Not sure if I’m wiser but as part of my knowledge sharing efforts, I would like to share 300+ quotes from over 50 books/resources that have influenced/guided my ERP journey. Nothing beats “hands-on” experience but trust you may find some value. These quotes are grouped into the following areas:
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Requirements Management
“For any organization there are just a few key processes that handle the core business. All the other processes support the key processes on a certain aspect.” ERP: Tools, Techniques, and Applications, Carol Ptak, Eli Schragenheim.
“To maximize a revenue-supporting process is illogical as it will take effort away from revenue-generating business processes.” Bill Curtis.
“Rules always cost the business something. This cost must be balanced against business risks.” Principles of the Business Rule Approach, Ronald Ross.
“Reduce complexity through standardization.” Lean Six Sigma for Service, Michael L. George.
“Organizations with broken systems typically suffer from broken business processes and vice versa.” Why New Systems Fail, Phil Simon.
“The cost of control obviously should not exceed the cost of inaccuracies.” ERP: Making It Happen, Thomas Wallace & Michael Kremzar.
“Testing is the only way to ensure that you have satisfied all of the requirements for accurate data.” Consider, Select & Implement an ERP system, O’Sullivan, Rico, Goldensohn.
“Making the effort to understand your customer’s expectations can save a lot of friction and extra work.” Rapid Development, Steve McConnell.
“A key aspect of enriching mental models is bringing assumptions to light. People’s assumptions are their blind spots.” Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, Ross Dawson.
“Not all process-integration problems are technical and not all about IT. Integrating computer systems is not the same as integrating the business.” Business Process Management – the Third wave, Howard Smith and Peter Fingar.
“Adaptive approaches are good when your requirements are uncertain or volatile.” Agile Project Management, Agile Software Development.
“A common mistake is to design and configure the system for only the first site and worry about the others later.” Control Your ERP Destiny, Steven Scott Phillips.
“The cost of complexity isn’t offset by what you can charge. Complexity creates opportunities for you to fail your customer.” Gerand Arpey – President of American Airlines.
“Customers tend to interpret requirements broadly, and developers tend to interpret them narrowly.”, Rapid Development, Steve McConnell.
“The proposed process designs should always be designed within the logic of the ERP systems.” Maximize Return on Investment Using ERP Applications, Worster, Weirick, Andera.
“The ability to trace requirements flow from their source (originator), through the various project phases (design, prototyping, customizations, testing, piloting, and delivery) is a requirements generation best practice.” Directing the ERP Implementation, Michael Pelphrey.
“If you do not define the lowest level of detail required for reporting, you will not be able to design the transaction input to achieve that result.” ERP Implementation Best Practices Success And Cautionary Tales, Valerie Campbell CPA CGMA.
“When managers of a company select an ERP package to implement, they are “buying into” the ERP vendor’s view of a certain industry’s best practices and relying on the system to support their efforts to embrace these practices.” Modern ERP. Marianne Bradford.
“Paralysis through analysis” is a futile attempt to develop the perfect solution. Control Your ERP Destiny. Steven Scott Phillips.
“Iterations systematically reduce the trade space, grow the knowledge of the solution, and increase stakeholder buy-in. At the same time, each iteration, or spiral, is planned to mitigate specific risks in the project.” Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS-Based Systems (EPIC), Carnegie Mellon – Software Engineering Institute.
“Requirements creep must first be differentiated from requirements evolution (elaboration).” Agile Project Management. Jim Highsmith.
“If you’re using a waterfall model, forgetting something can be a costly mistake. You don’t find out until you get down to a system testing that one of the requirements was missing or wrong.” Rapid Development, Steve McConnell.
“The advantage of the incremental approach is that the company can get feedback on the implementation and how it is received and possibly fin tune the implementation strategy.” ERP Demystified, Alexis Leon.
“There is no direct relationship between a company size and the complexity of its (ERP) software requirements.”, Control Your ERP Destiny. Steven Scott Phillips.
“One of the advantages, but also criticisms, of ERP systems is that they impose a standardized way of conducting business processes.” , Modern ERP: Select, Implement, and Use Today’s Advanced Business Systems, Marianne Bradford.
“By focusing more on issues and problems and less on requirements, a smart consultant can identify design opportunities in ERP to reduce organizational waste.”, Selected Articles on Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) – Vol 1, VK Ramaswamy.
“From a financial perspective, for every $1 not spent on requirements analysis: $10 is spent on extra implementation cost and delayed ROI, $100 is spent in business disruption costs on going live, $1k is spent in hidden costs of not meeting expectations over the life of the software.”, Rethinking Enterprise Software Selections, Chris Doig.
“Some consultants contend that users are the only legitimate source of requirements, but this is simply not true.”,Chris Doig. Rethinking Enterprise Software Selections.
Results-Oriented
“How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose.” Bill Gates.
“Improvements in the use of the ERP system are an outcome of improvements in the process.” ERP – The Implementation Cycle, Stephen Harwood.
“Be open to new ways to accomplish the same goal.” The Executive Guide to Implementing Accounting Software, Ken E. Sebahar.
“Competitive advantage comes not from systems, but from doing something better than competitors. “ Mission Critical – Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems, Thomas Davenport.
“Whilst technology is a great enabler, it is not a panacea in itself.” ERP – The Implementation Cycle, Stephen Harwood.
“Often the problem lies not with the ERP concept. But in the demand for quick fixes and rapid cures to underlying structural problems.” e-Business Roadmap for Success, Dr. Ravi Kalakota & Marcia Robinson.
“Using an ERP system simply to run things in the same way as before implementation is a guarantee of disappointment.” Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) The Great Gamble, Ray Atkinson.
“The goal should not be to fail fast but to learn fast.” R “Ray” Wang: An interview by Bob Morris, Ray Wang.
“ERP is first an attitude; second, a process, and only third, a set of tools.” ERP Demystified, Alexis Leon.
“An information system only has value when people use it correctly.” ERP – The Implementation Cycle,, Stephen Harwood.
“A company may employ the most sophisticated software in the world, but unless information is managed, timely, accurate, and complete, the system serves little purpose.” ERP Lessons Learned – Structured Process, Wayne L. Staley.
“Benchmarking has its limits.” The Reengineering Handbook, Raymond L. Manganelli, Mark M. Klein.
“One dollar of prevention spent on fail proofing strategies can be worth several thousand dollars of expensive fixes and rehabilitation.” ERP A-Z: Implementer’s Guide for Success, Travis Anderegg.
“The success of the Go Live day is measured by the lack of problems.” ERP – The Implementation Cycle, Stephen Harwood.
“One guiding tenet is every present: any change we administer should add more value, cost less, or deliver services more rapidly.” Transitioning the Enterprise to the Cloud, Ed Mahon, CIO at Kent State University.
“Optimizing individual function areas generally does not result in optimization of the whole process because, within departments, only individual activities are goal oriented.” Business Process Oriented Implementation of Standard Software , Mathias Kirchmer.
“Utilize a “test first” approach. Test scripts are written in advance of any configuration or development.” Secrets to a Successful COTS Implementation, Nick Berg.
“The first comprehensive picture of whether the accounting numbers balance and make sense will arise during the month end process.” ERP – The Implementation Cycle, Stephen Harwood.
“Users only care about their experiences.” Transitioning the Enterprise to the Cloud, Ed Mahon, CIO at Kent State University.
“Collectively employees do understand the processes, but individually, they do not.” Control Your ERP Destiny, Steven Scott Phillips.
Applying knowledge is the final step that makes the knowledge valuable. Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, Ross Dawson.
“End results modeling and pilot room testing with the company can eliminate surprises and uncover almost all “invisible” ghosts in the closet”. ERP Readiness Checklist, Gerry Poe.
“In the absence of knowledge and ability you can expect lower utilization throughout the organization, incorrect usage of new processes and tools, a negative impact on customers and sustained reduction productivity.” ADKAR – A Model for Change in Business, Government and Our Community. Jeffrey M. Hiatt
“Content without the context of business process is meaningless.” Dennis Howlett.
“Reliability is results driven. Repeatability is input driven.” Agile Project Management, Jim Highsmith.
Process thinking is a discipline. Maximize Return on Investment Using ERP Applications, Worster, Weirick, Andera.
“If you don’t know what it is you’re automating, no system will help””. Successful Packaged Software Implementation, Christine B. Tayntor.
“Decreasing variability early in the process has larger impact than decreasing variability late in the process.” Lean Software Development. Mary Poppendieck & Tom Poppendieck.
“The rule is efficiency never trumps effectiveness”. ERP Lessons Learned – Structured Process, Wayne L. Staley.
“Good design can’t fix broken business models.” Jeffrey Veen.
“All of the work that goes into development is not adding value until the software is in the hands of the customer.” Lean Software Development, Mary Poppendieck & Tom Poppendieck.
“The way to reduce the impact of defects is to find them as soon as they occur.” Lean Software Development. Mary Poppendieck & Tom Poppendieck.
“Optimizing a business function is futile and non-value-added if it is not part of a revenue/competitive business process.” Maximize Return on Investment Using ERP Applications. Worster, Weirick, Andera.
“Remember that if you fail to implement, who cares what the software (ERP) does?” Modern ERP, Marianna Bradford.
“Standardization is the key antidote to low productivity.” Lean Six Sigma for Service. Michael L. George
“You give me good people and a great process, and we’ll beat any organization with the best technology but a poor process and under motivated people.” Information Week – Focus on the Process. Doug Patterson, VP and CIO.
“The assumption is the thicker the report the greater the “due diligence”. This may actually be measuring waste, not actionable information.” ERP Information at the Speed of Reality: ERP Lessons Learned, Wayne L. Staley.
“Every customer measures (ERP business) success differently.” Competing for Customers, Jeb Dastell, Amir Hartman, Craig LeGrande.
“Integration costs, which include both year zero and continued operational expenses, can be as much as 40x each application’s initial cost over the life span of a typical (ERP) application.” Containing Vendor Sprawl: Improve Security, Reduce Risk, and Lower Cost, IDC.
“Reducing costs does not necessarily drive efficiency.”, Business Cases that Mean Business: A practical guide to identifying, calculating and communicating the value of large scale IT projects, Jim Maholic.
“A business case will not convert a flawed hypothesis into a sound one.”, Business Cases that Mean Business: A practical guide to identifying, calculating and communicating the value of large scale IT projects, Jim Maholic.
Organizational Enablement
“Untrained (or under trained) users may end up needing three to six times as much support as end-users who have been trained.” ERP: Tools, Techniques, and Applications, Carol Ptak, Eli Schragenheim.
“Experience shows that the greater employee involvement in the change, the greater the positive response in understanding the compelling need for the change and the sharing of the vision.”Managing the Change Process, David K. Carr, Kelvin J. Hard, William J. Trahant. Coopers & Lybrand Center of Excellence for Change Management
“Prototyping and testing provides one of the highest forms of learning that ERP team participants can receive.” ERP A-Z: Implementer’s Guide for Success, Travis Anderegg.
“An ERP system cannot be installed without the capability of an organization to change.”ERP A-Z: Implementer’s Guide for Success, Travis Anderegg.
“People are one of the hidden costs of ERP implementation. Without proper training, about 30 to 40 % of front-line workers will not be able to handle the demands of the new system.” Consider, Select & Implement an ERP system, O’Sullivan, Rico, Goldensohn.
“The users of the ERP will be confronted with a huge amount of data; most of the data will have no relevancy to any decision that needs to be considered.”ERP: Tools, Techniques, and Applications, Carol Ptak, Eli Schragenheim.
“Operation and maintenance phase begins with a period of initial struggle until people become comfortable in their roles and tasks. The duration of this stage depends on how effective the training was.” Enterprise Resource Planning, Alexis Leon.
“Old adage is true: the longer the work stays in process, the more it costs.” Lean Six Sigma for Service, Michael L. George.
“Every forward-thinking enterprise values productivity, which is one of the first things to suffer when technological systems are not end-user-friendly.”, Enterprise Resource Planning, Alexis Leon.
“When data cleansing or manual translations are required, end users should be part of the team.” Successful Packaged Software Implementation, Christine B. Tayntor.
“Untrained users simply do not take advantage of the system for the intent that is was purchased.” Enterprise Resource Planning , Alexis Leon.
“Education may be viewed as understanding of concepts and practices. Training, however, if the application of education into day-to-day events.” Directing the ERP Implementation, Michael Pelphrey.
“Maintain the project team for at least 1 month after the go-live date.” Consider, Select & Implement an ERP system, O’Sullivan, Rico, Goldensohn.
“Manual input of data is the best possible training method.” The Executive Guide to Implementing Accounting Software, Ken E. Sebahar.
“People can’t be controlled like machines: Service processes are far more dependent on the interaction of people (both internal handoffs and working with customers) than are manufacturing processes.” Lean Six Sigma for Service, Michael L. George.
“Go at a pace that suits the organization’s readiness.” Lean Six Sigma for Service, Michael L. George.
“The logic is inexorable – the better the training, the faster you will see the business metrics move in the direction you are looking for.” ERP Demystified. Alexis Leon.
“Without change, performance would never improve. Modern ERP.” Marianne Bradford.
“Resistance, in many cases, is simply a sign of a lack of communication.” ERP A-Z: Implementer’s Guide for Success, Travis Anderegg.
“How can one manage change if one does not understand exactly what is changing”. ADKAR – A Model for Change in Business, Government and Our Community, Jeffrey M. Hiatt.
“There are limits to how much change an organization and its end users can stomach at once.” Why New Systems Fail. Phil Simon.
“In an organization undergoing change, building a resilient work force by widely disseminating the change vision and strategy and by minimizing disruption is essential.” Managing the Change Process, David K. Carr, Kelvin J. Hard, William J. Trahant. Coopers & Lybrand Center of Excellence for Change Management.
“Train and then re-train: The best approach to training is to do it several times. Once is not enough. Three recommend points of training are follows are: On Design, Before test, Post go-live.” Top 5 Recommendations to Ensure Your ERP Implementation is Successful, Sandeep Walia.
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Derek Bok.
“Although consultants may participate in testing to some extent, employees should drive the majority of testing. Doing so maximizes knowledge transfer and readies them for real life under the new system.” Why New Systems Fail. Phil Simon.
“A common mistake made by many business leaders is to assume that by building awareness of the need for change they have also created desire.” ADKAR – A Model for Change in Business, Government and Our Community, Jeffrey M. Hiatt.
“Every organization that implements an ERP system is, in effect, reengineering.” Modern ERP, Marianne Bradford.
“A time-tested maxim in training is always to build on what you know.” Principles of the Business Rule Approach. Ronald Ross.
“The development of knowledge is an iterative process, in which experience and lessons provide the basis for deeper understandings in ongoing feedback loops.” Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, Ross Dawson.
“Nothing is more irritating than being forced to serve the system instead of the system serving the customer”, ERP Information at the Speed of Reality. Wayne L Staley.
“Ollie Wight said it well: “Grease-gun education doesn’t work.” He was referring to the one-shot, quick-hit educational approaches tried so often without lasting results.”, ERP: Making It Happen: The Implementers’ Guide to Success with Enterprise Resource Planning, Thomas F. Wallace.
“Gartner Research recommends allocating 17 percent of the project’s budget for training. Those companies spending less than 13 percent on training are three times more likely to have problems.”, Concepts In Enterprise Resource Planning, Ellen Monk and Bret Wagner.
“A key point: Don’t train before you educate. People need to know what and why before they’re taught how. Education should occur either prior to, or simultaneously with the training.”, Erp: Making It Happen; The Implementers’ Guide to Success with Enterprise Resource Planning, Thomas F. Wallace.
“The more they are satisfied with the system, the more they are engaged with it and the higher their level of assimilation. “(Wagner & Newell, 2007), Beyond ERP Implementation: An Integrative Framework for High Success, Kouki, Pellerin, Poulin.
“The impact of the human factor on the degree and effectiveness of ERP assimilation supersedes the technological factors.” Kouki, Pellerin, Poulin, Beyond ERP Implementation: An Integrative Framework for High Success.
“A big mistake made with (ERP) software purchases is leaving user buy-in until the implementation phase. When this happens, users feel the sofware is being foisted on them without their input.”, Chris Doig, Rethinking Enterprise Software Selections.
Rapid Implementation
“In order to do rapid implementations, trade-offs must be made.” E-Business and ERP, Murrell G. Shields.
“Rapid Implementations: The data cleanup must start early in the project for the organization to be prepared for the data conversion.” E-Business and ERP, Murrell G. Shields.
“Rapid implementation cannot be done with a massive project team.” E-Business and ERP, Murrell G. Shields.
“Deliver sooner rather than later. It is rare to get 100% support for any project; “fence sitters” will wait to see how things turn out before giving their support.” Modern ERP, Marianne Bradford.
“The training in a rapid implementation should be hands-on.” E-Business and ERP, Murrell G. Shields.
“The four key characteristics or enablers of knowledge transfer in communication are: (1) Interactivity, (2) Bandwidth, (3) Structure, (4) Reusability.” Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, Ross Dawson.
“Good people can make a bad system work; bad people can’t make a good system work”. The Reengineering Handbook. Raymond L. Manganelli, Mark M. Klein.
“The “Train the Trainer” Pitfall: It is not realistic to assume someone can be trained several weeks before the go-live and expect him/her to deliver quality training.” Control Your ERP Destiny. Steven Scott Phillips.
Data Conversion
“If your existing data is inaccurate and unreliable a new software system will not fix that.” Consider, Select & Implement an ERP system. O’Sullivan, Rico, Goldensohn.
“In order to increase the chances that the conversion will go smoothly, do a dry run test of the conversion plan prior to the real go-live.” Control Your ERP Destiny. Steven Scott Phillips.
“When implementing a new ERP system you need to start data migration from the existing legacy business systems as soon as possible.” ERP Demystified. Alexis Leon.
“It is recognized that information accuracy is not a system problem, but rather a management problem.” Directing the ERP Implementation. Michael Pelphrey.
“Do it once, right at the source.” Principles of the Business Rule Approach, Ronald Ross.
“The data migration phase of a project can consume up to 30% of the total project resources. The most common flaw in data migration planning is that too few resources are invested in it.” Top 10 Reasons Why Systems Projects Fail. Dr. Paul Dorsey.
“Extracting and cleansing the data from the existing system can be the single largest task in the project.” ERP Demystified. Alexis Leon.
“Customers should be asked to net off the pending Credit Notes, Debit Notes and Advances against Invoices in both receivables and payables systems before providing the data for conversion into ERP.” Selected Articles on Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) – Vol 1. VK Ramaswamy.
Evaluating Consulting Partners
“Consultants are there for guidance, but the final say regarding implementation should fail upon the management’s responsibility.” ERP 308 – Most Asked Questions, Leonard Frost.
“There is a misguided belief that experienced consultants face no learning curves with the software.” Control Your ERP Destiny. Steven Scott Phillips.
“The more the consultants know about the company the better they will be equipped to provide good advice.” ERP A-Z: Implementer’s Guide for Success, Travis Anderegg.
“Bait and switch. This is the practice of displaying certain consultants, during the sales process, to show the sales company understands business and the ERP implementation process to ensure a successful outcome.” Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) The Great Gamble, Ray Atkinson.
“Have successful project managers who are capable of anticipating what can go wrong.” ERP Demystified, Alexis Leon.
“No company, no manager is sufficiently brilliant to think about all of the complexities and complications inherent in a cross-functional ERP project.” Mission Critical – Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems, Thomas Davenport.
“Overspend on consultancy is often compensated for by a cut-back in training. This is not helped by the fact that training costs tend to be under-estimated in the first place.” ERP – The Implementation Cycle, Stephen Harwood.
“The less you know the more money they (consultants) make.” Control Your ERP Destiny, Steven Scott Phillips.
“Where knowledge transfer is a key objective, project handover should be formalized, rather than just letting the engagement end.” Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, Ross Dawson.
“Process is not a substitute for skill.” Agile Project Management, Jim Highsmith.
“Selecting the consultants (and an implementation methodology) is as important as selecting the (ERP) package.” ERP Demystified. Alexis Leon.
“There is often a level of arrogance in ERP consultants who are taken with replacing existing systems, a level of arrogance that is generally counter-productive.” Maximize Return on Investment Using ERP Applications, Worster, Weirick, Andera.
“It is better to know all the questions than some of the answers.” James Thurber.
“There is no such thing as an easy implementation of an ERP project.” Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) the Great Gamble. Ray Atkinson.
“Discipline creates well-organized memories, history, and experience.” Balancing Agility and Discipline. Barry Boehm, Richard Turner.
“(ERP) Service organizations are essentially big “people machines”, where having a high level of turnover is just as deadly as if a manufacturer was constantly asked to change machine parts.” Lean Six Sigma for Service. Michael L. George.
“Implementation audits are necessary to keep the project on track. Audits should be conducted to compare project results, business objectives, systems objectives, and project objectives.” Directing the ERP Implementation. Michael Pelphrey.
“Claims of ‘proven paths’, ‘best practices’, and simplistic implementations methodologies, that fail litter the ERP landscape as each software company seeks to gain some form of advantage over its rivals. “Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) the Great Gamble. Ray Atkinson.
“Although selecting an experienced consultant was a critical success factor in implementation and maintenance of an ERP system, the effective transfer of knowledge was more vital.”, Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementation in US Manufacturing, Justin Lee Goldston, Phd.
ERP Innovation
“Roles are finite. People are infinite.” Agile Project Management, Jim Highsmith.
“Knowledge often emerges from the collaboration of people with very different ways of looking at their field.” Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, Ross Dawson
“Interaction drives innovation. Innovation emerges from the interaction of diverse individuals.” Agile Project Management, Jim Highsmith
“Digital Darwinism is unkind to those who wait.” R “Ray” Wang: An interview by Bob Morris, Bob Morris
“What businesses need is not a one-time fix for individual processes but an environment that combines business and technical systems to produce processes that flex and recombine as required by changes in the market.” Business Process Management – the third wave, Howard Smith and Peter Fingar.
ERP Project Success
“A real configuration of an ERP system can only happen when there is real data in the system.” Enterprise Resource Planning “Alexis Leon.
“As Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister (2003) so pithily state, “If a project has no risks, don’t do it.” Risk is an essential characteristic of innovation”.”, Agile Project Management, Jim Highsmith.
“Cost overruns are manageable if the project will achieve worthwhile benefits; however, failing to satisfy business goals is always unacceptable.” Principles of the Business Rule Approach, Ronald Ross.
“Customers like rapid delivery. Rapid delivery means companies can deliver faster than customers can change their minds.” Lean Software Development, Mary Poppendieck & Tom Poppendieck.
“Lack of alignment of ERP system and business processes is a major issue in the implementation of ERP.” ERP Implementation Challenges & Critical Organization Success Factors, Rajeshwar Vayyavur.
“A hybrid (cloud) model will add complexity”. Transitioning the Enterprise to the Cloud, Ed Mahon.
“It is important to recognize how fast ERP team members, and organizations, can acquire new knowledge.” ERP A-Z: Implementer’s Guide for Success, Travis Anderegg.
“You can have a cheap, fast or quality implementation, but you only get two”. How to select your ERP without losing your mind, Andy Pratico.
“Understand the implications of the decisions you make.” Rapid Development , Steve McConnell.
“Industry leaders have not effectively defined the set of business skills that should be included in any ERP consultant’s educational process.” Maximize Return on Investment Using ERP Applications, Worster, Weirick, Andera.
“One of the biggest mistakes during ERP projects is not taking the time to build a common understanding of how business is conducted today and potential improvement opportunities.” Control Your ERP Destiny, Steven Scott Phillips.
“If the project becomes all things to all people, it will fail to meet anyone’s expectations.” Control Your ERP Destiny, Steven Scott Phillips.
“A consultant with software knowledge is one thing, but if the consultant is a poor communicator, it undermines the transfer of knowledge.” Control Your ERP Destiny, Steven Scott Phillips.
“Job 1 is to run the business. Very close to that in importance should be implementing ERP.” ERP: Making It Happen, Thomas Wallace & Michael Kremzar.
“A methodology will help ward off risk, but a contingency plan is still absolutely necessary.” ERP Demystified, Alexis Leon.
“The lesson here is that organizations will encounter great peril when the system they seek to install does not fit their culture.” Mission Critical – Realizing the Promise of Enterprise Systems, Thomas Davenport.
“ERP Success: Know what features and objectives will NOT be included in the project.” The Executive Guide to Implementing Accounting Software, Ken E. Sebahar.
“Due diligence may feel like a waste of time and money, but weighed against the high cost of failure, it is imperative.” ERP Information at the Speed of Reality, Wayne L Staley.
“There must be awareness throughout the organization of the importance of scope management.” E-Business and ERP , Murrell G. Shields.
“The longer the timeframe and the further apart the milestones in a project, the harder it is to create a sense of urgency.” E-Business and ERP, Murrell G. Shields.
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” General Dwight Eisenhower.
“Deferring decision(s) will cause significant risks to the (ERP) project success.” Directing the ERP Implementation, Michael Pelphrey.
“Many of the major decisions and actions that ultimately determine whether a project is a success or a failure occur very early in the life of the project.” E-Business and ERP , Murrell G. Shields.
“The best people for the project are likely to be those who have the least free time, since they are already in key positions.” ERP – The Implementation Cycle, Stephen Harwood.
“Success is not to be found in excellent project management alone. ADKAR – A Model for Change in Business, Government and Our Community, Jeffrey M. Hiatt.
“There are literally thousands of decisions that must be made on these projects. The project team must be empowered to make most of them. That is one reason organizations must put their best people on these teams.” E-Business and ERP ,Murrell G. Shields.
“The rumor mill and grapevine are active in most companies, and it is in the project team’s best interests to preempt them by providing clear, consistent, targeted, and ongoing communications.” Successful Packaged Software Implementation, Christine B. Tayntor.
“But technology is not reengineering. Reengineering changes the business processes – the way the work is done.” The Reengineering Handbook, Raymond L. Manganelli, Mark M. Klein.
“Projects that skimp on upstream activities typically have to do the same work downstream at anywhere from 10 to 100 times the cost of doing it properly in the first place.” (Fagan 1976; Boehm and Papaccio 1988). Rapid Development, Steve McConnell.
“The success or failure of a new system hinges directly on the acceptance of that system by the organization’s end users.” Why New Systems Fail, Phil Simon.
“The goal of an integrated enterprise is to reduce information float, that is, the time between when data is captured in one place in the system and when it becomes available and usable. e-Business Roadmap for Success. Dr. Ravi Kalakota & Marcia Robinson.
Chris Koch of CIO.com writes, “Blank sheet reengineering can lead to unrealistic business process designs that can’t be implemented through enterprise software.”.
“A major cause of this difficulty (failures) is that organizations building these systems tend either to assume that components can be simply thrown together or they fall back on the traditional engineering skills and processes with which they are familiar-skills and processes that have been shown not to work in the building of COTS- based (ERP) system.” Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS-Based Systems (EPIC) Carnegie Mellon – Software Engineering Institute.
“Agile methods universally need close relationships with the customer and users of the systems under development.” Balancing Agility and Discipline. Barry Boehm, Richard Turner.
“The truth is, no organization plans to fail – rather, they fail to plan…” Control Your ERP Destiny, Steven Scott Phillips.
“Two overriding criteria that mast be present if the implementation of a COTS solution are to be successful: realistic expectations and organizational flexibility.” Successful Packaged Software Implementation. Christine B. Tayntor.
“Planning can become mechanistic and succumb to a checklist mentality.” Balancing Agility and Discipline. Barry Boehm, Richard Turner.
“The longer a team, large or small, goes without delivering an integrated product to a review process, the greater the potential for failure.” Agile Project Management. Jim Highsmith.
“Inclusion of end users promotes acceptance of the solution and helps break down “us versus them” barriers. Working together, the two groups will provide a balanced evaluation.” Successful Packaged Software Implementation, Christine B. Tayntor.
“It is only prudent to allow for some slippage in time and budget, and not to count on full project functionality until after testing and installation are complete.” Managerial Issues of Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, David L. Olson.
“The highest probability of successful implementations of ERP software is when there is only a minimal need to change business processes and ERP software.” Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Systems, Life Cycle, Electronic Commerce, and Risk,
“Bad processes (and systems) beat up good people.”, Consider, Select & Implement an ERP system, Dr. Jill O’Sullivan, John Rico, Dennis Goldensohn.
“Effectively managed implementations are deliverable driven.”, E-Business and ERP: Rapid Implementation and Project Planning. Murrell G. Shields.
“Change control is about coordination, not denial.”, Agile Project Management. Jim Highsmith.
“For an ERP implementation to go smoothly and provide value, it is critical that a company understand both its current processes and the state of the process after implementation.” Concepts in Enterprise Resource Planning, by Ellen Monk, Bret Wagner.
“Making partners of customers means they become more likely to understand technical constraints. You start to get rid of the “I need it all now” phenomenon, and customers begin cooperating to find realistic, mutually satisfying technical solutions.” Rapid Development, Steve McConnell.
“The timelier the validation, the better.”, Directing the ERP Implementation, Michael Pelphrey.
“Don’t try to fool yourself that you will be able to catch up (project schedule) just by trying harder. It won’t happen.” Making ERP Work, Sam Graham.
ERP Utilization
“ERP systems will not exhibit their full potential unless they are properly integrated with other enterprise software applications.” ERP Demystified. Alexis Leon.
“ERP is a philosophy for operating a business model. If your company does not want to adapt to this philosophy, save yourself the headache and don’t pursue ERP.” Directing the ERP Implementation. Michael Pelphrey
“Implementing the ERP system and realizing the promised benefits are two different ball games. Implementation can be a success, but if the operational phase is not planned and organized properly with the support of all the people involved, then the promised benefits will not materialize.” ERP Demystified. Alexis Leon.
“Achieving early wins and optimizing user buy-in can pave the way for controlling both political and fiscal costs down the road and increase the chances of delivery project on time and on budget.” Total Cost of Ownership: A strategic tool for ERP planning and implementation. Richard West, Stephen L. Daigle – California State University.
“A good system will shine light into dark corners.” Making ERP Work. Sam Graham.
“A major overhead in operating ERP systems is entering transactions. Transactions take time, cost money and introduce the possibility of errors.” Making ERP Work. Sam Graham.
“Perfectly designed automation will only work as well as it is adopted by the people who use it.” Leah Allen.
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