A successful ERP migration with Enterprise Architecture

Did you know that 3 out of 4 ERP migration projects fail to meet their goals? ERP implementation is complex, requiring a deep understanding of an organization’s unique needs and requirements. With so many moving parts, it's not surprising that many projects face unexpected challenges or fall short. 

But why does this happen so often, and how can you avoid these pitfalls to ensure success? Let’s explore the challenges and strategies for a successful ERP migration. 

What ERP is and what are its benefits  

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a software solution that integrates an organization’s core business processes into a unified system. By centralizing data and automating tasks, ERPs help businesses manage functions more efficiently, streamline operations, automate tasks, integrate applications, and optimize workflows like logistics or finance. 

Additionally, these systems help integrate disparate applications, ensuring smooth communication and data sharing across departments. ERPs have the potential to transform an organization by improving visibility, reducing costs, and driving overall business growth. 

3 reasons your ERP migration fails 

Despite these promises, ERP projects often fail. There are several reasons the failure rate on ERP migrations is so high: 

1. Inadequate planning and preparation: Without a thorough understanding of project goals, milestones, and resource requirements, organizations may face unforeseen challenges.
2. Insufficient understanding of the organization's process, technology, and data landscapes. Without properly understanding current processes, tools, and operations, automating and streamlining these processes is impossible, often leading to optimizations that don’t work in practice.
3. Poor stakeholder involvement and communication: Lack of active participation from key stakeholders can lead to misaligned expectations and resistance to change. 

Does it have to be this way? No. Using an architecture-driven approach to ERP migration can greatly improve its success. Enterprise Architecture helps provide the insight and alignment needed for successful ERP implementations and migrations. The issue is that ERP projects are often treated as IT projects, but they should be seen as business projects. This means the implementation team must work closely with business teams and stakeholders to define goals, milestones, and resource needs, while also understanding the policies and principles that ensure long-term success. This is where Solution Design comes in handy. It offers a structured approach using proven principles of Enterprise Architecture. 

A structured alternative for an ERP migration: Solution Design 

When seeking alignment within the organization, adopt a structured approach to designing the future state solution. This should be done in a way that allows both business and IT stakeholders to collaborate on defining and refining the future solution. We call this Solution Design, and it consists of at least 4 phases: 

1. Value refinement: This is where you describe and align why your organization wants to take on a complex project like an ERP migration. 
2. Requirements refinement: Ensure all business stakeholders agree on the new ERP system's functional and technical needs. This involves reviewing, clarifying, and structuring requirements to minimize ambiguity and misalignment. 
3. Solution architecture: It involves defining what will be built. Use existing knowledge of current business processes, applications, data, and technology to create a future state that meets requirements and delivers the value outlined in value refinement. Once again, this mustn't be a one-person show or a little IT party. Invite, involve, and engage stakeholders from across the organization to contribute and collaborate on the designs. 
4. Solution Implementation Design: This is a structured approach to configuring, integrating, and deploying the ERP system based on the refined requirements and the created solution architecture. Effectively, it cuts the solution architecture into implementable deliverables ready to share with the implementation team. It ensures the solution aligns with business processes, technical constraints, and organizational goals, providing a blueprint for implementation that can be integrated into Agile planning tools like Jira or Azure DevOps. 

Solution Design for an ERP migration 

Step 1: Use templates 

Establishing strong governance is crucial to accelerating alignment throughout the solution design phases. Before the project begins, define a clear structure and agree on deliverables. Take time to detail what must be created at each phase. 

Templates can be beneficial in this process. Many proven templates support different solution design phases, often rooted in the Design Thinking approach or business strategy frameworks (e.g., Value Maps, Service Blueprints, and Value Proposition Canvases). Each phase may require one or multiple templates to capture all necessary information. 

Step 2: Choose a governance system 

Ensure agreement on validation points, such as an architecture board, change board, or another consortium, where key stakeholders from technology, architecture, security, and business can meet at set times to review provided templates. Rather than reviewing the entire solution design process at once, it's better to include validation after each phase. This approach prevents time spent on incorrect assumptions and helps identify misalignments or missed information early in the process. 

Step 3: Choose the tooling 

Good Enterprise Architecture tooling can support well-executed governance during an ERP migration. It provides a single source of truth, ensuring all project-related information is centralized and easily accessible. 

Key benefits include: 

• Data consistency – As you create many designs, it’s easy to lose track of things described in earlier designs, resulting in conflicting information in the designs or making mistakes by overlooking interdependencies. Good Enterprise Architecture tooling helps you to align designs and check for consistency across them.  

• Stakeholder collaboration – Invite relevant stakeholders to the project, enabling seamless communication and collaboration. 

• Methodology consistency – Maintain a standardized approach by following a single methodology throughout the design phase. 

• Version control and audit logs – Track all changes with version history and maintain an audit log for transparency and compliance. 

• Process acceleration – Speed up execution by leveraging pre-built templates and automating information distribution. 

Additionally, Enterprise Architecture tooling ensures that the right stakeholders receive the correct information at the right time – whether during an architecture board meeting or when a design contribution is needed. 

Step 4: Implementation 

As soon as the solution design phase has reached its final stage, the implementation teams can work on implementing everything described in the different designs. The solution design documentation now serves two purposes: 

1. During implementation, it helps define the desired configuration.
2. Post-implementation, it assists in troubleshooting and further optimizations. 

By having a detailed design of everything that must be done for the successful implementation or migration of the ERP, the chances of error in configuring the ERP system and integrating it with other applications and processes are minimal.  

ERP systems are complex and interact with many integrated applications, making thorough documentation crucial. The solution design serves as documentation that can be used after implementation as well. It acts as a living document, updated whenever changes or optimizations are made to the original ERP implementation. 

Step 5: Testing 

Relying solely on task-based testing is insufficient when testing an ERP system and its integrated applications. It risks missing integration issues. Instead, you need to test the entire workflow across the organization. 

Solution Designs can facilitate this by enabling the creation of end-to-end test scenarios based on process architecture and workflows. This ensures that users validate well-configured software and confirm that the workflow operates effectively. 

By mapping out the current processes and designing the desired future processes, you can ensure: 

• The correct configuration of the ERP system. 

• Identification of necessary integrations. 

• Enhanced organizational involvement in testing and acceptance. 

This approach leads to successful testing and seamless acceptance of the integrated ERP system as a working solution. 

Step 6: Ensure operational processes are ready at go-live 

After comprehensive testing, periodic processes and process architecture reviews are essential when the ERP system goes live. These reviews create opportunities for process optimization post-implementation. This benefits organizations in two ways: 

1. Identifying and addressing operational issues (e.g., errors, bottlenecks, delays) through new configurations, integrations, or workflows.
2. Leveraging new features or functionalities from applications to enhance processes. 

In both cases, the process architecture and workflows documented in an Enterprise Architecture solution are critical tools for ongoing improvement. 

Embrace Solution Design – your blueprint for a successful ERP migration! 

Success in ERP migrations begins with great design, not just execution. A well-structured, iterative approach ensures alignment, reduces risks, and sets the stage for long-term value. Treat design as an ongoing process, refining it throughout implementation and beyond to meet changing business needs. The real impact comes from Enterprise Architecture, so invest in it, collaborate well, and make your ERP transformation a success! 

Are you interested in seeing how our EA tool can benefit ERP your ERP migration? Contact us today for a free demo.