It’s not only hiring the best consulting firm that will lead a project towards success. It’s not only the knowledge of the consultants on the floor that will create a robust and sustainable solution. And it’s not only about delivering a working solution on time and on budget.
So here is a legitimate question: what else is there?
One would be surprised how much more there is to a successful implementation of an EPM solution. and how much little of that can be influenced by the implementation partner.
Consider the following points:
1) User adoption
2) Workforce effectiveness
3) Process documentation (and compliance)
4) Change Management
5) Organization knowledge
6) Reducing Testing Efforts
Let’s pick point 1: User Adoption. It’s frustrating investing into a brand new shiny EPM application able to support your closing & reporting cycle and to process information down to 10% of its original time and have end-users complaining and rejecting it. Why do they? In all of us, there is a certain degree of change reluctance, and it becomes evident when a change is brutal and impactful. In other words a gradual involvement can be the key of user adoption.
Let’s move on point 2: Effectiveness. It’s contradictory for and end-user to accept a change which causes its work effectiveness to be reduced. Everybody faces a learning curve. Initiating the curve before the go-live of an EPM solution is a good trick to have end-users confidence at a sufficient level when they will be required to get into action.
Point 3: Process Documentation. It’s not uncommon that documentation is pushed as a last item of the priority list in an EPM implementation. Strangely, company politics demand a working solution but not an accepted solution. And even more strangely those politics don’t consider the power of end-user documentation in relation to the total cost of ownership of an application. Documentation is key for user adoption (point 1), workforce effectiveness (point 2) and keeping an optimal level of internal knowledge available regardless of the rate of employee turnover, and all other points to follow.
Point 4: Change Management. Does reaching go-live mean that the change the brand new EPM application has caused can be contained within a definite start and end? In other words, is performance management a static process? If one believes yes, we suggest to strongly challenge the business case behind the EPM implementation. Change Management is a discipline implicit to Performance Management which has to be flexible enough to adapt to the business, follow market developments and include continuously new or less variables accordingly. Setting up a process that supports fluidly the changes and pushes them towards the end-user community is key for the survival of an EPM application.