Before every ERP implementation is funded, the organization creates a business case detailing the ROI, output and impact of the system. This document should be the measuring stick by which all decisions are made. By assessing the decision making process as go-live nears, you will often see decisions being made that are solely designed to support meeting development deliverables and not the business objectives.

An example is reallocating resources from the training teams to software project teams with no set plans to replace those resources. We also see end user training being pushed back or, worse, marginalized to a series of task-based interactions that do not provide an understanding of the new business process and when and how they interact within that process. This causes expensive training issues and delays and/or decreases the impact the ERP will have on the business.

The training needs to clearly describe the bridge from the legacy system to the new process, how it will differ, and why. Assuming end users can move quickly from one system to another, without detailing the specific steps and reasons, is a symptom that the end users are not going to adopt the new system quickly or fully.

Note: there are also morale reasons to do so. By including end users in the new process you are telling them their previous hard work and knowledge is appreciated. And they will open their hearts to better learn the new system.