Many organisations embark on ERP selection and implementation projects without a clear understanding at senior management level of the implications in terms of cost, resources, business disruption and potential impact on existing business processes. When this happens, there is a significant risk that following selection of a preferred ERP solution, approval for the project may not be forthcoming. Even worse, if approval is granted without a full understanding of the potential impacts, implementation projects can run into difficulties because of a lack of resources, a lack of leadership with regard to future business process design decisions and inadequate project or change management, all of which can result in the all-too-familiar scenario of ERP projects running late and over-budget and failing to deliver expected business benefits.
