The ERP Journey: Stages, Benefits, and Implementation Challenges

This report explores the ongoing nature of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, emphasizing that the implementation phase is not the endpoint. It delves into the various stages of an ERP journey, including planning, design, development, testing, and final documentation, highlighting the potential benefits of each stage such as improved information flow, streamlined business processes, and enhanced decision-making capabilities. The report also examines the barriers and drivers that influence companies as they progress through these stages, considering both organizational and human aspects. The discussion covers how ERP systems can never end and how companies can continuously evolve with the help of such systems. The report also stresses the importance of post-implementation support, including on-site assistance and help desks, to ensure smooth operations and address user issues. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of the ERP journey, emphasizing its continuous nature and the importance of strategic planning and support for long-term success.

Running head: GOING LIVE IS NOT THE END OF THE ERP JOURNEY
Going Live Is Not the End of the ERP Journey
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1GOING LIVE IS NOT THE END OF THE ERP JOURNEY
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................3
2.1 ERP Systems Might Never End.............................................................................................3
2.2 The Implementation of ERP and the Changes.......................................................................4
2.3 Possible stages in an ERP Systems Journey..........................................................................4
2.4 Potential Benefits of each stage of ERP Implementation......................................................7
2.5 Barriers and Drivers for Companies for moving from one stage to other.............................9
3. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

2GOING LIVE IS NOT THE END OF THE ERP JOURNEY
1. Introduction
Information Systems can be defined as the overall concept based on different systems for
handling, storing and distribution of information. There have been major forms of developmental
activities that have turned valuable information for the benefits of ICT systems. The capability of
processing information would be considered to be highly essential for every company (Rajan and
Baral 2015). Different companies employ the use of various systems in order to deal with the
huge source of gathered information. This information is greatly used for performing activities
such as planning, control functions, organizing them and thus implementing the brief analysis
over the making of decisions. The quality of speed and a huge quantity of information are
regarded as key issues within any company. In recent times, there are many companies who
employ the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems for supporting the
daily operations within the business. These companies would also implement the use of ERP
systems in order to handle vast sets of information and build new services for customers.
The vast need of information within companies is extremely vital for the survival for the
need of speedy access to each kind of information. In order to provide the customers with a
useful set of information, the ERP systems are capable of various forms of functional areas
within the company. The discussion in this research would discuss the formulation of the
problem that is faced by companies (Galy and Sauceda 2014). In recent times, the different
companies are in the process of making various forms of adjustments that would fit with the
implementation of ERP systems. The paper discusses the fact that these companies would
achieve several kinds of benefits with the use of ERP systems. It would also discuss the concept
of the journey of ERP systems within any company.

3GOING LIVE IS NOT THE END OF THE ERP JOURNEY
2. Discussion
2.1 ERP Systems Might Never End
An ERP system can be defined as an integrated solution of software that would be able to
support the integration of the flow of information throughout the organization. With the various
kind of difficulties faced by the companies, they have thus decided the implementation of such
kind of ERP systems for supporting the business processes. Many of the systems within the
companies would be renovated with the implementation of ERP systems (Zach, Munkvold and
Olsen 2014). The ERP market can be defined as one of the fast-growing markets within the
software industry. The development of ERP systems would create several forms of changes
within the IT industry. An ERP software could also be defined as a business process
management software that would be able to offer an integrated platform based on the
management of plans that would be defined by the company. With the implementation of ERP
systems within the organisation, it would also help in improving the business activities of a
company and would also provide the best form of back office functions. Whenever the
development processes of the traditional systems follow a certain pre-defined stage, the ending
for such a system within the organization would be required to be maintained. The organization
would thus change their business processes and thus bring better impacts for the organization.
The changes that would be made within the organisation could be viewed from the
organizational perspective and also from the perspective of the employees or end-users of the
system.
From the perspective of systems development within a company, there are organizational
and human aspects within information systems. The implementation of ERP systems within the
companies would define several perspectives that might affect different individuals who are

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directly or indirectly related to the companies and their associated products (Lopez and Salmeron
2014). The use of Information Systems (IS) and the related information would play a major role
in the development of knowledge for the business processes. Hence, the implementation of ERP
systems would have many forms of effects on the members and the entire community of the
companies.
The implementation of ERP systems within the organisational processes would lead to
several forms of benefits (Shen, Chen and Wang 2016). However, with the implementation of
such kind of systems within the work processes, there are many kinds of post-go-live work and
extensive support that would be needed for ensuring the smooth form of the functioning of ERP
systems.
2.2 The Implementation of ERP and the Changes
The implementation of the ERP systems within the organizations with the new form of
systems architecture has emerged without a proper kind of planning. Many kinds of new
functions have also emerged with various kind of ERP architectures. The IS in the recent times
are also in the process of shifting their processes towards the employment of ERP systems in
which every process within the organization would be integrated (Sun, Ni and Lam 2015). There
are various small and large companies that are able to integrate each of the processes that include
business operations, communication, administration and many others with the help of ERP
systems. The various forms of ERP systems are interactive and are online based systems that are
able to support data integration and cross-functionality operations. This kind of implementation
of the new ERP systems would create major changes with the development.

5GOING LIVE IS NOT THE END OF THE ERP JOURNEY
2.3 Possible stages in an ERP Systems Journey
Planning and Discovery Stage – The stage is considered as the primary stage involved
within the entire journey process of ERP. Every company have certain objectives and goal that
needs to be achieved within a limited period of time (Relich and Muszyński 2014). Another kind
of activities that are covered under this stage includes the identification of various gaps that
might be discovered the primary outcome of this stage is a project plan that would be covered
under a single document.
Some of the benefits that are offered within the discovery and planning stages include the
foundation systems of the ERP that would be identified and thus finalized (Chofreh et al. 2014).
With the implementation of such systems within a company, the project manager and senior
management levels would be able to gain an understanding of the requirements and
specifications.
Design Stage – This stage is considered as the stage that is defined after the initial stage.
The records provided by the client would be under review in this stage. The orientation of an
ERP system would be carried within this stage. Creation of various prototypes would be
presented in this stage (Čuš-Babič et al. 2014). After the completion of this step, the entire
documentation of ERP procedures would be presented to the clients. The benefits derived from
this stage include the documentation of ERP prototypes. The documentation would also list the
user roles that would be in association with the ERP systems.
Development Stage – This is regarded as the third stage in the ERP journey phase. In
this step, the various procedures based on the creation of ERP systems would be made. The
development team within a company would prepare for the final go-to live of the systems. This
step would also define the customisation of the ERP systems (Kilic, Zaim and Delen 2014).

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Based on such aspects, the qualities of scalability, flexibility and adaptability of the system
would be performed within the phase. The process of simulation of a live environment would
also be done in this particular stage. The end product would have several kinds of benefits. The
initial process of validation based on the developed system would be against the specification
(Ha and Ahn 2014). These steps would also be done for the purpose of ensuring that the implied
changes would be performed within a timely manner.
A proper form of simulation of the live environment for the ERP systems would also be
done with the help of the ERP journey. The development stage would also have any kinds of
benefits based on the final end product (Chou et al. 2014). During the purpose of validating of
the systems at the development stage, each of the specifications of the product that have been
defined during the planning stage would be matched with the final product. With the initial
process based on the validation of systems against the pre-defined specifications, it would highly
be efficient for ensuring that the changes would be processed in a timely manner and would thus
fit accordingly with the existing systems.
Testing and Deployment Stage – The testing stage within the development of the ERP
systems would have the objective of validating the entire system and the associated
functionalities. This stage implies establishing severe proficiency for end users along with the
aspect of configuration (Ram, Corkindale and Wu 2014). Other activities that are included with
the stage of testing include user acceptance testing, which is performed by a group of end users.
During the deployment stage, the end product would go live. In this stage, the proficiency
for end users would be further tested and then established. Based on proper testing of the live
systems, it would be released in the wide market for the availability of all users.

7GOING LIVE IS NOT THE END OF THE ERP JOURNEY
The various kind of benefits that are associated with the development of such systems
includes the understanding of defects and other forms of deviations based on the terms of
functionality (Carutasu and Carutasu 2016). The different changes that might be brought during
the testing phase, would be corrected and assessed for the proficiency of end users. Different
kind of post-production activities is also performed after the deployment of ERP systems within
a company.
Final Documentation Phase – The most important step after the deployment of ERP
systems is the phase of documentation. It is extremely crucial for documenting the entire project
in the proper order by listing each of the activities that have been performed in the project
(Albers et al. 2016). During the performing of functions within the phase, some activities might
not be covered. The final document that would be prepared for the project would not only cover
the different documents that might be highlighted within the deliverables of the project. It would
also cover the information that had been a part of the decision-making process that was made
with the development of the ERP system. The lessons that were learnt during the lifecycle of the
project would also be described within the project documentation.
2.4 Potential Benefits of each stage of ERP Implementation
On-site and Help Desk Support – After the deployment of the ERP systems within the
organisational context, there might be a list of issues that might be faced by the end users. These
scenarios could be based on the execution of different activities in relation to the project. This
system might not also be purely assessable by all the users working within the company and this
might lead to an issue (Schneider and Sunyaev 2016). The process of implementation of ERP
systems might vary from one company to another. Hence, in order to address each of the faced
issues, an on-site and help desk should be placed within the company, which would lead to

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resolving of issues faced by the employees and other customers associated by the company. The
help desk would be responsible for recording and then resolve such kind of incidents (Liu, Wang
and Chua 2015). The use of an on-site system of support would also be provided in order to give
the users a certain assurance that their queries would be resolved at any point in time.
Upgrades and scalability – With the upgrade of technological platforms, the team
resources within the project would have to think about ideas based on bringing changes within
the pre-existing software. The designed ERP systems should be properly planned and designed in
order to adapt to the changing needs of the environment and technology (Lee, Wong and Hoo
2017). The newly designed systems should be manually and automatically upgraded. Such kind
of practices would also be leading towards enhancing the experiences for the user and thus
improving the security for the systems. With the help of such kind of updates that would be
provided with the systems, the end users would also be able to receive the best form of benefits
that would be provided by the company.
Continuous Improvement – The journey of ERP can be defined as a continuous process
based on the achievement of improvements and bringing in enhancements within the business
processes (Rajnoha et al. 2014). Proper and successful implementation of ERP systems within
the processes of a company would require many forms of planning, designing and implementing
the required systems. This would also include the development of a proper strategy based on
post-production activities.
Additional Training – There might be several resources present within the project team
who would require a high form of training. These training would be designed for the end users
based on the use and understanding of the ERP systems (Alcivar and Abad 2016). There are
certain persons who might join the project team after the ERP based project would be made to go

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live to the customers. Thus the organization would be supported with the training documents and
training materials that would be helpful for the project team. The end users of the ERP systems
would also be highly benefitted with the use of the training materials.
2.5 Barriers and Drivers for Companies for moving from one stage to other
There are various forms of challenges and barriers that might be faced by companies with
the implementation of the new ERP systems within the organisational processes. The major kind
of barrier that might be faced would be in terms of issues with relation to compatibility among
the between the various ERP modules and problems that would be integrated within the modules
(Andersson 2016). The issues in relation to compatibility would lead to the barrier for the
movement of projects to the next stages.
Another kind of major barrier in relation to the project approach towards the
implementation of ERP systems within a company. It has also been seen that the most traditional
approach is often followed with the designing of projects. The agile based approach has been
recommended to be followed in various project development stages. With the use of the agile
approach within the projects, the traditional practices would get changed and thus new processes
would be followed within the industrial practices (Rossi, Germani and Zamagni 2016). With the
help of such kind of approach, it would also be helpful to develop the project phases and thus test
them individually. Based on the proper testing of each of the phases of the project, the company
would plan for the deployment of the project in a phased wise manner. Based on a proper level
of testing of the ERP projects, it would also ensure that the clients would be accessing a proper
and interactive solution (Aloin et al. 2016). The clients would also be actively involved with the
ERP implementation and thus would also be capable of providing various forms of valuable
feedback and comments.

10GOING LIVE IS NOT THE END OF THE ERP JOURNEY
The third issues that might be faced with the implementation of the ERP project are based
on the proper skills of each of the resources involved within the project. Each of the persons who
would be involved with the development of ERP systems within a company should be highly
trained with the development of such kind of systems (Daneva 2014). The implementation of
ERP within the organization would be leading to numerous changes that would lead to the
improvement of the business processes. It would also bring in changes within the operations that
would be followed by the resources. The skill sets of each of the project resources should be
aligned with the required form of abilities and skills. Each of the necessary changes and issues
that might overcome within the project would be leading based on the training sessions that
would be organized with each of the team members concerned within the project.
3. Conclusion
Based on the discussions supported from the above report, it could be concluded that the
use of ERP systems within the organisational processes would be able to lead towards a
profound impact for the business and the customers who make use of the services offered by the
company. The use of ERP systems has become one of the most integral parts of the recent
business performances of an organisation. It has also become extremely necessary for ensuring
that each of the implementation procedures of such kind of systems would be done in a proper
manner. The journey of ERP systems that might be installed within the business systems of a
company should be done with the help of a proper form of planning, designing and deployment
of systems.
The journey that is made by ERP systems can be concluded as a never-ending journey.
The journey for the implementation and renovating of the systems would still continue even after
the system would be made live for the users. This report focuses on the various steps that are

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incorporated with the designing of ERP systems for a company. These include the planning and
discovery stage, designing stage, project development stage, testing and final deployment stage.
Ongoing support is also defined as a critical activity that is performed after the entire ERP
systems would go-live for the users. After the deployment of the ERP system, various forms of
extended support would also be provided for the end users. The various services that are included
within the support systems included the designing of documentation of processes that have been
designed for the system. The various processes that would be in relation to the post-production
support are online support, help desk support, improvising upgrades and bringing of continuous
improvement over the sole business processes. However, the discussion also puts emphasis on
the big challenges that might be faced by companies by implementing the ERP systems within
the companies. These include the challenges based on the implementing of changes within the
company. The other problems include the understanding of skills for different resources, project
approach and issues based on compatibility. These issues would be addressed with the
implementation of the ERP systems and ensure a proper working environment.