Topic: Change Management

A scenario that happens more than it should: A company invests in and implements a new ERP system, but its users don’t fully adopt it.

Most Food & Beverage organizations start ERP selection with a list of the biggest and best-known names in the ERP software marketplace, then research features, functionalities and total cost of ownership, and then schedule multiple rounds of sales presentations and demos.

Poor change management is perhaps the most avoidable cause of project problems and failure. Resistance to change, even positive change, is normal and expected human behavior – and plans must be made to minimize its impact.

The IT department and the C-suite do not own (and may never interact with) your core business processes. So the project team should include key people – end users and functional managers – from across your organization who are regularly involved in those processes.

Pacific Plumbing Supply is a 71-year-old, family-owned and operated company, with 14 branch locations and 200 employees. We weren’t looking to spend the kind of money it would take to implement a modern ERP solution,” Stafford continued, “but we understood that the ROI is in new capabilities and new tools we can use to operate more efficiently.”

A handy checklist helps manufacturing, distributing companies locate the best ERP consultants. We often talk with manufacturers and distributors about their enterprise technology initiatives, and the specific role an ERP consultant can play in evaluation, selection and implementation.