Page 77 - MetalForming October 2011

don’t like it, don’t believe in it or don’t think it matters if they use it properly. Maybe dirty data during the transfer to the new system will screw up invento- ry records or customer addresses. Or, maybe a natural disaster will wipe out your back-end servers. It’s been known to happen.
However, CIOs sometimes are reluc- tant to give IT failure the respect and credence it’s due. In fact, a recent study from software vendor CA Technologies found that “56 percent of organizations in North America and 30 percent in Europe do not have a formal and com- prehensive disaster recovery policy.” This in light of the fact that 50 percent of organizations say that IT outages “dam- age their reputation,” 44 percent believe “IT downtime damages staff morale,” and 35 percent say it can “adversely impact customer loyalty.”
Our advice in this regard is always the same: Develop strategies that address disaster recovery and business continuity with clear instructions to
staff on what is expected of them in the event of a system failure. And, make sure you do this before you implement anything. Take it from the dozens of public- and private-sector companies who have lost thousands of customers and millions of dollars because of ERP- system failures—you are more vulner- able than you think.
Organize for Change
I’ve already hinted at a third critical success factor: organizational change management (OCM). Panorama’s con- sultants all agree that this is the most fundamental—and easiest to screw up—aspect of an ERP implementation. So what is it? Simply put, it’s preparing, training and managing your staff so that your organization can actually achieve the business benefits it expects from its new ERP system.
You might be thinking, “Aren’t my employees supposed to do what I tell them, no questions asked?”
While this might once have been
true in communist Russia, it’s certain- ly not true in today’s world, where your employees have opinions. And process- es. And reasons behind their opinions and processes. It falls on the CIO, and other managers, to listen to and address these individual concerns, complaints and worries. If you don’t, and elect to just roll out the new system with tersely worded e-mails about com- pliance and boring training sessions, you run the risk of mutiny. Trust me— if you treat them poorly (or worse, imperiously), your staff will find a way to undercut you, your strategy and your software. And that’s a real danger.
Talk to them, explain your thinking, and focus on how the new system will benefit them. Provide training, and encourage them to ask for more training if they need it. Request feedback and respond to concerns. And be available, accessible and present. Your employees will look to their managers to bring them through this treacherous maze; grab the flashlight and lead. MF
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