10 Things To Consider When Planning An ERP Transformation

ERP transformation is complex and it's all too easy to forget crucial details. Discover ten things you need to keep in mind while planning your initiative.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is among the most complicated initiatives that your company can go through. Your ERP platform touches on every aspect of your organization and replacing it can feel as complex as transplanting an entire human nervous system.

With everything you need to implement, it's easy to miss out on key aspects of your planning. To support you, we've compiled a list of the ten most-important aspects of ERP transformation to keep in mind.

To empower you to begin your ERP transformation, you need a toolset that supports your planning and ensures you don't forget anything. Book a demo of the SAP LeanIX Architecture and Road Map Planning product today: 

1 Your Architecture

The most important part of any enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is the design stage. Your plan, however, is only as good as the information that informs it.

A transformation plan is just a road map for your organization's journey from its current state to the vision you've developed. The clearer a picture you have of your as-is IT landscape and the more thought you've put into your vision, the better your road map will be, and the easier it will be to put together.

SAP LeanIX offers you crystal clarity on your IT landscape, as well as empowering you to build a realistic and achievable goal state. This has to be the first step in any ERP transformation, so make sure you're taking the proper time and care over it.

2 Your Customizations

Your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system will never be the same as when you first implement it. Over time, your system will be changed and adapted to suit the needs of your organization.

This, however, causes a problem for ERP transformation. While legacy ERP systems may not have been 100% fit for your needs, and required customization, newer, best-of-breed ERP systems will do what you need it to without customization, and offer integrations to provide additional capabilities while maintaining a clean core.

Before you can take advantage of these new platforms, however, you need to strip your current ERP system back to that clean core in order to carry out your transformation. This means running a discovery process to understand what customizations have been made to your system.

Achieving clarity on your customizations empowers you to determine which are essential and need to be rebuilt in your new ERP system, and which need to be eliminated so you can transform with a clean core. Making that determination is easier using SAP LeanIX.

3 Your Integrations

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation also requires mapping your third-party integrations. Some integrations can simply be rebuilt in your new system, while other tools may become incompatible.

Where your new system will no longer integrate, you need to make a decision about whether to make a change or to run the third-party application independently. This, once again, requires consulting SAP LeanIX for a full catalog of your integrations that includes information on how each is leveraged and how important that capability is.

4 Your Vendors

When changing your integrations during enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation, you can find yourself hampered by vendor lock-in. If you choose to retire an integration or third-party application, you may be contractually obliged to continue paying for it, eating into your budget.

Likewise, making the wrong choice regarding new vendors for your upgraded ERP system might be costly if you find yourself trapped in a contract with them. Visualizing your vendor contracts and their obligations with SAP LeanIX will allow you to avoid financial pitfalls.

5 Your Budget

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is complex and can, therefore, be costly. Factoring in financial considerations can make a dramatic difference to your plans for ERP transformation.

Yet, fully assessing the cost of ERP transformation requires detailed understanding of your transformation process and the impacts on your IT landscape. SAP LeanIX can help you visualize the real financial implications of your transformation.

6 Your Data

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation isn't a fix-all solution for everything. If your data is siloed, incomplete, or unformatted before you transform, it will still be so in your new system, and this can prevent you from realizing the value of ERP transformation.

Your transformation project, however, is the perfect opportunity to tidy up your data landscape while you're already working on it. Working with SAP LeanIX to do this can ease and accelerate your transformation, and ensure you realize the potential of the project.

7 Your Users

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is, ultimately, for your users. Your new ERP system should empower them to perform at their highest capacity to enhance overall productivity.

Putting your users first means streamlining access management and onboarding, tailoring the user experience, and supporting modern ways of working. To optimize that, SAP LeanIX supports automated user surveys so your transformation plans are supported by data from your users.

8 Your Service

Service provision is also a key facet of enterprise resource planning (ERP), and this needs to be as efficient for your team as it is for your users. Your new ERP system needs to cater to your service management processes and escalation pathways, so you can offer seamless support.

Mapping your services to the applications that support them is essential for prioritizing and streamlining your capabilities. SAP LeanIX can align information in ServiceNow with details of your business capabilities, and then visualize that information for your stakeholders.

9 Your Performance

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation doesn't always go according to plan. If you find that your transformation isn't quite realizing the value you hoped it would, you need to isolate the problem and quickly pivot.

Doing that requires having complete clarity on your IT landscape and ERP platform. This is why SAP LeanIX continues to monitor your transformation metrics as it progresses and after its finished.

10 Your Security

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is an expansive project, and not securing your new platform could leave your entire IT landscape exposed. Transformation is a vulnerable time and the project could be exploited by cyber criminals.

Protecting your organization requires understanding your ERP landscape and the cyber security risk you're facing during your transformation. That's why you need SAP LeanIX.

Empowering ERP Transformation With SAP LeanIX

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is a complex endeavor and tracking all the moving parts and metrics requires the right software. An Excel spreadsheet or Jira board won't be enough.

Succeeding in ERP transformation without losing track of any of the details requires the kind of clarity that SAP LeanIX can provide. It's an essential tool in any ERP transformation initiative.

To find out more about how SAP LeanIX can support your ERP transformation, book a demo: