5. The System is Backed Up
It goes without saying, but everything in the legacy ERP system needs to be backed up before any migrations happen – in case the worst-case scenario occurs. And as part of testing, make sure that the backups are tested well before migration.
6. The Production Environment is All Set
It’s not enough to just say the production environment is ready for the migration. You’ll need to define what “ready” means. Ideally, that’s making sure the infrastructure is in place and ready to handle the new ERP system, and that you’ve configured it, loaded users and enabled all the security features necessary.
7. ERP End User Training Is Complete
One of the most frequent reason ERP implementations fail is because end users don’t fully adopt the system and look for workarounds. To prevent this, implementing change management practices—including training—is critical. End users need to know how the new features and functions enable them to do their jobs, what the workflows look like for key business processes, what to do if they’re having trouble with the system, and what has changed from the legacy system to the new system.
8. You’ve Strategized the Rollout
Think of go-live like a championship football game: Everyone on the team needs to know their role, what the playbook is, and what to do if things spiral out of control. That means your project team needs to ensure the end users know what’s coming, the implementation team is prepared for any bugs that haven’t been addressed, and there’s a process for how to handle any issues that crop up after roll-out.
9. Support is Standing By
After go-live, you’ll want to have the support team ready to answer the inevitable questions. Even with a completely smooth rollout and the most thorough training, end users may be confused as to what the next step is. Make sure there are enough people available to help them through any issues they may face.
Going Beyond the ERP Implementation Go-Live Checklist
The bottom line: With a smart strategy, careful planning and meticulous processes, you give your ERP system go-live the best chance for success.
ERP implementation isn’t easy. The road is littered with ERP projects that fail to meet their intended objectives. Ultra’s experienced ERP professionals can help you avoid the risks of ERP implementation failure. Put our proven methodology and expertise to work for you, guiding you every step of the way. Contact us today for your free discovery call.
