Big Bang – Is the only way to go!!!

Over the years, I have gotten into some of my most passionate discussions with both clients and other project managers about the deployment of an ERP application as a “Phased vs Big Bang” go-live. For the life of me, I can’t understand what people are debating – all ERP projects are Big Bang. Period. Especially from the end-user perspective.

Let me explain why I believe every ERP project is a Big Bang deployment and the fact that when you don’t take this approach you add complexity, cost, and organizational impact perspective that can often result in your overall project becoming a massive failure for your company.

Proponents of the “Phased” deployment approach to ERP go-lives often justify their position by saying that “you can reduce your risk” by limiting the launch of the ERP application to a specific (usually small) number of end-users – but isn’t that hypocritical.

Think about it – you are launching a new ERP application – it never existed before in your organization. You did a full data conversion and cutover; integrated to external vendors, executed a complete communication plan, delivered full training for end-users; introduced a full application support team – and you will have to do this over and over again based on the number of “Phased” deployments that you have decided to go with – 3, 4, 5 times more.

Try telling your internal team that they need to do the cutover process – over and over again – they’ll mutiny. Your implementation partner just hit the lottery because they will be doing cutover/deployment for as long as the implementation and you’re the ones paying them all that money. Your future end-users (where the application hasn’t been deployed) will be building a moat around their offices complete with pitch folks and torches to keep you out; especially if they hear from their collogues that the first deployment was a “train-wreck” and that they “hate the system” – good luck getting them to use the new system.

I can go on, but you get the idea.

However, if you think of launching a new ERP application is like “Moving into a New House” it might make more sense, and this is why I say it must be a “Big Bang” rollout.

Yes, launching a new ERP application can be an incredibly stressful time for your organization (or family), but you “move into your new house” with your whole family - not just adults; or just the males in the household or just the females in the household or just the children move in on their own. That would be ridiculous – part of your family lives in the “New House” and the rest live in the “Old House” – but that is exactly what you are doing when you utilized a “Phased” deployment model.

Some of your employees are using the new system, processes, data, reporting, etc. and the rest are in the old application. Sounds crazy right? Want to kick it to the next level of insanity? Let’s say you’re a Vice President of Human Resources and now you have part of your employee population in the new system and the rest in the old system – How’s that awesome new head court reporting dashboard you got with the new ERP application working out for you? Or worse still, what if employees that report to you are in both systems and now you have to use two different applications to do transactional work – really productive – huh?

Sorry, I know I am coming across as sarcastic; but this is the exact situation that many organizations get themselves into in order to “mitigate the risk associated with a Big Bang go-live”. Your organization has gone through an enormous amount of work to get to this point – requirements definition, application assessment, implementation partner selection, internal project team engagement, project implementation, executive alignment, company communication, end-user training, data conversion and cleansing, post go-live support model and finally the actual Go-Live. To be blunt - companies that utilize the “Phased” deployment model are really saying that they aren’t ready to go live for any employees and if they are in that situation then they should stop the deployment and address the key pillars for success which are causing this apprehension.

In essence – Big Bang Deployments says to your organization – “our system works as designed, our employees are trained, and we know how to support our people when issues arise” – let’s go do our jobs.

My final thought on this topic is that customers shouldn’t be celebrating their project “Go-Live” because if you are truly ready to deploy it should be a “non-event” for your company.

Or said another way -

On Friday you used our old systems and processes to do you job - and on the following Monday you are using our new ERP application and processes and we’re not looking back!!!

Okay – so am I right or wrong – looking forward to hearing your opinions, comments and criticism 😊. Please register or come back soon to read more of JT's Insights.

If you need to do a more extensive review of the difference between deployment scenarios – my team is ready to help you ensure that you are addressing all the pillars of success needed to be completed to make your Big Bang go-live a success. Feel free to contact us and we can discuss the next steps.