Standardization – What is required?
Standardization helps large ERP implementations to streamline their business processes and data which helps achieve operations efficiency by reducing the solution variability and achieving data consistency. On the long run this will help reduce the implementation / maintenance time and cost, especially in large organizations where the solution is rolled out to multiple locations and Companies.
Organizations acknowledge to the fact that Standardization helps the ERP implementations and lately have started including a Standards Board in the Project / Program structure to define, implement, retrofit and make sure there is adherence to standards by periodic reviews.
Following are some of the key questions that need to be answered before setting up a standards board:
What need to be defined as a Standard?
Only the process or data which is global in nature need to be standardized and there should be a benefit identified for each standard proposed. Standardization can be driven by Industry standards, Package process / upgrades, Organization level initiatives, Compliance requirements, etc. There should be a thorough review of the Standard proposed for the Objective (long term and short term), impact to business because of its implementation, benefits identified, score card to measure these benefits and plan to implement.
What should be the composition of Standards board team?
Ideally Standards board needs to comprise of a good mix of Subject Matter Experts, Package Consultants, Change Management Champions and Program Management Office.
For what duration Standards board need to be planned?
Standards can evolve throughout the length of the project this varies by Organization to Organization on how much Standardization is required and how they want to implement Standards (all at once or in phases). Typically they start heavy (Full time) during pre implementation and go light (Part time) in post go live phase.
How the Standards are are defined / revised and communicated?
Typically Standards are published in word, ppt or PDF formats, posted in a SharePoint or intranet website. Audience will be the implementation teams, core and extended team members and in some case even the key users. All these documents are revision controlled for any changes. Communication of standards happens with as simple as sending a mail, having a conference call, or as complex as having a workshop on any new standard or any revision for existing standard.
How is a new Standard implemented?
Impact of implementing any Standard need to be document and approved by all parties concerned to go ahead and implement the Standard. There can be some Standards evolved after an implementation and a retrofit project need to be planned for bringing the exiting process / data in compliance with new standards. In both scenarios a dedicated team or a project is setup to implement the Standard.
How to track compliance to Standards?
Typically review of Standards is conducted by Standards board at different phases of the implementation like CRP (Conference Room Pilot) or SIT (System Integration Testing). After review a report will be published and the implementation team notified on any deviation and an action plan is discussed to make the changes to comply with Standards.
As I mentioned earlier Standardization is a continuous process, it is not to be treated like a project with a fixed start and end date. As implementation partner Infosys is helping many clients in Standardization process, bloggers can share their view point on Standardization and what is required to implement Standards?
