7 Essential Strategies for a Successful ERP Project

Implementing a new ERP solution is a difficult, risky and complicated project – and not one companies do often. So it's common for organizations to be unfamiliar with the best practices and potential pitfalls.

How can you improve the odds? Which considerations are most important? What are the keys to effectively managing this enormous, business-critical project?

Seven strategies for success

We asked our expert consultants, and they offered seven strategies for success.

1. Make the project the top priority

An ERP project is a major undertaking that will impact (and involve) your entire organization.

To help ensure success, management must make it the most important project. A rule of thumb: If a new ERP system is not your top priority, delay it until it is.

When the priority is clear, and when the project is enthusiastically supported by all top executives and management, there's a significantly better chance of achieving your business goals.

In fact, when the new ERP is not a clear organizational priority, the project likely is doomed. Users perceive the project as something that is not important, and users and managers do not buy in and will not invest the time necessary for success.