Some notes on realizing positive ROI from system implementation

Filed in archive Point of view on November 12, 2007

We all know that only a fraction of companies implementing enterprise software can achieve a positive ROI from their system implementation projects (SAP, Oracle, or any other). A good area for discussion is how companies can realize the stated benefits from ERP or E-Biz adoption. These are my thoughts:

1) Unlike many experts, I am not pessimistic about SAP projects or big system implementations however I think Increased Employee Productivity occurs when there is both a sufficient number of users and sufficient frequency of use to gain significant productivity based gains from the solution.



2) If we think about a module like SRM, the success in implementation of such module depends on us as well as the suppliers. If the suppliers are not mature enough in terms of using web-based transactions, the adoption of let`s say mySAP SRM won`t be a big success.

3) I read in a report from Nucleus Research that one of the reasons companies can`t achieve positive ROI from their implementations is the excessive use of customization. So it`s good to apply the systems first to the processes which are standard enough and don`t need software customization.

What are your thoughts?