Many companies in Hong Kong are being tasked with assessing and implementing ERP solutions that can be accessed securely from any location.
New advances in data compression, business analytics, location analytics and distributed computing are also creating higher user expectations for ERP functionality.
With real-time data processing and internal and external data feed analysis, Hong Kong companies can gather the information they need from ERP systems, when they need it, to make more informed business decisions.
Companies are also embracing ERP social collaboration tools, so employees not only can locate the right data, but also the appropriate contacts in the organisation to share information with or tap for expertise.
If you are planning to upgrade your ERP system in Hong Kong, here are nine important tips to keep in mind for your team:
1. Leverage process engineering
Your team will be asked to provide an outline of their job duties with step-by-step details to the business process owner, who is responsible for overseeing the new system’s workflow functionality. They must be prepared to think of ways to improve their processes with basic automation.
By doing so, they will add value to the planning phase and gain higher visibility as a key contributor. Remember, their skilled input will be critical for ensuring the new system is configured properly.
2. Consider custom functionality
How much, if any, customisation is done to the system is a key consideration. Keep the costs in mind.
For non-core tasks you believe are still critical, think creatively about how to achieve a custom result within the given functionality.
3. Factor extra time required
During certain phases of the implementation, there will be times when the project lead will be doing all the expected job responsibilities, along with answering requests from the implementation team.
Your team will need extra time for information gathering, training, testing, ensuring data integrity and troubleshooting. They will need to keep a positive outlook, stay enthusiastic and try to see the bigger picture. This is more than an ERP implementation; it is also an opportunity for personal and professional growth.
4. Reconcile differences
Once your team know how much of the historic data will be used, they will need reports from the old system that show the associated dollar amounts.
After the data is migrated, they will run the same reports in the new system to make sure they match and reconcile any differences.
5. Determine impacts on others
When your team cross something off their typical to-do list, how many people did they depend upon throughout that process to finalise it?
In planning for automating each of the processes, think about how realistic the ideas are for others involved and whose buy-in you will need.
6. Clean up your data
All or most of your historic data will be migrated to the new system. How clean are your customer, vendor, and product lists?
Try to clean up your current system to avoid transferring any duplicate or outdated data to the new system.
Remember, the idea is to improve process via automation. If you move a poor process to a brand-new system, you will not reap the expected benefits.
7. Flowcharts and meetings
Every process and all the tasks associated with it will have to be documented on a flowchart. The more the team know about the implementation steps in advance, the better prepared they will be to handle whatever task is required.
Get ready for cross-departmental collaboration and lots of meetings. People from all departments will need to come together in teams to discuss the interdependencies of their respective processes. Each team’s goal is to develop procedures and agree on best practices for process automation.
8. Test, test, and re-test
Here is the team’s chance to make sure the new system does what it is supposed to do. They will provide samples of common transactions (aka test scenarios) to enter in the system, either by copying source documents or writing out the required steps along with the expected results.
Some examples are entering a new customer record, entering their purchase order, shipping the order, invoicing the shipped order, and entering the invoice payment.
Did everything post in all the different modules as expected? If not, they will need to log each error for the programmers to fix before the new system goes live.
Preparing for an ERP system upgrade in Hong Kong
As technology innovations continue to transform the way ERP systems are designed and used in Hong Kong, highly skilled professionals with the right mix of technical and soft skills will be needed for ERP jobs.
Their ERP know-how will be essential to helping businesses evolve their current ERP technology or select and implement a new system that will enable them to achieve strategic goals.
With the right software and tools in place, companies in Hong Kong can consolidate and make sense of valuable data that would otherwise be left idle, and use those insights to increase efficiency, improve service and customer care, and more.
If you are looking for a professional to rollout your ERP system, contact Robert Half Hong Kong for a recruitment solution.
