How to implement e-business solutions

Getting your business processes online is not an easy job!

According to Gartner Group, a renowned research firm, a full 75

percent of all e-business projects fail due to poor planning and

unrealistic expectations of new technology. The productivity

gains and cost savings promised by e-business solutions are

often lost not because of the technology itself but because of

improper management of their implementation. In most of the

cases, when a massive e-business solution installation goes

wrong, the management of the business is to blame. Failure to

understand the scale of the project, oversimplification of the

project, inappropriate expectations and lack of resource

commitment are few of the mistakes made by management that

debilitate the implementation and use of the systems.

Pitfalls of E-business solutions installation process

A large distribution company has decided to use a new online

supply chain management solution. The people – those who were

supposed to use the system – were quite skeptic about the

ability of the system, as they did not have enough knowledge and

had very little or no training in using a similar system. As a

result, it took over a year for the company to bring the

solution to its full operation. Productivity suffered severely.

The final implementation cost came out to be several times more

than initial budget. A large number of companies are reporting

to face similar difficulties with the implementation of their

e-business solutions.

The problems that occur while a company tries to implement

e-business solutions, most likely, include:

Senior managers do not spend enough time and efforts to learn

and understand the solutions. As a result, they have no idea how

their workers will adapt to this new solution; and fail to set

forth quantifiable objectives for them in terms of efficiency

and productivity. The end users do not receive required

training. As a result, treat the new solution as an added burden

rather than a tool to increase efficiency and productivity. In

many cases, IT infrastructure is not up-to-date enough and lacks

power to support the new solution. Due to inadequate

understanding by the management of the e-business solutions that

they plan to adopt, often, the time and money allocated to the

project are far less than required. Often the advanced Internet

based e-business solutions require to be integrated with portion

of old systems that the company is presently using, which in

turn, sometimes generates software and system incompatibility.

How to avoid pitfalls

E-business solutions are sophisticated systems that encompass

significant areas of the company and its relationship with

customers. That's why implementation of these projects should be

carried out according to detailed plans.

Preparation

Create a well developed scope. In creating the scope involve all

end-users of the solution, not only the technical and business

model experts. Get answers to the questions like:

- What is the single most important goal that the company is

planning to reach thanks to this solution? - What critical

problems the solution is meant to solve? - Are the time and

money spent justifies its implementation? - What are the

implementation milestones? - How you will know that you have

reached those milestones? - Once you got all the relevant people

of the company involved in the process, choose an implementation

taskforce of experts from all required sections. This team

should be responsible for developing the implementation plan.

According to this plan assign resources and deadlines. Upon

completion of each stage of implementation get senior management

involved in order to review the progress.

Education and Training

Education should cover the "why" side of the solution and

training the "how" side.

- Identify the people that required getting trained and

educated. - Define objectives - Define training and education

criteria and select syllabus - Set the evaluation method -

Conduct the actual learning process - Assess their progress

Implementation

Implementation of the solution should take place according to

the strict predefined stages.

Upon completion of each stage of implementation get senior

management involved in reviewing progress. Conduct reality

check!

- How does the solution meet your expectations so far? - Is it

doing what it's supposed to do? - Do you need to revise any of

your priorities?

Once the implementation is over, set up a thorough post

implementation meeting with the taskforce and the relevant

end-users. The important thing here is to identify if everybody

involved with the project is satisfied with the result or not.

In order to successfully implement e-business solutions, it is

very important that you fully understand the technologies behind

it. If require hire a consultant and work closely with her. In

the long run, this might save you substantial time and money.

Here are other things to remember:

1. E-business solutions are mere tools. Don't expect them to

radically change everything that you learnt about business

processes.

2. E-business solution implementations like any other project

require strict step by step project management.

3. Before considering an e-business solution, make sure that

there is a sound business need to get it. E-marketplace, Private

exchange, Business portal are few of the e-business solutions

that help you attracting new customers and markets. These

solutions also allow streamlining many of the vital business

processes. In your e-business strategy these solutions should be

at the top of the list.

4. Keep track of the new technologies and keep an eye to your

competitors' e-business strategies. E-business is an extremely

fast moving segment; you should be ready for changes and embrace

them whenever it's necessary.This article is free for republishing
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