3 posts tagged “project”

An important part of our projects here at Neustro, when implementing ERP such as Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, is a focus on communications. Internal channels to the stakeholders within a business and external communication to customers and suppliers.

For this blog I’d like to talk about internal communications. Regardless of the size of your project it is good to get a communication plan in place and to ensure that it is appropriate, viable and sustainable. In kick-off communications try to ensure that you explain the purpose of the project without using too much jargon. Also make sure that the importance of the ERP project is put across well – yes it can change the way you do business and it can be challenging. But don’t fall into hyperbole and over-blow the projects importance. The business still has to run and serve its customers today: that’s the most important thing.

Try and ensure that the communication plan is sensible in terms of your ability to deliver it – don’t let it consume too much valuable time or resources. Even though it’s marketing, it’s marketing to an internal market, save the money for high quality output for your external audience. The chances are there will be nervousness about the project within the organisation anyway, spending money on perceived ‘showiness’ won’t endear you to your future users.

And finally make sure that it is sustained. As ERP projects continue and everyone is working hard on actually delivering the solution the communication plan can often fall by the wayside. Turning up from the ‘forgotten project’ with a go-live plan only two weeks away will make people more nervous than necessary if they perceive you haven’t been ‘in touch’ with the business for many months.

In ERP implementation projects that are multi-country everyone involved is keen to make the implementation a success – it’s just that different national cultures determine the way that success is achieved. Understanding some basic differences between how different nationalities react to situations can certainly help you overcome barriers to success.

There are four key areas where significant differences in approach can affect your project. Firstly, there is the hierarchical nature of the society. This means that in some societies decision making is a process that can be made quickly because there is little distance between the bosses and the ‘doers’ and decisions made will be supported whereas in some societies there is a strict hierarchy and it is likely you will not have the decision makers in a room.

If you are used to the decision making process in the UK you may find yourself frustrated by the one in Poland – they are very different. The second key trait is how success is viewed within the society. The old saying ‘work to live or live to work’ is important. The French for instance will ensure that the project progresses on a consensual basis wanting to gain agreement from all stakeholders whereas the British will be more inclined to make a decision – right or wrong. Thirdly, how individualistic a nation is can affect the approach to implementation projects. The British tend to be highly individualistic by comparison to, say the Portuguese (excepting Jose Morhinho). So, for instance, relationships will be more important than tasks and this can impact the progress of a project. Finally, avoiding uncertainty and ambiguity is another societal trait that can demonstrate areas of difference to a project approach. The British can live with uncertainty and ambiguity in the hope that things will sort out later whereas Germans are very keen to have all decisions made before progression.

Don’t mistake what I am saying here. There is no ‘better’ approach. Each nation brings many different values to your project but also can impact that project in many ways. If you are involved in multi-national projects and implementations it is wise to gain an understanding of the different cultures involved as it will certainly help you avoid conflict and frustration.

Name your ERP project carefully. Over the many years of being involved in ERP projects I have come across many titles and names for them. Here are some of my favourites: Project Bacchus. Named after the Roman god of wine. Why? Well it seemed like a good idea at the time. It gained a new resonance when the expenses started rolling in for the project team who happened to be staying at a hostelry famous in its parts for its food, and wine. It is even rumoured that the project launch presentation laid down the challenge to the business ‘Bacchus or sack us’.

Choosing less florid titles can also lead to some interesting outcomes. At one company they decided to name their project IBS, for Integrated Business System. The name was later changed when the kick off meeting, which took place in a local hotel, had several of the business stakeholders turning up in the wrong function room. They sat and listened to the background of IBS. Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Some companies take a more structured approach in setting a theme for project naming conventions. One theme used was landmarks. Some of the letters of the alphabet were easy such as Danube for D, Everest for E etc. Some letters were more difficult – and for Q the alleged Chinese river of Quinshenshang (though trying to research it now I get no matches on Google). The rumour was that the project sponsor was disliked by the IT department and so gave it this name to annoy him. However he soon dispensed with the effort of having to say the name over and over again by simply referring to it as project ‘Q’. They succeeded in annoying him all the same by stepping one project name backwards for his next venture by naming his project after another river, ‘Po’.

When we are involved in our Microsoft Dynamics AX implementation projects here at Neustro we normally arrive too late in the process to influence the naming. Except where we had to insist that an implementation project was renamed as it was international in nature. The UK had given a great deal of thought to their project name and had settled on ‘Speed’. This was duly dropped when it became clear that ‘Speed’ in Swedish is ‘Fart’.