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Cartoon courtesy of Oliver Widder.
Many people, organization and companies try to develop "integrated" system by following their vendor (or their "consultant's") recommendation. They try to follow the "best practice" advise to "adopt" pre-built-integrated-system as the core base element of their business process automation transformation/improvement.
Many followed the recommendation, yet so many fails. Even "statistics" and "rumors" typically tells that 70% of IT projects fail, which is another way of saying: the "best practices" is perhaps "not that best" anyway.
Nicholas Carr higlight a very important case and reasoning of why many ERP system implementation in reality often create more "trouble" and "complexities" rather than successfully solving the problem they are initially intend to solve. This is his most recent article highlighting the subject. ERP Troubled Legacy -- by Nicholas Carr. A real good stuff to enrich our view, insight and perspective.
Perhaps in choosing, selecting and identifying business-system-solution-that-works, no balooney perspective in making the key business (and business system) decision is key. "Balooney" statement such as "best practice", "others also do the same", "don't be the first to create your own different path" ... is actually dangerous .. considering the fact that almost 70% of the "BEST" practice fail, or create even bigger complexities than it was before.
The heart of the problem perhaps lies in our "less guided" (and less "guarded") perspective on how we should and shall choose our business sytems to support the business that we all built so hard.
Being "infamiliar" with technology and systems as a whole, many people choose systems based on "what is most common in the market" and many times based on "advise" and "view" of "best recommendations" that spreads around them.
Most of these "best advise" focuses on the "completeness" of the system and "integratedness" of the system ... all those "fancy" stuff. While in reality, in business what matters most is not all that. What matters most is perhaps actually: to choose the system that would really WORKS!
People perhaps often forget this, as they look into business systems solution that would "fit" their needs, they often "fancied" by "completeness" of the feature ... rather than "workability" and "fit"-ness of the solution itself.
A "key decision" and "perspective" that later on become a "fatal" mistake.
Systems after all should never be look at from completeness of its feature nor massiveness of its "modules" and "option", rather, perhaps I sincerely believe that systems should at all time be measured based on its "applicability", "workability" and "real usefulness" when being adapted to existing (and/or "enhanced" process and/or working environment).
The "theorist" might "argue" that integrated system is "better" because it already come "out of the box" with "so many complete and integrated feature". Such argument, in my opinion, could be right or wrong. The main point here is that it actually doesn't really matter whether the system function is "complete" or not "complete", what is more important is perhaps "whether the system inner assumption, process and logic" really fits into the "assumptions, processes and logic" of the real working process (and real working people) that it has to support.
Some "consultants" will argue that people must change their processes to adapt the "best practices" that "out of the box" ERP system already had (please forgive me, but there is a real difference between real consultant and "consultant" in my view and opinion; a real consultant bring great insight and make things work greatly through their real experience and insight, while fake "consultant" or "fake consultant" would try to argue with you with so many jargon and "smart words". The latter is the type that "insult" more rather than "help" -- they are more of an "insultant" rather than "consult" actually. Meanwhile, the earlier is the one that "consult" more and give "helpful/useful/powerful" advise in the process). My stand-point is this: what matter the most is workability of the system as a whole. If the system doesn't work in the real world it suppose to work, then no matter how "best" the practices might be (in theory) in reality such "best" is actually "not even shall be considered best at all".
After all, if we're all live in our everyday life by following "best practices", perhaps we are all going to end up all using the same cloth, the same car, the same house, the same watch, the same notebook, the same handphone, and the same way to talk each other everyday.
Such world would be both so "yucky", at the same time it would be so "scarry" too. Even worse, it will be a world that is totally "boring" and would never "work" in reality too.
Each of us is unique and different. Our organization and its inner thinking, strategy, goal, objectives and way of doing thing is naturally different too. As the brain behind the organization consist of people with different mixture of background and "brain" and goal and motivation, so does the natural structure and style of the organization will be different from one to each other.
In such condition, to imagine that there would be "one software" that would act as a software that could act as "one size fits all" requirement is totally ridiculous.
Some people might say we have to wake up to the realities that adopting "best practices" is great. Well, best practices hardly work in reality because we are all each living in our own different world. Through these mixture of differences actually we create our next progress and path forward. Without such, we are all "died".
As for the people that says "you should wake up and see the reality in adopting best practices" when they pitch their case, I'd say "probably it's THEY who has to wake up". It's time to wake up really, 70% of the projects fail or over budget or never used at all. Millions of USD cash has been wasted for nothing but "huge confusing complexities" that becomes painful everyday for everybody. Yet somebody still "shout" for us to wake up? Come on sir, may be it's time for YOU to wake up instead.
See the reality. Think about it. And perhaps let's start choosing and evaluating system NOT based on how complete nor how "best practice" it is, .. but simply based on how "workable" it would really is in the REAL world we are all live in. How it would really fit into the real process and real work that we have to deal with and do everyday.
After all, after all the "consultants" (or insultants ?? -- as I mentioned earlier) are gone, it is us who would deal daily with all these terrible-mess. It is us who have to "wake" up all night long to fix the "error" that these "smarty guys" made. As such, it's probably not us who must wake up, it is probably those sleepless soul that has to wake up, and face nothing else but the real new truth: ERP system or not ERP system doesn't really matter, "best practice" or "not best practice" doesn't really matter, ... we shall only choose system that would really works!.
Just a thought. :-)
Cartoon courtesy of Oliver Widder.
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