Who Should Be Asked When Buying ERP?

The company, which thinks that it has established processes, starts to think that it cannot follow its business as it wants in the existing program and that the reports are insufficient in directing the functioning of the company. At this point, it is decided which ERP should be the new ERP by taking the opinions of certain people from outside and inside.

ERP companies, process consultants and reference companies are consulted from outside. However, the most important thing for the health of the project is who should be consulted internally.

Remember!!! ERP programs are sold to the bosses, but the people who will enter the data into the program are the people we call operators; staff, assistant experts and sometimes experts. They experience how difficult it is to enter data and how much the effort will increase. Unfortunately, they (and sometimes even their managers) are not consulted during the program selection process. The boss wants to get the best report, the fastest. However, the report can only be accurate if the people at the lowest level(s) input the correct data.

However, the issue of taking the opinion of all staff during the selection process should not be exaggerated. As you all know, there are Excel monsters in every company 😊 Without them, none of the company's business can run. Only they know how to prepare that report. If they take 1 week off, they are constantly called. While being constantly searched is a result of systemlessness for me, it is a reason for indispensability for them. When these people switch to a new ERP program, they think that these reports will be taken ready from the program and they will no longer be needed. They usually undermine the project. The term "user resistance" originates from these employees. To summarize, it is wrong to ignore the users at all, and it is also wrong to proceed completely with their guidance.

Getting the opinions of users does not necessarily mean meeting with each and every one of them. Before the project starts, ERP decision teams are established. This team includes only department managers. Through the feedback they receive from the users, the managers convey their ideas on which ERP should be to the management. In other words, they act as a bridge between management and users. At the same time, they also have the chance to convey their own expectations from the program.

Getting the end-users' opinion at the beginning minimizes the reactions after the program is implemented, because the idea came from them.