ERP implementations are littered with tales of lost millions and withdrawals after implementation. Many of the most experienced IT organizations have failed. So what are the secrets? What are the traps? This question could produce at least a book, and probably a sequel. Here are a few things the vendor is not going to tell you about. They are by no means the most important, but they are missed in many implementations.

Positives and negatives

Most organizations do not understand the costs associated with an ERP system when they first commence the implementation. The benefits are usually well understood-the vendor will make sure of this. The costs do not surface until well into the implementation-and why should the vendor talk to an organization about the costs and difficulties when they are trying to make a sale? On the surface, there are very attractive reasons for going ERP. Benefits include:

• A single system to support rather than several small and different systems

• A single applications architecture with limited interfaces

• Access to management information unavailable across a mix of applications

• Access to best practice systems and procedures

• More integration hence lower costs

• More "automation" of tasks

The costs and impacts are understandably not played up by the vendors. Some of those are:

• Implementation effort will be bigger then ever talked about or even imagined. We are yet to hear from an organization who have implemented ahead of schedule and under budget.

• The existing environmental mix between what is done manually and what is done by the system will swing dramatically after implementation. Many more tasks will be automated, and automation will significantly reduce the flexibility of how you operate as a business.

• Users need to become more computer literate. Many see this as personally challenging-even beyond their ability-and will not cope, or leave the company.

• The word "Enterprise" in ERP means that whatever happens in one area has a ripple effect in other areas. Understanding the implications of actions of one area, on other areas of the company, is not something that happens overnight.

• "Close enough" is no longer good enough-data integrity becomes critical. The computer cannot make human judgements. If stock is moved, it is not enough for someone to simply remember where it was placed. The information needs to be put into the system or there will be a domino effect throughout the supply chain.

• Things have to be done consistently. No longer are we able to do something one way in one branch and another way in another branch. The system is going to determine how we do things in all locations. Even within one location, special treatment may not be possible any more without changing the configuration of the system. If the system says you can either have 0, 15, 30 or 60 day credit terms, you can no longer offer 45 day terms without changing configuration. If consistency can be implemented, there is good potential for cost savings as well as getting rid of special arrangements that reduce profit.

Corporate culture

What most managers who have been through an ERP implementation will tell you is that the biggest impact is on "corporate culture."

To successfully take on an ERP system, an organization needs to change its corporate culture. It may need to change from being highly flexible and not paying a lot of attention to consistency or accuracy, to one of being almost obsessed with detail. The staff, meanwhile, needs to change the focus of their own jobs to that of the whole organization.