The recommendations about the choice and implementation of ERP in trade

"Information rules the world"

First of all, under any circumstances of the company which is going to implement for the first time the ERP system it is necessary to conduct an independent research of the existing situation and to estimate as the level of the organization own business of processes and their readiness for automation, and the choice of automation systems of trade business and also the offer in the market of services of business consulting (actually consulting + implementation). In the course of such research it is desirable to use materials from different sources (for example, independently found in the Internet, received at colleagues on business and purchased at analysts). Alternative option is the order of services of IT consulting, but most the companies rendering such services execute and actually implementation of systems, and, therefore, are the persons interested. In the Russian market it is not enough companies which are engaged in "net" IT consulting.

As a result of the conducted research the company should receive vision of the current provision and possible ways of further development. It is, also, desirable to receive estimated judgments of indirect losses which the company sustains without the operating ERP system, possible benefits from automation, the size of the budget which it is ready to select for the project (it, most likely, will need to be increased at once by one and a half-two times) and the expected payback period of the means spent for implementation.

The acquired information, even incomplete and not absolutely exact, will allow to draw a conclusion on whether it is necessary in general to ERP-sistema company or it is possible to manage some combination of separate specialized software products. It will become, also, clear whether it is required to audit and business process reengineering to make some changes to a business model, an organization structure, the principles of company management that it became perhaps relative to pass to the automated processing of business information "without serious consequences". It is desirable, at the same stage to define type of the company and its business more precisely and to find out whether exist industry (they – standard project) solutions for it like trade enterprises or at least an opportunity to receive such solution, having combined several "relatives" to the desirable. As a result, the company will obtain information on whether it will be required to execute during the project completions of ERP-sistema (or industry solution on its base) under specifics of business (that, naturally, will increase project cost) or there is an opportunity to implement the standard solution, "having tied" him to the enterprise by means of setup of the necessary parameters. Except cost characteristics of the project such information will allow to judge also terms of its implementation.

Determination of general requirements

After the answer to the question "And whether It Is Necessary?" it is necessary to think over the question "What?", i.e. to define general requirements to future system. Before going down on the level of parameters of performance of systems, volume of the databases supported by them, etc., it is necessary to agree on fundamental issues at the level of the management. In particular, what circuits of a management system of the enterprise will be implemented what importance of each of them for the company in what sequence it is supposed to implement them, gradually or will occur at once transition to accomplishment of all transactions in an information system whether there will be a podstraivatsya company under the ERP system or the ERP system will have to "cave in under the company". Here it is absolutely necessary to consider the development strategy of the company. As after implementation the ERP system will become information "nervous system" of the organization, its opportunities should provide support of all planned changes (growth of business, entry into the new markets, expansions of the offered range and (or) methods of sale, etc.). Respectively, and when choosing the solution it should be considered.

Based on the requirements formalized thus on the next stages it will become possible to develop technical specifications within which the specific functional and technical requirements to a system following from the executed general problem definition will be already considered.

Determination of approach to implementation

The following question, the answer to which the company should give, is "Who will implement?". There are three basic opportunities: implement by own forces, use services of integrator, or make something average. Implementation by own forces often costs cheaper, but can longer last. Own employees bear direct responsibility to company management, will not divulge business information and also well know the company and business processes in it. However, without experience which is accumulated by consultants of the companies integrators the staff of the company can "repeatedly step on a rake" about which existence do not know because of insufficient experience. On the other hand, at all the experience and the staff of integrators from time to time "successfully" fails projects, they need time to understand specifics of the specific enterprise and there is a risk that they will become the reason of leakage of important internal information. At the same time, consultants, as a rule, act within the developed and debugged methodology of the description and the analysis of business processes and implementation of ERP systems, they have ready-made solutions of the majority of problems which can arise during the project and they can specify rather tough terms. The intermediate option assumes participation in a project team, except the staff of IT service of the company, employees of one of integrators or even vendor of the ERP system. Works on implementation at the same time are performed by forces of the company, and "external" participants give project teams consultations on increase in efficiency, in case of need train the staff of the company and also can participate in project management.

As a rule, ERP system implementation by own forces – the frequent choice of industrial enterprises where traditionally there are quite large IT departments. As for trade enterprises, very often they resort to services of integrators.

System Selection

Practically in parallel with decision-making on the question described above it is necessary to perform the choice actually of the ERP system which is going to be implemented. On the one hand, this choice has an impact on making decision on (not) involvement of integrator, from other party – itself depends on this solution. Nevertheless, according to us, functional and technical requirements to a system it is more important than whether the staff of own IT service or "familiar" integrator has an experience with it. So it is desirable, first of all to select a system.

Data on the offer of ERP systems existing in the market are for this purpose necessary for trade, market positions and capacity of their vendors, existence in labor market of specialists in each of the offered systems, experience of implementation of these solutions, successful and unsuccessful projects, cost characteristics, the principles of licensing and pricing for each of suppliers, functional and technical capabilities of solutions, available in the market.

It is possible to obtain these data or directly at suppliers (but it is necessary to reduce them to a uniform design, terminology and volume and also "beat off" the staff of sales departments of vendors), or having used services of analytical company, or having purchased one or more analytical reports. In this case the choice will be defined by costs of time and money for each of the listed options.

On the basis of data retrieveds the initial list of ERP systems which  can be suitable for automation of business of the company is under construction. Systems in the list should satisfy to previously developed set of criteria concerning the market positions of vendor, functionality of the solution, the history of implementations, etc. mentioned above. Further it is necessary to request the additional information (it is desirable with the presentation of real opportunities of systems) and specific business offerings from suppliers of systems which were included in the list. On the basis of the analysis of optional data the final list of applicant systems (shortlist) is formed. The choice of the only system from it can be performed by method of expert evaluation or within the tender, at the discretion of customer company.

If the decision to use services of integrator was made, then it is necessary to select it similar described in the way.

Development of specifications

Further, irrespective of who exactly will be engaged in implementation, it is necessary to make and approve technical specifications in which terms of execution of works, a configuration of equipment rooms and software tools, forms of output and entrance documents and all other parameters of the project will be determined. It is very desirable that the parameters specified in technical specifications were formalizable, i.e. had numerical value or, at least, could be expressed by logical value "yes/no", "it is implemented / not realiovano" or "is present/is absent".

Further, the IT service or integrator will define dates of start and project completion, working schedules on the project are constructed, budgets of stages or complexes of works, control points, float times, specific contractors and other parameters of the project are defined.

The company shall provide "the sponsor of the project" - the representative of the highest level of management who will supervise the project and to provide problem solving at the level of the company. As a rule, even if the integrator is engaged in implementation, the project manager from the customer who provides direct approval of actions of staff of the company of a project team is appointed, approves and approves the results received in control points of the project and takes part in preparation for commissioning of the project.

Operation

The necessary stage preceding project completion is trial operation of the unrolled system. It begins after the preliminary acceptance of the performed works and is intended for acquaintance of personnel with a system, working off of skills of work with it and also identification and elimination of errors and defects. Duration of this stage, as a rule, is defined by the customer and is fixed in technical specifications.

Upon completion of trial operation and elimination of the revealed defects the acceptance of the implemented system is made, the relevant documents are signed and a system is put into commercial operation.

Not always in practice everything occurs as smoothly as it is committed to paper, but the recommendations stated above, according to us, nevertheless can have a certain positive impact on this process.