What if you could gain peace of mind that your new ERP implementation project would be well documented, accurately estimated and your team felt secure, comfortable and prepared to face the project? All of that can happen with an Enterprise Process Review from Stoneridge Software.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”

You wouldn’t show up for the Super Bowl without a tailored game plan. And you certainly wouldn’t show up without preparing your team for the big game. Likewise, you shouldn’t kick off your software implementation project without a thorough analysis of your business and its processes.

It isn’t every day that organizations change business software. Deployment of a new ERP or CRM solution is a significant investment of time and money. And the most successful and affordable projects begin with a plan that focuses on your business processes. Anything short of a well-documented Current and Future State plan is simply a plan to fail. An EP Review is the essential fabric used to craft a successful deployment strategy.

What is an Enterprise Process Review?

An Enterprise Process Review (EP Review) is a collaborative process between our team of expert consultants and your team of department heads and key personnel. This exercise allows us to both understand and document your current day-to-day processes and any pain points associated with those, as well as what improvements you would want to realize from the implementation of a new business solution. This collaborative initiative is a bi-directional analysis with your business process owners, by department, to fully understand what your day-to-day process requirements are.

What is the goal?

The goal of an EP Review is to gain a broad understanding of all of the processes that make your business function. We go in-depth into your most important processes, gathering insight into the challenges they face daily. This helps us to prioritize efforts, quantify solution gaps, and determine the best fit within the proposed solution. It also allows our consultants an opportunity to challenge paradigms and recommend where efficiencies can be gained in accordance with your goals.

An EP Review helps to construct a meaningful and well-documented strategy involving all parties, so everyone understands their responsibilities. This helps ensure the most successful effort and the highest return on your investment.

Who gets involved?

Participants would include your business process owners by department to review the pain points you’re experiencing today and what goals you hope to achieve from the solution moving forward. This also helps to identify key risks and/or opportunities, while at the same time understand the scope, budget, pivotal project considerations. Your team members most likely to be engaged in an EP Review include Finance, Operations and IT. Sales, Marketing, and HR may also engage in specific departmental discussions.

Key EP Review deliverables

Once an EP Review is completed, you’ll get an EP Review Summary that includes your “current state” and “future state” processes with fit assessment and/or recommendations. You will also receive a preliminary project plan, a conceptual schedule (GANTT chart – including phase recommendations). Also included in the summary is an outline of client responsibilities and partner responsibilities, so you know beforehand the potential scope and level of effort to deploy.

Once complete, the EP Review is a document or a game plan that can stand on its own. This is an extremely valuable asset for your organization, your team, and the partner you decide to move forward with to implement the new business application.

Here’s a breakdown of EP Review components:

  • Company Process Documentation (current and future state)
    • Overview
    • Fit/Gaps
    • Third party software (ISV)
    • Integrations
  • Project management plan established
    • Schedule
    • Tools
    • Meeting cadence
    • Status and budget reporting
    • Scope management plan
  • Project team/roster established
  • High level solution environment plan
  • High level data migration plan

What is the value to you?

Risk reduction, a tangible overview of documented processes, and in a word – comfort, because at the end of this exercise you have a complete vision on how to tackle this project. A challenge many face when evaluating a software implementation project is how much effort will be required, both from the client and the partner. An EP Review removes any guesswork and outlines a strategy for combined success.

This collaborative effort gathers the necessary details up front to ensure you are making a well-informed choice for your business, recognizing inefficiencies, establishing success criteria and providing a plan and to ensure a transformative outcome.

An EP Review provides you with:

  • Risk reduction. If you go through the EP Review, uncertainty is mitigated and you gain peace of mind moving forward with your project
  • Less fear of the unknown. An EP Review provides a clear picture of your potential project and a clear path to successful completion
  • A preview of product expertise in the solution you are considering