Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which entered the mainstream around two decades ago, has evolved into an indispensable business solution.
Despite that, almost half of businesses plan to upgrade their ERP systems within the next year despite not yet realizing a profit from them.
Although data-related tasks have been automated, manual processes remain widespread.
A low-quality report may require executives to work around extra workarounds to comprehend. Considering an ERP upgrade might be the best way to avoid all these problems.
What are the typical steps involved in an ERP upgrade project? In addition, what is the optimal strategy for executing it?
In this article, we look at the steps involved in upgrading an ERP system step-by-step. Read on to find out more.
ERP Upgrades: When Should You Do Them?
Choosing the right time to implement an ERP upgrade is challenging, as the strategy impacts many departments throughout your organization, from finance to operations.
How do you decide if an upgrade is necessary?
- During times of growth for the business
- Outgrow Legacy Systems
- If You Are Having Regulatory Compliance Issues
Steps to consider when upgrading an ERP system
Whether you are upgrading software functionality, performance, or speed, ERP systems are mission-critical systems that must be carefully planned and implemented.
The following steps are important when upgrading an ERP system:
Bringing business and strategy together
Ensure that all executives in the organization, from the CEO to the CFO, are aware of the planned ERP upgrade and that it aligns with the organization’s strategic goals.
Additionally, you will need to get their approval for establishing budgets and redesigning business operations.
Plan the budget and project scope
It involves determining which parts, modules, or features of the ERP need to be upgraded.
To determine a budget, you must take into account hardware and software costs, licensing fees, and consultation fees.
Identify and benchmark the pain points
Are you upgrading the ERP to solve which specific business problems?
Are these problems due to poor data integration, financial losses, or low user adoption?
Regardless of your problem, consider and extensively benchmark it to determine whether an upgrade will resolve it.
Get to know the end users
To understand how the upgrade will affect routine business processes, talk to the frontline users once you have identified the business points.
This will ensure that post-deployment, these processes continue as usual.
Select your modernization partner and approach
Many factors influence the choice of modernization partner and approach, including the project’s complexity and nature.
For iterative changes, you might use a phased approach to implement all changes simultaneously.
Other important decisions include which ERP provider to use, whether you’ll hire an in-house team, or whether you’ll use a third-party modernization firm.
Plan a feasible implementation strategy
Upgrades to ERP will cost money and time and affect your organization’s core operations.
Ensure you have an implementation plan that reflects your specific business requirements and those supplied by the vendor.
Train and educate users
The organization should educate and train all levels of users on specific features and the advantages of implementing a new version.
If you tell them how much easier their job is with it, they will appreciate it.
Evaluate performance and validate results
In addition to testing and validating the newly upgraded ERP, ensure it works well by measuring its performance.
Keep an eye out for bugs, glitches, or any other technical inconsistencies that may undermine security, functionality, or performance at this stage.
Document, report, and remediate anything you find before deploying the system at full scale.
Conclusion
With an ERP upgrade, you can take advantage of new business opportunities and integrate into modern technology without having to rewrite your code.
If one crucial step is missed during implementation, this can result in failure, loss of money, and frustration, regardless of whether you are upgrading or replacing the system.
