Project guide · Business systems
Selecting or replacing an enterprise resource planning system
A requirements, evaluation, data, integration and cutover programme.
Starting point
What brings the project forward
A wholesale and distribution business has outgrown a heavily worked-around system. Finance, sales, warehouse and e-commerce teams disagree on priorities and vendors are demonstrating attractive features without difficult exceptions.
Constraints
- Create one business-owned requirements view
- Expose difficult transaction and control needs
- Control data and integration scope
- Protect trading through cutover
A workable delivery sequence
- 01
Case and capability map
Define outcomes, constraints, transaction volumes, controls, exceptions and process ownership.
- 02
Scenario-based selection
Score shortlisted products and partners on the business's end-to-end work and known failure cases.
- 03
Delivery design
Plan data, integration, reporting, environments, testing, training, support and governance.
- 04
Rehearse and cut over
Run migration, reconciliation, performance, support and go/no-go rehearsals before production.
- 05
Stabilise
Track defects, workarounds, reconciliations and support demand against agreed exit criteria.
Destination
The selected platform is supported by an approved business case, prioritised capabilities, scenario-based evaluation, owned data and integration plans, trained process owners and rehearsed cutover and reconciliation.
Business decisions
- Must-have capabilities versus inherited workarounds
- Configuration versus customisation
- Data history and cleansing
- Cutover, coexistence and rollback
Tests before go-live
- Critical scenarios pass with business owners
- Migrated control totals reconcile
- Integrations handle the failure cases chosen during discovery
- Cutover and support rehearsal meets go/no-go criteria
Handover material
- Business case and requirements
- Evaluation scorecard
- Data and integration plan
- Cutover, reconciliation and support runbook
- Post-go-live stabilisation register
Technical and business references
This is a general delivery pattern, not a client case study. Check vendor documentation and obtain appropriate professional advice for your circumstances.