Helen Phillips Business Solutions

There are over 250 ERP systems on the market, and it is important to choose the one that will work for the business rather than trying to make the business fit the software.  This successful ERP system selection and implementation resulted in a 70% reduction in the time taken to prepare management accounts, and a £75k per year saving on operating costs.

Key to the success of the project was to involve end users who had a detailed practical knowledge of how the business works.

The project team were accountable to senior management via a steering group who defined the desired business outcomes, and made sure that resources are available to the project as required.

We worked with the users to create a "current state" map of the business processes, from quote to cash, to define how the business works, and the interactions between each team.  By mapping the processes end to end, we were able to help people understand how what they do impacts on other parts of the organisation.  The simple visual representation helped us to identify repetition, redundant data, and opportunities for improvement.

Shortlisted suppliers were invited to demonstrate how their software works for the business, and the end user team visited reference sites to see how the software works in practice for other businesses.

The end user team were heavily involved in the system implementation, and became "Power Users" of the system, training others in how to use the software