Much has been written about the failure of EnterpriseResource Planning system, companies spending a fortune on ERP softwareimplementation only to find that the business performance has not improved atall. These large investment and negativeROIs have created a whirlpool of controversy, rampant company policies and evena number of lawsuits. For some these have created a fear about making a big ERPmistake. Most of the time ERP software vendors are the targets for blame whenthe anticipated results do not materialize.

Whilesome companies see that the successful implementation of the system is quicklymet, why others struggle with incomplete implementations and tenuous results?Is the ERP software or the software vendors the real culprits for the lack ofbusiness performance improvement? Let’s explore what a successful ERP systemimplementation really means.

An ERPsolution, successfully implemented, positively alerts the way company manages itsback office, enabling it to enhance planning, execution, management, andcontrol over a wide range of critical processes. However, it also depends on how much thesystem is accepted within the organization and how effective is the migrationfrom old systems to new system is managed.

Certainly,it can often be argued that ERP system logic is sometimes illogical,functionality is missing, functions perform poorly and so on. But theaccountability for the success lies to varying degree with the implementationof the new system and the business process re-engineering that goes with it,which is unquestionably a complex undertaking.

“Whatwe need is a new system” is the suggestion that comes up very often whilediscussing about the operational problems of the organization. At first glance,an ERP system will potentially solve many issues a company may have. However,upon careful analysis, if a company has significant process issues, a newsystem alone may not solve any of its problems. It may simply represent a newor different way to do exactly what was done before.

So often the systemsare both blamed and suggested as the remedy for the ills of simply bad businessprocess. As the famous quote, “a combination of old organization and a newsystem results only in an expensive old organization”