These days, many organisations all over the world consider migrating their ERP solution to the cloud. While there are various reasons for this move, saving cost and ensuring continuous innovation are frequently mentioned arguments. But the real important question here is how you, your employees and especially your customers are going to benefit from all these innovations. If you decide to deploy that new cloud solution based on your current business processes, reports, data, and mindset you run the risk of disappointment. So where will you start the preparation for your migration project?
A great start of your migration project is to not begin with technology for once. Instead, it is much wiser and more effective to start on the market side. With your customers. And resellers. Check how satisfied they are with you, your organisation and your products and services. Do research on why your customers complain or pay too late if they do. Or not even want to pay at all. Study the trends in customer expectations and buying behavior. Spend time to observe your strongest competitors. And see how they react to these trends. Set up exit interviews with customers who have left your company. And learn where and how you must improve yourself.
For sure, the outcomes of this kind of research will provide you with many insights. And it hopefully motivates you and your teams! To modernise your business processes. To adapt your KPI’s, reports and score cards. To refresh your internal DNA and mindsets. And also, to define strong and ambitious project goals! You will discover what modern customers expect from you and which aspects they value most.
After this initial phase it is a crucial step to transform these observation and learnings into tangible goal setting for your project. It can be smart to include your marketing colleagues in that discussion. What if you strive to become ‘the most customer centric organisation in the industry?’
Obviously, this kind of preparation is completely different from the traditional approach. And yes, you will need to mobilize other colleagues, departments and skill sets to find the answers to these questions. But that is precisely what will help you to define your project goals!
