Big Bang or a Phased Approach

The motivations behind introducing a new Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) typically include a desire to cut operating costs, free up capital, improve business efficiencies, advance customer service offerings, to cater for business growth or change and to capitalize on new technologies for security, performance and staff retention. To achieve some or all of these typical investment aims you’ll have to plan carefully to make sure the software is configured properly and your employees can fully capitalize on the new system capabilities.

Big Bang

The “big bang” method, sees everyone in your company using the new system from day one with every conceivable system capability configured, turned on and ready to rock and roll

But, like the actual Big Bang, it creates a whole universe of change all at once and most enterprises aren’t well prepared for the impact of change across their enterprise. A big bang approach generally means a longer project timeline as the size of the project scope often starts large and grows during the project. If you get it right the rewards flow faster and harder than a phased approach however the risks of errors or issues, go live delays and solution disappointment grow.

Phased Approach

A “Phased ERP Implementation” essentially removes project elements from the initial project instead banking them up for a later introduction when people are more ready to consume further additions to their new system

The secret of a successful phased approach is to determine what can wait and what needs to be there day one & to plan for the system expansions so there is no or limited rework required. (Provision for later stages)

Done properly a phased approach can lead to a shorter initial project roll out, greater user buy in, less change management and less investment risk of over-runs