Tuesday, September 30, 2008
How to forgive
Holy Bible lays lot of emphasis on forgiveness. When Lord Jesus Christ was being crucified at the cross, he was experiencing excruciating pain both physically and mentally. Yet, he did not develop any hatred towards those who were hurling stones at him, abusing him or making fun of him. He said, father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Jesus Christ was no ordinary soul. It is impossible for ordinary people like you and me not to develop negative emotions like hatred, anger, Jealousy etc when subjected to humiliation. We not only develop negative emotions but even nurture it inside of us. We wait for the right opportunity to strike back. The longer we carry negative emotions in our body, the more it causes damage to our organs. We slowly detach ourselves from outside world. Our performance at workplace degrades, our relationship with peers, friends, relatives gets soured. We go into depression. Our life becomes miserable. Negative emotions are like steam in the pressure cooker. If steam is not allowed to escape out of pressure cooker, it will cause pressure mounting inside the cooker slowly ultimately resulting in explosion. Safety valve is built to release extra steam from inside chamber to ease pressure. Like safety valve, we must release negative thoughts. We cannot forgive the person so long as we carry negative emotions of him inside our body. But the point is how do we release negative emotions. It is very dangerous to release negative emotions in front of another person. It may hurt his sentiments which might escalate tension further. I have some thoughts to share with you on this. Lock yourself in a room. Keep an object in front of you. This object could be anything say a chair or a table. Now think of this object as the person whom you hate most. Bring out all your anger, pain,hatred from inside of you. If you feel like hitting the object, by all means do it. If you feel like shouting, shout at the top of your voice. Make sure you are alone in the room and nobody is looking at you while you are doing this act.After one or two minutes when all your negative thoughts are ejected out of your body, you will feel relieved of tension. You will be at peace with yourself. You will feel as if you are floating in the air.
How to forgive
Holy book of bible lays lot of emphasis on forgiveness. When Lord Jesus christ was being crucified in the cross, he was experiencing extreme physical and mental pain, yet he did not develop any hatred and anger towards those who were abusing him, making fun of him. He kept on saying "God, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing". It is not easy not to react when subjected to humiliation. Jesus christ was no ordinary soul. Ordinary people like you and me will develop hatred, jealousy, anger towards those who try to harm us physically or emotionally. Bible says unless we forgive those who have sinned against us, god will not forgive our sins. True, but the point here is how do we forgive those who have sinned against us. Can we forgive so long as we carry negative emotions like hatred, anger, Jealousy inside of us. The answer is no. As a matter of fact, we not only carry negative emotions, we nurture these thoughts day after day, month after month, year after year. We wait for the right opportunity to take revenge with the person who caused harm to us. The longer we carry negative thoughts, the more the damage to our body system. Negative emotions are like steam in the pressure cooker. If the steam is not allowed to escape, the pressure inside the cooker will mount slowly and ultimately will increase to such an extent that it will explode. It is beacuse of this reason, the safety valve is fitted in the cooker which helps release the extra steam from time to time to ease pressure inside the cooker . If negative emotions are not released from the body in time, it may cause irreparable damage to the body. What do we do to get rid of negative emotions. Simple. Release the negative emotions like safety valve. There is a saying. Your child suffers for what your boss does to you. This means, if your boss shouts at you in office, you go home and shout at your wife. Your wife in turns beats your child and the child cries. What is happening here is each one is releasing negative emotions to somebody else. This works fine as long as emotions dont flow in reverse direction meaning you don't shout back at your boss or your wife does not shout back at you in retaliation. But think of the consequences if you shout back at your boss, you may lose job. If your wife shouts back at you, your relationship with your wife gets effected. It is dangerous and risky. I wont recommend it. I would like to share with you one method which is safe and healthy. Lock yourself up in a room. Take an object like table, chair etc. Keep this object in front of you. Now imagine if this object is the person who is your enemy. Bring out all your negative emotions in front of this object. If you feel like hitting, by all means hit the object. If you feel like shouting, shout at the top of your voice. Make sure that nobody is watching you while you are doing this act. After you finish doing this, which will not last for more than one or two minutes, you will feel relieved of all tensions. You will be at peace with yourself.
You will feel as if you are floating in the air.
You will feel as if you are floating in the air.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Myths sorrounding CRM
Unlike ERP, suceess rate of CRM implementation is very low The scope of CRM is not limited to salesforce automation only as is widely perceived. CRM covers entire gamut of activities including market research, market segmentation, SWOT analysis for product positioning and marketing strategy, distribution network for fast and efficient delivery of products, services and after sales service, reorientation of organization culture to make it more customer centric, faster and consistent response to customer enquires and complaints. If the company is in the business of marketing of consumer products say fashion garments, it has to constantly keep itself abreast of fast changing lifestyle of customers so as to align the products and services in tune with customer’s taste.. Attrition rate of customers in this business segment is very high. More than the product, which has attained a certain level of maturity as of now, it is the quality of service which differentiates an organization from the rest. How does the company respond to the customer enquiries/complaints. Who attends to the enquiry. Are all enquiries channellised through a common database?. How much time is elapsed in responding to enquiry. Is the delay acceptable to the customer?. Is the customer satisfied with the response. Are company’s business matrics in place which can measure company’s performance in terms of level of service provided. These are the challenges companies must address before rushing in to bring CRM software. CRM software can at best maintain customer and product databases with pricing, can keep track of enquires received, tasks performed at the backoffice and can channellise the correspondences between the company and the customer. But it cannot bring about radical changes at the grass root level in the organization as discussed earlier.
Reason why CRM implementation fails is due the lack of CRM Vision and strategy, faulty evaluation of CRM software, lack of ownership of project sponsor and project leader in driving the project. While trying to implement Saleslogix CRM in Garware Wallropes Ltd, Pune, I noticed that sales people of one division were simply not interested in feeding opportunity details in CRM. The CEO of the company was not involved in the discussions with marketing team. His contention was that it is the consultant who should take the ownership of implementation. This did not work out with the result CRM implementation failed.
It is being debated whether CRM should be implemented before ERP or after ERP. CRM is a frontend application and therefore does not include Sales order processing module. It is not possible for CRM to give order execution status without a backend system in place It is not necessary that the backend system has to be ERP. It could be any system with Oracle or SQL server as the database. CRM can be integrated with the backend system. In an integrated environment, as and when, an opportunity is converted into order, it is pushed to the backend system for further processing. Conversely, after the invoice is generated in the backend system on delivery of goods, it is pulled back in CRM again. Payment details are entered in CRM system which are ultimately pushed to the financial accounting module at the backend. Most of CRM systems are web based. That means CRM can be accessed from anywhere through browser by connecting laptop or PDA to the internet. Even if there is no connectivity available, details can be entered then and there and later on validated and synchronized with server. CRM should be used in online mode and not in batch processing mode. Suppose, if the sales rep meets a customer and if customer needs some details, the same should be entered online. If there is internet connectivity available, the details can be given otherwise the details required can be captured in the system in offline mode and later on provided on returning back to office. If CRM is used in batch processing mode, the sales rep would not enter the details at site and most likely would forget it after sometime with the result details would not be captured in the system at all. Quite often, sales team does not even know what details should be entered in CRM and when. It is therefore very important to understand what activities each member of the sales team perform to provide customer service. These activities should be broken down further into tasks according to level of people who perform these tasks. What task should be performed by whom and when should be clearly defined. Unless the details of each and every task is entered by the people responsible for completion of the task. the sales person will not be in a position to know when the task is going to be completed and in turn will not be able to give correct information to the customer. Another significant point to note here is that in ERP, wherein if a transaction is not entered, it will have cascading effect in the subsequent operations resulting in disruption of business cycle. For example, if purchase order is not entered by purchase officer, material received in store against this P.O. will not be accepted by the system which will effect stock in hand and a stock out situation may result in. In CRM, barring few transactions, transaction entry does not impact business cycle although customer service gets effected. It is therefore , very difficult to keep track of transaction entries during implementation stage. Generally, implementation partners role is to install the software, map business process to the product functionality, provide training to key users, conduct conference room pilot run, handholding and finally project sign off to indicate that implementation is over.
Unfortunately, real benefit of CRM comes 6-12 months after project sign off when sizeable chunk of database is created by each and every member of marketing team. Generally, it is seen, unless strict control is exercised over day to day entry of transactions in CRM, users tend to revert back to old method of using excel sheet for day to day activities with the result, the entire investment and the efforts that go into implementing CRM goes down the drain.
The total investment required in CRM implementation varies depending on what brand of CRM you go for and how many licenses you take. Typically, Investment in CRM in SMB sector is Rs 30-40 Lacs assuming one goes for 15 user license. This cost will increase proportionately with more number of user licenses. Total cost of implementation of CRM includes. licensing cost, Hardware cost, Implementation cost, training cost but does not include customization cost which will vary depending on quantum of change required. All web based CRM softwares require a webserver which will be connected to another server at the backend in which CRM software will be installed. Since webserver can be accessed through public domain, it is always safe to install firewall between the web server and application server to protect the application server from unauthorized access.
You should go for software based firewall and not router based firewall as is normally the practice. Cost of firewall should also be included in TCO ( Total cost of ownership)
Computing ROI in CRM is often very difficult. ROI can be reasonably calculated if you can estimate the loss of sale on account of lost opportunities or customer attrition on account of unsatisfactory service level. Even 5% increase in sales on account of better service provided to customer can more than justify investment in CRM.
There is no recipe that can be given on how to evaluate CRM, because it depends on what business your company is engaged in, the internal and external challenges faced by your company in serving the customer etc. It is better to hire a consultant who can study your business, identify pain areas and suggest a suitable product that can address your pain area. Do not go by recommendations of your business associate or friend. Your business requirements are different from others.
In a nutshell, CRM is not a technological solution that will bring dramatic change in company productivity. CRM is about sweeping change of mindset across the company to make it more customer centric. That’s why before installing a CRM system, the company should understand what it wants to achieve. Does the company want to make selling process more efficient? Is it trying to target and acquire the right customer segment or the goal is to improve customer service?
Reason why CRM implementation fails is due the lack of CRM Vision and strategy, faulty evaluation of CRM software, lack of ownership of project sponsor and project leader in driving the project. While trying to implement Saleslogix CRM in Garware Wallropes Ltd, Pune, I noticed that sales people of one division were simply not interested in feeding opportunity details in CRM. The CEO of the company was not involved in the discussions with marketing team. His contention was that it is the consultant who should take the ownership of implementation. This did not work out with the result CRM implementation failed.
It is being debated whether CRM should be implemented before ERP or after ERP. CRM is a frontend application and therefore does not include Sales order processing module. It is not possible for CRM to give order execution status without a backend system in place It is not necessary that the backend system has to be ERP. It could be any system with Oracle or SQL server as the database. CRM can be integrated with the backend system. In an integrated environment, as and when, an opportunity is converted into order, it is pushed to the backend system for further processing. Conversely, after the invoice is generated in the backend system on delivery of goods, it is pulled back in CRM again. Payment details are entered in CRM system which are ultimately pushed to the financial accounting module at the backend. Most of CRM systems are web based. That means CRM can be accessed from anywhere through browser by connecting laptop or PDA to the internet. Even if there is no connectivity available, details can be entered then and there and later on validated and synchronized with server. CRM should be used in online mode and not in batch processing mode. Suppose, if the sales rep meets a customer and if customer needs some details, the same should be entered online. If there is internet connectivity available, the details can be given otherwise the details required can be captured in the system in offline mode and later on provided on returning back to office. If CRM is used in batch processing mode, the sales rep would not enter the details at site and most likely would forget it after sometime with the result details would not be captured in the system at all. Quite often, sales team does not even know what details should be entered in CRM and when. It is therefore very important to understand what activities each member of the sales team perform to provide customer service. These activities should be broken down further into tasks according to level of people who perform these tasks. What task should be performed by whom and when should be clearly defined. Unless the details of each and every task is entered by the people responsible for completion of the task. the sales person will not be in a position to know when the task is going to be completed and in turn will not be able to give correct information to the customer. Another significant point to note here is that in ERP, wherein if a transaction is not entered, it will have cascading effect in the subsequent operations resulting in disruption of business cycle. For example, if purchase order is not entered by purchase officer, material received in store against this P.O. will not be accepted by the system which will effect stock in hand and a stock out situation may result in. In CRM, barring few transactions, transaction entry does not impact business cycle although customer service gets effected. It is therefore , very difficult to keep track of transaction entries during implementation stage. Generally, implementation partners role is to install the software, map business process to the product functionality, provide training to key users, conduct conference room pilot run, handholding and finally project sign off to indicate that implementation is over.
Unfortunately, real benefit of CRM comes 6-12 months after project sign off when sizeable chunk of database is created by each and every member of marketing team. Generally, it is seen, unless strict control is exercised over day to day entry of transactions in CRM, users tend to revert back to old method of using excel sheet for day to day activities with the result, the entire investment and the efforts that go into implementing CRM goes down the drain.
The total investment required in CRM implementation varies depending on what brand of CRM you go for and how many licenses you take. Typically, Investment in CRM in SMB sector is Rs 30-40 Lacs assuming one goes for 15 user license. This cost will increase proportionately with more number of user licenses. Total cost of implementation of CRM includes. licensing cost, Hardware cost, Implementation cost, training cost but does not include customization cost which will vary depending on quantum of change required. All web based CRM softwares require a webserver which will be connected to another server at the backend in which CRM software will be installed. Since webserver can be accessed through public domain, it is always safe to install firewall between the web server and application server to protect the application server from unauthorized access.
You should go for software based firewall and not router based firewall as is normally the practice. Cost of firewall should also be included in TCO ( Total cost of ownership)
Computing ROI in CRM is often very difficult. ROI can be reasonably calculated if you can estimate the loss of sale on account of lost opportunities or customer attrition on account of unsatisfactory service level. Even 5% increase in sales on account of better service provided to customer can more than justify investment in CRM.
There is no recipe that can be given on how to evaluate CRM, because it depends on what business your company is engaged in, the internal and external challenges faced by your company in serving the customer etc. It is better to hire a consultant who can study your business, identify pain areas and suggest a suitable product that can address your pain area. Do not go by recommendations of your business associate or friend. Your business requirements are different from others.
In a nutshell, CRM is not a technological solution that will bring dramatic change in company productivity. CRM is about sweeping change of mindset across the company to make it more customer centric. That’s why before installing a CRM system, the company should understand what it wants to achieve. Does the company want to make selling process more efficient? Is it trying to target and acquire the right customer segment or the goal is to improve customer service?
Myths sorrounding CRM
Unlike ERP, suceess rate of CRM implementation is very low The scope of CRM is not limited to salesforce automation only as is widely perceived. CRM covers entire gamut of activities including market research, market segmentation, SWOT analysis for product positioning and marketing strategy, distribution network for fast and efficient delivery of products, services and after sales service, reorientation of organization culture to make it more customer centric, faster and consistent response to customer enquires and complaints. If the company is in the business of marketing of consumer products say fashion garments, it has to constantly keep itself abreast of fast changing lifestyle of customers so as to align the products and services in tune with customer’s taste.. Attrition rate of customers in this business segment is very high. More than the product, which has attained a certain level of maturity as of now, it is the quality of service which differentiates an organization from the rest. How does the company respond to the customer enquiries/complaints. Who attends to the enquiry. Are all enquiries channellised through a common database?. How much time is elapsed in responding to enquiry. Is the delay acceptable to the customer?. Is the customer satisfied with the response. Are company’s business matrics in place which can measure company’s performance in terms of level of service provided. These are the challenges companies must address before rushing in to bring CRM software. CRM software can at best maintain customer and product databases with pricing, can keep track of enquires received, tasks performed at the backoffice and can channellise the correspondences between the company and the customer. But it cannot bring about radical changes at the grass root level in the organization as discussed earlier.
Reason why CRM implementation fails is due the lack of CRM Vision and strategy, faulty evaluation of CRM software, lack of ownership of project sponsor and project leader in driving the project. While trying to implement Saleslogix CRM in Garware Wallropes Ltd, Pune, I noticed that sales people of one division were simply not interested in feeding opportunity details in CRM. The CEO of the company was not involved in the discussions with marketing team. His contention was that it is the consultant who should take the ownership of implementation. This did not work out with the result CRM implementation failed.
It is being debated whether CRM should be implemented before ERP or after ERP. CRM is a frontend application and therefore does not include Sales order processing module. It is not possible for CRM to give order execution status without a backend system in place It is not necessary that the backend system has to be ERP. It could be any system with Oracle or SQL server as the database. CRM can be integrated with the backend system. In an integrated environment, as and when, an opportunity is converted into order, it is pushed to the backend system for further processing. Conversely, after the invoice is generated in the backend system on delivery of goods, it is pulled back in CRM again. Payment details are entered in CRM system which are ultimately pushed to the financial accounting module at the backend. Most of CRM systems are web based. That means CRM can be accessed from anywhere through browser by connecting laptop or PDA to the internet. Even if there is no connectivity available, details can be entered then and there and later on validated and synchronized with server. CRM should be used in online mode and not in batch processing mode. Suppose, if the sales rep meets a customer and if customer needs some details, the same should be entered online. If there is internet connectivity available, the details can be given otherwise the details required can be captured in the system in offline mode and later on provided on returning back to office. If CRM is used in batch processing mode, the sales rep would not enter the details at site and most likely would forget it after sometime with the result details would not be captured in the system at all. Quite often, sales team does not even know what details should be entered in CRM and when. It is therefore very important to understand what activities each member of the sales team perform to provide customer service. These activities should be broken down further into tasks according to level of people who perform these tasks. What task should be performed by whom and when should be clearly defined. Unless the details of each and every task is entered by the people responsible for completion of the task. the sales person will not be in a position to know when the task is going to be completed and in turn will not be able to give correct information to the customer. Another significant point to note here is that in ERP, wherein if a transaction is not entered, it will have cascading effect in the subsequent operations resulting in disruption of business cycle. For example, if purchase order is not entered by purchase officer, material received in store against this P.O. will not be accepted by the system which will effect stock in hand and a stock out situation may result in. In CRM, barring few transactions, transaction entry does not impact business cycle although customer service gets effected. It is therefore , very difficult to keep track of transaction entries during implementation stage. Generally, implementation partners role is to install the software, map business process to the product functionality, provide training to key users, conduct conference room pilot run, handholding and finally project sign off to indicate that implementation is over.
Unfortunately, real benefit of CRM comes 6-12 months after project sign off when sizeable chunk of database is created by each and every member of marketing team. Generally, it is seen, unless strict control is exercised over day to day entry of transactions in CRM, users tend to revert back to old method of using excel sheet for day to day activities with the result, the entire investment and the efforts that go into implementing CRM goes down the drain.
The total investment required in CRM implementation varies depending on what brand of CRM you go for and how many licenses you take. Typically, Investment in CRM in SMB sector is Rs 30-40 Lacs assuming one goes for 15 user license. This cost will increase proportionately with more number of user licenses. Total cost of implementation of CRM includes. licensing cost, Hardware cost, Implementation cost, training cost but does not include customization cost which will vary depending on quantum of change required. All web based CRM softwares require a webserver which will be connected to another server at the backend in which CRM software will be installed. Since webserver can be accessed through public domain, it is always safe to install firewall between the web server and application server to protect the application server from unauthorized access.
You should go for software based firewall and not router based firewall as is normally the practice. Cost of firewall should also be included in TCO ( Total cost of ownership)
Computing ROI in CRM is often very difficult. ROI can be reasonably calculated if you can estimate the loss of sale on account of lost opportunities or customer attrition on account of unsatisfactory service level. Even 5% increase in sales on account of better service provided to customer can more than justify investment in CRM.
There is no recipe that can be given on how to evaluate CRM, because it depends on what business your company is engaged in, the internal and external challenges faced by your company in serving the customer etc. It is better to hire a consultant who can study your business, identify pain areas and suggest a suitable product that can address your pain area. Do not go by recommendations of your business associate or friend. Your business requirements are different from others.
In a nutshell, CRM is not a technological solution that will bring dramatic change in company productivity. CRM is about sweeping change of mindset across the company to make it more customer centric. That’s why before installing a CRM system, the company should understand what it wants to achieve. Does the company want to make selling process more efficient? Is it trying to target and acquire the right customer segment or the goal is to improve customer service?
Reason why CRM implementation fails is due the lack of CRM Vision and strategy, faulty evaluation of CRM software, lack of ownership of project sponsor and project leader in driving the project. While trying to implement Saleslogix CRM in Garware Wallropes Ltd, Pune, I noticed that sales people of one division were simply not interested in feeding opportunity details in CRM. The CEO of the company was not involved in the discussions with marketing team. His contention was that it is the consultant who should take the ownership of implementation. This did not work out with the result CRM implementation failed.
It is being debated whether CRM should be implemented before ERP or after ERP. CRM is a frontend application and therefore does not include Sales order processing module. It is not possible for CRM to give order execution status without a backend system in place It is not necessary that the backend system has to be ERP. It could be any system with Oracle or SQL server as the database. CRM can be integrated with the backend system. In an integrated environment, as and when, an opportunity is converted into order, it is pushed to the backend system for further processing. Conversely, after the invoice is generated in the backend system on delivery of goods, it is pulled back in CRM again. Payment details are entered in CRM system which are ultimately pushed to the financial accounting module at the backend. Most of CRM systems are web based. That means CRM can be accessed from anywhere through browser by connecting laptop or PDA to the internet. Even if there is no connectivity available, details can be entered then and there and later on validated and synchronized with server. CRM should be used in online mode and not in batch processing mode. Suppose, if the sales rep meets a customer and if customer needs some details, the same should be entered online. If there is internet connectivity available, the details can be given otherwise the details required can be captured in the system in offline mode and later on provided on returning back to office. If CRM is used in batch processing mode, the sales rep would not enter the details at site and most likely would forget it after sometime with the result details would not be captured in the system at all. Quite often, sales team does not even know what details should be entered in CRM and when. It is therefore very important to understand what activities each member of the sales team perform to provide customer service. These activities should be broken down further into tasks according to level of people who perform these tasks. What task should be performed by whom and when should be clearly defined. Unless the details of each and every task is entered by the people responsible for completion of the task. the sales person will not be in a position to know when the task is going to be completed and in turn will not be able to give correct information to the customer. Another significant point to note here is that in ERP, wherein if a transaction is not entered, it will have cascading effect in the subsequent operations resulting in disruption of business cycle. For example, if purchase order is not entered by purchase officer, material received in store against this P.O. will not be accepted by the system which will effect stock in hand and a stock out situation may result in. In CRM, barring few transactions, transaction entry does not impact business cycle although customer service gets effected. It is therefore , very difficult to keep track of transaction entries during implementation stage. Generally, implementation partners role is to install the software, map business process to the product functionality, provide training to key users, conduct conference room pilot run, handholding and finally project sign off to indicate that implementation is over.
Unfortunately, real benefit of CRM comes 6-12 months after project sign off when sizeable chunk of database is created by each and every member of marketing team. Generally, it is seen, unless strict control is exercised over day to day entry of transactions in CRM, users tend to revert back to old method of using excel sheet for day to day activities with the result, the entire investment and the efforts that go into implementing CRM goes down the drain.
The total investment required in CRM implementation varies depending on what brand of CRM you go for and how many licenses you take. Typically, Investment in CRM in SMB sector is Rs 30-40 Lacs assuming one goes for 15 user license. This cost will increase proportionately with more number of user licenses. Total cost of implementation of CRM includes. licensing cost, Hardware cost, Implementation cost, training cost but does not include customization cost which will vary depending on quantum of change required. All web based CRM softwares require a webserver which will be connected to another server at the backend in which CRM software will be installed. Since webserver can be accessed through public domain, it is always safe to install firewall between the web server and application server to protect the application server from unauthorized access.
You should go for software based firewall and not router based firewall as is normally the practice. Cost of firewall should also be included in TCO ( Total cost of ownership)
Computing ROI in CRM is often very difficult. ROI can be reasonably calculated if you can estimate the loss of sale on account of lost opportunities or customer attrition on account of unsatisfactory service level. Even 5% increase in sales on account of better service provided to customer can more than justify investment in CRM.
There is no recipe that can be given on how to evaluate CRM, because it depends on what business your company is engaged in, the internal and external challenges faced by your company in serving the customer etc. It is better to hire a consultant who can study your business, identify pain areas and suggest a suitable product that can address your pain area. Do not go by recommendations of your business associate or friend. Your business requirements are different from others.
In a nutshell, CRM is not a technological solution that will bring dramatic change in company productivity. CRM is about sweeping change of mindset across the company to make it more customer centric. That’s why before installing a CRM system, the company should understand what it wants to achieve. Does the company want to make selling process more efficient? Is it trying to target and acquire the right customer segment or the goal is to improve customer service?
Monday, September 22, 2008
Why Virus
There is lot of similarity between Human Virus and computer virus. Both are foreign agents. Human viruses attack healthy tissues of body whereas computer viruses attack data and software present in the computer system . When white cells of the body detect the presence of virus in the body, they fight and kill the virus and the body recovers from the sickness. In case of computer virus, when a new virus enters the computer system, the antivirus software present in computer system detects and cleans the virus automatically. Now imagine what will happen if while cells in the body are weak and incapable of fighting, viruses will kill white cells in body. with the result the body will become sick and ultimately, the person will die. The same logic applies to computer virus. If antivirus software present in computer system is incapable of detecting new virus entering the system, it will slowly distroy software and data present in computer system causing irreparable damage. As new viruses keep coming, antivirus software needs to be constantly updated to be able to detect new viruses. Antivirus software is created to distroy the virus and therefore always comes after new virus is detected. It is never the other way round.
That means no anti virus software can offer 100% protection against new viruses specially if the new virus is not known to anybody.
The question that arises is who creates new viruses and why. Viruses are created to cause panic among users across the globe. Panic creates sense of urgency. If your sensitive data is under attack, you will do anything to protect it from damage. The loss to the company is enormous as recreating data is often very laborious and time consuming. Anti virus software is the only solution to clean virus. You start looking for anti virus software so that no further distruction of data takes place. There seems to be a linkage between virus software and anti virus software.
Anti virus software is in demand because of virus software. This reminds me of a movie of silent era called "The Kid". In this film, the hero who is great Charlie Chaplin breaks the glasspanes of windows of homes by throwing stones at them from distance. His collegue is standing nearby who is readily available to repair the windows. The needle of suspicion goes to thosecompanies who by creating virus software stand to gain from anti virus software.
What is the solution. How can we stop the menace of viruses which keep growing day after day at alarming speed. There is only one way which can put a brake to generation of new viruses in future and that is identify the origin of virus software through technology and sue the company responsible for generating virus software.
That means no anti virus software can offer 100% protection against new viruses specially if the new virus is not known to anybody.
The question that arises is who creates new viruses and why. Viruses are created to cause panic among users across the globe. Panic creates sense of urgency. If your sensitive data is under attack, you will do anything to protect it from damage. The loss to the company is enormous as recreating data is often very laborious and time consuming. Anti virus software is the only solution to clean virus. You start looking for anti virus software so that no further distruction of data takes place. There seems to be a linkage between virus software and anti virus software.
Anti virus software is in demand because of virus software. This reminds me of a movie of silent era called "The Kid". In this film, the hero who is great Charlie Chaplin breaks the glasspanes of windows of homes by throwing stones at them from distance. His collegue is standing nearby who is readily available to repair the windows. The needle of suspicion goes to thosecompanies who by creating virus software stand to gain from anti virus software.
What is the solution. How can we stop the menace of viruses which keep growing day after day at alarming speed. There is only one way which can put a brake to generation of new viruses in future and that is identify the origin of virus software through technology and sue the company responsible for generating virus software.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Pitfalls in ERP implementation
Investments in I.T. projects particularly in ERP is huge and return on investment is not clear. CEO of the company takes a decision to go ahead with ERP without doing any home work. Implementation partners of SAP, Oracle claim to implement ERP in 90 days flat. A closer scrutiny will reveal startling facts. Implementation has been done successfully in case of only 25% of those who have gone for ERP. In some cases, there is total failure. Companies where ERP has been implemented are back to square one and are doing almost everything in excel sheet. The loss to business is huge in terms of investment in hardware, software, networking infrastructure etc besides the cost of human resource deployed in implementation. Cost of maintenance of ERP is very high almost 18-22% of licensing cost. That means , if the licensing cost of ERP is say 1.5 crore, the cost of AMC shall be in the range of 27-33 lacs per annum which the company has to shell out irrespective of whether ERP is a failure or a success. Neither the implementation partners nor the clients come out openly and acknowledge the failure for fear of loss of prestige.
There is not one reason that can be attributed to the failure. There are several reasons of the failure. It is my view that failures must be analysed and brought to the notice of those who are potential customers of ERP so that they learn from the mistakes made in the past and do not repeat the same causing enormous loss to the company.
To start with, let me give you a simple example. You know that if there is pain in any part of your body, you go to the doctor. The doctor diagnoses the cause of pain in your body and suggests remedial measures by prescribing appropriate medicines with instructions on how to take the medicines. Carrying the prescription of the doctor, you then proceed to buy these medicines from a medical store. If you go to the medical store without consulting the doctor and buy a medicine which can relieve you of pain from the body, you are most likely to buy wrong medicine which will eventually harm the body rather than cure it. The point to note here is that you need to know what is it that is causing pain. Even the best medicine cannot cure you if the pain is not diagnosed properly. By the same logic, no matter how good an ERP product you buy, if it cannot address the pain area of your company it is of little use., it will prove to be a liability rather than an asset of the company. CEO of the company has to therefore hire a consultant who will help identify pain areas of the organization and prepare specification which will serve as a blue print to test the functionality fitment of ERP. It is quite possible that even the best ERP may fail to pass the test fully whereas a lesser known ERP product passes the test. The point I am trying to make here is that what is important is not how good an ERP product is , but whether the functionality of the product fits to your company’s specific requirement.
Coming back to the previous example, even if you buy correct medicine, it may not cure you if you don’t take it in the correct dose as prescribed by the doctor. In the same way, even if the right ERP is purchased, it can still fail if not implemented properly. ERP implementation may be done by the vendor himself or may be done by implementation partners of the vendor. Vendors of SAP, Oracle etc recommend certified implementation partners for implementation of their product. In a scenario like this, it is necessary to evaluate implementation partners separately on the basis of type of projects handled in the past, feedback of their existing clients preferably from similar industry, technical background of project team, domain knowledge etc. It is also important to know from existing sites how much time is spent in implementation. Even the financial health of the company should be looked into to ensure the sustainability of the company from the long term relationship point of view. There are instances where the product is good but implementation partner is weak and the vice versa. In both case, chances of failure are very high. Cost of implementation over a period of time has gone up considerably. It is as much and in some cases even more than the cost of product. Therefore, evaluation of implementation partner is as important as the evaluation of vendor. Implementation cost varies depending on timeline estimated in going live which again is dependent on scope defined. Implementation partners submit proposal based on the scope of implementation and man efforts required in completing major milestones as defined. Scope definition is the responsibility of the client and not of implementation partner. If the scope is not correctly defined, the project may be thrown out of gear during implementation resulting in cost escalation and ultimately failure. Even if the scope is defined correctly, the time estimate in completing major milestones of implementation phase may not match with actual time taken. Implementation is not the sole responsibility of implementation partner but joint responsibility along with client. Before project kick starts, implementation partner submits a detailed activity chart to the client highlighting activities under each milestones and responsibility of the individuals to carry out the activity. It is assumed that the person responsible for completing activity dedicates full time and energy in carrying out the activity. If for any reason, the person responsible for doing an activity fails to complete it in time, it may have repercussion on other activities which are dependent on this. Generally, the delay is from client end. Either the person concerned is not dedicated to this task due to his preoccupation with current functional responsibilities or he is lacking commitment . My observation is that this problem is more acute in small and medium sized organization wherein there is acute shortage of manpower. They are in a dilemma. If the person is kept aside to do ERP activities, the business of the company suffers.. Conversely, if they do not spend adequate time in ERP activity, implementation of ERP suffers. The decision to go ahead with ERP should be taken by the CEO of client company after carefully assessing the availability of man power which can be dedicated fully to ERP during implementation stage. Scope of implementation generally excludes certain activities like data clean up, data migration, coding etc. which if ignored can impact and delay implementation substantially. Existing database of the client may be inconsistent, incomplete, unreliable. Existing coding structure may be defective which may cause havoc to MRP., inventory etc at post go live stage.
Training is an area which is often overlooked. The standard practice is that training on various functionalites of ERP is given to core team members of client in the beginning phase of implementation with an understanding that this training will ultimately be passed on to endusers during go live stage. By the time pilot test run is conducted and the system is ready for go live, enduser training is forgotten by the core team with the result end users are left unattended. Core team members are withdrawn from the project and brought back to normal business functions. Implementation partner withdraws the support after project sign off. When faced with difficulties, endusers stop using ERP and reverts back to excel sheet in the absence of any support from either side.
Human resistance to ERP is prevalent in almost all organizations. Users who are fearful of losing control or are unable to embrace new technology resist implementation and block the process of implementation. CEO of the company has to anticipate such resistance and take appropriate steps to counter it. Many companies resort to methods like include ERP implementation as part of KRAs of users so as to increase the ownership of core team and end users.
Steering committee should make periodic review of progress made during and after go live stage. Post go live stage, old system should be switched off completely. Mistakes that most organizations make is they carry on with old system in parallel with ERP system with the result lot of backlog in transaction entry is created and ERP is never used in online mode.
The point to remember is that ERP implementation does not end with project sign off but extends much beyond and is in fact an ongoing process. Generally speaking, benefits from ERP in terms of reduction in cycle time, improved customer service etc is perceived only after 1 year of continuous use. Motivation level of endusers therefore has to be sustained over a period of 1 year after go live stage.
I will summarise by saying that ERP implementation requires dedicated skilled manpower on the part of the client and must be taken up with lot of commitment and dedication. If implemented in full and successfully, it can bring about radical change in the way the business is conducted or else it will become a status symbol only to satisfy the ego of company’s CEO.
There is not one reason that can be attributed to the failure. There are several reasons of the failure. It is my view that failures must be analysed and brought to the notice of those who are potential customers of ERP so that they learn from the mistakes made in the past and do not repeat the same causing enormous loss to the company.
To start with, let me give you a simple example. You know that if there is pain in any part of your body, you go to the doctor. The doctor diagnoses the cause of pain in your body and suggests remedial measures by prescribing appropriate medicines with instructions on how to take the medicines. Carrying the prescription of the doctor, you then proceed to buy these medicines from a medical store. If you go to the medical store without consulting the doctor and buy a medicine which can relieve you of pain from the body, you are most likely to buy wrong medicine which will eventually harm the body rather than cure it. The point to note here is that you need to know what is it that is causing pain. Even the best medicine cannot cure you if the pain is not diagnosed properly. By the same logic, no matter how good an ERP product you buy, if it cannot address the pain area of your company it is of little use., it will prove to be a liability rather than an asset of the company. CEO of the company has to therefore hire a consultant who will help identify pain areas of the organization and prepare specification which will serve as a blue print to test the functionality fitment of ERP. It is quite possible that even the best ERP may fail to pass the test fully whereas a lesser known ERP product passes the test. The point I am trying to make here is that what is important is not how good an ERP product is , but whether the functionality of the product fits to your company’s specific requirement.
Coming back to the previous example, even if you buy correct medicine, it may not cure you if you don’t take it in the correct dose as prescribed by the doctor. In the same way, even if the right ERP is purchased, it can still fail if not implemented properly. ERP implementation may be done by the vendor himself or may be done by implementation partners of the vendor. Vendors of SAP, Oracle etc recommend certified implementation partners for implementation of their product. In a scenario like this, it is necessary to evaluate implementation partners separately on the basis of type of projects handled in the past, feedback of their existing clients preferably from similar industry, technical background of project team, domain knowledge etc. It is also important to know from existing sites how much time is spent in implementation. Even the financial health of the company should be looked into to ensure the sustainability of the company from the long term relationship point of view. There are instances where the product is good but implementation partner is weak and the vice versa. In both case, chances of failure are very high. Cost of implementation over a period of time has gone up considerably. It is as much and in some cases even more than the cost of product. Therefore, evaluation of implementation partner is as important as the evaluation of vendor. Implementation cost varies depending on timeline estimated in going live which again is dependent on scope defined. Implementation partners submit proposal based on the scope of implementation and man efforts required in completing major milestones as defined. Scope definition is the responsibility of the client and not of implementation partner. If the scope is not correctly defined, the project may be thrown out of gear during implementation resulting in cost escalation and ultimately failure. Even if the scope is defined correctly, the time estimate in completing major milestones of implementation phase may not match with actual time taken. Implementation is not the sole responsibility of implementation partner but joint responsibility along with client. Before project kick starts, implementation partner submits a detailed activity chart to the client highlighting activities under each milestones and responsibility of the individuals to carry out the activity. It is assumed that the person responsible for completing activity dedicates full time and energy in carrying out the activity. If for any reason, the person responsible for doing an activity fails to complete it in time, it may have repercussion on other activities which are dependent on this. Generally, the delay is from client end. Either the person concerned is not dedicated to this task due to his preoccupation with current functional responsibilities or he is lacking commitment . My observation is that this problem is more acute in small and medium sized organization wherein there is acute shortage of manpower. They are in a dilemma. If the person is kept aside to do ERP activities, the business of the company suffers.. Conversely, if they do not spend adequate time in ERP activity, implementation of ERP suffers. The decision to go ahead with ERP should be taken by the CEO of client company after carefully assessing the availability of man power which can be dedicated fully to ERP during implementation stage. Scope of implementation generally excludes certain activities like data clean up, data migration, coding etc. which if ignored can impact and delay implementation substantially. Existing database of the client may be inconsistent, incomplete, unreliable. Existing coding structure may be defective which may cause havoc to MRP., inventory etc at post go live stage.
Training is an area which is often overlooked. The standard practice is that training on various functionalites of ERP is given to core team members of client in the beginning phase of implementation with an understanding that this training will ultimately be passed on to endusers during go live stage. By the time pilot test run is conducted and the system is ready for go live, enduser training is forgotten by the core team with the result end users are left unattended. Core team members are withdrawn from the project and brought back to normal business functions. Implementation partner withdraws the support after project sign off. When faced with difficulties, endusers stop using ERP and reverts back to excel sheet in the absence of any support from either side.
Human resistance to ERP is prevalent in almost all organizations. Users who are fearful of losing control or are unable to embrace new technology resist implementation and block the process of implementation. CEO of the company has to anticipate such resistance and take appropriate steps to counter it. Many companies resort to methods like include ERP implementation as part of KRAs of users so as to increase the ownership of core team and end users.
Steering committee should make periodic review of progress made during and after go live stage. Post go live stage, old system should be switched off completely. Mistakes that most organizations make is they carry on with old system in parallel with ERP system with the result lot of backlog in transaction entry is created and ERP is never used in online mode.
The point to remember is that ERP implementation does not end with project sign off but extends much beyond and is in fact an ongoing process. Generally speaking, benefits from ERP in terms of reduction in cycle time, improved customer service etc is perceived only after 1 year of continuous use. Motivation level of endusers therefore has to be sustained over a period of 1 year after go live stage.
I will summarise by saying that ERP implementation requires dedicated skilled manpower on the part of the client and must be taken up with lot of commitment and dedication. If implemented in full and successfully, it can bring about radical change in the way the business is conducted or else it will become a status symbol only to satisfy the ego of company’s CEO.
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