ERP Success

  • Role Profile: Subject Matter Expert

    Role Profile: Subject Matter Expert

    What skills and experience does a Subject Matter Expert need to be effective in an ERP implementation programme? Obviously they need to be experts in their subject matter, whether that’s Finance, HR, procurement, payroll or whatever. But beyond that, what else? The ERP Academy defines industry standard definitions for a…

  • Reducing Risk

    Reducing Risk

    One of the many benefits of working with an experience mentor is that it reduces risk. A helpful way of framing this is to view it through the lens of the known/unknown matrix made famous by Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time US Secretary for Defence. Four Domains of Risk It can…

  • Subject Matter Experts

    Subject Matter Experts

    The subject matter experts (SMEs) are the programme manager’s most valuable players in the client side of an ERP implementation. They bridge the gap between the HR and Finance teams and the programme, representing the needs of the business and communicating back the needs of the programme. These people play…

  • Process and Data Standards

    Process and Data Standards

    The Shared Services Strategy for Government was launched in March 2021 with five objectives: One of the great successes has been the creation of process and data standards for government. The Government Finance Function in HM Treasury picked up the baton for this. There was some confusion at the start,…

  • Sequencing

    Sequencing

    This is the third post in a series of lessons from the Shared Services Strategy for Government. For those new to this series, the Shared Services Strategy seeks to bring together all 18 UK government Departments and about 200 Arms-Length Bodies into five clusters, sharing services based around five ERP…

  • Getting Agreement

    Getting Agreement

    Getting all the various stakeholders to agree to the new Shared Services Strategy for Government was a challenge. Logically, it made sense: having five shared systems should cost less than hundreds of stand-alone systems. But not everyone was convinced. Some stakeholders were concerned about their roles: the people who currently…

  • Building Communities

    Building Communities

    One of the lessons from the Shared Services Strategy for Government was the importance of building communities. Any project is delivered by people. A programme even more so, and with five programmes that each span multiple organisations, the importance of bringing people together can’t be stressed enough. The first community…

  • Learning from the Shared Services Strategy for Government

    Learning from the Shared Services Strategy for Government

    I gave a presentation at the UK Oracle User Group based on my five years at the heart of this initiative. There’s too much to cover in a single blog post, so I am going to spread this out as a series. This first post will introduce the Shared Services…

  • The Case for Cloud

    The Case for Cloud

    Many organisations are looking at the prospect of moving from their existing ERP to a SaaS, or cloud-based, platform. This could be organisations looking to move from Oracle’s E-Business Suite (EBS) to Oracle Fusion Cloud, or from SAP’s ECC6 to S/4 HANA. The latter is being largely driven by SAP…

  • Replying to a Challenge

    Replying to a Challenge

    I was challenged on my last blog post. It was such a good challenge that I’ve devoted this week’s blog to answering it. The Challenge “Regardless of politics, reducing the proportion of civil servants employed in non public-facing roles should be a good thing.” That seems not only objectionable on…