A path to success with a solid project strategy

Digitalisation and ERP projects – A path to success with a solid project strategy.

Before initiating the project’s first phases, much suggests that it is highly appropriate to draw up a strategy for the execution of the project itself, so that the project becomes anchored in management with the best possible collaboration with the project management.

This can be done through presentations of experiences from other projects, followed up with discussion and decisions about shared goals, success criteria and values for the specific project. These should be relevant and provide direction for the entire lifetime of the project, and be communicated to the whole organisation – and possibly form part of tender material for IT suppliers.

Project goals – What is the project supposed to produce/deliver?

When a company’s board and management have approved the strategy, that is at the same time also the initiation of one or more projects that are typically 1 year out in the future. Management very often assesses digitalisation and ERP projects primarily from a technological perspective, which can be entirely correct.

But by far the majority will sooner or later discover that it is much more than technology, data and user training. It can also be the staircase to the next level of the company’s development and a longer series of new opportunities for efficiency gains and growth. The implementation of the IT platform itself will implicitly challenge existing workflows, and the organisation therefore develops as the company asks itself – why do we actually do it this way, when we… Whether you want it or not, pressure arises on how the organisation works and collaborates. That is why it is important that the project goals are decided as early as possible.

Examples of project goals from recent years:

• Modernization through a transition to a modern standard IT platform, with one data model, as much standard as possible / as little development/adaptation as possible
• Develop a platform that can be scaled and adapted to the company’s growth and development, acquisitions of other companies.
• The organisation’s competencies and culture will in future focus on the processes and collaboration across departments and areas of responsibility
• Development and streamlining of the organisation’s policies, processes and roles
• _Ensure valid management and control information in a timely manner
  _

Success criteria

When we have to carry out projects with great complexity and consequences for all parts of the organisation and the business, there is a need throughout the project’s lifetime for predetermined success criteria – white lines on the pitch ensure a good match for everyone.

Examples of project success criteria from recent years:

• Management and key people from the business, along with the support functions, make up the internal project organisation, so that the IT partners are met in a competent collaboration.
• We must develop solutions that are as standard as possible.
• With the customer at the centre, we will develop our business, organisation and IT solutions.
• Needs must govern our choices, rather than technical functionality.
• “We do not only cut to the bone, but into the core of the bone” so that project deliverables are limited to the absolute minimum.

Values

Management and the project management should decide which project culture we want to lead the project with. Here the company’s values should be respected, and the project’s values are thus a supplement. Values are characterised by applying to all parts of the organisation, including the IT partners. The decision about values has a great influence on what the project is to deliver, the management of the project, communication and so on.

Examples of project values from recent years:

• Involvement develops into engagement, which is to secure ownership.
• We must challenge the existing with respect for the individual employee
• Openness & honesty
• Joy

A path to success with a solid project strategy (part 2) – A shared picture of the project is decisive for success

With the organisation of a steering committee, managers and key people, you are well on the way to initiating the project. In most projects, everyone has a reasonable picture of, or a sense for, what the project is to deliver. My most recent article about the project’s goals, success criteria and values continues here with a little more experience on the fact that a shared picture of the real project scope should be created in the project’s management and organisation – as early as possible in order to secure the project’s success.

20 % is IT systems, technology and data

80% is business and organizational development

IT systems and technology

This includes ERP / IT solutions, relevant modules as well as the development and implementation of integrations. It likewise includes IT infrastructure, operating environment with servers, databases and networks, communication infrastructure and work clients. This part of the structure also covers the development and IT adaptations that the suppliers deliver for the company’s solution. Development must take place on the basis of performance and processes, which are the company’s “requirement descriptions”, but must also challenge the organisation to use the solutions in the standard version, where that is relevant.

Data

Master data usually consists of customer data, item data, supplier data, as well as a range of historical data that has to be migrated wholly or partly to the new solutions’ databases. Around data there lies a task that is far larger than most people realise. Cleaning up old data and preparing for data migrations, as well as developing, for example, new data for a new product configurator. This data has a very great significance for how the company will/can sell, produce, manage inventory, calculate requirements and deliver to the customers in future… an eternally underestimated task.

Performance

This focus area relates to the company’s critical control parameters and any KPIs, as well as the possibility of implementing new future goals. This can also be the first steps in the direction of new Business Intelligence (BI)

Processes

The focus is on gathering the company’s overall roadmap with workflows and task instructions, as well as mapped roles, so that a new future roadmap with process descriptions, hand-overs, instructions and roles can be developed. Most companies will achieve a very big “a-ha” effect with a simple index-card exercise at a whiteboard. Adjusted processes will play a decisive role in how we are to digitalise the company, as well as give the users a relevant toolbox

People

Focus on developing competencies for the new processes and the execution of the tasks, as well as ensuring that the culture develops to support the new organisation, systems and control.

The above realistic picture of IT projects is decisive for:

• The company’s understanding of what influence the project will have on the organisation and the business
• The importance of a correct and highly prioritised focus in the organisation is likewise strictly necessary, and it always results in a recognition that the company wants to draw up a draft of the expected internal resource draw and appoint key people.
• Ensuring that management and the project keep their eyes firmly fixed on the needs of the business and the organisation, and not only on the many technical possibilities that can be implemented.
• Recognising that the supplier’s competencies and profile are extremely important for achieving the right collaboration between the company and the IT supplier. Here industry experience does not count alone, as competencies within organizational and business development and an understanding of being able to translate the strategic goals in the company are also essential for the project’s success.

A path to success with a solid project strategy (part 3) – Choosing a future IT partner and IT solutions, based on the company’s needs

Ensuring a successful decision about the choice of IT and ERP systems and the right match of partner is decisive for all companies.

Here are the steps we work with in order to ensure this:

Create a shared foundation – The company must describe their strategy and needs.

This covers, among other things, the topics of the business’s requirements and criteria, IT strategy principles, requirements for quality in the contractual and methodological basis, the customer’s assessment criteria for the future partner’s professionalism, the customer’s particular requirements and ideas about the ERP solution, and the customer’s values regarding price and budget size.

We work with this shared foundation through an “acquisition committee” – management representatives and key people who are expected to play a significant role throughout the project. Each participant is well prepared to meet the suppliers through their involvement and ownership in tender material, as well as the shared evaluation model we have created together. We deliver a digital decision tool that everyone in the “acquisition committee” uses all the way through to the choice of partners.

Model for mapping and choosing ERP/IT suppliers:

Our model covers the entire process from mapping the supplier market to a signed contract. Topics in this model are weighted against each other and assessed by the customer’s key people and decision-makers.

The model includes, among other things:

1. Reference customers/cases
2. Financial key figures and prices
3. Organizational size in relation to the range of competencies
4. Geographical location
5. Quality assurance through the supplier’s management basis and project models,
6. Competencies with CVs for the consultants offered and staff turnover,
7. Legal matters,
8. Security,
9. The content of the deliverables,
10. Quality and benefits realisation,
11. The ability to challenge and develop our organisation
12. Business models
13. Business and industry understanding.
14. The customer’s IT strategy and policies

Topics in the model include, among other things:

1. Service-oriented architecture,
2. Best of suite or best of breed,
3. An unambiguous information model,
4. Security,
5. Needs-driven and value-creating IT,
6. Simplicity in policy, process, systems and data,
7. One work task, one system.
8. Sourcing models such as cloud, on-premise or a combination,
9. Standard solutions rather than custom development and
10. Development within the standard solution for reasons of risk,
11. Critical knowledge holders and the company’s requirements are challenged as well as
12. Availability, uptime and response times.

By taking into account, among many things in this model, our customers can be sure that they make a successful decision about the choice of ERP system and partner – on the best possible basis with broad internal ownership.

Questions or need a chat – get in touch with Michael Quottrup, Penta Intelligence

Michael Quottrup

Partner & Executive Management Consultant

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