Countless organizations have found themselves in a situation where streamlining their environmental reporting through the use of an automated, and accountable, system has become a priority. When faced with thousands, or in some cases tens of thousands, environmental regulatory compliance obligations, it makes sense to not track that type of content in Excel or even worse, in a physical notebook.
To manage environmental reporting more effectively, many organizations have migrated to an environmental enterprise resource planning (EERP) system. EERP systems bring numerous benefits, but it’s imperative that the right steps be taken before rolling out a new system. Today we take a look at a whitepaper from Enviance titled “The Guru’s Guide to Implementing and Sustaining Your Environmental ERP System,” which offers best practices for deploying your system successfully, while mitigating potential issues.
One key to setting yourself up for success is to approach implementation in phases. Oftentimes organizations find themselves in over their head trying to do too much during the rollout. By breaking down the entire process into small phases, you relieve the burden on your organization and establish short-term goals which can be achieved on schedule.
During this time, it’s important to address what your existing needs and systems are and define and document the desired requirements of the to-be-purchased system. Then, from your current employee base, develop a team responsible for the decision process and implementation of your system. Give them clearly defined roles and have them develop an implementation plan with which to keep your company on track.
Now comes the tough part, rely on your internal team to identify the right system for your company’s needs and take the plunge. After purchasing your system, select a beta site to launch, following the implementation plan developed internally. And lastly, execute your implementation plan, eventually taking the system live.
Once the system is live, it is crucial that your employees are properly trained. Communication is critical, and everyone must speak the same language (i.e. your system’s language) to communicate effectively.
Some suggested training options are:
Awareness training—this could be in the form of a 30-minute system overview for infrequent users who may just need to review reports or complete other less technical tasks.
End-user training—webinar sessions are often a preferred format. These are typically more in-depth and may cover how to properly enter and edit numeric and non-numeric data, complete tasks or create reports.
Super user training—these are the most comprehensive training courses, often taking place over a full day. These trainings include a review of the solution’s design, which is imperative to ensure users understand the hierarchy of the system and can effectively manage change over time to ensure the EERP solution maintains the highest value possible to the organization.
These are just some of the suggested tips included in Enviance’s whitepaper. To read the full document, please click here.
Regardless, the main takeaway should be this: the key to a swift implementation and successful deployment of any EERP system is planning, communication and a thorough training program that turns your employees into experts.
We hope you enjoy the whitepaper!
-The Enviance team
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