PCG Blog

After the SOW is completed and released from Engage, it’s crucial to secure the best people possible on the project team from the customer side (yes, that’s you) to ensure commitment and key stakeholder support for working with the consultants (that’s us) and the consulting firm PM.

The project plan must fit to the SOW, the project team (key users) schedules and the strategic plan. We generally use MS Projects but can use other online tools as well (ask us).

Deliverables of this phase:

• Project plan and schedule. This is the detailed plan with the phases and milestones clearly laid out.
• Resources and staffing plan. Who are the key stakeholders, key users, and end-users at each plant or location? This helps ensure the best people can be backfilled from their “real jobs.”
• Define an Organizational Change Management (OCM) plan. OCM is perhaps the most important step in the People part of the project and perhaps the most frequently undervalued. The readiness for change of the people working on the project and the organization, in general, should be measured at each stage of the project. That’s why the development of OCM is in this Inception phase, and then Performing OCM is listed under every phase after.

Here’s a diagram that shows the major parts and details under each for OCM courtesy of projectplanexcel.net.

• Review High-Level Requirements — This is a “50,000-foot” review of the main business processes. It is a survey of the “as is” business processes and the business’s desires/needs that aren’t being met by the current ERPs. This should include a listing of the customizations because many may be eliminated, but some may have to be recreated.
• Define Key Business Data Structure — This is an assessment of the data that’s in the old ERP systems plus any production “edge” systems. Before the start of the data conversion, there should be an attempt to clean it up and to normalize bad master data that the transactions will use. For example, there could be duplicate business partners (e.g., customers and suppliers that were entered because of slightly different spellings or addresses that are really the same.

Elaboration —

• Review Business Process Models — This is where we use business process management (BPM). It can be aided with Infor Process Catalogs (IPCs) that start at the highest Business Control Model level 1. Some examples are (Sales) Order to Cash or (Purchasing) Procure to Pay. Then we drill down all the way through the levels, using the Dynamic Enterprise Modeler (DEM), to do a complete development of the “to be” business processes.
• Develop and Validate Prototype (CRP 1) — The prototype typically involves a day-long conference room pilot (CRP) presentation by the key users to the stakeholders and maybe end users. It uses sample test data from the client’s existing data and the level 3 (main) and level 4 (more detailed) process flows to run through the actual entry of orders and transactions.
• Perform Gap Analysis — This is an analysis of “as is” processes, integrations, reports, etc. that are missing from the “to be” core model. If a gap is identified it needs to be not just put on the list, it needs to be followed up on regularly until it’s filled.
• Data Migration — Here is a great slide which shows an overview of the proven data migration process that we use at PCG. Essentially, we can take ANY legacy ERP system, including on-prem, old single tenant or hosted cloud ERPs, and convert the data/system to the CE multi-tenant cloud on AWS – in an automated way.

• Perform System Testing (CRP 2) — CRP 2 should be done after the initial data conversion with cleaned-up master data has been done. It should be done in the production-configured Company, and the “to be” process flows should be done in the DEM. Sometimes, companies don’t do all the exception processes in CRP 1.
• Prepare Documentation and End User Training — Documentation can be a lot of things, including online help, module descriptions, different presentations, and the business model itself. A huge help with documentation is that Infor has put all its documentation online in this amazing resource!

Transition —

• Prepare Final Production Environment — This is the final system with all the companies, modules activated, master data, data sharing set up, operating service (OS) installed, workflows defined, business process flows for all processes defined, all applications installed (e.g., Birst Analytics), KPI’s running and approved customizations built. It’s ready for final data conversion.
• Train End Users — We generally use a “train the trainer” approach, where the key users train the end-users, but that doesn’t always suffice. If the step of end-user training has been done well, which typically means help from the consultants at that stage, then the end-users should be able to follow the “work instructions.”
• Perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT) — We have templates for the UAT scripts (documents) and the UAT list for monitoring how it’s going.
• Final Data Conversion — This is the proof the data is solid and that it’s been cleansed of impurities like duplicate records. We recommend migrating only master data, open orders (sales orders, purchase orders, production orders) and open transactions such as open Accounts Payable (AP) and Accounts Receivable.

NOTE: Migrating history weighs down the new system and there tends to be many referential integrity errors caused by dirty data. If you start to use AI, dirty data is also going to cause “hallucinations” and maybe even bad decisions if you allow AI to make decisions in workflows that include it. Scary!

Optimization —

I used to say to clients, “The optimization of your systems is never over.” It’s a continuing, virtuous cycle that leads to efficient processes, happy employees, accurate data as the “source of truth”, and ever-improving business metrics. Basically, your systems can stay healthy and ready to rock!

Conclusion —

If you have old on-premise ERP systems, then you’re already at risk. They may not be dead, but they are dying. Fortunately, the forecast is for a cloudy future – and that’s a good thing! If you follow the ERP Doctor’s guidance that I’ve provided here, then you will be able to upgrade your old ERP system to the cloud – without dying.

Once the system is upgraded, clients can have all the benefits of the multi-tenant cloud, such as: