Over the years, the dynamics of business planning and operational management have completely transformed. Thanks to the advanced project management technologies and tools like SAP and ERP that have enabled big brands to be the giants. However, the accelerated ERP migration within the business industry has turned to be something that has captured the attention of every organization, irrespective of its size.
Nevertheless, the introduction of cloud technology and AI intervention into the process have all changed the traditional enterprise resource planning processes and have made way for more unified and integrated ERP models adding value to the long hauled digital transformation agenda.
Most importantly, the post-pandemic scenario has made every industry realize how ERP migration could satisfy their digitalization goals, diminishing any error patterns with their resources. Besides, the increased flexibility and resilience benefits have all made organizations use ERP Migration to set their trajectory to success in the upcoming times.
ERP Implementation & Digital Transformations
Since the cloud concept has strongly intervened in the way ERP systems used to operated, the idea of leading digital transformation has got more dependent on core intelligence. This includes the use of AI, ML, Analytics, and of course, a smart ERP test automation strategy involving the use of test accelerators to meet the scalability requirements through innovation.
Besides, the present-day ERP systems such as SAP S/4 HANA have even highlighted the significance of multi-cloud compatibility features. This means the emergence of test case scenarios that were never explored in the past and must necessarily be worked to meet the security objectives across clouds.
Since Gartner, in its report, has found that almost 75 percent of the ERP deployments tend to fail on their defined objectives, it becomes crucial to consider all the challenges, techniques, and tools that could help create the most successful solutions. Being an ERP Testing Service Provider, we at BugRaptors will help you dig across the list of possible challenges that you might encounter on your way to ERP migration while diving through the tips and tools that can help with a successful migration.
Let’s begin.
Understanding The Challenges Involved In ERP Migration
Though technology has come a long way when it comes to resource planning practices that involve the use of ERP solutions, working on the task of implementing a project or ERP migration involves extensive challenges. These include:
Change Management: Change management is one of the most typical challenges involved in the process of ERP migration. Especially when almost 50 percent of the time is spent on resisting scope creep, managing changes needs some serious attention during the implementation.
Compatibility Issues: Since developing an advanced ERP solution needs collaborating modules from various vendors, compatibility issues are another common challenge that successful ERP transformation may involve.
Data Quality Issues: Since ERP transformation often needs migrating legacy data into the new system, poorly integrated data often turns to be a challenge.
ERP Selection: Another significant factor that can pose challenges to the team working on ERP migration could be the selection of the ERP system that doesn’t align well with business requirements.
Technicalities: last but not least, when you are on your way to ERP migration, the inability to modernize your server and hardware could lead to unnecessary trouble. Besides, the complication of the project may even vary depending on the industry you belong to.
Additional Challenges:
Adopting Agile Methodology
Even when developers and testers are done working over all the above-defined challenges, there are certain additional challenges that may emerge out of the test methodology adopted. For instance, working on an agile ERP execution within a big organization having a lack of experience or staff to migration could cause issues related to testing coverage, insufficient outcomes, and technical issues like regression fatigue.
Thus, to avoid any bottlenecks affecting the agile strategy you use for ERP migration need extensive detail on the execution plan and the overall approach.
Continuous Testing
To work on continuous testing strategies could get difficult if you are not leaning on some test automation services. Even if you have access to such services, working on the implementation process could get difficult. Especially when you need to work overloads of data and multiple integrations, to perform continuous testing could be hindered by tasks like security testing, omnichannel UX testing, or system localization testing.
5 Tips for Successful Migration
Since we have already developed a familiarity with the common challenges that you might have to encounter on your way to ERP migration, here are the five most important tips that you need to keep in mind when aiming to accelerate ERP migration. Let’s dive in to learn:
Create Right Pre-Implementation Strategy
The first thing that you need to understand when starting with your ERP migration project is to always begin with the right pre-implementation strategy. It should be a diligent approach that aligns well with your business objectives without compromising on functional or technical aspects of the solution.
This needs intensive analysis of the cost-value statistics as well as the type of deployment requirements such as cloud, on-prem, or hybrid solutions without compromising on factors like support, maintenance, and operational costs.
Having A Realistic Approach
Another important factor that you must keep in mind when fostering your ERP migration goals is to have a realistic approach to the plan. This must begin with mapping the entire journey in advance to ensure smooth interactions between various teams as well as integrating the components. Moreover, it would also help you mind all the features that are most important for your organization when defining the workflow. Besides, the process could help you work on design and infrastructure planning for connecting the various systems within the organization to your ERP solution.
Apart from this, the project plan must be shaped to align scope and budget well for the implementation objectives, finding ways that can simplify the process for rapid achievability. This can only be done if your ERP migration strategy should contain well-defined objectives and phases to anticipate configuration-related concerns.
Most importantly, this approach to planning should also consider the realistic scenarios related to post-implementation to ensure there are no gaps left between the operational teams, users, and IT staff when things are ready to be tested in the real world.
Build A Cross-Functional Team
No Project has ever turned to be a success without a perfect team. Thus, progressing towards your ERP initiatives should involve a cross-functional ERP implementation team that understands every aspect of the deployment process. As ERP systems are designed to manage multiple departments across an organization, the team should involve people who have a good understanding of inter-departmental operations.
Moreover, there should be open communication between all the developers and test teams to ensure the entire project could be kept in sync for any information or query that might add value to the ERP migration. Also, ERP migration teams should be people who understand the need for accuracy, management, and commitment while working on their path to complete deliveries on time.
Change Management
The next big thing for which you need to prepare for successful ERP migration is to have scope for change management tactics. Since the process could get consuming at times, planning early with your migration experts and ERP testing services could help you overcome impending changes with ease.
Moreover, the staff that is likely to interact with the ERP system directly should be educated on the process and associated benefits to ensure an easier adoption of the technology could be done. This should even include sharing timely news for every milestone achieved or progress made on the project.
Since ERP migration needs your teams involved in internal operations to handle all the tasks, increasing user adoption must have some strong training plans in the checklist to have the most out of the system.
Lend A Helping Hand
Even if the whole idea of implementing an ERP module or process the migration may seem convenient, it is always a wise choice to ask helpdesk services to contribute to the entire ERP migration strategy. As vendors want their product to be the best in the market, assistance from the ERP vendor’s support team or help desk could help you drive success, resolving issues at a faster pace.
Picking The Right ERP Test Automation Tool
Even when you know the right strategy, the best team, the top ERP vendor, and all the amazing tips you need to succeed with your ERP transformation goals, the inability to pick the right test tools can lead you to the ultimate failure. Though you may believe that it all ends up with choosing the ERP testing services provider, the selection of tool entirely depends on your business requirements related to the ERP implementation.
Thus, it is necessary that you should go for a quick checklist before picking any particular tool for your ERP migration goals. These include:
The Adaptability of the tool to agile ecosystem
Support for integrated applications
End-to-end support
Scriptless automation support to simplify test procedures
The adaptiveness of tool for ERP customizations
Since most organizations planning for ERP migration are leaning on advanced solutions like Agile, AI, and Cloud integrations, it becomes necessary to scale your testing requirements to cope up with the change management process. Also, it is vital to align well with test automation practices to scale up the test practices, especially when the ERP migration process demands extensive changes and challenges that could only be mitigated through continuous ERP testing.
The Crux
Either you are a tech executive or the project manager undertaking the ERP migration, the business groups adopting such technology always demand results within defined costs and extraordinary benefits. Thus, it becomes necessary that your entire ERP migration journey should be made to form a complete package of quality, convenience, cost-friendliness, and meeting the objectives.
All in all, the goal behind such rapid business transformation through ERP is all about big brands trying to yield seamless performance for their internal and external resource-based operations. However, achieving such objectives need everything to be precise, starting from the choice of vendor to the selection of tools.
Nevertheless, the most important aspect of accelerating ERP implementations is forging the right partnerships when it comes to ERP testing services. In a nutshell, the choice of ERP testing services provider is one of the most imperative components of the entire integration process. Thus, it is always a good idea to partner with a brand like BugRaptors that has all the experience executing ERP projects.
Wondering how your upcoming ERP initiative is going to be a success? Let our team help you meet your goals assuring quality throughout the integration operations with rapid change management and advanced test automation support.
Source: ERP Migration Guide
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