Top 10 Lessons Learned from Difficult ERP Installations

I have a “Top Ten” List of ERP/accounting software installations over my 30-some years of implementation experience.  I make every attempt to learn from each one of them although it surprises me that companies and people can always think of some new way to cause an installation to fail or cost much more than it should.

On one of my earliest installs, the administrator had pulled the plug on the minicomputer with no warning, “This dang thing doesn’t work!” Receivables were grossly incorrect, work-in-progress was in even worse shape, and the general ledger and financial statements were non-existent.  As the third controller for the month, I was hired with 14 days left before the next billing was scheduled.  If we didn’t bill on time, we estimated the firm would be out of cash within 30 days. We actually succeeded 8 days late, but before we ran out of cash.  This was one of two implementations I accomplished with sleeping arrangements in my office.  I earned a really nice bonus.

#2:  The client had unsuccessfully started the upgrade to move off the old, unsupported version.  With no restorable backup to revert to, they called me in for the 4-version upgrade over the Thanksgiving weekend. 4 days * 24 hours a day * holiday rate.

#3 involved a hardware upgrade.  The client had failed to make rotating backups of their server when it experienced a five-component, RAID 5 chain failure.  They had a single good backup six weeks old.  We sent the disks out to a clean facility to break open the cases and do specialized data recovery.  The disaster occurred during the client’s slow season; otherwise the general manager said they would have closed their doors.  Cost:  $38,000

These are my top ten lessons:

1. Plan before you pull the plug
2. Backup regularly
3. Use offsite backup storage
4. Test the backup once a month
5. Test the backup by not only restoring a small file from it, but have an experienced installer double check you’re actually backing up the right files.  The shortcut on your desktop doesn’t count as restorable data.
6. Insure you have well-trained, experienced personnel and consultants involved, committed to seeing the project through.
7. Don’t push hardware past its typical lifetime—3 years for workstations and 4 years for servers.
8. Don’t move, service, or otherwise tamper with hardware while it is operating.  This includes drilling holes in the frame while the server is plugged in to make room for the new board.  Dropping a server off a table being moved does count as, “the server crashed.”
9. Check key application software, third-party-applications, office productivity software, and peripheral hardware version compatibility before starting the upgrade.
10. Communicate with your users well in advance of upgrades and service packs.  If you time them the same day payroll needs to be prepared, communicate to everyone they won’t be paid on time or have your cab and plane ticket to a destination out of the country arranged in advance.

At Computeration, we take disasters in stride but our goal is to do our very best to help you avoid them.

By Computeration, your Dynamics GP Partner serving Idaho and the Pacific Northwest.

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