Avoid the confusion – join Drive Fusion!

The market is screaming out for a social media site which allows and encourages people to talk to each other socially and professionally. We are at the beginning of a social media phenomenon and there will be many changes to come in the future. Some issues are obvious and can be addressed early. Others will be fixed later during shakedowns. Drive Fusion appeals to business and professional people who want to socialise, communicate and collaborate with their peers without the annoyance of spammers and noise.

There are a number of issues with the most popular social media sites. Those issues are either about the site policy, performance or the functionality. People have to communicate in order to build those relationships. But there are too many spammers and too much noise on sites. There is too much emphasis on technology rather than the needs of users. The ability to connect with the right people is restrictive and often requires payment. The allowed number of connections or invitations are restricted on sites. The messages length is often limited by sites too. The most popular sites are so big and growing so quickly, that performance is often slow and frustrating.
Lots of connections are of little value in themselves. So how do we nurture relationships? There are several main ways of developing relationships with your connections, friends and followers.

• Ask them questions. People like to help. Use ‘Answers’ on LinkedIn and ask open questions in groups and fan pages or tweet your question openly or directly.
• Become a ‘thought leader’ and blog your views, ideas and vision. You will get responses.
• Always be personal in your communication. Use your own name, photo and profile.
• Be consistent on social media sites – same name, profile, photo and professionalism on each site.
• Ask connections how you can help them.
• Get to know people ask them for help! People like to help others! Later as the relationship develops you can ask for referrals and business.
• Use bridge strategies to ease your connections ultimately to your website. Send them first to your blog, group or fan pages.

Drive Fusion is a communication and collaboration site for business and professional people who wish to communicate and collaborate socially and professionally. All invitations are sent to recommended people to ensure spammers are excluded always. Users are encouraged to connect easily and get to know each other. Unsolicited pitching or spamming is outlawed. It is designed to encourage momentum in your communications and has the following exciting features:

• Real time communication
• Create & manage groups
• Cross posting to Twitter
• Track topics
• File sharing
• Long posts
• Highly scalable
• Reporting & statistics
• Add external feeds
• Target messages to individuals, groups or everyone
• Invite users
• Shrink url
• Help & Support team
• Updates via email, IM, MMS and SMS
• Applications connections
• Top class present.ly platform by the award winning Intridea team

Drive Fusion is brought to you by the Drive ERP - http://www.driveerp.com/ and Drive Social Media - http://www.drive-social-media.com/ teams and their 20,000+ connections will be invited to Drive Fusion soon.

Business and professional communities and individuals are welcome to join Drive Fusion.
See you soon!
http://drivefusion.presentlyapp.com/

It’s all about Fusion...

The starting point for any successful social media marketing or collaboration campaign is strategy development. Many questions need to be asked and answered by brainstorming. Some of the key questions include:

• What are the attributes of your best customers?
• Define your brand in terms of the target’s view
• What is it that your brand is / does?
• What is it that you do?
• What is in it for me? (Prospect view)
• SWOT Analysis
• What triggers Customers decisions to buy?
• Define Your Partners
• Who are my competitors?
• How do I measure return on investment?
• What is my sales process?
• Where are my customers?
• Where are my prospective business partners?
• How can we collaborate?

After answering these questions, setting objectives and developing a plan it is time for action. There are many social media marketing tools available and it is important to utilise the most effective and efficient ones. I would suggest the following for starters:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• You Tube
• Blogging
• Niche sites

It is important to understand the nature of each tool and its strengths and weaknesses.

Twitter is a microblogging site limiting tweets to 2 or 3 sentences. It has over 20 million users and growing quickly. It is easy to find customers and business partners, as well as joining in conversations. The functionality is limited and the noise and spamming restricts it severely.

LinkedIn is a business professional networking site with about 50 million users. Customers and business partners can be found in groups. Spammers are kept out and the functionality is improving. Building a network is somewhat slow and communications restricted between users.

Facebook has over 350 million users and is growing at half a million per day. It is a ‘business casual’ site and allows users to personalise their business using fan pages. Users can also join groups to help their search for customers and business partners. All profiles are searchable and spreading messages is easy and effective. Facebook has strict terms of service which they enforce seriously. Although it has text chat boxes it is extremely slow at times.

You Tube is the last of the ‘Big 4’. It is a very powerful site for personalising your business with 75 million views per month. Users can have their own channel, load their own and favourite videos, and because You Tube is owned by Google there is a very positive move up the search engine rankings quickly. It’s free and users can even load MS Powerpoint presentations. There is no communication or collaboration tool.

Blogging is a very powerful way to personalise your business. It also enables you to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Blogs should be posted on a regular basis and not too long. They appear quickly in search engine rankings. They are ideal bridges between connecting and directing prospects to your website. Although blogging sites allow comments from readers, blogging tends to be one way communication.

There are over 600 niche social media sites. The easiest way to find one to suit a use is a Google search for ‘keyword’ and ‘social networking’. It is advisable to join only 2 or 3 of these niche sites due to time constraints. These sites are a bit more focused but again communication is slow and this limits collaboration possibilities.

To be successful in exploiting social media tools to attract customers and business partners; and to improve communications and collaboration internally in organisations a systematic approach works best. Begin with developing a strategy followed by establishing a presence on each social media site. Then expand your reach by increasing your following and friends on all sites. A target of 100 new connections per week is easily achievable. Large numbers of connections are of little value in themselves. It is vital to then nurture relationships with speedy and effective communication and collaboration. Finally, once the system is working, it is important to maintain it with good time management and good tools to achieve efficiency.

The weakest link currently is in nurturing relationships. The social networking sites communication tools are often slow, cumbersome and in the case of Twitter full of noise and spammers. Online communities need real time communication tools for users and effective collaboration tools to allow file sharing, long posts, embedded videos, longer posts, built in searching, safety and security, reporting and statistics and highly scalable and much more.....

Both real and virtual online communities can then nurture relationships improving communications, collaboration, lead generation, sales, product development, team working, project success, and customer service.

I’ve just found that tool I’m delighted to announce ....more soon on ‘Drive Fusion’.

Continues soon...

http://www.DriveERP.com
http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

ERP Customers Rule OK?

Recently I blogged about how people drive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to success. The tools that leverage superior people performance in turn can enhance the business performance of ERP systems in an organisation. The social phenomenon known as social media marketing can play an important part in ERP performance in the future. Let’s see it from the customer / user perspective.

The social media marketing ‘Big 4’ of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and You Tube together with blogs, websites and intranet pages offer the following possible benefits for ERP customers / users:

• Promoting your site or business
• Improved marketing, PR and customer service
• Powerful strategy to gain connections & knowledge
• Conversations with vendors and ERP experts directly
• Conversations with other ERP customers/ users
• Easy searching of ERP vendors and experts
• Easy searching of other ERP customers/users
• Groups sharing best practises and knowledge
• Personalisation - find people you know, like & trust
• Cost effective marketing solutions
• Obtaining recommendations & references
• Online business meetings
• Intranet pages for ERP user communities
• Ask questions and ask for help

The key objectives for all ERP systems should be:

• Automating processes - achieving cost savings
• Informing stakeholders (reporting) - effective information for competitive advantage
• Educating users and managers - to utilise the full potential of ERP systems
• Transforming the way business is done - use ERP systems to change for the better

Organisations which fail to maximise the potential of ERP systems display similar problems such as heavy customizations, a lack of planning and management, disgruntled users, ad hoc ancillary systems in MS Excel and MS Access, an array of reporting tools, problematic interfaces and are often IT driven. There is a big hole between the users and the applications team in IT. Much disappears down it....

Could it be that just like people, ERP systems need behaviours and attributes to drive them to success? I believe even in successful ERP implementations the Go Live is the half way mark at best.

So what are the drivers for ERP performance success?

In my experience I would suggest the following:

• Actually Managing Oracle Applications
• Successful Change Management
• Leading a Support Team
• Measuring Success and Value for Money
• Data and Information Management
• Customers and Collaboration
• Reporting and Business Intelligence
• Empowerment and Super Users
• Change Control and Value for Money
• Project Management Kept Simple
• Process Improvement

So how can the features, tools and strategies of social media marketing support these drivers? Well a little brainstorming suggests the following.

The search and selection of ERP vendors can be supported by finding and conversing with the vendors’ existing customers about the suitability of their solution. The recruitment of ERP staff and contractors follows the same line.

There should be greater visibility of both ERP strategy and business ownership of ERP systems in the organisation. Greater personalisation and visibility will enable companies to become demand-driven ERP users rather than supply-driven.

Successful change management can be supported by more informal and rapid communications of visions, strategies, online training, online presentations, conversations, and the publication of short term wins. The team can be fired up by a leadership alliance and team of change agents both visible and consistent in their messages.

An effective support team can be enhanced by joining online communities on social media sites around their ERP system. They can listen to their users daily about their pain points. Support updates, training tips and system downtimes can be communicated by text or video. They should use Intranet forms for support service requests ensuring requests reach support analysts almost immediately.

Both technical and business performance can be measured, published, discussed, and improved using online communities. Such communities can undertake their own benchmarking initiatives covering ROI, service requests, customer analysis, efficiency analysis, change requests and the efficiency and effectiveness of ongoing training provision including online delivery.

Business process, data and information management best practises can also be published and discussed in social media groups and intranet pages.

It is so important to clearly define your customers and users. Then collaborate with these colleagues in organisations using engagement models and custodianship models. These define clearly and consistently engagements, roles, responsibilities, duties etc. Using social media tools can enhance communications and teamwork especially between the business and IT.

ERP Reporting and Business Intelligence are minefields which again need the collaboration of the business and IT. The healthier and more personalised this relationship it will surely improve the chances of clearly defining requirements and jointly seeking optimal solutions from vendors.

ERP Super Users can enhance their teamwork, training and education using social media tools. This should help fill the hole between IT and the business. There are many resources available out there to be consumed, discussed and shared in their communities. Their customers including users, managers, auditors and other stakeholders can join in these conversations.

Organisations can improve change request control and securing value for money processes by increasing visibility and inviting rapid feedback from all functional analysts and business colleagues too.

Project management can be kept simple and more effective by building relationships between all stakeholders; and using online meetings and social media tools to enhance communications, project reporting, asking for help, mitigating risks and fixing issues.

Social media marketing is about personalisation - people talking to each other and nurturing relationships. People working and doing business with those they know, like and trust too. There is greater participation, openness and willingness to help. There are many tools which can be utilised such as forums, groups, fan pages, profile searches, recommendations etc.

Organisations need to have a social media strategy which leverages the benefits and mitigates the security and PR risks; and manages changing relationships with vendors. The costs of social media marketing are a fraction of the potential rewards.

There are real cost savings out there to be gained from improved ERP selection, recruitment of resources, and fiercer and fairer competition between ERP vendors. A highly motivated IT and business alliance can leverage the drivers of ERP performance and drive greater value from ERP systems.

Continued soon...

www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

Out of the Chaos

The social media marketing revolution is rising slowly out of the chaos reigning on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. If you thought the internet was always a minefield of dubious quality resources to help your your business then try these social media sites. Over 300 million subscribers are scrambling about these sites, self educating and doing what the internet never really allowed before. People are talking to each other.

And better still their contributions are welcome too. On personal and professional platforms there is openness. There is a huge amount of information available to subscribers and a whole range of subjects. People are connecting with each other on one or more sites. It’s happening on Twitter for micro-blogging, Facebook at a personal or business casual level and LinkedIn at a more formal business level. YouTube brings people to life using video. There are many more niche sites too.

So how can all of this activity help me in the ERP world or you in your business? Social media marketing with the right strategies will: positively promote your business; support effectively your marketing, PR and customer service efforts; generate increased website traffic; generate connections and attention globally; and ultimately bring leads for your products and services.

Those who use online social networks are three times more likely to trust the opinion of others in their network than traditional advertising when it comes down to making a decision about a purchase. It’s all about knowing people and people knowing you too. It’s about personalisation.

I’ve built a network of 13,000 professional connections, a 1200+ member professional ERP group, researched and trained in this new social phenomenon for the past year. I’m taking on clients in the IT sector and more. I am loving it!

Continued soon...

www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

Seller Beware!

I was at the back of the queue when they were handing out mobile telephones. In fact, I wasn’t even in the queue... My first one was thrust upon me by a rather insistent Czech lady Martina who told me I had to have it to do my job as a project manager. After a little training and a lot of anxiety I learned how to make and receive calls. Then I worked out how to send text messages. Ten years later I have progressed little.

My problem was I didn’t want the mobile phone. I couldn’t see the benefits. I thought it was going to cost me money and a lot of anxiety, especially if I lost it. In this case I had to take it but often in hard sell situations my resistance is total and formidable. No insurance, car or real estate salesperson is going to force me to buy something that I don’t want and many of you surely are the same.

Because when I am looking to spend my hard earned (relatively) dollars I want to be treated with courtesy, honesty and respect. In fact I like to buy from people who I like and trust too. It matters not if it’s a personal or professional purchase.

There is a global social revolution taking place all around us which is impacting how we will buy products and services in the future. It’s chaos at the moment and many people don’t understand how it works and its implications. This time I’m at the forefront of change and loving it.

It’s time for buyer power – bring on the social media marketing revolution!

Continued soon....

www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

Time for a change...

I never thought I could be comfortably associated with an industry so littered with stories of failure. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems have been implemented and supported globally for all sizes of organisations in the public and private sectors. Various pieces of research indicate the satisfaction rates of customers and key users is around the 40% mark. The remainder are not getting the expected value from their ERP systems.

Now logically it is possible to achieve satisfaction with ERP systems because 40% of organisations are doing so. So where do organisations go wrong? There are several components to successful ERP systems including: effective leadership and management; quality project and support teams; managing customer expectations; standardising and streamlining business processes; measuring performance and value for money; effective ERP reporting; empowerment; business ownership; and tight change request control. Probably the most important component is business change management.

Traditionally, change management around ERP applications projects means:

• Communicating features and benefits of the new system
• Training, education, and external information programmes
• New organisational structures, policies, and procedures
• Monitoring and evaluating the organisation's performance

But this is not the whole change picture. There are 8 reasons for failure of change programmes,

• Too self complacent before and after ERP implementation
• No effective leadership alliance
• Lack of a vision and strategy
• Ineffectively communicating the vision
• Barriers to the new vision - people, structure, culture etc.
• Lack of immediate progress
• Complacency returns
• Change is not embedded in the organisation's culture

Of course, we need to know how to combat these reasons for failure and deliver effective and successful change management around ERP systems.

Winning the Change Game

Here is a framework for effecting successful change management around ERP systems:

• Firing up the Team - Create a sense of urgency and crisis. ERP systems are a source of competitive advantage. You need stretch ERP targets and accountabilities including business ownership at executive level.

• Leaders on and off the pitch - Create from the powerful and influential and make them visible. Especially at executive level across all functional areas. This will inspire the project and support teams including third parties.

• A Vision of Glory - Make the vision feasible, desirable, focused and flexible. Define where you will be in 1, 5 and 10 years time leveraging all the potential benefits of your ERP system. Including competitive advantage, automation, quality delivery of business information and enabling change in how business is done.

• Roaring on the Team - A simple message using many channels with leaders setting an example. Communicate continuously and clearly the vision.

• Battling and Dominating - Align systems and the organisation to the vision, and deal with troublesome managers and other barriers to success.

• Goals - Celebrate and communicate all short term wins.

• More pressure! More goals! - Create more change, more success and more leaders.

• The Winning Mentality - Make successful change part of the culture.

In an increasingly competitive world, organisations must leverage all the potential benefits of their ERP systems. The days of ERP implementations being the responsibility of the IT function and third party vendors are drawing to a close. As are the days of technology driving change rather than the needs of the business. A more embracing, dynamic, business-driven, people- oriented change management process will make a significant contribution to future ERP successes.

It’s time for a change...

www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

The KMA strategy for dealing with SBs

I had to laugh when I read extracts from Adrian Maile’s book: Secret Habits of Successful Bastards. It’s a self help book for those wishing to be successful but who are too nice. Adrian has many tips on how to be an SB on his LinkedIn group including some of my favourites:

• Make mountains out of molehills
• Be confrontational
• Expect the unachievable
• Put people down
• Change the rules to suit you

No doubt many of you recognise these characteristics from people you have worked with or worked for in the past. To get to the top it seems you have to trample over everyone in your way, act in a nauseating manner and slide knives in many backs.

The choice appears to be either adopt these behaviours and succeed in your chosen career; or stay a nice guy or girl, and never hit the dizzy heights.

In reality, we have all worked for successful people who were to also nice people. I can think of at least six bosses I admired, respected and liked from my past. However, it is the SBs who stand out especially if they have had a detrimental effect on our careers or even our lives.

So what are the deep rooted issues with these SBs that cause these behaviours? In my humble opinion, many SBs share the following afflictions:

• Incompetence - usually struggling academically and professionally
• Boring and Friendless - all they can talk about is themselves and work
• Bullies - abusing the power of their position and ruling by fear
• Spineless bosses - incapable or unwilling to bring these SBs into line

A man once said to me: ‘Never underestimate anyone .....and never overestimate anyone either.’ The latter stuck with me and over the years I have realised that SBs like all bullies are selfish and cowardly - so hit them hard when you can...even little acts of rebellion can upset them.

A few strategies to keep them awake at night:

• Find their past screw-ups and inefficiencies - let them know you know
• Use FACTS not EMOTIONS - easier to gain support with facts
• Take out grievances for poor management style
• Argue the toss forever about the SB’s appraisal of yourself
• Socialise often with colleagues causing the SB to get paranoid
• Refer to the ‘autocratic culture’ often of your department
• Send up great reports and ideas to the boss of the SB’s boss
• Join staff associations, trade unions etc.
• Use company communications to promote work / life balance, anti stress, progressive policies etc.

Winning is distressing these SBs by exposing them as sad, limited, lonely individuals who despite the wonderful challenges and opportunities in life struggle to be ‘successful’ employing 100% of their energy on an activity which should consume less than 30% of your entire life. Work to live and widen the scope of ‘success’ to embrace family, friends, interests, travel and great personal challenges.

Don’t expect to change or beat the SBs at their sad game. Don’t worry about it either. Find a job with a nice boss or nice colleagues and leave them in the mire as much as (legally) possible before you depart their workplace.

This is the Kiss My A**e strategy.

How do you fare on the Bastardometer?

http://www.successful-bastards.com/bastardometer.aspx

The case for ERP Super Users

The case for ERP Super Users: If you are in a hole - stop digging!

I mention it because in these recessionary times companies are focused on delivering more efficient services in the ERP world. Their proposals usually require investment and often meet resistance. When the resistance is from senior managers it is all the more challenging...

I can think of no bigger weakness generally in the ERP world than the big hole between IT (Applications) and the Business - the home of lost ideas, issues, duties, roles, responsibilities, tasks, deliverables, improvements, productivity, solutions, resources, policies, communications etc. Once a system goes live, often the momentum for improvement disappears with it. The spark then lies with the Business for further improvements but they are constrained by a lack of knowledge about ERP systems. The answer to filling in the big hole is...ERP Super Users.

Identify, select, develop and empower key business users who have an aptitude and passion for your ERP system. ERP systems are enterprise systems and should be driven and owned by the Business and not by the technologists. ERP Super Users should strive to support and satisfy four objectives:

- Automation of business processes to improve productivity
- Information to enable better decision making
- Education of best practises and developments around ERP
- Transformation of how to do business using ERP as an enabler

An ERP Super User is a role within a job. It is not time consuming but the benefits can be huge. The ERP knowledge combined with the functional knowledge is a powerful combination. It is also a lot cheaper option than additional IT (Apps) resources or expensive external consultants.

So how can they fill in that hole? These are the key activities which can be undertaken by ERP Super Users that will drive greater value from your ERP system:

• Business Process - manager of the business processes for selected area. Working with IT (Apps) team to promote further automation and process streamlining

• Module owner / manager - controls access to own functional modules

• Change agent - a positive and active force for change programmes around ERP

• Educator - updating colleagues at all levels on the further capabilities, updates and potential of the ERP system

• Training - consulted on implementation training plans and ongoing training for current and new users

• Solutions - leading Business side and jointly delivering with IT (Apps) a cost benefit analysis for all significant spending on ERP

• Engagement model - regular meeting with appropriate levels on the IT (Apps) team to fix issues and planning around ERP

• Housekeeping - assuring housekeeping routines and data quality standards maintenance

• Custodianship model - supporting the clarity of roles and responsibilities of the Business side and IT (Apps) side in the ERP space

• Intranet Site - championing continuous improvement in the use of ERP and communicating updates to users

• Rapid reaction - coordinates the Business side on serious incidents and extraordinary requirements

• SMEs - Subject Matter Experts for the implementation team and for upgrades and major enhancements

• Support System - 1st line support and monitors active support tickets and expedites

• Super User group - member of the functional Super User Group

• Reporting - working closely with the IT (Apps) team to meet functional reporting needs in the most cost effective way and controlling access to reporting tools

ERP Super Users combine their applications skills with business expertise in a cost effective way to drive greater value from Enterprise Resource Planning systems. They are a shining example of empowerment in an organisation. Once the big hole is filled in, it’s time to start building on secure ground.
A natural evolution is the formation of functional Super User Groups.

www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann

Howdy Partner

If she said it once she said it 10 times....”I’m a customer and this isn’t good enough.”

It was early days and I had been warned...but my blood pressure was rising. The ‘evidence’ was turned out on the table. It was like a legal battle...the whole history, dates, places, statements, escalations, disappointments etc. It went back years and it was all very fascinating but hardly relevant to me - the new kid on the block. I wanted to know what the issues were now and if I could help. Her attitude was poor and on par with her competence.

It was one of those rare occasions when I led the ERP applications team in a meeting with a senior manager from the business side and despite our best efforts, it was impossible to make it in anyway a productive meeting.

There were a number of factors which I had quickly gleaned that would prevent this lady leaving the meeting entirely satisfied.

Firstly, her demands were totally unreasonable in terms of resourcing them.

Secondly, her proposed solutions were highly inefficient or unworkable.

Thirdly, she had managed her functional area side for more than 5 years and it was a mess.

Fourthly, after a few chats with people I realised that many user tasks were being performed by my own team. That would change.

Fifthly, there was a record of the lady going outside IT and ERP applications support to implement an array of inefficient application and reporting tools.

She was out of control and the executive had done little to redress the situation in the interests of the organisation. Politics ruled not professionalism.

But what really riled me was the statement that she was a ‘customer’. In fact, she was a manager in the same organisation as me. It seemed only IT had ‘customers’. The other functional areas were not suppliers as we were, although HR did have business partners which seemed very positive.

The ‘customer’ philosophy applied to those receiving services from the IT department. It also included the whole array of service delivery managers, customer support, liaison people etc. etc. None of whom added any real value and often promised what they themselves could not deliver. It was chaos and those who ranted the most got a bigger slice of the cake. IT project managers were reduced to order takers. There was no partnership. It wasn’t even customer service as is applied to ‘real customers’. It was pure servility.

It is so important to clearly define your customers. They will have a big impact on your ERP systems performance as they consume your resources. So what is the traditional view of a customer?

• Consumer of your goods and services

• They pay for your goods or services

• They are able to choose other suppliers

• Unprofitable or troublesome customer relationships can be terminated

• There is a legal agreement

In an enterprise-wide system the only group that would fit the criteria as customers are those at the executive level. They are as near as possible to real external customers. Senior and middle managers do not have the enterprise view or responsibility - yet can often cause strains on ERP resources and performance.

The so called internal ‘customers’ can exert an undue influence on the ERP applications teams. The system can become inefficient, yet the responsibility is totally blurred in the chaos. Internal customer demands are rarely scrutinised and override organisational needs. Customisations are many and costly. ERP resources are misused and sometimes abused by ‘customers’. And the latter can make decisions around technology and service provision about which they know little.

If you are not a customer then you are a user, albeit you may be very senior in your organisation. Users can be supported professionally and it should not matter whether they come from within or outside your organisation.

Especially in large organisations it is important the right ERP project and/or support team members meet the right business users at the right levels in the same organisation. The frequency, content and reporting of those meeting should be pitched at the appropriate levels. Action points rather than minutes should be the output. Set up an Engagement Model to deliver it all.

A Custodianship Model defines roles, responsibilities, duties, and relationships between the applications team, the users, all levels of management, Super Users and other stakeholders. Without it - chaos reigns.

Some of the key principles of a Custodianship Model internally should include:

• Overall priority is the interests of organisation
• Equal partners in all dealings – a parity of esteem
• Business Partner analysis evaluates services and costs for each partner
• Escalation to IT senior managers and Business Partner senior managers
• ERP team challenges all Business Partner requirements for value for money
• Exploitation of ERP modules via ERP Super User Groups
• Joint work delivering efficiency savings
• Reciprocal services afforded to ERP team by Business Partners
• Agreed Code of Conduct
• Business Partners own business processes and controls
• ERP teams implement and maintain agreed controls in ERP modules
• Business Partners authorise access to their modules
• ERP teams grant and monitor that access
• Business Partners own the application data
• ERP teams monitor and report on data quality
• ERP teams are custodians & managers of live ERP applications
• ERP team authority is delegated from the executive via the IT Senior Leadership Team
• All actions are aimed at benefiting the whole of the organisation
• Reporting Strategy – constant agenda item for partnership meetings

A mature, professional and ultimately beneficial relationship can arise from a well defined internal Custodianship Model. People know their roles and responsibilities. IT, ERP and business resources do what they do best and collaborate on areas that require partnership with other stakeholders.

The organisation is the winner and the cowboys can ride off into the sunset ...

www.DriveERP.com

http://twitter.com/John_McGrann