As an example of the nature of the differences that existed, ‘if you are raising a purchase order, there are only so many ways you can raise a purchase order or pay an invoice but [the six business units] used different terminology, etc. The challenge was getting [everyone within the business units] to speak and use common language, particularly around data. That was a major challenge – getting acceptance that it was possible for them all to operate equally effectively using one common system.’ n The switch from a single functional focus to a process focus meant that boundaries between the functions within each business unit and between business units changed because of the implementation of the ERP system. Individuals with in the business units had to understand the impacts of the new system upon the organization and to accept that while using the previous system they did some thing one way, using the new system they may need to do something different. They also needed to accept that their roles would possibly, and in some cases, did change. n Reporting caused enormous problems. The Management Accountants had a whole suite of reports that they produced on spreadsheets or directly from the old legacy systems. They wanted to continue to produce exactly the same reports from the new system, something that would have been extremely difficult with the limited SAP functionality that they had opted to purchase. Consequently, it would only have been possible if an enormous investment had been made in developing these bespoke reports. Given the objectives of the implementation, this (business warehouse) was not considered an appropriate use of resources and so the Management Accountants and the users of the existing reports had to be convinced that it was better to learn to use the new system first, see what reporting capability it had and then discover whether or not they could get-by with the standard SAP reports. A way had to be found to over come their nervousness – ‘I’m not sure we can “go-live” without these reports’ –and persuade them to ‘give it a go. Getting the data ready for the new system was also a major challenge. Agreement across all the business units was needed on all ‘how to’ issues – on product codes, on how to structure/build the bills of materials, etc. The legacy data held by each business unit was very specific to that particular unit. Operating the new system meant that all the business units would need to share some elements of their data with the other business units: ‘the whole principle of shared data created a massivechallenge to traditional thinking, which had to be addressed.’n Another significant challenge was establishing an appropriate user-supportorganization – how to provide helpdesk and support services. The organizationhad to decide the nature of support that would be provided by the more technical
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