Comments on: ERP Implementation Strategies – A Guide to ERP Implementation Methodology

By: Chris Shaul

Chris Shaul — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:28:00 +0000

Rereading this article again after a while away from it. It made me think about clients who wanted or tried to go live after running parallel. It was chaos and hell for the employees. The systems processed things differently and the financial numbers where different. Not way out of balance, but enough to cause a lot of heartache. They had a hard time realizing that they were capturing different information in a different manner. Further, a single transaction in a deeply integrated system can roll up differently depending upon the settings. Also parallel processing has a high chance for error in employees missing an entry in one of the two systems. Simply a headache.

I’ve seen that phased or “mini-bang” solutions are often chosen, although there is something to say for Big Bank approach if everything was well planned and the users were well trained.

Thanks again for this article.

Chris

By: Dynamicpm

Dynamicpm — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 15:42:00 +0000

Mr. Chege. I am familiar with Tibco and other data integration engines that have specific SWIFT mapping data type trees. These projects are almost always rolled out in a phased manner with the legacy system kept in tact for a back up. The ciriticality of the data and underlying financial risks are too great for a big bang approach.

By: Richard Chege

Richard Chege — Tue, 03 May 2011 09:23:44 +0000

Great article. I’m busy with the deployment of an Integrated Public Debt Management System which integrates SWIFT payment instructions to banks. I’d like to enquire from the bloggers whether anyone has done SWIFT integration before and which is the best option to switch over; parallel running with the old system (non-swift) or Big bang. My email: mwithukia@gmail.com

By: Brett Beaubouef

Brett Beaubouef — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:49:28 +0000

Great article on deployment strategies. I would like to suggest that there is not a single ERP methodology that covers all the disciplines required for an ERP implementation. The trick is to learn how integrate these different methodologies together. For additional information please see the following article:

http://gbeaubouef.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/when-erp-methodologies-go-wrong/

By: ERP training

ERP training — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:17:55 +0000

I agree with Todd – it’s a bit comparing apples and oranges.

We’re on the user training side of implementation projects since 1997.

We’ve seen big bang projects go extremely well, and also big bang disasters.

External consultants not fully knowing the business processes, process owners not realizing the impact of their choices for international roll-outs, the amount of customizing, user adoptance, etc.

It’s hard to evaluate these ‘people’ effects but they can distort ‘success evaluations’ of an ERP implementation project approach.

By: Farid Bahgat

Farid Bahgat — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:08:25 +0000

It’s grateful to have different opinions, I do agreed that there is no perfect selection suit for each company, in my opinion parallel for a short period is best and safest selection.

By: vic

vic — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:54:31 +0000

Thank you, very informative article. I am writing a paper about ERP implemetation as my final assigment. This article was very helpful.

By: Bharathi NM

Bharathi NM — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 11:07:29 +0000

Addressed well!!

We are currently on implementation, chosen parallal to have a safe play. Once the basic platform created and then should move to customization, the important thing is the engineer should have a presentation skill as well listening attitude to lead for success. Every suggestion to be reviewed.

By: Binish

Binish — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 06:02:09 +0000

Hi Houston, I am in the implementation field for almost 8 years now and found that, if more customization is required and end-user acceptance is low (due to lack of knowledge/inertia) parallel alone works… all other cases jump into the big/mini bang for best results -your graph shows the clear picture. good job

By: Jigs

Jigs — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:30:22 +0000

I agree and respect all the comments hereby. However I am sure all 3 implementation strategies are good in their own way. So can I know what parameters are to be considered beforehand going for any of these 3 strategies