🚀 go-pugleaf

Francis S. "Frank" Patrick ( fpatrick@focusedperformance.com) asked, "I
wonder if Dan's company's decision to implement an ERP system is a solution
to the real problems of the company. Could be."

The answer is YES. The real problem is that our business systems are not
Y2K complaint. We could either fix them and continue the patch work
approach or replace them with an integrated systems around the world. We
chose the integrated solution. We do business in about forty countries and
have distributors that cover the rest of the world where we do not have
direct operations.

We seized the Y2K problem as an opportunity to make the business better.
The opportunity, however, has side effects that must be dealt with. They
range all the way from small power bases to new methods for executive
management to run the business. Moreover, many reports show that software
projects this size have a very low success rate. Success, however, is not
always as well measured as it could be.

In my part of the implementation I know that I will face resistance to
change. Anything that guides me in overcoming the resistance certainly
helps.

Over the July 4th holiday we changed the phone switch because the old one
was not Y2K complaint, was becoming difficult to maintain, and we had
outgrown its capacity. Each employee went to two hours of training on how
to use the new phones, When those of us in the ERP project complete the
training we were shocked! If the phone company needs two hours of training
for the phone on my desk, what happens when we change all the business
systems in the company?

There we also pockets of resistance to the phone change. I hope to do a
case study of the phone change, but need a success paradigm to help me
organize. Thanks to those who have contributed to date.

Dan O'Leary CQA, CQE, CQM, CRE
Business Process Executive - Manufacturing
doleary@qbe.picker.com