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Add You - Enterprise Systems as a Strategic Growth Initiative
Are you a homeowner or a business owner who would like to have your home or business inspected for mold? If you are and you are from the Burbank area, you will need to find a Burbank mold inspector to do business with.When finding a Burbank mold inspector to do business with, you will find that you can find Burbank mold inspectors by speaking to those that you know, using your local phone book, or by using the internet. The only thing is that you shouldn’t pick a Burbank mold inspector out of a bunch of business listings. Mold can have a serious impact on your health, as well as the value of your home or business. For those reasons, you will want to be sure that you don’t do business with just any ole Burbank mold inspector.When choosing a Burbank mold inspector to do business with, you will want to keep training and certification in mind. Most Burbank mold inspectors have undergone the proper amount of training and received certification for that training, but there are always a few people who end up flying under the radar. You will want to make sure that you not only ask a Burbank mold inspector about their training and certifications, but you should also ask to see proof. You may even want to ask about experience in the field. How long have they been working with mold?Should you end up having a mold problem, which can be determined after a visit from a Burbank mold inspector, the mold will need to be removed. Although most Burbank mold inspectors also specialize in mold removal, not all do. To save yourself money as well as even more research, you will want to try and do business with a Burbank mold inspector that also knows how to professionally remove mold. In fact, depending on the Burbank mold inspector in question and their schedule, they may be able to do a mold inspection and mold removal all at the same time, or at least within a few days of each other.It is also important that you examine costs, when looking to hire a Burbank mold insp
The rest of the article discusses areas which the Executive sponsor need to be involved in to ensure that the ERP initiative is on the right track
ERP Readiness Assessment:
The ERP readiness assessment process is aimed understanding the readiness of the organization to undertake an ERP implementation initiative. As stressed earlier this is not a technical evaluation of the organizations readiness although some aspects are assessed. This assessment approaches ERP as a strategic initiative.
The initial ERP readiness assessment has to use both qualitative information about the organisation on overall dimensions which affect all sections of the organisation and its stakeholders. The qualitative information pertaining helps evaluate the readiness of an organisation to go in for a full fledged ERP implementation and understand the various gaps which need to be fixed before the organisation embarks on the ERP initiative. Some of the dimensions which need to be taken into account are:
1. Organi
You first may be asking: what qualifies me as a Yellow Page expert? I worked as an advertising consultant for a Bell System division for nearly 25 years. During that time, I counseled about 3000 businesses in advertising design, marketing programs, and promotional campaigns. I was a top performer for about half that time and won numerous awards and honors. With that background, let me discuss the unique media known as directory advertising.In my market, we had about 80,000 businesses represented in the local city Yellow Pages. That’s a large sector of companies fairly reliant on a single product used by over 80% of the population. The Yellow Pages is a reliable constant that is relatively unchanged since its inception over 100 years ago. Back then, it was a list of companies and their ads, bound together in book form, and sent for free to every resident with a phone. Today, it serves the same function: a current resource for business information.The only difference is the addition of full-color and the replication on the Internet. Otherwise, it’s your father’s Yellow Pages. It began as a byproduct of the phone company’s need to get the their subscribers’ phone numbers out to the general public. Then someone realized the value of actual ads that would offer additional facts such as hours, products, services, and locations. Presently, many businesses rely on their Yellow Page ads, exclusively.This is especially true for emergency service companies such as plumbers, electricians, and appliance repairers. Lately, more and more professionals like attorneys, dentists and plastic surgeons have discovered the power of this prevalent media. For them, it is a somewhat reasonable alternative to television and other mass media. Their ROI (return on investment) is high as is their exposure to every potential client. Most of this information is fairly common knowledge and a reminder of what the Yellow Pages means to the average user. The rest i
One of the distinct advantage of using an Enterprise System is that provides an integrated solution for the entire business. Typically organizations which adopted to Information technology early in the cycle would have taken the best of breed solutions for specific business needs like accounting or inventory management which although addresses the needs of the particular processes cannot communicate with systems working on some other process in the same organization. Thus the organization is saddled with multiple and disparate systems. Larger organizations who adopted to information technology initially had complex blocks of software built for their own specific needs, this was with an understanding that the process would not change so build a software to suit the process. Not only have these custom-built applications become difficult to manage but they also pose unique challenges in terms of upgrade or adaptation to the latest technology standards. A ERP on the other hand not only provides a full integrated solution for all aspects of business it also comes with its framework of upgrades to changing technology. These upgrade paths are usually defined by the Enterprise Systems vendor.
The other distinct advantage of an ERP package is that most of the standard business functionalities and operating processes are built into the software code, thus reducing the time required to understand process related issues of software implementation and also providing the organization with a standard framework of processes to use which enable the organization to adopt industry best practices faster. But this advantage of ERP is where some of the problems of the ERP initiatives also begin.
It is important for the organization leadership to understand that the ERP package is not just about automating business functions, but it is also going to force its own logic on the business. This could have consequences ranging from resistance by functional managers who have carefully developed a particular process over a few years now being asked to change it to disastrous results of the organization not being able to use the implemented Enterprise System because of its inability to change its process or adopt to the process built into the software. Since the system offers a standardize process for doing business and most organizations in the same industry and in the similar product usually use the same Enterprise system, how do you maintain your strategic differentiation. What will happen to all the carefully built processes which were nurtured and secretly guarded to give your company a competitive advantage one the Enterprise System is implemented.
From the perspective of the organizations leadership it has to be understood that ERP implementation is not a technology initiative but a strategic initiative which will change the way the organization does its business. As a corollary it is also important that the ERP implementation initiative has Executive Sponsorship at the Senior Management level and has the involvement of the business unit heads, it should not be an initiative to be undertaken by the IT Team of the company.
The few important questions that immediately come up are:
What are the senior management folks or the business unit heads expected to contribute in the ERP implementation initiative?
Are Executives required to only sponsor budgets and review progress or is there a more useful utilization of Executive time to ensure the success of the ERP intiative?
What specific decisions or processes help in the ensuring the right decisions are taken for the success of the intiative?
The rest of the article discusses areas which the Executive sponsor need to be involved in to ensure that the ERP initiative is on the right track
ERP Readiness Assessment:
The ERP readiness assessment process is aimed understanding the readiness of the organization to undertake an ERP implementation initiative. As stressed earlier this is not a technical evaluation of the organizations readiness although some aspects are assessed. This assessment approaches ERP as a strategic initiative.
The initial ERP readiness assessment has to use both qualitative information about the organisation on overall dimensions which affect all sections of the organisation and its stakeholders. The qualitative information pertaining helps evaluate the readiness of an organisation to go in for a full fledged ERP implementation and understand the various gaps which need to be fixed before the organisation embarks on the ERP initiative. Some of the dimensions which need to be taken into account are:
1. Organis
During my career, I have worked with a variety of organizations that display any number of management styles. These varying styles contribute greatly to the corporate culture as well as to the ultimate productivity of individuals and departments.It is clear to me that empowering employees, departments and any group of employees improves performance and increases organizational effectiveness. It can also create a great deal of stress and havoc if management does not totally or consistently buy into this philosophy or management approach. What is empowerment? It is not a fad, although it seems to have gained in popularity the past several years. Empowerment can be defined with a variety of management approaches. Rather than give you a narrative, I thought I would share a list. I find that lists help people better identify strengths as well as weaknesses more easily.Empowered organizations:1. Give authority with responsibility.2. Communicate corporate direction clearly to all employees.3. Have clear and flexible goals and focuses.4. Focus, not on methods or activities, but results.5. Goalsetting is a combination of top-down and bottom-up.6. Listen to employees.7. Create a safe environment where employees can feed up bad news without the fear of criticism, termination or perception of being a poor team player.8. Get lots of suggestions from employees.9. Do not make decisions affecting employees without first consulting them.10. Delegate results, not tasks.11. Encourage mistakes, failures and risk as tools for learning and improving.12. Do not micro-manage employees actions and decisions.One of best ways to determine how empowered your employees are is to observe their behavior. Do they behave the same:· When their manager is out of town vs. in town. · When they are alone vs. part of a team. · When they are being observed or left up to their own devic
The other distinct advantage of an ERP package is that most of the standard business functionalities and operating processes are built into the software code, thus reducing the time required to understand process related issues of software implementation and also providing the organization with a standard framework of processes to use which enable the organization to adopt industry best practices faster. But this advantage of ERP is where some of the problems of the ERP initiatives also begin.
It is important for the organization leadership to understand that the ERP package is not just about automating business functions, but it is also going to force its own logic on the business. This could have consequences ranging from resistance by functional managers who have carefully developed a particular process over a few years now being asked to change it to disastrous results of the organization not being able to use the implemented Enterprise System because of its inability to change its process or adopt to the process built into the software. Since the system offers a standardize process for doing business and most organizations in the same industry and in the similar product usually use the same Enterprise system, how do you maintain your strategic differentiation. What will happen to all the carefully built processes which were nurtured and secretly guarded to give your company a competitive advantage one the Enterprise System is implemented.
From the perspective of the organizations leadership it has to be understood that ERP implementation is not a technology initiative but a strategic initiative which will change the way the organization does its business. As a corollary it is also important that the ERP implementation initiative has Executive Sponsorship at the Senior Management level and has the involvement of the business unit heads, it should not be an initiative to be undertaken by the IT Team of the company.
The few important questions that immediately come up are:
What are the senior management folks or the business unit heads expected to contribute in the ERP implementation initiative?
Are Executives required to only sponsor budgets and review progress or is there a more useful utilization of Executive time to ensure the success of the ERP intiative?
What specific decisions or processes help in the ensuring the right decisions are taken for the success of the intiative?
The rest of the article discusses areas which the Executive sponsor need to be involved in to ensure that the ERP initiative is on the right track
ERP Readiness Assessment:
The ERP readiness assessment process is aimed understanding the readiness of the organization to undertake an ERP implementation initiative. As stressed earlier this is not a technical evaluation of the organizations readiness although some aspects are assessed. This assessment approaches ERP as a strategic initiative.
The initial ERP readiness assessment has to use both qualitative information about the organisation on overall dimensions which affect all sections of the organisation and its stakeholders. The qualitative information pertaining helps evaluate the readiness of an organisation to go in for a full fledged ERP implementation and understand the various gaps which need to be fixed before the organisation embarks on the ERP initiative. Some of the dimensions which need to be taken into account are:
1. Organi
I define public relations failure this way:key audience perceptions are not monitoreda realistic, corrective goal is not setan improper, or no real strategy is selecteda persuasive, compelling message is not preparedcommunications tactics are selected mostly by hunchand no follow-through perception monitoring is done to determine progress.Failure insured! Similar, in fact, to the artillery commander who tells his gunners to point their cannons in any direction and fire them when they feel like it!No plan, no results!Why not deal this way with those external target audiences whose behaviors really have an impact on your organization?Who are they? List them in order of their impact on your operation. And let’s concentrate here on #1.What do you really know about how they perceive your operation? This is vital, of course, because perceptions almost always lead to predictable behaviors. That’s why it’s so important that you get this step right.Fact is, you must interact with members of this target audience and question them carefully. What do they think of you and your organization? Do you detect negative undercurrents? Are you surprised by certain inaccuracies or misconceptions? Has a rumor crept in to their consciousness to do its dirty work?The answers prepare you for establishing the corrective public relations goal. For example, straighten out that wrong impression. Or fix that misconception. Or correct that unfortunate inaccuracy. Rumors, of course, need immediate attention to neutralize them in the minds of target audience members.With your goal all set, what is your strategy for achieving it? This one is a time-saver because there are only three strategies designed to deal with this situation: create opinion (perceptions) where none may exist; or change existing opinion; or reinforce it. Your goal will point you toward the proper choi
It is important for the organization leadership to understand that the ERP package is not just about automating business functions, but it is also going to force its own logic on the business. This could have consequences ranging from resistance by functional managers who have carefully developed a particular process over a few years now being asked to change it to disastrous results of the organization not being able to use the implemented Enterprise System because of its inability to change its process or adopt to the process built into the software. Since the system offers a standardize process for doing business and most organizations in the same industry and in the similar product usually use the same Enterprise system, how do you maintain your strategic differentiation. What will happen to all the carefully built processes which were nurtured and secretly guarded to give your company a competitive advantage one the Enterprise System is implemented.
From the perspective of the organizations leadership it has to be understood that ERP implementation is not a technology initiative but a strategic initiative which will change the way the organization does its business. As a corollary it is also important that the ERP implementation initiative has Executive Sponsorship at the Senior Management level and has the involvement of the business unit heads, it should not be an initiative to be undertaken by the IT Team of the company.
The few important questions that immediately come up are:
What are the senior management folks or the business unit heads expected to contribute in the ERP implementation initiative?
Are Executives required to only sponsor budgets and review progress or is there a more useful utilization of Executive time to ensure the success of the ERP intiative?
What specific decisions or processes help in the ensuring the right decisions are taken for the success of the intiative?
The rest of the article discusses areas which the Executive sponsor need to be involved in to ensure that the ERP initiative is on the right track
ERP Readiness Assessment:
The ERP readiness assessment process is aimed understanding the readiness of the organization to undertake an ERP implementation initiative. As stressed earlier this is not a technical evaluation of the organizations readiness although some aspects are assessed. This assessment approaches ERP as a strategic initiative.
The initial ERP readiness assessment has to use both qualitative information about the organisation on overall dimensions which affect all sections of the organisation and its stakeholders. The qualitative information pertaining helps evaluate the readiness of an organisation to go in for a full fledged ERP implementation and understand the various gaps which need to be fixed before the organisation embarks on the ERP initiative. Some of the dimensions which need to be taken into account are:
1. Organi
My assumptions You have some basic knowledge of training and… Experience in the training field as an instructorMay have developed instructor-led training or printed training manuals Would rather get a root canal than write objectives! There is hope… The first most important principle! Understand is not a measurable objective! Having written objectives for over 25+ years, I admit.. I am very picky. And when I see a document that starts off with objectives that include "understand", I cringe. Excuse me... how to do measure someone's understanding of a concept or procedure? You can't. What is a measurable objective? - Objectives are written to give direction to training events. - A measurable objective is an “action” verb engaging the learner to demonstrate new knowledge or problem solving skills. - A measurable objective is “capable of being measured” dictionary.com Here is how to quickly create measurable objectives with Bloom's Taxonomy theory into practice.1. At the Knowledge Level: the learner exhibits previously learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers. Level 1: Key Words include: Choose, define, find, label, list, match, name, recall, relate, select, spell, tell, what, when, where, which, who, why Use these Instant Objectives: The student will be able to: - Define what is …? - Match how is… related to...? - Choose where is … found? - Tell why we chose to use…? - Select the main…?2. At the Comprehension Level: the learner demonstrates the ability to relate to facts and ideas by organizing, comparing, translating, interpreting, giving descriptions and stating main ideas. Level 2: Key Words inlcude: Classify, compare, contrast, demonstrate, explain, extend, infer, interpret, illustrate
From the perspective of the organizations leadership it has to be understood that ERP implementation is not a technology initiative but a strategic initiative which will change the way the organization does its business. As a corollary it is also important that the ERP implementation initiative has Executive Sponsorship at the Senior Management level and has the involvement of the business unit heads, it should not be an initiative to be undertaken by the IT Team of the company.
The few important questions that immediately come up are:
What are the senior management folks or the business unit heads expected to contribute in the ERP implementation initiative?
Are Executives required to only sponsor budgets and review progress or is there a more useful utilization of Executive time to ensure the success of the ERP intiative?
What specific decisions or processes help in the ensuring the right decisions are taken for the success of the intiative?
The rest of the article discusses areas which the Executive sponsor need to be involved in to ensure that the ERP initiative is on the right track
ERP Readiness Assessment:
The ERP readiness assessment process is aimed understanding the readiness of the organization to undertake an ERP implementation initiative. As stressed earlier this is not a technical evaluation of the organizations readiness although some aspects are assessed. This assessment approaches ERP as a strategic initiative.
The initial ERP readiness assessment has to use both qualitative information about the organisation on overall dimensions which affect all sections of the organisation and its stakeholders. The qualitative information pertaining helps evaluate the readiness of an organisation to go in for a full fledged ERP implementation and understand the various gaps which need to be fixed before the organisation embarks on the ERP initiative. Some of the dimensions which need to be taken into account are:
1. Organi
I have learned that you can be introduced to almost anyone you want. It just takes a little research to find the path. If you ask everyone you know if they have any contact with a certain company, you will find that there is always someone that knows a person that works there. By contacting that person you may get closer yet. It just takes persistence. To make the gap even closer, find out what events that company is hosting in the future and see if you can get an invitation to go. At company events, the executive are usually in attendance and the introductions are easier to obtain. I believe you should never push too hard to get where you want to go. You will get there with gentle nudges as well; it just may take a little longer to get there. If you take the slower route, you will be respected for your patience (yes there is such a thing as patience in business). Pushing only ends up working against you. You can be assertive but not demanding. So now you have the introduction, your next step is to follow-up with a meeting. The point of the introduction is not to get to know each other; it is to get to the first meeting. Once you are at the first meeting, you can spend time exploring business possibilities. One way to increase the chances of meeting your target prospect is by doing some research using tools such as linkedin.com or other social networks. All you need to do is find one that will enable you to be introduced into your target prospects company.
The rest of the article discusses areas which the Executive sponsor need to be involved in to ensure that the ERP initiative is on the right track
ERP Readiness Assessment:
The ERP readiness assessment process is aimed understanding the readiness of the organization to undertake an ERP implementation initiative. As stressed earlier this is not a technical evaluation of the organizations readiness although some aspects are assessed. This assessment approaches ERP as a strategic initiative.
The initial ERP readiness assessment has to use both qualitative information about the organisation on overall dimensions which affect all sections of the organisation and its stakeholders. The qualitative information pertaining helps evaluate the readiness of an organisation to go in for a full fledged ERP implementation and understand the various gaps which need to be fixed before the organisation embarks on the ERP initiative. Some of the dimensions which need to be taken into account are:
1. Organisational Vision
2. Structure,Hierachy and Work Culture
3. Current Business Processes and Process maturity
4. Goals and objectives of using IT
5. Current state of IT Infrastructure
This initial assessment need not touch upon any of the specific functional areas like Finance & Accounting or Sales & Receivables as the objective is not to get information on how the specific process is managed and it need not specifically look which type of technology or Package has to be used for ERP implementation. This kind of assessment, conducted internally or through an external consultant, is useful for mid-market growing organisations that need to assess their internal readiness for a successful ERP implementation and want to analyse the gaps in their approach towards an ERP initiative as against the present condition of their organisation. The recommendation could be looking for specific criteria in the ERP implementation or could also be a decision to hold the ERP implementation till some organisational initiatives are implemented.
The Go-Ahead decision on the ERP initiative
Once you have assessed the readiness of your organization to accept an full fledged ERP initiative it is time to make the crucial decision on going ahead with an ERP initiative. In mid-sized organizations since the ownership patterns are typically different as compared to large global corporations, the decisions can be expected to be much quicker. The decision of the Executive Team to Go-Ahead with the ERP implementation should include the following criterion.
Spend on ERP & IT Initiatives
The ERP implementation will be the critical part of the all IT initiatives in your organization. Typically for mid-sized businesses an IT spend of anything above 1% of annual revenues would be considered progressive. For the financial year you are implementing the ERP pacakage you may have budget a higher amount of upto 3% of your annual revenue. This is a crucial decision and the involvement of the CFO/Head of Finance therefore becomes important.
Processes which will be included in the ERP Initiative
This requires a critical evaluation of what is core to the business and inter-dependencies of the processes. Whether the processes are already covered by another legacy application is a consideration. Understanding which processes will be covered by the ERP initiative also help in the package and vendor evaluation which we will discuss in the next stage.
Change Impact
Whether you are using an IT application currently or not it is a fact that the ERP implementation is going to change the way the business is being done. The most critical impact will be on the processes being covered by the ERP. A typical way of communicating the change impact and getting buy in for the change processes is to involve the managers handling the key business process. But in many cases managers themselves may not be the actual users of the system and therefore the involvement of key users of the system post-implementation is critical. The other aspect of the change impact will be the implications of de-staffing or redeployment of staff in key processes.
Organising the Internal Team for the initiative
It is normal for the ERP implementation to be sponsored by an executive member at the CxO level of the organization and be lead by the senior IT manager. But in addition to the sponsor and the project lead, a large team needs to be constituted to ensure the implementation covers every aspect of the organizations business. Key members of this team would be the Senior Accountants who would bring in their perspective not only costs but also of how various processes and any changes in them impact the financials of the company and the HR Manager who needs to be in the know of the required organizational changes and re-structuring, motivating key managers and staff to be a part of ERP implementation either full time or as an additional responsibility is another reason.
Managers handling key functional areas or business processes are essential members of the team. One of the issues faced will be that the managers in particular functional area are not often the people using the system and can therefore contribute little to the initiative. It is advisable to hand-pick key staff who have a very good understanding of the processes and have suitable adaptability to technology to be a
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