The "Yellow Brick Road" to Operational Excellence
For companies with major Financial and ERP Systems
Did you know that most system implementation fail?
Greater than 80% of all system implementation fail to live up to expectations! Furthermore:
- Companies use less than 60% of the features available in their BUSINESS SOFTWARE APPLICATION systems.
- Less than half of ERP projects were able to identify measurable benefits from their new system.
- Only 1 in 3 of employees are pleased with the outcome of their ERP implementations.
- The majority of ERP projects go over budget, ranging from 5% to 125% actual spend compared to their original budgets.
Contributing factors limiting realization of systems’ benefits include:
- Business people do not understand IT and most IT people do not understand business.
- Most managers and employees fail to take full advantage of their systems’ capabilities because they don’t know the full capabilities.
- Once implemented, there is a tendency to say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Owners view implementing applications as a project when it is really an instrument for continuous process improvement.
- Poor reporting and planning.
“The good news is that troubled implementations can be fixed when repositioned as business improvement projects rather than IT projects.” Mark Leary, Founder and CEO of Serenity Systems Inc.
How do you ensure systems success?
- Define how you will measure success. Create a roadmap including drawing a diagram of a company’s entire application system, making sure to include data repositories and stand-alone applications, such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, as well as any electronic and manual integration links. You need to know exactly where things are now, that way, you can identify where specific gaps occur and develop a plan to address them.
- Regularly gauge performance standards. Once you’ve made the investment in technology establishing monthly performance and metrics views across departments and functions is imperative. Now comes the hard question: How does your application measure up? Also, how well do employees interact with the system? Does it help them feel more empowered to accomplish key tasks? How quickly do they feel they’ve mastered the software? Have you made it easier to communicate with peers, share information, or solve challenges? Those characteristics are far trickier to measure. Many experts advise implementing user surveys immediately following training and again six months later.
The Definition of Perfect IT:
- 99.9% uptime
- Alerts and triggers manage workflow
- Analytics and dashboards provide framework for decision making
- Asset Productivity is measured and monitored.
- Fast, quick computing environment
- Margins and profitability are increasingly improved through Lean and continuous improvement practices.
- Quality is no longer an issue. Focus is on agility (cycle time reduction and time to market for example).
- Systems drive productivity and performance
- Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and ROI (Return on Investment) is measured and known for all investments. i.e. cost decisions are informed by the strategy.
Contact us at communication[at]serenitysystems.com for your complimentary copy of the full report titled: "The Yellow Brick Road to Operational Excellence."
Top Systems Maximization Trends detailed in this report include:
- Asset Efficiency
- Benchmarking and IT Performance Management
- Creating Visibility and Accountability via Dashboards, Scorecards, and Analytics
- Eliminating Waste: Automation & Infrastructure Consolidation from Optimizing Processes and Functions
- How-To Drive Employee Efficiency and Performance via Tools: Empowering Today’s Workforce
Maximizing IT is all about getting the most out of existing IT resources. The “Yellow Brick Road” to leveraging all available resources initiates with adherence to professional IT standards and implementation of professional benchmarks including key performance indicators.
Contact us at communications[at]serenitysystems.com for a complimentary copy of the full report.
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