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SerCom
Solutions
6
. Setbacks and Difficulties
The ERP rollout went very smoothly. It was well planned and
well managed. There was one slight delay in the project, though,
in December of 2000, one month before the planned roll out date.
The team felt that they didn't know quite enough about the product
and were becoming a little uncomfortable with the project. During
a very vocal steering committee meeting, a decision was made
to extend the deadline by one month. Having the whole team now
committing personally to this ship date gave the team more of
a sense of ownership for the project.
For
a strategic and complex implementation such as this one, there
was bound to be some friction within the team. In hindsight,
some of the team were not experienced planners and when the
due date loomed around the corner, some members started to panic.
The first few months had gone very smoothly but now it was time
to knuckle down and ready the system for the live date.
The Web project was not so simple. Vendor selection proved difficult
for SerCom. (Unlike ERP systems, at the time of selection, web
application servers were relatively new and untested.) Many
software companies were developing products and it was difficult
to see through the barrage of offerings and select the best
system for their needs. This problem was exacerbated by inadequate
time being spent in documenting the specific requirements for
their needs. SerCom also felt that the consultants they brought
in for the web project were not as good as expected and soon
replaced them with their own internal team. Finally, to make
matters worse, SerCom decided to build the niceties of the front
end (the web screens) first and, only then, try and integrate
the system with SAP. This resulted in huge problems. Their web
server was not as SAP friendly as they had expected and inexpediently
they found themselves using a version of the product soon to
be made obsolete!
All these issues resulted in various delays and setbacks for
the web sub-project. As they had already invested so much money
and time, SerCom decided to forge ahead regardless. This time
they used their own internal team and the latest version of
WebSphere. They approached the project differently by ensuring
the back end integration was tight before attempting to build
front-end screens.
Rollout
SerCom planned a one-month period of training prior to their
launch date. Anecdotally, a company known to SerCom, also rolling
out a SAP system, had not spent enough resource and time educating
their workforce. This resulted in an employee, deleting stock
from the system instead of adding it, for a period of three
weeks. This mistake resulted in their system gradually grinding
to a halt with numerous discrepancies. SerCom, taking this on
board, tasked the aforementioned change manager with ensuring
that staff training was given the utmost priority.
Each member of the team responsible for a department was nominated
as a 'superuser'. Instead of the consultants training staff
members, SerCom sent each superuser on an external training
course embracing the 'train-the-trainer' methodology. This meant
the training skills remained inside the company and the actual
trainer would be returning to oversee their own group before
the due roll out date. The consultants partook in the first
few training sessions to assist with any difficult questions.
Each employee received at least three full days training along
with an extra week available for anyone who still felt they
needed more time to familiarise themselves with the new system.
For the rollout date, each superuser went back to their group
along with their counterpart from the consulting group. The
live date was an outstanding success with Limerick going live
on the same date and Scotland following suit a two months later.
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