Systems Implementation

Systems Implementation



Implementing or replacing your CRM, ERP or associated systems can be tricky, especially if you have not prepared in advance.​ Internal roles, responsibilities, process streamlining and governance all require preparation. Systems implementation is 80% process alignment and 20% technology. But companies usually ‘pass on’ the responsibility to a vendor and then there is a continuing back and forth between the customer and vendor leading to cost overruns and delays.​

Our proprietary framework of implementation focuses on process streamlining as part of the systems implementation, we can either work with your chosen systems implementor, in house teams or bring our subcontractors for implementation.


Root Cause

Vendor cooperation

  • Customer purchased the the ERP software which is an out of the box implementation and does not provide process consultancy. This was a mismatch of expectations between customer and vendor
  • Vendor Project management engagement was lacking

Roles and responsibilities

  • Within Customer team, there is a lack of maturity and experience of implementing ERP.​
  • Finance is still undergoing transformation, so responsibilities were still unclear​
  • Lack of alignment with vendor

Project management

  • Lack of decision-making process​
  • Unclear action tracker between vendor and customer and within customer teams
  • No clear and agreed milestones and project delivery timelines

To-be design process

  • Unclear and disparate ‘as-is’ processes across countries
  • Vendor way of working led to lack of clarity on to-be process design​
  • Missing details of best practice and handholding from vendor

Actions taken

Vendor cooperation

  • Worked with Finance team to help them understand the way of working with vendor.​
  • Triggered personnel change at vendor project management
  • Engaged with vendor PM for closer cooperation

Roles and responsibilities

  • Shared best practice process maps and built team confidence to take decisions​
  • Detailed roles and responsibilities defined and assigned​
  • Regular cadence and reengagement with vendor set up

Project management

  • Built workstream to drive better decision structure​
  • Built action lists which are shared across the customer and vendor teams
  • Aligned timelines with streams and dependencies​
  • Defined milestones

To-be design process

  • Aligned the end-to-end solution design​
  • To-be processes designed together with team​

Project Plan

  • High level project plan set up and aligned for go-live

Project Governance

  • ​Agreed governance, roles and responsibilities, workstreams and cadence

Process Maps

  • P2P, R2R, O2C process design documents prepared

Action List

  • Action list for internal activities shared on SharePoint.

Functional Integration

  • A key point of discussion was O2C (Order to Cash), how to conceptualise where key activities like customer invoicing would happen for the 3 entities.

Process Owner Roles

  • Roles were explained in detail so that the team members are able to take the responsibility