10 Questions Every CIO Should Answer Before an ERP Upgrade
An ERP upgrade can look like a technology decision right up until the organisation starts trying to make it happen. Then the difficult questions emerge…
Which processes are we prepared to standardise? Who decides when functions disagree? Is our data good enough to migrate? Can the business release its best people to the programme? What other change is competing for their attention? And, ultimately, what business outcome are we expecting all this effort to produce?
These are not implementation questions to leave until the technology has been chosen. They are readiness questions, and the answers can materially change what you buy, when you start and how you structure the programme.
For CIOs, therefore, the question before an ERP upgrade should not simply be “Which system do we want?”, but rather “Are we ready to make the business decisions this transformation will demand?”
Here are ten questions that can help answer it and get you on your journey to being ERP upgrade ready:
1. What business problem are we actually trying to solve through an ERP upgrade?
Before discussing vendors, functionality or implementation partners, the executive team needs to be clear about what should be different as a result of the investment. “Replace the legacy ERP” is a programme description. What you need to discuss now are the intended business outcomes.
That could mean addressing inefficient processes, supporting organisational growth or improving how the business operates. The important point is to make the ambition explicit rather than assuming everybody around the executive table has the same objective.
Can the executive team explain, consistently and in plain English, what needs to change and why?
If not, technology selection risks becoming a proxy for a strategic conversation that has not yet happened.
2. Is the case for change strong enough to survive difficult decisions?
Alignment at the beginning is relatively easy and becomes more difficult when transformation demands trade-offs. A credible business case should create the reference point for those choices.
The business case needs to connect the investment to strategic objectives, costs, benefits and risks without loading the case with benefits simply to secure approval.
For the CIO, that matters because the business case should remain useful after approval. When scope, cost and operational pressures collide, it should help leaders determine which outcome matters most.
Ask yourself, would your business case still help you make a difficult scope or investment decision six months into the programme? If the answer is no, then it is time to rethink the case and shape it into something with lasting impact and use.
3. Who has the authority to make decisions across functions?
ERP upgrades can expose organisational boundaries very quickly. Finance may want one process. Operations may need another. Local teams may defend existing ways of working while the transformation is attempting to create greater consistency.
Without explicit decision rights, apparently simple design questions can become lengthy negotiations and ultimately damage the adoption process which we know is critical to creating lasting change.
Governance therefore needs to establish more than meetings and reporting. Leaders need clarity over:
- Who owns which decisions
- Which decisions can be made within the programme
- Which require executive intervention
- What the escalation route is
- When a decision is considered closed
Ultimately, when two senior functions want different outcomes, does everyone know who makes the final call?
4. Are we genuinely prepared to change our processes?
This is different from asking whether processes have been documented. An ERP transformation forces an organisation to confront how much variation it really wants to retain. A process may exist because it supports a genuine business requirement, because the current technology required it, or simply because “that is how we’ve always done it” (we hear this a lot!).
Treat every existing process as a requirement and complexity follows you into the new environment. Challenge everything indiscriminately and you risk removing something the business genuinely needs.
That makes process ownership a readiness issue. Owners need sufficient authority to challenge current practice, define future requirements and approve decisions on behalf of the business.
Your process owners must have the authority to change the process they own once alignment and clarity on business outcomes is established.
5. Do we understand the data problem well enough?
It is easier said than done to clean your data before migration, but in reality it can conceal a considerable amount of uncertainty.
ERP readiness requires greater clarity:
- Which data is business-critical?
- Who owns it?
- Are definitions consistent?
- Which information needs cleansing or rationalising?
- Who makes the call when records conflict?
- Does the organisation have capacity to remediate issues alongside normal operations?
As a CIO, could you name the business owner who would resolve a disputed definition or decide what information should be retained?
If not, the data issue may be as much about governance as technology.
6. What else depends on this ERP, and what does it depend on?
An ERP upgrade does not happen in isolation. Applications, interfaces, reporting, controls and other change initiatives can constrain scope and sequencing. The danger is that untested assumptions can become embedded in the plan.
A useful readiness exercise therefore maps dependencies early and gives uncertain ones an owner.
Then ask the executive question: If this assumption proves wrong, what changes?
Does it affect cost? Scope? Timing? Operational risk? Another programme?
That turns a technical dependency into something leaders can actively govern. If you can run an ERP upgrade with this level of clarity and governance then you are off to a great start.
7. Can the organisation release the people the programme really needs?
A common challenge we see is that the people most valuable to ERP are often the same people the business can least afford to lose from day-to-day operations: process experts, operational leaders, finance specialists, data owners and key decision-makers.
Resourcing therefore becomes a critical point of any successful ERP upgrade and must assess availability, not just names and best fit.
Here’s what you need to consider:
- Time required from subject-matter experts
- Whether operational roles need backfill
- Eecutive decision-making capacity
- Pressure from BAU and other programmes
- Periods when key teams simply cannot absorb additional work
Having a clear understanding of what these people will need to stop doing so they can contribute properly to an ERP upgrade will be important if the programme is to run on time.
Note: If the answer is “nothing”, the resource plan probably is not finished.
8. Which capabilities need to exist inside the organisation, not just within the programme?
An implementation partner is there to provide expertise and support, but it cannot remove the organisation’s need to own the transformation.
Consider capability across programme leadership, architecture, data, process, change, testing, training and ownership of the eventual solution. This is where the change management function of any complex transformation truly comes into play.
If key external partners stepped back, would your organisation know how to govern and evolve the new environment beyond go live?
You might consider making a deliberate choice about what should be:
- Owned internally
- Supported by a partner
- Recruited
- Developed
- Sequenced differently because the capability does not yet exist
9. Are leaders aligned on what the change will ask of people?
Executive sponsorship must continue through approving investment all the way to implementation and adoption.
Some teams will need to stop working in familiar ways before the benefits of the new approach are obvious. For example, process standardisation may alter responsibilities and data ownership may create new accountability. Those implications need to be understood early to ensure decision making is informed and clear.
Communications and training have an important place, but they cannot compensate for unresolved leadership decisions about how the organisation will work. It is programme critical that leaders can explain not only why the ERP upgrade is happening, but also what they personally need their teams to do differently. Change management should start at the very beginning, bringing people alongside the process and technology changes.
10. How much change can the organisation realistically absorb?
Teams may simultaneously be delivering strategic initiatives, servicing customers, responding to regulatory requirements and managing seasonal peaks. So an ERP upgrade competes for the shared attention and capacity already sitting within your teams.
That makes operational resilience part of ERP planning rather than an afterthought.
Map where demand will peak. Look at concurrent initiatives. Identify which populations face several changes at once. Consider what support the organisation will require around go-live and beyond. Getting to go-live is one piece of the puzzle, but ensuring adoption and support beyond go-live is equally if not more important to enable the change to stick.
ERP readiness is a set of decisions.
The most useful outcome of an ERP readiness assessment is about setting yourself up to ensure better and more informed decision making before expensive commitments are made.
As a takeaway exercise, you can take the answers to these ten questions and separate them into four categories:
Resolve now:
- Issues that need addressing before the programme can move forward with confidence.
Shape the programme around them:
- Constraints that should influence scope, sequencing, resourcing or governance.
Monitor and Manage:
- Known risks that do not prevent progress but need clear ownership.
Decide later, deliberately:
- Uncertainties where the organisation does not yet have enough evidence, but can define who will decide, by when and on what basis.
That converts readiness from an assessment exercise into a management tool, avoiding perhaps the biggest readiness trap of all: mistaking activity for progress.
The clear message here is to make sure you’re ready and have put in the preparation work to ensure your ERP upgrade delivers the outcomes you are expecting on the investment. Get in touch with one of our experts to get yourself ERP upgrade ready.
