The director of Seidor-Levante stresses in the Science Park that the process of digitization should involve technologists, but also specialists capable of knowing in depth the psychology of the company
Ignasi Pons, director of Seidor-Levante, Spanish multinational specialist in ICT services and in the implementation of SAP, has stressed that the implementation of an integrated management system (ERP) requires proper change management involving technologists, but also specialists capable of knowing in depth the psychology of the company. "There are companies that have seen their viability compromised by a failure in the implementation of the ERP and an example is Pirelli," he said.
Pons has participated with Tomás González, Professor of Business Organization, in the informative day 'Prepare your company for digitalization with the installation of advanced systems. The ERP ', organized in the University of Valencia Science Park by the Chair of Enterprise and Humanism and Paterna Ciudad de Empresas association. This meeting is part of the cycle of conferences 'DIETA' that throughout 8 sessions aims to address the challenges in digitalization, innovation, ethics, talent and humanism whose improvement will turn your organization into a 5.0 company, able to respond to customers in an environment highly competitive. Among the attendees was the vice-rector for Innovation and Transfer, Mª Dolores Real.
Tomás González, Professor of Business Organization of the University of Valencia, and Ignasi Pons, director of Seidor-Levante
In this regard, the director of Seidor explained that a successful ERP is "one in which the areas of human resources, purchases and warehouse management, finance and costs, logistics and production, customer management (CRM), sales and distribution are well integrated. " "And in this process the information must be transversal," he stressed.
In this regard, he said that "the sale of something new can sometimes be not bearable by the supply chain and warehouses or because we do not have enough people to carry it forward. It happened to Pirelli. He had very powerful e-commerce tools, which multiplied his selling capacity, but its supply channels could not absorb it. "
The iron triangle
"When I am in a process of change, I face the iron triangle that forms the scope, the cost and the term. Behind a fee of 500 euros, there is a profile of 500 euros; but behind a rate of 100, there is a service of 100, "said Ignasi Pons.
Asistants to the day
And how should the ERP selection process be structured? "It can be done internally, with the supplier of a commercial brand, or it can be contracted to a consultant," said the head of Seidor-Levante. With one or another option, you should:
1. Identify the main profiles of the organization
2. Prepare a document that has to detail, by areas, "what processes are essential, that is, what I want to implement, what processes I want to implement and, above all, how I want them to be implemented. We must determine if I want them to be adapted in a certain way, since, in this case, the standard tool is not the most convenient, " Pons points out. And he adds: "There can be no ambiguities, on the contrary, there must be a lot of concreteness".
3. Define the implementation project model. In this regard, Pons explains that "there are customers with a tremendous aversion to risk who prefer starting in phases, which involves developing transistorial phases that cost money and in the end will have to be removed. The other option to implement is a big bang that affects the entire organization from the first day. The optimal model depends on the strategic plan of the company. "
Asistants to the day
Once the ideal provider has been selected, it is time to establish an optimal collaboration proposal. "The proposal has to be an annex to the contract and we have to give it a contractual nature, having a service contract maximizes the guarantees of the success of the project," says Pons, who suggests: "It is advisable to establish a win-win with the provider. If the provider does not win, the project is doomed to failure. And if the proviser earns too much, it is also a mistake, because you are going to become a long-term provider, and to be deceived from the beginning is not a good way to work ".
At this moment, "the provider must offer different startup plans and we have to structure some metrics to assess the most optimal solution, for which it is also necessary to establish a demo calendar", recommends Pons. So far the traditional methodologies were incremental; that is, after a long time, it came to a technology that proved invalid for the needs. On the other hand, the current agile methodologies, in which we are doing interactions and validations, without waiting for final results, affect the deadlines, scope and cost. "The SAP Activate is what best suits the clients' closing budgets. It mixes traditional methodology and SCRUM. In the exploration phase we work with a series of sprints that allow us to mitigate the risk of an advance, of a long phase that is not sufficiently proven and validated and that may have different perceptions by the client", concluded Pons.