This kind of bold self-awareness is a hallmark of great leaders. Admitting there’s room for growth takes courage, but it’s a necessary step toward lasting improvement.

“The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize,” is attributed to Shigeo Shingo, a prominent figure in the field of Lean Manufacturing.

Here are four critical questions to help you evaluate your processes and customer experience:

1. When was the last time we thoroughly evaluated what our customers go through to do business with us?
2. Is our process easy and seamless, or does it present unnecessary hurdles?
3. How have we differentiated ourselves—not through our products or services—but through the way we onboard clients, deliver, and administer those offerings?
4. What have we done recently to create a competitive advantage in this area?

At TSI, we thrive on solving these challenges—whether they’re big or small. As process improvement experts, we are excited to help businesses transform how they operate and deliver value to customers.

If these questions resonate with you, we’d love to explore how we can help you create a smoother, more competitive process. Reach out to us today!

– written by: Dan Feely, TSI’s President and Founder – Visit The TSI Team page for more information on Dan and his talented team.

The post How Leaders Look at Process – 4 Questions to Ask Yourself (and improve) appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Transforming Solutions Inc. (TSI), was engaged by a Southwest University Health Science Center to create an organizational culture of continuous improvement. As background, the institution is one of the nation’s premier graduate academic medical centers, with five schools that specialize in patient-centered education, research and health care. They are part of the University system. 

Spearheaded by the Chief People Officer, the University sought to explore new ways to address problems and continuously improve through guidance and training to transform the institution into one that embraces LEAN and Agile in an employee-centric and pragmatic way. 

Starting with pockets of exposure to Agile and LEAN methodologies, the University wanted TSI to help the overall organization take this, along with other cultural attributes (such as their vision, mission and values) and transform the culture to improve quality and gain efficiencies. 

TSI’s Approach and Role

Approach

To accomplish the identified goals, TSI engaged in the following:

• In the initial phase, the University sought to develop and prioritize processes for improvement and initial process improvement implementation for critical need areas to help build a business case with proven effectiveness and value for further buyin. This work intended to implement and share best practices and training with internal LEAN coaches and key stakeholders for process improvement, establish a usable, sustainable communication plan, evaluate improvements through metrics, and estimate return on investment for the improvement initiatives.
• In the second phase, TSI was asked to develop a Continuous Improvement methodology to be shared with University staff through training with follow up coaching. This methodology was intended to be sustainable and usable for improvement initiatives across the University. 

TSI collaborated with the University Leadership Team to identify and prioritize business processes to implement a practice-based training and mentoring program to enhance LEAN and Agile understanding and development of implementation skills. TSI created a training program for continuous improvement and led a cohort of leaders through process improvement methodology using processes that were identified as critical processes including Budgets, Contract Administration, HR Hiring, and the University Leadership as a pilot. Once the pilot was complete, phase two was implemented that provided full training and mentoring to the cohort for implementation of business process improvement and other continuous improvement strategies throughout the University Health Center and coaching for growth and development for future Continuous Improvement sustainability at the University.

Role

TSI served as a methodologist, project manager, continuous improvement leader, trainer, coach, and facilitator throughout this project. TSI provided and tailored its methodology as the basis for the methodology that is currently in place. After that, TSI evaluated trainees and quality of deliverables after they were trained and did a variety of “hands on” activities to get familiar with the tools. 

Results

This project was viewed as a huge success. Based on TSI’s involvement the University achieved the following:

• Developed and used a repeatable methodology to use on areas deemed “ripe for improvement”
• Took dozens of areas through the methodology which resulted in hundreds of improvement ideas implemented
• Trained over a dozen practitioners thus improving their skillsets
• Realized tangible savings, from the improvement ideas mentioned above, that resulted in hard dollar savings of over $1 million dollars annually.

The post Transforming a PMO and Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

I wasn’t completely right (not the first time that happened).

To make a very long story short and tie it back to another favorite topic – process transformation – let me share a few things I’ve learned. These lessons are courtesy of the many hours I’ve spent making brick oven pizzas from scratch.

1. The Right Environmental Conditions are Essential

It took longer than I care to admit to learn how to create a proper fire, as well as how to heat up the oven. These factors, as you can imagine, are essential to the process. Apologies to any of you who may have been victimized by our early undercooked, bland experimental pizzas. Likewise – during process transformation – the stakeholders, capacity to change, self-awareness, case for change, and other factors are 100% essential. Trying to change, without any one of these is like trying to bake a pizza on a cold pizza slab. Take a look at our Change Readiness Survey for a more detailed look at these factors.

2. Preparation results in a better experience and outcome

As illustrated both above and below, having the right ingredients and proper tools that are organized in a logical order will make all the difference in the output you deliver. The methodology one uses to map, analyze, and improve the process is critical. While the organizational culture and other factors that change are sought, if the facilitator/practitioner knows his or her approach well, they can get the analytical and creative input needed to transform the process. To that end, TSI’s 6-Step Methodology is a solid framework. Yet, depending on circumstances, it can be adapted. Those of us who use it on projects may also adapt it to fit each of our styles.  But in the end, we know which tools and techniques work. This way we can leverage these and deliver a meaningful project to our clients.

3. Pizza (& Process) Is Best Consumed When You are Starving

In the early days of our pizza making, when our oven needed an extra hour or more to be at the right temperature, some of our guests got quite hungry (maybe even hangry) while they waited. Then, when the amateur pizza finally came out and was instantly devoured, I was amazed to hear how much folks enjoyed it.

Obviously, the product was not stellar, but the reaction to an average pizza was.

In terms of transformation, this reaction makes me wonder how a better way of process transformation may be considered.  

Are your constituents starving for improvement, or they relatively fulfilled?  Is the impetus to change being forced upon a group or is there a “pull” for change?

Give that some thought when fashioning your approach or selecting your next area to transform.

If you are ready to transform an area within your organization, let’s connect! If you are still selecting your next area to transform, learn more about how we serve our current clients.

The post What Making Pizza has Taught Me about Process Transformation (and organizational change management) appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Do you remember when you graduated from college? I’m guessing if we try really hard, we can remember all the way back then. Like you, I was filled with excitement and had so many questions after I graduated, ranging from what my first projects would entail to how soon I might be able to be promoted. While everything was new, naturally, all of us were filled beyond capacity with questions about nearly every aspect of that first “real” job.

However, sadly, over time, for many of us, this natural curiosity dissipates. In fact, within many organizations we are encouraged to “shut up and do our job” versus slowing activity down to ask clarifying questions.  This is unfortunate since that exact sense of wonder is exactly what so many organizations need to innovate, reinvent, remain relevant to customer and employees, and just stay ahead of the competition.

Over years of consulting and being involved in a number of diverse industries, I believe one of the best tools we have as business leaders, organizational change leaders and business analysts is asking a well-crafted question (and of course carefully listening to the response). Based on the response given, or the response you do NOT get, both verbally and non-verbally, this well-crafted question is one of the most valuable tools you have at your disposal and should be used on a daily basis.

At TSI, we’ve crafted a handful of questions that we use both internally and with our clients.  While some of these may seem basic, these questions have yielded insightful, poignant responses time and time again.  And based on this information, we’ve made remarkable progress in refining our clients’ strategic direction and even more so, in implementing key changes that make a difference for these organizations.

Here are 7 questions that we use with regularity. Some of these are intended for discussion with small groups and others are more appropriate for individuals. Regardless of the audience, feel free to leverage these for your own transformation needs and ask these questions with regularity, ranging from daily to monthly:

1. What specific organizational goals related to growth, quality, customer service, efficiency and profitability do you have that shape the context of how the organization, or parts of it, should improve?
2. What specific targets or metrics do you have for each of these goals?
3. What is your personal “brand” and what evidence do you provide that makes your brand apparent to those around you? How is this brand working for you?
4. What threats exist that you must address to be competitive and grow in the manner you are expecting?
5. What area in your organization operates in largely the same way as it has for the past 5 years or more? Does that hold it or other areas back?
6. What do your customers say your organization’s key overall strengths are? Relative to any differences in price, how “bullet proof” are your key customer relationships?  How differentiated is your product or offering?  How about your business model overall?
7. What is going well at your organization that you can possibly replicate in other areas?

On a different level, another tool that organizations find useful when they need to take a step back and see the forest through the trees is the Business Model Canvas. The Business Model Canvas was proposed by Alexander Osterwalder based on his book: Business Model Ontology. Here is a link where you can create one for your organization.

This way of thinking, leveraging well thought out questions, has served TSI well over the years. Hopefully these questions will elicit valuable responses for you as well. Feel free to send us your favorite to tsi@transforming.com or post a comment.

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Over the last 30 years, I have seen a lot of buzz words and management fads come and go. The area of organizational change has certainly generated more than a few new acronyms and theoretical approaches during this timeframe. Many of us are involved in and responsible for making change stick in our respective organizations. In a world where the majority of programs and projects fail due to a lack of focus on the people side of the equation, we all ask “what’s the secret formula for success?”

At TSI, our seasoned group of performance improvement consultants considers the following fundamentals as three basic elements needed to drive and sustain organizational change:

1. Impacted people must clearly understand what they need to do differently,
2. Those impacted need to gain the skills, knowledge, confidence and tools to successfully perform their new roles, and,
3. The right people need to be incented and held accountable for achieving measurable and sustainable results.

Sounds simple doesn’t it?  If it’s that simple, why do so many efforts fail? Well, chalk a lot of it up to human nature and the challenges that can come along whenever people assemble under boxes on an organizational chart.

To increase your odds of successfully driving organizational change, consider the following best practices:

• Getting people to adopt and sustain change takes more than the traditional communication and training tasks. Not to say that these two areas aren’t important, but other levers often need to be pulled. Determine if your change program includes all the right elements, no one size fits all.
• Involve influential stakeholders early in process and solution analysis and design. This increases the likelihood of effective requirements definition up-front with increased downstream buy-in, understanding and adoption. Focusing on business processes, while keeping the end customer in mind has proven itself to be a valuable framework time and time again.
• Communicate a clear and simple business case for change. Don’t assume people will figure it out on their own. In fact, assume they will not. And even if some individuals won’t agree with the reasons for change, they will appreciate the upfront effort to share critical information and will be more likely to follow early pioneers and adopters. In addition, celebrate and reward wins wherever possible, small and large, as part of an on-going communication strategy.
• Assign dedicated roles/teams to assess operational readiness, develop migration/transition plans and support successful cut-over and sustainment of the new solution and/or environment. An effective way to get from point A to point Z is to define Z, work backwards to A and assign responsibility for executing the tasks needed for the successful transition.
• Pilot and test solutions before full roll-out and incorporate lessons learned in subsequent implementation waves. Fail small and learn vs. fail big.
• Try out agile and fast approaches (e.g., SCRUM and Work-out) to rapidly design and implement small chunks of change. In today’s fast moving economy, many groups do not have time for long, drawn out change exercises.
• Finally, identify and actively involve the right sponsors and advocates in your change efforts. Don’t be afraid to prod leaders for active involvement and support, they will appreciate your focus and discipline on important goals and objectives.

Keeping the 3 basic tenets of successful change management in mind and following the above best practices will pay huge dividends to you and your organization. At TSI, we are always available to help rapidly power up and enable your efforts. We would love to hear about your challenge and what works in your companies.

The post 3 Overarching Requirements for Successfully Managing Organizational Change appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Don’t reinvent the wheel, just realign it.

–  Anthony J. D’Angelo, founder of Collegiate Empowerment

In the face of challenging project delivery, and the critical need to grow, evolve, and improve, practitioners do not always know where to turn to improve their capabilities and processes. Lacking other guidance, some organizations try to achieve an improvement approach through internal consensus building. This is certainly a method that encourages everyone to get along; however, it is not always the best way to move forward.

Well-meaning leaders may assemble teams of participants who may lack relevant experience or insight. In an effort to make up for the lack of background and knowledge, an organization may engage in extensive research or waste critical time trying to ‘figure it out’ on their own. Sometimes that research may include reaching out into the ether of the internet and utilizing downloadable, generic templates and processes.

Watch Out for Generic Process Templates

Unfortunately, these downloadable, generic templates will not help the situation. Inventing an answer through consensus will not make the cut either. So, what is the answer? At Transforming Solutions, we are in favor of leveraging proven processes and methods. Our proven practices have been successfully leveraged repeatedly. We believe this proves them valuable.

Processes and methods must have repeatedly worked in a variety of situations – this makes them proven practices. To be sure, practices should be tailored to fit an organization’s purpose. Aligning or tailoring these practices is key. However, the tailoring exercise should be more than rearranging the steps, changing out corporate logos, and swapping the order of stoplights on a status report. The process of tailoring requires insight, experience, and even battle scars.

If it Isn’t Broke, Don’t Reinvent it

Here is an example of an organization that chose to invent a process and was unsuccessful:

A multi-year, multi-tens-of-millions of dollar program needed to track budget and schedule. Instead of using proven cost performance index (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI) methods, the program team invented their own versions of these global standardized mathematical equations. This was analogous to saying “Einstein’s equation of relativity doesn’t work for us, so we’ll make our own version”. 

The project schedule was laid out in immense detail but was poorly managed and provided a false sense of security. Backing a plan into the desired result of the designed math was difficult. On top of this, the plan did not provide easy-to-understand insights to progress. Due to the poor design of the schedule and the ‘invented algorithms’, the program team regularly spent several ‘man-weeks’ per month generating revised cost and schedule numbers. The reporting was done even though it was relatively well understood that the numbers did not represent the real state of program progress. The invention of non-proven tracking methods impaired the project.

Did They Do it on Purpose?

You may wonder why an organization would choose to use tracking methods that required them to reinvent the process (rather than realign it), especially when they were falling behind and overspending. Finding the true issue in the schedule and budget was made more challenging by the customized math. As a result of this similar-but-different approach to tracking status and cost, the true reality of the program was hidden. This makes one wonder: was this creation of alternative methods done on purpose? The entire management team was aligned to the ‘invented’ approach. Groupthink had already done its damage. Against coaching from consultants, including yours truly, several finance analysts, and some vendor partners, the management team exemplified an emperor with no clothes situation. Sure, it ended up gaining the company more money, but it was as if they were purposely hiding the truth.

After more than a year of reporting status in an artificial way, the management team still did not fully understand what was needed to complete the large-scale effort. This was the case despite the abundance of resource function graphs, risk logs, engineering drawings, and project critical path representations generated every month. For this program, a lack of good methods and a lack of transparency impacted effectiveness.

Tailor it “Fit-for-Purpose“

Proven templates, processes, and methods should be leveraged and customized to meet your needs. When leveraging standardized templates, it is crucial that you work on customization with someone that has experience. Engaging experts will help assure that you do not leave out key data points. Experts understand which data is the most impactful. Great design celebrates the marriage of form and function. Think about the value of a status report with proper health metrics. Consider an issue log’s value with appropriate aging data, and assess a risk log with line-item currency valuation of risk. Reinventing does not always prove useful. Why invest the time, money, and cycles of trials to reinvent a process that already works well? Instead, follow Mr. D’Angelo’s adage and realign (rather than reinvent) the wheel.

Mature Your Organization’s Capabilities

If you are looking to mature your capabilities and do not want to waste cycles reinventing, TSI can help you by sharing proven practices for effective delivery, organizational change management, business process improvement, and technology assessments. We will work with you to align our proven practices to your needs, your environment, and your culture. Drop us a line and let’s work together to align a wheel for you.

The post Proven Processes: The Value in Realigning a Wheel appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

I wasn’t completely right (not the first time that happened).

To make a very long story short and tie it back to another favorite topic – process transformation – let me share a few things I’ve learned. These lessons are courtesy of the many hours I’ve spent making brick oven pizzas from scratch.

1. The Right Environmental Conditions are Essential

It took longer than I care to admit to learn how to create a proper fire, as well as how to heat up the oven. These factors, as you can imagine, are essential to the process. Apologies to any of you who may have been victimized by our early undercooked, bland experimental pizzas. Likewise – during process transformation – the stakeholders, capacity to change, self-awareness, case for change, and other factors are 100% essential. Trying to change, without any one of these is like trying to bake a pizza on a cold pizza slab. Take a look at our Change Readiness Survey for a more detailed look at these factors.

2. Preparation results in a better experience and outcome

As illustrated both above and below, having the right ingredients and proper tools that are organized in a logical order will make all the difference in the output you deliver. The methodology one uses to map, analyze, and improve the process is critical. While the organizational culture and other factors that change are sought, if the facilitator/practitioner knows his or her approach well, they can get the analytical and creative input needed to transform the process. To that end, TSI’s 6-Step Methodology is a solid framework. Yet, depending on circumstances, it can be adapted. Those of us who use it on projects may also adapt it to fit each of our styles.  But in the end, we know which tools and techniques work. This way we can leverage these and deliver a meaningful project to our clients.

3. Pizza (& Process) Is Best Consumed When You are Starving

In the early days of our pizza making, when our oven needed an extra hour or more to be at the right temperature, some of our guests got quite hungry (maybe even hangry) while they waited. Then, when the amateur pizza finally came out and was instantly devoured, I was amazed to hear how much folks enjoyed it.

Obviously, the product was not stellar, but the reaction to an average pizza was.

In terms of transformation, this reaction makes me wonder how a better way of process transformation may be considered.  

Are your constituents starving for improvement, or they relatively fulfilled?  Is the impetus to change being forced upon a group or is there a “pull” for change?

Give that some thought when fashioning your approach or selecting your next area to transform.

If you are ready to transform an area within your organization, let’s connect! If you are still selecting your next area to transform, learn more about how we serve our current clients.

The post What Making Pizza has Taught Me about Process Transformation (and organizational change management) appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Transforming Solutions has had the privilege to work with some of the fastest-growing and progressive organizations in both the corporate and higher education sectors. Throughout these experiences, we have taken a deep dive into efficiency, quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability. While the fundamentals have not changed, process improvement principles continue to adapt to the times.

Our Top 5 Process Improvement Principles

1. Incorporate User Experience (UX), Customer Experience (CX), and Organizational Change Management

As you define and analyze your processes, we encourage you to consider the experience as a whole. There are countless examples of organizations that did not do this and failed as a result. One thing that comes to mind is a leadership group inadvertently creating an opportunity for a competitor through neglecting a more holistic approach. However, for those who take the holistic approach, topics such as people, culture, technology, and strategy are considered in addition to operations.

2. Don’t Assume Technology Will Automatically Change Your Processes

Many organizations assume that a change in their CRM or ERP will inherently fix their processes. However, there are two shortcomings in this thinking that organizations do not consider:

1. Technology is generally not built to drive processes – Technology has a built-in process (best practices) that may not align with your organization’s current state. Adapting to the technologies processes will yield incredible benefits as you can take advantage of all the features your new tool/platform has to offer. This is why it’s important to pick the right tool.
2. The ‘Lift and Shift’ Mindset – Organizations who exchange a legacy system for a new system, and apply the same processes to the new technology, will not properly extract the value of the investment. You will switch the systems out, but miss out on all of the benefits.

3. Improve and Renovate

In addition to a holistic approach and the integration of technology, you need to continuously renovate your processes. You renovate your processes through monitoring, evaluating, adjusting, and improving on a regular basis. However, neglecting these adaptations will result in a similar effect as the ‘lift and shift’ mindset. As a result, there will be a reduction in the value gained from your investment. Process improvement principles and processes are only strengthened by their supporting considerations.

4. Employ Continuous Improvement From End-to-End

As you keep an eye on your organization’s consistently changing environment and focus on process improvement, be sure to apply the first principle – Incorporate User Experience (UX), Customer Experience (CX), and Organizational Change Management. In addition, organizations must remember that their customer is consistently changing as well, not just their organization’s environment. Your customers are becoming smarter, more discerning, and are constantly offered other alternative solutions. With this in mind, you must consider these factors from end to end.

5. It’s Never Too Late to Act

Many Individuals in functioning organizations say something along the lines of ‘we’ve always done it this way and it works. They also believe their highly customized processes mean that there cannot be a better solution for them. Both of these scenarios neglect the potential for technology to greatly improve processes, highly configured systems, and consider software selection efforts. You may be functioning with your current processes; however, process improvement principles enable organizations to thrive.

So What?

Overall, these five principles are key to a successful organizational strategy. To learn more about how our process improvement consultants transform businesses, check out our services. Visit our industry offerings to determine how our methodology could benefit your industry and organization.

Don’t know where to go from here? Contact us! We would love to set up a brief call to further understand your organization’s needs and walk you through how our processes work.

The post Our Top Five Secrets to Doing Process Improvement Right appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

Program Management Life Cycle (PMLC) processes should not be created for the sake of having more processes. Even if the processes are sometimes authored by the overly academic and may miss their mark by adding cumbersome overhead, the intent of PMLC governance should not be lost. There is an ongoing need for companies to safeguard their initiatives. Efficient and effective processes can be a foundation that ensures delivery.

The time has come when we must have some priorities with respect to the way we are allocating our steadily decreasing resources…  – Senator William Stuart Symington (United States Senator from Missouri from 1953 to 1976)

Don’t miss the ongoing review

Many companies that I have counseled have had detailed portfolio selection processes for identifying and launching projects. However, once initiated, few had anything from an oversight and control standpoint. This oversight would ensure that projects maintained their health, followed the right course, and delivered the value that was promised at inception. These mistakes crystalize in the form of projects that are over budget, past due, or not aligned to customer needs. The approach of launching a project with a blank checkbook that won’t be reconciled until post-implementation should be disagreeable to the most casual observer of project management. Ongoing reviews and reconciliations are warranted.

The need for ongoing reviews came into sharper focus in the economic downturn in 2008. Companies concentrated and overcame some of their delivery challenges.  The Economy is once again in recovery mode, and many signs are seen to be pointing to economic re-opening and healing post-Covid. However, that does not mean we should loosen our belts or ignore good advice. To paraphrase Professor Vicki Smith-Daniels of Arizona State University (who was quoted in PM Network magazine regarding the 2008 recession), corporations need to measure project performance while a project is underway, not just at the end.

The academic concept is easy: regularly review the state of a program or project. If a project cannot maintain its benefits, schedule, or overall cost basis, there should be a formalized way for the governing body to intervene. The operational implementation should be a gated process that releases incremental funds throughout the project’s life. Without such controls, companies run the risk of sinking additional effort and money into initiatives that have no hope of delivering against their plans. Worse yet, without interim checkpoints, a company may not realize its error until too late.

What can you do to optimize your processes?

Is your team, department, or company using a gated program management life cycle process? Do they have the framework in place to determine how healthy their initiatives are? Are the leading indicators in place to help predict what will happen further down the line? I work with my clients to put “detective controls” in place to help guarantee the value of a project. I help clients implement “preventative controls” that help to minimize downside risk.  My past lives include IT Auditor where the language of “controls” was part of the vernacular. I make no mistake that project managers are not auditors; however, the language of controls and the value offered with project management processes can enable an organization to deliver better, more, and faster.

Senator Symington was addressing the potential destruction of the economy of the United States if there were not a prudent prioritization of resources. Without prioritization of resources, larger projects can have a big impact if they fail. But no matter the size, any failure that can be prevented is a victory! Put governance processes in place and ensure that you too are managing the scarce resources of your organization.

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The purpose of this article is to equip business leaders, who don’t speak in three letter acronyms, with a solid foundation of knowledge so they can contribute and not be intimidated during an ERP upgrade (i.e., the transition from an older version of an ERP software to a new version). 

When non-technical Business leaders hear the words “ERP upgrade strategy” they may assume that associated activities take place in a mysterious room deep within IT or in a far away location where ‘the cloud’ is kept. Despite the perceived technical barriers to understanding, there are many responsibilities to an ERP upgrade that can and should fall on the shoulders of business leaders.

A key component of a successful ERP technical upgrade is IT and Business collaboration. An upgrade to your organization’s ERP provides a platform to utilize new functionality or features. An upgrade may also contain fixes to current issues and additional security provisions.

What is an ERP Upgrade?

An ERP upgrade can be a complex undertaking requiring a detailed project plan with clarity around responsibilities, due dates and accountability of both IT and Business teams. They are often non-strategic in nature and are frequently required by a software vendor in order to maintain support service. Business teams are critical to be involved from design (if it is needed) through executing thorough regression testing to be sure the upgrade will not cause a loss in functionality or a system failure.

From TSI’s perspective, the single biggest mistake that we see organizations make is they don’t take an upgrade seriously and, therefore, take a haphazard approach to it.

ERP Upgrade Checklist for a Successful Technical Upgrade

Regardless of the ERP platform you use, here are some preparedness topics Business leaders should consider when planning for an ERP technical upgrade:

1. Understand, accept and adopt the “Delta” (i.e., what is changing) so that you know and are comfortable with the future state of your business processes and confident in the technical functionality of the software to support them. For example, changes may present in the following form:

• The screen, menus and dashboards may look a bit different
• The business process or workflows to perform a task in the system may change slightly
• It may have additional features and functionalities

2. Modify business processes according to system functionality

• Prioritize modifying business processes to meet standard system functionality, rather than changing the system to meet the current business process.  This is important since customization adds complexity to the current system’s functionality and may complicate future upgrades 
• Even though, it is “just an upgrade”, plan for training, communication and documentation updates since these are critical to user adoption of changes

3. Verify that data is consistently defined, current and accurate!

• Sometimes the upgrade will introduce new fields and edit rules within the system.  Know these so you can avoid untimely system errors when you proceed with the upgrade
• Know what new reports come with the upgrade and ensure that your data quality is capable of supporting these reports.  As an example, let’s say that you are upgrading your CRM and it comes with a new Sales Analysis dashboard that requires you define the customers as active, inactive or terminated.  Is your data ready, based on the upgrade demands?
• Know that reporting may also derive values and status based on other fields in the system.  Be sure to know how this works to have a successful upgrade.

4. Assign dedicated resources to the project

• Testing of an upgrade is a key business function and should incorporate input from all departments who are impacted to ensure accuracy and completeness
• Status meeting attendance and dedicated time for testing and training is required – most employees should not, however, receive full-time assignments to one project
• These projects are good learning opportunities for employees who are hands on, tech savvy, and excited to learn
• Bringing different resources to this project broadens the experience base and ownership of business processes and technology use

5. Thoroughly test the system to ensure that desired business processes are present and functioning in a way that moves the organization forward.

• DO NOT take shortcuts on testing or assume that two similar processes will work the same way.
• Consider all of the processes where your ERP is used now, as well as all of the processes that you hope to develop or introduce in the future, and test them to ensure that processes run smoothly
• Apply your best critical thinking skills to testing and training so that all stakeholders understand what is changing and are empowered in their jobs moving forward
• Examples include your sales, invoicing, manufacturing, onboarding, marketing, reporting, forecasting and purchasing, payables, and financial reporting

What are the next steps?

Once you’ve made the decision to pursue an ERP upgrade, you should coordinate a leadership team to manage the upgrade implementation.  If your staff is short on time and expertise, you may want to consider hiring a consulting firm that has expertise with implementation projects like this one. 

You will need to facilitate a working relationship between the developers or engineers working with the software and the people who will test and eventually use the software. This can be accomplished through meetings where the goals of the upgrade are defined, responsibilities are assigned and a project plan is agreed upon. The nature of ERP upgrades is that there are a lot of technical requirements and work, which will be handled by tech people, and those changes will impact the day to day of those using the upgraded ERP.

Keep in mind that there may be circumstances under which upgrading your software is not the most cost effective or practical decision, or perhaps your current ERP is being discontinued, and you’ll instead need to look for alternatives. If this is the case, please take a look at our Software Evaluation and Implementation page to learn about that process. Otherwise, upgrading to a newer version is likely to be the smoothest option for most organizations.

Shameless Plug: Have you considered our ERP upgrade checklist and found that your organization could benefit from outside expertise? TSI offers all of the services discussed in this guide, such as Business Process Improvement and ERP Implementation Services. Our organization has completed many ERP implementations over the last 25 years. Please reach out below to see how we can benefit your organization today!

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