Important activities in an early ERP implementation phase : A case study at Valmet

Abstract: Research about implementing an ERP system has been investigated for many years but is still a current issue. This is due to the large number of implementations that fail. The purpose of this paper is to identify important activities in an early phase of an ERP implementation. The thesis is based on a literature study to create a foundation of understanding of earlier research and the struggles implementing an ERP system. The study was composed from the five most important critical success factors as a framework. To identify the activities in an early phase, interviews with people from different layers in an implementation organization were conducted. From the interviews, several survey questions were designed to rank the activities. The result of the interviews shows several activities performed in an early phase in an ERP implementation. The result from the survey shows that many of the identified activities from the interviews are important since several of the respondents consider these critical. Some of the most important activities in an early phase of an ERP implementation are:   • Conducting workshops to explain the changes to come when implementing a new ERP system. • Make sure the people working in the project are able to work and focus on the project fulltime in the phase where their role is critical for the implementation. • Involve the key-users in an early phase of the implementation. • Communicate the vision to all the employees in the organization. • Have a local super-user that is available to support and help.   This research provides a less general framework for what activities are important to perform in an early phase of an ERP implementation to achieve the critical success factors. The study can help companies facing an ERP implementation to do the right things to succeed with the implementation.