Have you ever heard of an ERP post-implementation plan? If not, you’re probably not the only one.

Once an ERP solution is live, business often neglect practices that can help with upkeeping the system or planning for its continuous growth. They only reach out to ERP providers again once issues start popping up.

However, there are ways to nip issues in the bud and it all begins with a few ERP maintenance tasks.

An article by Project Line recently shared some essential tasks to do after you’ve set up your ERP system. We’re weighing in and adding our own insights to this checklist.

ERP Post-Implementation Checklist

1. Organise a post-implementation analysis

Setting up an ERP system takes months and months of planning and training. It involves communication, collaboration, and a whole lot of hard work.

That being said, when an ERP system is running, companies are excited to move on and close the chapter on all that happened during implementation.

However, this shouldn’t be the case.

Once your ERP solution is live, take a few months immersed in the system. Study the processes and make adjustments. After this period, review its performance and ask the following questions:

• What is working?
• What isn’t working?
• Which issues needs to be addressed?
• What needs improvement?

Make sure to listen to feedback from employees, especially their concerns on certain features or requests for more training.

Your ERP partners should also be part of this conversation to recommend fixes and improvements to issues that may come up along the way. They can also be responsible for any additional training that your staff may need.

2. Standardise and document your processes

ERP systems are designed to improve your business processes but this will only work if the entire company works the same way.

Standardise your processes and keep them documented so that employees can always refer to these SOPs.

By documenting processes, you also make it easier for incoming employees to learn your company’s ERP system practices.

3. Develop a continuous training plan

Employees go through extensive training to learn how to use an ERP system when companies begin implementation.

However, the training shouldn’t stop there.

Your ERP system may go through updates and introduce new functionalities that your staff will need to learn. You may also want to explore the system’s more advanced features that are not normally taught to beginners.

On top of that, occasional refersher sessions also make all the difference, opening up questions that your staff may have.

4. Strengthen your bonds with your ERP partner

ERP providers are not just technical support. They are partners in making sure that you use your ERP system to its full potential.

Prepare a maintenance plan. This could answer questions like: How often will you upgrade to new versions? How will training progress with new features?

You can also set champions (otherwise known as super users) who will be the one to communicate issues to your partner.

Find out what your ERP partners are up to in terms of sharing product resources as well.

Most offer newsletter subscriptions for updates, host webinars, and share product knowledge through blogs, social media posts, or demo videos.

For example, AlphaBiz Solutions has a YouTube channel, bizblog articles, and we post on our Facebook and LinkedIn platforms.

5. Create a continuous improvement plan

As your business grows, you’re bound to have changing needs. So, be future-ready with a process for continuous improvement.

During this process, you can review your previous requirements for an ERP system and update this list if you have additional needs.

Afterwards, it’s a matter of prioritizing which new features to add or customise and executing these changes.

We also recommend creating a special team for this purpose, preferrably a group that comes from different departments.

This team will oversee and evaluate the changes not just in terms of ERP features, but its impact on your processes – whether there are improvements or not.

Improve your ERP system with AlphaBiz

AlphaBiz Solutions is your partner in optimizing your ERP system. Create an ERP post-implementation with us and we’ll deliver.

Whether you are looking for new configurations to your system or you are thinking of adding on third-party solutions, we are ready to assist you.

We also offer MYOB Advanced support, MYOB Exo support, Sybiz Vision support, and much more. Visit our contact page to reach out to our experts.