Chapter 6

Question 1

ERP implementation strategies

Answer 1

• determines how the project gets organized, as well as the resources and time required for its implementation.
  -The main strategies are phased, big bang, hybrid, and parallel.
• criteria for choosing an implementation strategy: company size and complexity , urgency to implement, risk tolerance level, resources applied to the project, project scope.

Question 2

Phased implementation

Answer 2

-incremental/waived: the project team gradually implement the ERP system by module, business unit, or geographical area overtime. Slowest implementation approach but minimize risk. Easier to manage and put less strain on project manager and project team. Can lead to change fatigue and burn out.

Question 3

Big bang implementation

Answer 3

• also known as direct cut over: entails rolling out all modules at the same time, resulting in one go live or cut over date.
• disadvantages: implementation is more intense and requires a substantially higher concentration of resources, more risk.
• advantages: generally can go live with less time and cost, reduces the need for temporary interfaces, less change fatigue

Question 4

Hybrid implementation

Answer 4

-combination of phased and big bang approaches. Companies may choose to use the Big Bang approach for smaller business units and phase approach for larger business unit.

Question 5

Parallel implementation

Answer 5

• both the legacy systems and the new ERP system are run simultaneously for a period of time post to go live
  -Advantages: least risky of all strategies, can revert back to the legacy in case there are problems.
  -Disadvantages: most labor-intensive, costly, confusing, and constant change management progress.

Question 6

Organizational change management

Answer 6

• The structured approach for minimizing the risk that a new system will be rejected by end users. The more time devoted to OCM, the smoother the implementation will be.
  -Hesitancy or resistance must be anticipated and managed through change management techniques that include: education, training, communication.

Question 7

Three facets of OCM

Answer 7

-education: understanding the why behind ERP should help foster feelings of ownership and enthusiasm rather than fear and uncertainty.
- Communication with employees should be creative, consistent, and frequent. Reiterate what changes are coming and how that will affect employees jobs
-Training is often the most overlooked and under budgeted ERP cost component. Could incorporate train the trainer methodology

Question 8

Vanilla implementation

Answer 8

Very few customizations are required, configuration is mostly what is done.

Question 9

RICEF

Answer 9

• reports: custom reports that need to be designed
• Interfaces: connecting two or more systems so DATA can pass back-and-forth
• conversions: data must be converted from the format in the old system to the format required by the new ERP system
  -enhancements: adding to the standard ERP code by making use of customer exits, which are pre-defined brakes in the software code where custom code can be inserted.
• Forms: custom output documents

Question 10

Bolt on technology

Answer 10

• A Bolt on is in a artificially intelligent execution system that provides very specific functionality or technology to complement an ERP system.
  - gaps can be closed by bolt ons and customizations
• example: RF ID, barcoding, electronic data interchange

Question 11

Conference room pilot

Answer 11

- used by the project team to simulate business processes to ensure that they work properly
-key benefits include: define processes for configuration, identify the fits and gaps to determine customization needs, pinpoint impact to estimate employee training and OCM needs, test the system prior to go live

Question 12

Types of testing

Answer 12

• unit testing involves checking the discrete steps in a process or meeting the business requirements. Example: testing entering a sales order
  - Integration testing ensures that into end business processes run smoothly. Example: testing the entire purchase to pay process
  -User acceptance testing is the final round of functional testing whereby process owners sign off that their area is ready to go live. Example: process owner signs off that the purchase to pay process works as expected

Question 13

Types of testing part two

Answer 13

-performance testing determines how well the ERP system and database handle a given workload in terms of stability, speed, and responsiveness
-Data mapping testing ensures that data is passing back and forth between systems interfacing with ERP
- authorization testing ensures that and users have the proper permissions into the ERP system commensurate with their rules.
-back up and recovery testing ensures that a company can both make copies of its data and store it offsite and retrieve the data from back up.

Question 14

Super users

Answer 14

• have been trained extensively on the ERP system and the new business processes. Prepared to train others leading up to go live in afterwards.

Question 15

Systems integrator 

Answer 15

-most ERP implementations will require a system integrator for example Deloitte, to fill in gaps where internal resources do not have the expertise

Question 16

Data migration

Answer 16

• moving data from one location to another, one format to another, and one location to another. Also known as ETL.
  -extract, transform, load: data is extracted out of a legacy system, transformed by checking its accuracy and converted into the proper format, and loaded into the ERP systems database.

Question 17

Data owners and data stewards

Answer 17

• Data owners are typically senior stakeholders in an organization who are accountable for the quality of one or more data sets
  -During an ERP implementation, DATA owners appoint DATA stewards to assist them with their responsibilities.

Question 18

Steps in data migration

Answer 18

• Data collection: compiling data not already in digital format
• Data extraction: exporting data out of a legacy system and database
• Data cleansing or data scrubbing: detecting and correcting an accurate, obsolete, duplicate, or incomplete records currently in the legacy systems
• Data harmonization: standardizing data from different sources, file formats into a cohesive data set.
• Data transformation: converting data from one form to another
• Data loading: importing the data into the ERP database

Question 19

Types of data migration tests

Answer 19

• Record count: checking that the correct number of records was migrated
• Completeness: making sure that all required fields populate in the ERP system
  -correctness: ensuring that the data in the fields is accurate and in the right format

Question 20

Master data management

Answer 20

-is a technology enabled discipline in which business and IT work together to ensure that master data stays uniform, accurate, complete, and consistent and there’s accountability over the process

Question 21

Data management organization

Answer 21

-centralizes the activities of creating or editing master data across the enterprise

Question 22

Risk management

Answer 22

• The identification, analysis, assessment, control, avoidance, minimization, or elimination of unacceptable risk
  -And ERP risk management plan should be developed during planning, the purpose of which is to increase the likelihood of project success
  -Chief risk officer/CRO is an executive, ultimately responsible for assessing and mitigating competitive, regulatory, and technological threats to the organization

Question 23

Causes of ERP failure

Answer 23

resource failure, requirements failure, goal failure, user contact failure, governance failure, project management failure, size failure, people management failure, methodology failure, system integration failure to

Question 24

Types of ERP failures

Answer 24

-unmitigated disaster: the worst type of failure, in which a company spends millions of dollars trying to implement an ERP system but is unable to
- Big failure: the implementation goes way over budget and overtime and the company gets far less functionality than initially anticipated
- mild failure: the implementation goes over budget and overtime enough to cause concern, and the system is less functional than expected
-Forthcoming failure: the project team has made mistakes that will come back to haunt them later

Question 25

Center of excellence

Answer 25

-Best practice is to set up a command center or center of excellence, that is formally dedicated to the longevity of the system and ensure support for employees post go live. Includes some members of project team and some super users.
-responsibilities of COE: issue resolution, ongoing training, post implementation audits, ensure ongoing data quality

Question 26

ERP maintenance

Answer 26

• types of maintenance: applying updates and service packs, vendors will improve underlying technology of software, enhance business processes and user experience, adding more customizations, interfaces, or changes to configuration.
• regression testing: re-running functional and non-functional tests to ensure that previously developed and tested modules and other systems will still work properly after change is applied
  -in case of an emergency a temporary ID known as a fire fighter role is assigned to SYSADMIN to fix the problem without going through usual protocol

Question 27

Service level agreement

Answer 27

-defines how quickly the service provider will respond and how fast it will provide a solution to a problem. Need clear definitions of what constitutes severity in order to minimize confusion and or disagreements. Without a maintenance contract, companies lose the ability to upgrade their software and lose support