THE 5 SINS OF ERP IMPLEMENTATION IN LATIN AMERICA…AND HOW TO AVOID THEM.
1) THE DOOMED PROJECT
Situation: Your company bought an incredibly World-Class-ERP system, and you are in charge of the globalimplementation. You assume legal requirements can be easily met with this powerful tool, and that it is not necessary to spend much time analyzing each location’s main requirements to include the time/resources needed in the rollout plan. Mandatory local needs are seen as just... a “minor detail” . The problem is they can be huge in certain regions, such as Latin America, and, if not considered, they certainly have an significant impact on the time and cost of the project.
This is the most common mistake companies make when deploying their ERP systems to Latin America or Europe. The good news is that general projections can be avoided if the deployment is planned well in advance and you look for the right help in each country. Doing a high-level data gathering for planning doesn’t take long, and there are vendors, such as ITCROSS, who specialize in this type of project, and can help you find out what to expect in each country.
2) GOOD, FAST, CHEAP...PICK TWO.
It is said services and resources in Latin America are cheap…or, at least, cheaper than in other continents. The next step, then, is thinking that the cost of the rollout project is low. But the technology market nowadays has broken boundaries, and good, experienced, bilingual consultants work at global rates. Bear in mind that quality consulting services in Latin America, if cheap, they are not good enough for a global projects with demanding requirements.
Global consultants or vendors can easily prove their global experience and knowledge, and their consulting skills should include understanding the importance of the individual global model when trying to meet the local needs. Their role requires handling business meetings and tasks with the internal ERP team, C-level management, and local users, something difficult to accomplish if you don’t have enough experience.
Our piece of advice here is to find a consulting company with global skills; Big Fours are not the only option. You can always check credentials with other customers. Working with them from the planning stage is the best you can do to prevent future project delays.
3) PLAN VERSUS REALITY
I’ve seen many times in Latin America internal project managers under high-pressure trying to achieve milestones on time, when the issue is that the budgeted plan was unrealistic. The plan is initially made and approved without considering local requirements, huge tax integrations, extensive electronic or statutory reporting, but once the project has started, milestones are not moved, and inevitably delays show up.
It is tilting at windmills: if we are implementing the ERP in a complex region, with requirements that affect the global model, we can’t expect it to be simple or quick. We need to consider that complexity when doing the budget; otherwise, pointing fingers at the project management making comments like “now everything will take longer than planned” is cruel and not entirely true.
How can ITCROSS help with this point? Our team is available from the earliest planning and budgeting phase. It is a pleasure for us to share with you our experience and knowledge about each country. Our main interest is that you can have a successful project, so we consider that all the information we have, although it is not what was expected, is valuable for fixing plans before it is too late.
4) THE 9-MONTH-BABY THEORY
If it takes 9 months to make a baby…you need 9 months…not less.
Business objectives are not always aligned with the proper time required for committing to a good project. I get it; this is usual and understandable many times: business is fast-paced.
The issue is that nobody is used to explaining to the C-level the consequences of moving forward with impossible plans, or the many alternatives that do exist in order to reach the business goals but not die trying in the meantime or wasting millions doing things over and over again.
You can always implement a project in phases, reducing the initial scope to something doable. Countries in Latin America mean diverse challenges, and most of them even when they share the same language, have very different local requirements. The point is that project duration and cost depend on the country, and there’s not much you can do about it. Brazil is always a long project. Mexico used to be a simple implementation years ago, but now there are many laws to comply with, such as Electronic Invoice and Electronic Accounting, which have added a lot of workload to the old plan. Panama has fewer requirements in comparison to Brazil or Mexico, and so on. ITCROSS can help you with the budget and time calculation, as well as with the project preparation and internal explanations, for everybody to be aligned with the plan before it starts.
5) SMOKE AND MIRRORS
Smoke and mirrors exist in the technology business. We all know that, and Latin America is not an exception. You will hear the software does absolutely everything you need, or you can do a big bang in three months, or that Latin America is a piece of cake, that a customization will solve it all... and then you are bound to the vendor forever. Vendors tend to tell what you would like to hear.
Transparency is not underrated at ITCROSS. We meet the local needs, but always taking into account the global model and the standardization of our customer needs. We develop configurable solutions that will cut future maintenance costs instead of “Frankenstein” customizations. We want our customer to be independent, and call us for the next project.
Your global project is our passion.
