POST IMPLEMENTATION SUPPORT & MAINTENANCE

Finally, your new ERP system has gone live!! But, now what? ERP implementations can take months to complete and involve a great deal of your organization’s resources and time.

Post implementation excitement is a real thing. However, your ERP roadmap is not complete once your system goes-live. End-users need to be confident operating your new ERP solution, and providing high-quality, effective, post go-live support and training is crucial to the overall ERP success. Your organization can earn long-term success from the ERP implementation if you help end-users climb the learning curve with timely, robust support and comprehensive maintenance and support plans for the future.

Once your new ERP solutions has gone-live, it is important that a sufficient level of support is still available from the project team to assist with adapting to the new daily business processes. You should plan for a minimum of one full month of post-implementation support. Use a traditional structure with the existing project resources to evaluate the acceptance of the new ERP solution and document any problems that need to be addressed.

ERP maintenance refers to regular post-implementation activities required to keep the ERP system sustained.  More specifically, any effort carried out in maintaining an ERP system that does not focus on improving or enhancing the system and is not a minor or major upgrade should be categorized as maintenance. Most vendors offer a variety of ongoing professional services to clients in need of ERP maintenance and support.  If you’re unsatisfied with the maintenance and support services your vendor offers, consider contacting your ERP Partner or a third-party to take over these tasks.

In addition to securing maintenance and support services, develop an internal strategy for supporting your solution.  Organizations that fail to develop and implement such plans often find themselves overspending on support or, even worse, working with outdated or broken software.  When putting together your strategy, be sure to forecast organizational changes and plan system maintenance to support these changes. Additionally, keep your vendor or third-party maintenance and support provider updated to ensure that they are prepared to lend a hand when changes are necessary.

Providing a continuous support and maintenance plan is key to unlocking your ERP success. As you develop your support and maintenance plan for post implementation, be sure to include training plans, KPIs to measure implementation success, any foreseeable organization change plans, and keep your partner up-to-date.

Do you need assistance with ERP support and maintenance services? ACC is here to help! Contact our support specialist to begin the next step of your ERP journey.

Ready to begin your ERP journey? Contact us to take the next step!