As organisations in India are moving to a more IT-enabled work place and as increasingly complex solution sets are proposed for implementation, questions are being asked regarding their business success. Today, organisations are not seeking to implement custom developed software (well, some still do), but implement business solutions also known as ERPs. But how is the ERP different to the user than the custom developed package? The biggest difference is that ERP is all new, while the other is, well, just automated system mimicking the existing state of affairs. ERPs bring in global best practices, new process chains,revised authority limits, etc - altering the way organisations do business. ERP implementation is difficult and long and often one gets to hear horror stories of unsuccessful implementations. Implementation success depends on a few things - ERP chosen, implementation partner's capabilities and finally - and most importantly - how well has the transition from the old to the new system has been managed. To successfully implement ERP systems, organisations need to internalise the following five transition management mantras:

Leadership enrollment

In most successful ERP implementation projects - strong leadership led from the front ensured that such a long drawn out initiative is both resourced and championed. The president of the division of a large Indian engineering company implementing the ERP was a regular attender of the project steering committee meetings. He used to take a daily round of the ERP centre where the implementation teams were working. This sent strong signals to the entireorganisation about his commitment to change. The CEO of a pharmaceutical company articulated at onset of the implementation project that the organisation at the top must be clear on the need for the change and he was willing to take severe decisions to tackle resistance whenever necessary. He told his leadership team - "Change leadership is changing too - you are not just leading others". Even the World Bank admitted, "in our most successful efforts, the CEO or senior management team championed the effort."

Effective communications

Communicating effectively to all stakeholders on why, how and what we are planning to change helps to get the buy-in from them. Most Indian companies undertaking a serious change initiative set up dedicated communication team within the overall change programme. Some companies separately budget for a sustained communication campaign throughout the project. Projects staffed entirely by IT department face the risk of non-acceptance by the business users - as experiencedby an engineering and automotive component manufacturer in western India. The project went live -but no body was willing to accept the change. Ideally, involvement of 40 per cent of the organisation staff in the system design process is best practice.

Internal skill-building

Most organisations seeking to implement ERPs take the assistance of implementation consultants. A major role of the consultant is in transferring skills to the client organisation during the period of the project. To ensure that adequate internal skills are available both to maintain and upgrade the system and also to exploit the system potential, robust training programmes are required. In the case of a global mobile communications company, the project sponsor clearly laid out the key issue of training in one of his project meetings "we are in an empowering project - to empower our staff to use this system to do his job smarter...." Obviously, without a clearly defined "empowerment" plan, the project would not accomplish itsobjective. Most Indian organisations, sadly, have a scant regard to this important element of implementation success.

Aligning management practices

Organisations that want to fundamentally benefit from an ERP implementation needs to appreciate that the ERP is not just about processes. It is also about how the management works. Typically ERP involves moderate to large-scale changes in organisational roles and responsibilities and unless organisations are not primed for this change, it often appears as a rude shock to them. A watch and accessories company in India made sure that its managers have explicitly explained to the users about changed job profile before user training starts and there was appropriate buy-in. Incorporating ERP implementation objectives into the appraisal process for all Managers and Supervisors using new metrics and targets was the approach adopted by a global CPG company to ensure both compliance and commitment to change. In the Indian context, a clear understanding from theoutset, of the constraints imposed by different working practices, trade unions and legislation in India is vital.

Planning transition management

It is now clear that unless transition management is properly executed, ERP implementations will remain a mere IT systems installation and no substantial business benefit can be derived from this expensive investment. Transition management requires full time involvement from the best and the brightest. A global mobile communication company chose its brightest managers and made their career progression linked to successful transition management. It is the users who make an implementation a success. Finally, there is nothing like demonstrating that the need for change is a business imperative and not a IT luxury. Project leaders must build a strong case for change based on business realities, using external benchmarks to demonstrate the competitive gap to be filled. Ideally, the board of directors should be the first group to achieve the buy-in and therecannot be a better demonstration of the need to change than by building the business case assumptions and benefits into future operating plans and budgets.

The author is a principal consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited. He can be contacted at santanu.sanyal@in.pwcglobal.com