How to Plan an Effective ERP Communication Plan
Key Takeaways
- Start ERP communications early and adapt them throughout the project lifecycle.
- Tailor messaging to different stakeholder groups rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Use a change network to reinforce central communications and provide local context.
- Link communication with training, testing and business readiness.
- Keep communicating after go-live to support adoption and identify emerging issues.
- Consider digital readiness and AI as part of the wider technology change.
Planning an Effective Communications for an ERP Implementation
We all know communicating significant change should be timely, relevant, and interesting. But what do you do when your project lasts 12m+, and means different things to almost everyone in the company? What if it is a little bland and goes through peaks and troughs of stakeholder involvement?
This is where a clear ERP communication plan becomes important.
Indeed, mismanaged ERP communications can result in dragging users along the change curve, as opposed to supporting them. Or even worse, cries of ignorance come go live undermining business operations from day one. Avoiding these mistakes makes early establishment of an empowered change network essential.
Regular and incremental, rather than repetitive, communication through a variety of channels ensures messaging reaches all users. But leaning on an informed and empowered change network, who begin developing their own ownership of the change and implementation outcomes, enables that central messaging to be reinforced with more of a team specific slant.
With the added benefit of filtering many of the questions and issues arising for the project team!
What is ERP Implementation and Why is it Important?
ERP implementation is the process of installing and configuring an Enterprise Resource Planning system for use in an organisation.
This comprehensive software solution streamlines business operations, improving efficiency and productivity. An effective ERP implementation can revolutionise your company’s workflow, enhancing communication, collaboration, and decision-making.
Partnering with a seasoned ERP implementation consultant ensures a smooth transition, minimizing disruptions and maximizing ROI. Investing in top-notch ERP implementation services guarantees that your system is tailored to meet unique business needs, setting you up for long-term success.
Explore our ERP Implementation services at Nine Feet Tall.
Effective Communication Strategies for an ERP Implementation
In devising effective communication strategies for an ERP implementation plan, an ERP implementation consultant often leverages various tools.
One such method, advocated by Mayfield (2013), involves employing a stakeholder radar chart. This tool aids in mapping out communication frequencies and levels of detail required for different stakeholders.
By categorising stakeholders into:
- Vital to engage
- Necessary to engage
- Good to have on board
- Courtesy to inform
ERP implementation teams can tailor communication approaches accordingly.
The Role of Change Leadership in ERP Communication
The Mayfield stakeholder radar chart acts as a blueprint for determining the depth and regularity of interactions, ensuring vital stakeholders are deeply engaged while providing necessary information to others.
This strategy fosters alignment, secures crucial buy-ins, and maintains transparency throughout the ERP implementation process. Ultimately, it streamlines communication efforts, enhancing the efficiency and success of the project.
Strong change leadership is also important. Leaders need to reinforce why the change is happening and help teams understand what it means for them.
Additional Testing and Training Tips
1. Engage Users Early
The involvement of an ERP implementation consultant within the ERP implementation life cycle holds pivotal expectations and influences the wider success of the project. Their role spans beyond mere participation, contributing significantly to the project’s benefits.
Engaging them in advance ensures heightened interest, rendering them more receptive as listeners, testers, and learners. This proactive engagement strategy mitigates resistance to change, particularly when managing peer dynamics.
2. Prepare People for Their Involvement
The timeliness and format of data provision bear immense importance, directly impacting colleagues and external stakeholders.
Preparing them beforehand for the extent of their involvement maintains crucial goodwill and minimises disruptive surprises. Certainty proves more beneficial than prematurely unsettling stakeholders.
3. Make the Change Relevant
Amidst the broader business landscape, assurance regarding the investment’s contribution to growth is essential.
Reinforcing key messages while emphasising individual impacts through storytelling, using real employee narratives and visuals, bridges the gap between the project’s technicalities and its human-centric benefits.
This approach engages distant stakeholders by showcasing the tangible, yet intangible, positive transformations. Just as in advertising, storytelling resonates and brings relevance to distant audiences.
4. Link Communication with Business Readiness
Communication should also support wider Business Readiness. As the programme moves towards go-live, organisations need to understand whether people are informed, trained and ready to work differently.
An effective ERP communication plan can help answer practical questions such as:
- Do people understand why the ERP is changing?
- Do they know how their role will be affected?
- Are managers equipped to support their teams?
- Do employees understand what training they need?
- Do they know where to get support after go-live?
Communication alone does not make an organisation ready, but it can highlight areas where additional engagement or support is required.
Consider Digital Readiness Before Implementation
Before ERP implementation gathers pace, it is also useful to understand whether the wider organisation is ready for the change. Nine Feet Tall’s Digital Readiness Assessment helps organisations assess areas including strategy, processes, data, technology, people and change readiness.
This can highlight gaps before they become more difficult to manage during implementation. It also helps establish whether the organisation has the right foundations for wider digital transformation, including future use of automation, predictive analytics and AI.
How Do You Know if Your ERP Communication Plan is Getting the Message Across Effectively?
Within the ERP implementation life cycle, an ERP implementation consultant faces the challenge of discerning disengaged stakeholders amid active engagement. Continuous public feedback requests may not effectively pinpoint disinterest.
To gauge communication effectiveness, frequent, concise pulse surveys, ensuring anonymity, prove invaluable. These surveys, incorporating consistent questions, act as a reliable metric for assessing alignment with planned communication phases.
Moreover, involving specific teams or departments enhances the identification of critical areas needing intervention. Acknowledging that absence of feedback is feedback itself, these pulse surveys become instrumental in uncovering hotspots or potential issues.
This approach empowers ERP implementation services to adapt strategies and ensure comprehensive stakeholder engagement and alignment throughout the project phases.
Why Choose Nine Feet Tall?
Nine Feet Tall supports organisations through ERP implementation and the wider change that comes with it. That includes helping teams navigate stakeholder engagement, business readiness, communications and adoption throughout the implementation lifecycle.
Our approach focuses on making complex change clearer and more manageable, ensuring people understand what is changing and what they need to do next.
If communications are holding back the success of your ERP communication plan or wider implementation, get in touch with Nine Feet Tall to discuss how we can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should an ERP communication plan include?
An ERP communication plan should identify your stakeholder groups, the messages they need, the appropriate communication channels, who owns each communication and when activity should take place.
It should also include ways to gather feedback so that communication can be adapted throughout the programme.
When should ERP communication begin?
Communication should begin early in the ERP programme. People need to understand why the change is happening before they are asked to adopt new processes or technology. The level of detail can increase as implementation progresses and the impact on individual teams becomes clearer.
Who should be responsible for ERP communications?
Responsibility is usually shared. The programme or change team may coordinate the overall plan, while senior leaders, managers and change network members reinforce messages within their areas.
The important point is that ownership is clear and messages remain consistent.
How do you measure whether ERP communications are effective?
Pulse surveys, stakeholder feedback, Q&A themes, attendance at engagement activities and questions raised through managers or change networks can all provide useful indicators.
Rather than measuring only how many communications were sent, focus on whether people understand the change and feel prepared for what comes next.
Why is communication important after ERP go-live?
Go-live is when employees start using the new system in their everyday work, so new questions and issues are likely to emerge.
Continuing communication helps teams understand where to get support, reinforces new processes and gives the programme visibility of any adoption issues that need attention.
