Enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation planning and structure: a recipe for ERP success

Heald College, a 12-location institution, began implementing PeopleSoft (PS) Human Resources (HR), Student Administration, Finance, and Staffing Front Office in Jan 2003 and is scheduled to complete all module go lives by July 2004. The author conducted a brief review of the literature on attributes and structure that are believed to make a large project, such as an ERP implementation, successful. The project management structure and process used at Heald was compared to this ERP implementation literature. The author will discuss this structure and the processes used to control project costs, limit customizations, control scope, involve executive management, deliver documentation and training, communicate with the institution, and manage change. The process used for software and implementation partner selection through to actual implementation will be reviewed and compared to the conditions that are believed to make a project successful. The author concludes with a lessons learned section which addresses tasks that could have been done differently.