Here’s the situation: You need a full-featured enterprise resource planning solution (ERP) now. You’ve heard ERP implementation takes a long time, but your deadline is tight; you only have a matter of months to get your new ERP backend live. Is this even possible?

ERP has a reputation for being big, complex, and time-consuming. Stories abound of ERP implementations that took years to roll out and went considerably over-budget.

You don’t have time for a big IT project, however. Maybe you’re seeking funding and need ERP in place to comfort investors. Perhaps your existing system has already started breaking down, and a robust ERP solution is critical for continued operations. Possibly you’ve been tasked with spinning up operations in only a few months. Can you roll out ERP fast and confidently without compromising on reliability or functionality?

Yes, actually you can implement ERP fast. You just need to follow two key principles: Fit-to-standard implementation and minimum viable scope.

Fit-to-Standard ERP Implementation

 There’s the easy way and the hard way to implement an ERP system.

The hard way is forcing your new ERP system to support all of your company’s bespoke, legacy processes, and customizing the system extensively so it operates exactly as imagined. This is the path of long, expensive ERP implementations that are complex and go over budget.

The easy way is a fit-to-standards approach that leans on industry-standard best practices that are built-in by default, and relies on system configuration that meets business needs but maybe not in the exact way that a business initially intended. This easy way delivers the same functional capabilities and even improves operational processes in most cases, but it rolls out fast and under budget.

All but the largest enterprises will benefit from a fit-to-standards ERP implementation approach. Businesses that need ERP rolled out fast require it, however.

Minimum Viable Scope to Start

The second key principle for a fast ERP implementation is minimum viable scope (MVS).

With MVS, you take a phased approach to ERP implementation instead of rolling out all functionality at once. You start with the most important functionality for your business, perhaps finance and procurement, then build out additional capabilities later over time. With an MVS approach, you onboard business departments one at a time instead of doing everything at once.

By avoiding a “big bang” deployment that introduces everything at once, you dramatically cut down on complexity and implementation time by taking the deployment in orderly stages. This gets your system live much faster, but it also ensures less disruption to business continuity and ensures each part of your system is adequately tested and ready before production use.

What a Fast ERP Implementation Looks Like in Practice

We often tell businesses that they can roll out a fully functional cloud ERP in as little as four months. This isn’t marketing speak and a best-case scenario; we routinely help businesses hit this 16-week rollout target through our SAP GROW Fast program.

SAP GROW Fast is a structured, low-risk starting point for midmarket ERP transformation built on the concepts of fit-to-standard and MVS. It rolls out a preconfigured SAP Cloud ERP (the public cloud edition of SAP’s enterprise-grade S/4HANA Cloud ERP) in just 16 weeks with a fixed scope, MVS solution that the business can then expand on later as time permits.

This quick ERP rollout using SAP GROW Fast progresses along three distinct phases:

• Phase 1: Foundation (Weeks 1-4). We start by helping the business provision their SAP Cloud ERP system and get data ready for migration. During these first four weeks, we also help set up core financial systems.

• Phase 2: Core Deployment (Weeks 5-12). In Phase 2, we help a business deploy financial systems, procure-to-pay, and basic reporting. This financial setup includes general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable.

• Phase 3: Go-Live (Weeks 12-16). Next, we help a business go live by assisting with system testing and validation so the ERP solution works as intended. We also help with user enablement and training so employees actually can use the system, then take the ERP system live.

After just 16 weeks, a business has a future-proof, enterprise-grade ERP live and operational. This basic setup does not include complex integrations or advanced industry-specific functionality, of course. But this is intentional, because that is how you can go live faster and without risk.

When the business is ready to add these capabilities or wants additional functionality, however, they can be added relatively easily because the core cloud ERP system is already in place.

It is worth noting that we’ve also developed prepackaged industry solutions that roll out almost as fast and with industry-specific functionality. We have quickstart packages for consumer products, research management, and professional services businesses.

Go-Live Fast with Navigator and SAP

So yes, you can meet a tight ERP implementation deadline without headaches. You just need to follow a fit-to-standard methodology and take a phased approach by using minimum viable scope.

We’ve been helping businesses implement ERP on time and under budget for years as an SAP Gold Partner that focuses on prepackaged ERP. If you need a fast ERP rollout for your business, contact one of our experienced consultants for guidance and answers to your specific questions. You can reach us at (801) 642-0123 or by writing info@nbs-us.com.