|
VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE:
Public Sector Perspectives
|
|
January 2006 (revised) |
A series of white papers
|
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP):
Infrastructure Verification and Validation Assessment
By their very nature, ERP systems are intended to be decentralized so employees
closest to the work can input transactions directly. One of the goals of any ERP
project is to take transaction input out of the hands of a few and spread it
out amongst the field-level employees who are closest to the
purpose of the transaction. In a large organization, like state
government, that means thousands of employees and hundreds of
worksites are points of origin for transaction input.
Therefore, each worksite must have the needed infrastructure
(e.g. PCs, telecommunication networks, printers, etc.) for
employees to efficiently input and access information or the
entire ERP implementation is put at risk. A flawless ERP
configuration and implementation can quickly be tainted in the
first several weeks of ‘go-live’ if the infrastructure to support
the transaction input in the field is not in place. The
end-users, already challenged by the new system, will quickly
begin to long for the old system if each transaction now takes
twice as long to input. In fact, not addressing infrastructure
issues can cause collateral harm to other non-ERP systems. For
example, congestion caused by an increase in network traffic
related to ERP can significantly and negatively affect an
agency’s ability to access other mission critical applications.
When the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania decided to implement an ERP solution much
time was spent anticipating potential barriers to success.
One of the defined barriers was the state government’s technology infrastructure and
its ability to support an ERP system. All agreed that it was
essential to perform a gap analysis; that is, inventory all
the technology that agencies had in place to support the planned
ERP implementation and measure it against what was needed to be
successful. Because of the lead time required to replace
inadequate infrastructure, this component of our ERP project was
started nearly a year in advance of the scheduled ERP
implementation date. A plan and methodology was developed to
inventory and evaluate each of the following technology components:
Personal Computers: The primary input and access
device for ERP is the PC. Therefore, it was imperative
that all potential users of ERP had a PC technically capable of
performing all their existing work as well as the additional
ERP transaction input and access. The analysis for
personal computers should include:
-
Hardware Capacities — Ensure sufficient PC processing power and storage.
-
Required software — Confirm all required software is loaded and functional.
-
Software levels — Evaluate operating system, internet browser levels, etc.
-
Software Conflicts — Identify any potential software incompatibilities.
- Virus Protection — Is the device adequately protected against
virus attacks?
-
Access Control — For security reasons, does the device automatically timeout
after "xx" minutes of inactivity?
Networks: Networks are the digital transport which allows access to
the central ERP servers. These include Local Area Networks (LANS), Wide Area Networks
(WANS) and access to the Internet. Many times pieces of these networks are managed by
different entities, namely agencies, as well as the central “IT” organization. Accordingly,
no one may be performing an overall capacity analysis to determine connectivity and
bandwidth capabilities. Ensuring that users can gain access to the ERP system and have
sufficient bandwidth to perform their ERP functions is another critical requisite of a
successful ERP implementation. This includes any Web-based training associated with the
transaction. The network analysis should include:
-
Connectivity — Confirm devices can access the ERP system.
- Capacity/Bandwidth — Measure existing utilization and
model expected ERP traffic, including online ERP training activity. Upgrade service, as
necessary.
-
Network Reliability — What are the performance levels, and are there single points of
failure that could adversely affect ERP activities?
-
Network Security — Are the various networks secure to transport confidential data?
Should network traffic be encrypted to ensure point-to-point confidentiality?
Printers: Even though ERP systems are intended
to be “paper-free” they are not, at least initially. Therefore,
printing of information or documents is a necessity. Each
user or cluster of users must be associated with a printer. Given
the wide variety of printers and different manufacturers there is
a need to test each printer to assure all information is
properly formatted and presented. The analysis of
printers should include:
-
Capability/Capacity — Are existing printers robust enough
to handle the ERP workload?
- Compatibility with ERP System
— Will ERP documents print accurately?
- Location — Are printers positioned properly
to support end-user needs?
An infrastructure verification and validation effort can also address
other technology-based issues that are inherent to ERP implementations.
One is having an effective strategy and plan for technical support of
ERP during conversion and once steady state is achieved. Since most
technology needed for a successful ERP implementation is the
responsibility of individual agencies there is a need to define a set of
operating guidelines, helpdesk responsibilities/procedures and expected
service levels. This will speed the response should a piece of hardware
or software fail.
Pennsylvania also used the private sector to build a single sign-on
capability for its ERP system. When employees logged into their e-mail
accounts, they were automatically authenticated and therefore allowed to
access the ERP system without re-entering a separate user-ID and
password. The e-mail system forced users to change their password at
least quarterly. Automatic timeouts were implemented for all PCs to
ensure that after 15 minutes of inactivity a PC would require the
re-entry of user-ID/password. That helped mitigate the risk of
unauthorized users gaining access to unattended PCs that were logged
into the ERP application. Single sign-on was a huge success with the
thousands of ERP end users and eliminated a potential problem of
hundreds of users flooding the helpdesk requesting password resets
because they forgot their ERP log-on credentials.
As the former CIO of Pennsylvania and chairman of the state's ERP
Executive Committee I cannot overstate the importance of the technology
infrastructure. During transition to Pennsylvania’s ERP system we
encountered relatively few infrastructure problems because of all the
analysis and remediation done months before. If we had not addressed the
infrastructure issues, and just assumed they were sufficient, our staff
would have been overwhelmed with technical issues and could not have
focused on the ERP functionality; and, the perception of project success
would have been altered considerably. Therefore, it is imperative that
an infrastructure verification and validation assessment be conducted
well in advance of any ERP implementation.
©2007, Gerhards Consulting Group. All rights reserved.
