An ERP implementation involves a
number of steps. In effect these steps lead to a BPR. Business Process
Re-engineering can be of two types – The Big ‘R’ or the small ‘r’. The big ‘R’
re-engineering is the complete re-engineering of all the process. The small ‘r’
re-engineering is a package enabled re-engineering. At L&T, we have adopted
the small ‘r’ or the package enabled re-engineering. In a package enabled
re-engineering, the changes are made in the business process to adapt to the
package.
A typical ERP implementation
involves the following steps:
- AS-IS Analysis:
This involves an in-depth analysis
and mapping of the existing business processes. In the AS-IS phase, there were
many good but disjointed systems. All the systems were independent of each other
and there was no integration between the various systems.
- TO-BE and GAP Identification:
This stage reflects the business
process re-engineering phase. Once the existing business processes are mapped,
then the second step is to identify how the organisation would require the
particular business process to be addressed after implementing ERP. The business
process may be continued to be addressed as it is being done so or the
organisation might go in for a different method of addressing the business
process. Thus each and every process mapped at the AS-IS phase is re-visited
with a view of objectively analysing the same and thus increasing the
effectiveness of the business process. Each AS-IS process is mapped to a TO-BE
process.
After the TO-BE maps are prepared,
each TO-BE map is studied with respect to how the ERP package addresses these
processes. In this way each and every TO-BE map is studied and the end of the
exercise, a list of issues that are not addressed directly by the ERP system, is
generated. This list is called as the GAP List. GAPS are those business
processes, which are not directly addressed by the ERP system. It is then
decided whether to use workarounds, or develop patches, which will address these
missing links, or decide not to address the GAP – if the process is not affected
by it.
- Prototyping and Design
In the prototyping and design
stage, a design or prototype of the new configuration is created. This involves
creating a story situation wherein the whole cycle of the business process is
simulated in the system.
- Construction
In the construction phase, the
configurations are done, new developments (forms, reports and BDCs) are made for
the new requirements. These configurations are first done in the development
environment and then tested thoroughly before transporting the same to the
production environment.
- User Acceptance Test (UAT)
The users are trained in the new
system and set of users representing the user community, are selected for
conducting the testing and confirm their acceptance after testing the system and
satisfying themselves regarding the same.
- Go-Live
After the users have tested the
system and given the user acceptance, a cut-off date is decided for going live
in the new system. The go-live could be done by two methods. The organisation
can decide to use the new system as well as the old system for some time. This
method is called as handholding and is usually adapted for accounting systems.
The other method is to decide a date from which all new transactions will be
entered and will be available in the new system.
