Real Life Experience # 9
A business security products and services company with operations in 32
states established a 9 month implementation strategy for its Sales, Financial,
and Procurement system project. The project was guided by the corporate office
and the project team was comprised of corporate office staff, many of whom had
originally started in the company’s field offices. As the project unfolded,
employees received periodic publicity updates posted on company bulletin
boards. When the first 5 sites went live on the system, employees complained
that they were caught “off guard”. Changes in procedures and processes created
significant confusion. Daily billing and sales order transactions stacked up
as users were trained and retrained on the system. The project team revisited
the rollout plan and rescheduled the remaining implementations over a 5 month
period, extending the project life to 14 months.