In South Africa’s business environment the right type of accounting and operational system is crucial, similar to a website: it is simply not optional any more. If a business does not have the right type of systems in place to retain and manage customers, then given the pace and tough environmental influences, it is just a matter of time before they will be looking for such a system or very possibly be out of business.

There are many type of business systems available to the South African market, they differ from small R400 systems to $200M SAP implementations. Now this article is not intended for our customers who are looking to buy a R400 system because there is not much more we can offer you except a CD, an installation manual and free door-to-door delivery.

However, if you are in the process of making a major decision to potentially purchase a particular accounting or ERP* system, this article will hopefully help you identify a number of factors that will demystify some uncertainty.

The market is unfortunately stained by stories of IT and ERP projects gone wrong. Government institutions such as the Department of Transport had many issues with ERP software developers Tasima (Pty) Ltd who was responsible for the eNaTIS system. Many other projects and providers simply failed to follow through to project completion and user acceptance. In some extreme cases, these companies sue because they couldn't deliver their products, or their complete business shut down because the software did not work correctly.

Now you might ask how does one increase the likelihood of system implementation success and benefits realisation? Well I would love to say – “make use of PC Plug” and that would not be far from the truth. The fact however are that many factors contribute to the critical chain of events.

Many assume success or failure is the fault of the software they purchase, but in reality, 95% of a project's success or failure is in the hands of the company implementing the software, not the software product. Therefore, there are a number of factors that should be addressed to make your project successful, beginning with an effective software selection process and continuing through to implementation and eventual support and maintenance. To download a free summary copy of my Research Papers (this research paper received a distinction at the University of Pretoria) on the critical issues of selecting and implementing a business systems, click here.

Listed below are seven (7) implementation critical success factors we have seen the past few years:

1. Focus on business processes and requirements first. Too often, businesses get tied up in the technical capabilities or platforms that particular software supports. None of this really matters. What really matters is how you want your business operations to run and what your key business requirements are. Once you have this defined, you can more effectively choose the software that fits your unique business needs.

How we can help: PC Plug can do a full FREE client system’s need analysis.

2. Focus on achieving a healthy ERP ROI (Return on Investment), including post-implementation performance measurement. This requires doing more than just developing a high-level business case to get approval from upper management or your board of directors. It entails establishing key performance measures, setting baselines and targets for those measures, and tracking performance after go-live. This is the only way to truly realize the benefit the potential of a new system.

How we can help: PC Plug can provide training to your system end users and test their capabilities before and after the go-live phase. A user attendance as well as acceptance is recorder throughout.

3. Strong project management and resource commitment. At the end of the day, your business will own the success or failure of the IT or system project, so you should manage it accordingly. This includes ensuring you have a strong project manager and that your "A-players" support and participate in the project.

How we can help: We provide you with a customized and specific project plan to not only determine the duration but also an accurate cost estimation. We assign our resources according to speciality and availability which consequently mean “Results”. PC Plug will however not continue or even start a project unless we have full cooperation of your IT “A-Player” or project champion.

4. Ensure adequate training and change management. New business systems involve big change for people, and the system will not do you any good if people do not understand how to use it effectively. Therefore, spending time on money on training, change management, job design, etc. is crucial to any system implementation project.

How we can help: There are few IT companies that know the importance of thorough training better than PC Plug. We understand the challenges end users (your employees) need to go through in order to “hit the road running”. That is why we use our training room for super user training, and specifically provide custom onsite training for specialized users. We do this in order to keep both parties satisfied. For onsite training we request no interruption sessions.

5. Make sure you understand why you're implementing the new system. This is arguably the most important factor. It's easy to see that many big companies are running SAP or Oracle, but it's harder to consider that maybe you don't need a SAP system at all. Perhaps process improvement, organizational redesign, a specialised system like Omni, Pastel or targeted best-of-breed technology will meet your business objectives at a lower cost. By clearly understanding your business objectives and what you're trying to accomplish with the new system, you will be able to make a more appropriate decision on which route to take.

How we can help: We have helped many companies in various industries and we could relatively quickly tell you which issues keep you at wake at night. In the rare case of you not deciding to change to an integrated business system, we can also commit in helping improving either the internal business processes or current operational system. Additionally PC Plug is masters in converting old system data for your new systems in order for you to enquire on previous system history.

6. Commitment from company executives. Any project without support from top-management will fail. Support from a CIO or IT Director is fine, but it is not enough. No matter how well-run a project is, problems arise (such as conflicting business needs), so the CEO and the entire C-level staff needs to be on board to drive some of these issues.

How we can help: A CEO do not normally need much help, so all we can do for your CEO is have the coffee ready for that very important project progress chat every few days. For the rest, we will just say that we make friends quite quickly and maintain a professional relationship in order to drive the project to completion.

7. Take time to plan up front and ask for a demo. Your priority should be to make sure the project is implemented correctly. Too often, companies jump right in to a project without validating the Solution provider’s understand of the business requirements and project plan. The more time you spend ensuring the foundation is correct at the beginning of the project, the less time you'll spend fixing problems later on.

How we can help: PC Plug can offer you a few systems. We are not biased towards any particular system, but rather seek the best for our customer’s requirements and budget. We can assist you in drawing up a list of factors to consider when making a decision. We hope you found this list of factors insightful and we wish you and your business all the best for endeavouring such a project. If this is your first time being involved with such a project, let me personally congratulate you for either being in the awesome position of potentially being the “Project Champion”. For your CEO and his growing business - well done, I hope our mutual success will hearten each other’s business leadership character.

I have constantly listed “How we can help” above, if you are still unsure about whether or not to make use of PC Plug, click on the customer testimonial section or directly contact me. For my contact detail please click here.