What do you think about the neighbor who buy a new sports car and puts it in the garage rather than taking it out on the roads? It feels like a way to make a lot of money without getting value for them.

What about the company's ERP and other business solutions? Research shows that many companies have low utilization of their systems. This can include everything from individual users who are not allowed into the system, functions and modules that are not being used and unfortunately the extreme position that all systems were purchased but never come into operation!

Investing in a system without using it is a capital destruction without equal. Not only because of the money invested in licenses and consulting services. The biggest sacrifice is often the work of the organization. Employees who invest time and energy into the new system without getting the reward in the form of more efficient working methods, more satisfied customers, etc.

What is the reason that the system is not used as planned?
There can be many reasons why the system is not used. The reasons I often encountered are:

  
• For the big approach. When a new system will be operational, there is often a long list of things that "must" be there from the start. The risk is that the approach becomes too large and that the project will never be the goal. This can for example be because it involves too much change in the staff's daily work.
  
• Too much focus on to finish with one thing at a time. To avoid making too big a bet, the project can be divided into various sub-projects. A common problem is when to slavishly follow the order of the subprojects. If an early sub encounter problems, it is important to move forward with other parts instead of getting stuck.
  
• The change of personnel. As the employee stops and is replaced by another, the risk that procedures and knowledge of the system is lost. Users will start to work in the way they are accustomed from previous jobs.

How to avoid getting into this situation?
Engage users initially. It is the users who will create the value of ERP solution therefore needed to be involved from the start.
All users need not be included in the project for them to become involved. A proposal may instead be to group users into different user groups and allow them to be involved in these areas. In this way, moreover TSO / project manager, etc. to help with running-specific issues in the system.

Have a clear focus on business value. Everything that is done in the system should have a purpose and be profitable. Therefore, try to establish a culture in which each requirement are provided with a clear purpose and clear objectives on profits achieved by this.

Define from the start a plan for how the system will constantly continue to improve. Hold periodic meetings with user groups match the way the system works for their work and about the adjustment of work processes require adjustments systemet.?Låt users be involved in the reconciliation of how the various parts of the system is used and whether the described goals of routines achieved. In the event they do not, then find out the cause and create a plan to improve.

Kick start the work
If you want to quickly get started to increase the use of ERP solution can be the right approach should be to allow any external hold a workshop where users can have their say about what works well and what should be improved in the solution. The external person has the advantage that it does not have preconceptions about the system or have some kind of prestige that prevents the objective to find out what users think.

Identify knowledge gaps. Is it so that current users have not been training on the system, it is not surprising that they do not use it.

Then you should establish a back log of measures to improve the system or simply measures to trigger parts of the system that do not come into use. Do not forget to describe the goal of the improvements / measures in the form of what profits you expect that these will generate.

Prioritize actions, training and possible adjustments. Make sure to communicate that plan to users so that they know that they understand what is happening. Then be sure to regularly adjust this plan to not get stuck.

What you simply can do to revive your business venture?

1. Educate and engage
2. Set up a back log
3. Identify the business value
4. Start with the low hanging fruit

Read more about low-hanging fruit ->