While on a recent business trip with my partner, Paul Sita, he reminded me of a saying that I use often when referring to any major project - "It gets a little worse before it gets a lot better". Think about the first house you bought and remember all of the work that went into selecting the right one, purchasing it and preparing to move in. Then think about the first few days (or weeks or months) of unpacking, settling in and getting used to the new neighborhood. Now think about how confortable you felt in the house after that. And how much more room you had or the bigger yard, etc. The settling in after the hard work is the "little worse" before the comfort that is "a lot better".
The same can be said about the implementation of a new ERP system. There is a lot of hard work selecting the right one, purchasing it and preparing to use it. Then there is the settling in period and getting used to a new system and/or procedures. It may seem like it is a little worse at this point because it is not as familiar as the "old way".
At some point in everyone's post-implementation there is the recognition that the new system is a lot better. There are efficiency gains, ability to see more information in a timely manner, and a foundation for increased integration of functionality (see Seamless Integration Doesn't Seem Integrated and Seamless Integration Revisited for more on this). If you haven't reached this point yet it may feel like it will never come, but it will.
Of course, this assumes that you selected the right ERP system and implemented it correctly. But, we'll leave that for another post.
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