When your company decides to embark on an change programme involving a large degree of system change (ERP, CRM, Business Information Systems etc) there are many things that you as a senior manager will want and need to know.
However, all too often these questions go unanswered and unrecorded and when the system is 2 months from delivery and you still don't know what to expect it is all too late.
From 20 years experience the good, the bad and the ugly of system implementations that radically effect business, I have compiled these 7 questions that I believe you have the right to ask, but also as recipients of the system you NEED to know.

Question 1. What in the business case for this programme effects my department?

You really should already know this, as the business case should have been formed based on requirements from the business; If you done know then you MUST find out.
It is essential to understand if any savings have been justified in your departments (that probably equates to people), if new processes will need to be adhered to, new roles created, changes in peoples jobs, removing some part of a process etc.


Question 2. Who is the Systems integration Partner and why were they chosen?

It is fair to say that some partners have greater experience in some functional (HR, Finance, Production etc.) or vertical market (Banking, retail, pharms etc.) than others. If the answer comes down to price - start worrying.

Question 3. Did we consider doing it ourselves with expert help?

This means managing the Programme yourself, with additional external resources for key configuration, technical and in some cases programme management expertise. This approach has the added benefit of keeping the knowledge inhouse and can be better for acquisitive companies who will make regular process and solution changes.

Question 4. What is the Change Management strategy?

Projects with little or no CM strategy regularly fail to deliver - not the technology or even the system, but the business benefits because the people don't want to and don't know how to use the system - introduce the term "creative sabotage", and ask " when do we start educating?" and "when do we start training?".

Question 5. What is the roll-out strategy?

Big-Bang is becoming less popular and smaller iterative deliveries are made. These can be made by function, by department or by region, you need to understand the impact level and duration on your department. A long drawn out programme can have a continual effect on productivity as regular changes hit one after the other. Identify where in the roll-out your department figures.

Question 6. Where are the early wins?

Every large change programme needs a set of early wins to be claimed and broadcast. Without these the programme has a danger of being relegated to being an 'IT project' and these NEVER deliver the benefits. Remember only BUSINESS PROJECTS deliver business benefits and early wins will keep the programme on the business agenda.

Question 7. What is happening with the data?

Most large scale IT changes require the amalgamation of many different systems. These different systems have very different ways of holding information about an individual object (a product can have several different product codes, an asset can be identified in different systems with different system specific information). Moving to one system means deciding on what one identity you will assign. One product will have one product code, which existing code will you use, or will you assign a new code.
Also cleansing data is a VERY large job, you need to understand what effort your department needs to allocate to assist in this task.
It is generally accepted that you can never start data cleansing too early.

These questions by no means guarantee you a trouble free implementation, but it should enable you to see what is being done, and what you need to do to reduce some of the major causes of programme failure.

One more question that you may wish to consider that will significantly increase the probability of a programme success .........



"What can I do to help?"
The programme manager will love you for it and your help is one of the major building blocks of programme success. (see Payoa PH7 Blog).


Do you agree with the questions above...... have you got another killer question that leads to a minimisation of risk for a large change programme? Post It NOW !