The Secret Success of a Global ERP Champion: Everything Changed and Nothing Happened

Abstract

The role of a global ERP champion is to guide a business through process transformation and ERP system implementation. A “change curve” model that depicts the “Valley of Despair” illustrates what a champion can expect and do to initiate new business processes, to address resistance to change, and to promote the advantages of a globally integrated system. The model, which anticipates a drop in business performance during the transition period, encourages change leaders to minimize time spent in the valley, to minimize the depth of the valley, and to maximize the slope of the value realization path out of the valley. A new perspective, drawn from experience, redefines a successful global ERP implementation in terms of a seamless transition to a new, integrated, efficient global system.