Objective
Our client, an engineering, mining services and industrial manufacturing Group, decided to use an industry downturn as an opportunity to address ERP issues, process failings and inconsistencies across their various companies.
Senior management decided that the work they did now would put the business in a better place to take advantage of the eventual upturn.
Their scoped project included consolidating various instances of their primary ERP from multiple databases to one database; and improving and changing the ERP setup and configuration. They wanted to provide consistent Operational and Financial reporting for all the legal entities in the Group. Another key aim was to implement the primary ERP into an older acquisition, where staff had been resisting the change.
We were engaged to develop a plan for all the work – the database merge, the configuration changes and the ERP roll-out. They also asked us to assist with ad-hoc business process assistance, and management of each project within the overall program.
Solution Delivery
- Our first step was to determine the range of projects that we needed to include in the program of works. We facilitated discussions with selected businesses in the group, performing a review and assessment of their current ERP structures. As part of this discussion, we reviewed how their current process fit the overall current and future needs. We did this so that we knew which proposed projects should be included. It also helped us to discover whether any additional tasks or projects were needed. We then documented all our findings in a detailed Recommendation Report.
- The business Senior management agreed to proceed using the tasks laid out in the Recommendations Report. Together, we developed consistent Operational and Financial coding structures, for use across all the legal entities. We recommended which ERP databases they needed to merge; identified the businesses that would benefit from project accounting rectification; and came up with an achievable order of work.
- We prioritised the work for the businesses needing ERP rectification. We positioned the businesses flagged for new ERP implementations to occur later in the program.
- Once we had confirmed the program of works, we gave each project a broad task outline and timeframe. We designed the tasks and timeframes so that they could adapt based on business needs throughout the program of work.
- We then started the schedule of works, delivering each project in the program alongside key business staff.
Achievements
- In conjunction with the businesses, we delivered eighteen different projects within the program of works, ranging from development of new operational and financial reporting code structures; project accounting changes; process streamlining; consolidating or eliminating ERP databases; system program scripting; database software upgrades; implementation of new software modules with business processes; consolidated financial reporting; and investigation of supplementary software systems.
- Through code standardisation and process streamlining, the business were able to get meaningful real time data from the ERP. This meant senior management could get finally get timely financial and operational data, allowing them to make business-critical decisions with confidence in the evidence.
- Project accounting changes allowed the relevant entities to obtain a project by project P&L, helping them to manage and increase margins during difficult times.
- We moved the recalcitrant acquisitions onto the business-wide ERP. This meant that all business entities were reporting and operating consistently. Senior management got full visibility across operations within the ERP.
- We replaced the “functional gap” Excel systems with new ERP functions. This reduced the need to manually reconcile or rekey data, and increased overall accuracy.
- For the first time, the Group had clear and accurate visibility of across-entity Stock holdings.
- We provided clearly-aligned processes and systems. When business improved six months later, our client was in a very strong position. They were able to provide better service to their clients, as well as efficiently and productively manage a much bigger order book.
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