One of the questions that we're asked often from public sector organizations is how do I prepare for an ERP implementation? If you look at it from a strategic perspective and consider what the guiding principles would be, the answer would come down to three parts. The first is knowing the scope of your ERP project, the second is establishing your strategic business transformation strategies and approach, and the third is determining your ERP implementation objectives and criteria.
Once you identify your scope, you want to couple it with that strategic vision that Joe was talking about. This stage is when we want to figure out our business roadmap; three, five, eight years from now, where do you want to be? Why are you doing this? How can you fit into your current infrastructure what your organization needs from an ERP implementation? Do you want to go to a completely new system, or just upgrade what you currently have?
With the scope, there's a lot of opportunity for you to streamline business processes, as well as review your current reports and interfaces. It's really your opportunity to improve what you're currently doing and asking that question that makes everyone very uncomfortable: why? Why are you doing what you’re doing? Do you need to do it this way? Joe, I think you’d agree that the scope should be small and tailored to the project. You want to streamline your processes and remove as many customizations as possible because those can get really complicated when people retire or move on. The most important part of the scope is simplifying as much as we can in the process.
