8. Strategise

Figure out how to build and deploy your new ERP solution. These strategy documents influence each other and pave the way for viable plans:

Test strategy: How to demonstrate the technology works for the organisation.

Tech vendor methodology: Constrains mandated by the Tech vendor to go-live on their platform or software.

Deployment strategy: How to prepare the people, processes, data and support teams ready for cutover and beyond.

Cutover strategy: How to move from the old system to the new. This is heavily dependent on the deployment strategy and data migration:

Data migration strategy: This describes how to prepare, extract (from the source system), transform, load (to the target system) and validate the data.

Environment strategy: How to provide and manage environments to enable the other strategies and frameworks.

Pitfall: Skipping strategy creation and going straight to plans.

An ERP implementation has many moving parts. If the interactions between workstream outputs are overlooked, data migration tasks can be missed, testing can be insufficient, and last-minute resourcing gaps can appear.

Solution: Early on, establish strategies and agree on them across the programme. This will highlight gaps to fill and inform joined-up planning.