How to Successfully Introduce an ERP System with High Levels of Acceptance

Positive attitude keeps your employees involved

The introduction of software in a company greatly affects the existing process. Unfortunately, in my experience, the fact is often ignored that employees in particular contribute considerably to the success of such an introduction.

The entire project depends on the attitude of the employees towards the introduction of the software. The perfect software solution can not just establish itself in a company, if the employees appear sceptical or negative towards the project.

It is imperative that employees are involved in the project from an early stage and that efforts are made on the part of project management to reinforce acceptance among employees.

Therefore, next, I would like to emphasize a few points based on experience which ensure the long-term success of a software introduction and motivates employees to positively deal with the new situation.

Open communication in projects leads to transparency and acceptance

People are often dubious about change and are often dismissive of innovation. In truth, you can ignore this fact and nevertheless try to push the project through, however it is better to have open and honest communication, accepted and supported by both management and employees.

A simple measure to take is for the management to make an address at the initial stage of the project which explains the plans for the implementation of the software to the employees as well as indicates and defines the assigned objectives.

Furthermore the status of the introduction project should be periodically briefed.

Selection of the right project leaders

Selecting the right contributors is crucial for the progress of the implementation project. The individual employees must be granted sufficient time for the project. What is more is that the project leaders must be well informed on the processes in each respective division. I often came across project leaders in practice who had very little to do with the actual software processes in practice.

Step by step towards success

The acceptance of employees can increase with a step by step introduction. So you could start the first step with core functionality and in the second step further areas are then implemented. So that employees are not over strained.

In addition to this, employee training should be carried out shortly before the live date in the form of in-house training. Depending on the capacity this should be carried out by the respective team or division manager, so that the division-specific workflows can be optimally factored into the training. The training of division leaders occurs in conjunction with the project team and the software provider (“Train the Trainer” principle).

As a matter of principle, it is recommended that a regular in-house date is decided on, at which employees can ask questions and have them immediately answered. These measures ensure long-term satisfaction of employees working with the system. Furthermore weak points are quickly detected and suitable counter measure can be initiated in time.

New employees require training at the beginning of their employment. The almost trivial point is unfortunately often ignored in reality.

These were just a few minor measures used for increasing acceptance among employees towards software introduction.

These measures must certainly considered in relation to company size an structure, however the incorporation of all employees in such a project is imperative in bringing about success in all cases.