Implementation

The best manufacturing ERP system in the world isn’t worth anything if it isn’t well implemented. We’ve heard from hundreds of companies who have failed to successfully implement their prior ERP systems and are both gun shy to try something new, but desperate for a solution to their problems. They either fully abandoned the new system midway during the process, and went back to their old way of doing things, or they’re using far less than the full capability of their new system. It’s a tragic situation with real-world implications for their business.

Read below to see how we help to ensure that every customer of ProShop is thrilled with the implementation process and it becomes a backbone of their growth and success.

While we can’t guarantee success with ProShop, we have an incredibly high success rate which is improving all the time as we improve our process for onboarding new clients. Here are the things we focus on:

1. Making sure the customer is a good fit! Making sure the customer is a good fit! This the first and most important step. After a demo, many companies are pretty blown away with the ease, power and flexibility of ProShop. They are often eager to get started after evaluating their other options.
But not every company is a good fit for ProShop. If we don’t believe the company will be successful, we won’t sell ProShop to them. We’d rather help everyone avoid the pain, even if it means losing a sale. ProShop is an amazing tool for transforming the efficiency of the right kind of company, but a few things are important to consider.

1A. Is the company excited about going paperless? If the answer is no – then ProShop isn’t a good fit. ProShop can’t really be used well if the company wants to retain paper job travelers as the “controlling document” where people record their work. It’s fine to have a router for reference only, but that’s it.
All activity needs to be recorded in ProShop in as close to real time as possible. This is essential for a number of systems to work well, and for people to be able to see the real-time status of jobs in the system.

1B. Are they open to doing things differently? If they are open and eager to improve with an open mind, that’s a great start! Some companies want to make a new system adapt to the old way they do things. This isn’t always a good idea. While you shouldn’t need to add tedious steps to your process in order to make an ERP system work, there are often new and more efficient ways of doing things, some of which may make your old processes obsolete.
Keep an open mind and really understand how the new system works. You will likely be pleasantly surprised by the results.

2. Employing manufacturing experts on our implementation team. All of our implementation staff have deep manufacturing backgrounds. They truly understand our customers’ challenges because they’ve personally seen them before. They will be your close partner though your journey of implementing ProShop.

3. Designing an implementation process that is built for success. With a really well defined set of learning objectives, delivered in a quick but manageable pace, our clients can find the time to keep jobs shipping out the door while they learn ProShop. And with our proven process, they start using ProShop nearly instantly, so they learn on the job while using ProShop to start estimating new jobs, doing order entry and contract review, planning, purchasing, scheduling, etc.  All training sessions are recorded and provided as videos to clients for later reference or to share with new hires in the future. And one of the coolest parts, is we manage the whole process of implementation within ProShop. Yes, we use our own system to manage the process with a work order that outlines every step and every learning objective, and we let our customers sign off when they have learned each step. Holding our feet to the fire to ensure they are successful

4. Sticking with our customers! For some companies, the process is really fast and simple, taking just a few weeks. For others it’s more of a challenge. We want 100% of our customers to have success and do our very best to help achieve that goal, including holding their feet to the fire, and providing “tough love” when it’s needed. Sometimes an owner or CEO needs to hear some outside perspective on what the challenges are they are experiencing to see it from a different angle.

Sometimes, despite the very best efforts and intentions of everyone involved, there isn’t a successful outcome. Here is our list of the top three reasons ERP implementations fail:

1. The system wasn’t a good fit from the start. The sales people put on a good show, but the system doesn’t live up to the demos. Trying to make it work for a company for which it isn’t a good fit, is too difficult and never takes hold. It feels like everything is a work around and people resent that fact from day one. We see this most often with machine shops and job shops who buy a “shop” type ERP and it turns out to be inadequate for their needs.

2. The ERP vendor doesn’t have a good process. We’ve heard of too many times where an ERP system is sold, and then it’s up to the customer to send staff to a training class, and then call in to get support. Those classes are like drinking from a firehose, for 3-5 days straight. It’s optimistic at the best of times to take a week off of work, and think that you can go learn an entire ERP system. Then come back to work, with everything you need to get caught up on, and then self-implement the system. It’s a recipe for disaster to be honest.

3. The customer isn’t committed. We see this in a small percentage of cases. The system looks like a cure-all during the demos, but there is a problem with follow through on the part of the owner or management team that no amount of software can fix. Work gets in the way, training sessions are missed, and a poor training process gets in the way of actually getting the training done. Often the owners have the best intentions, but don’t prioritize getting the system implemented.

After completing the basic and advanced training that is part of the installation and implementation process as outlined above, clients will move over to our highly rated support system with our dedicated team of support specialists.

Support staff are available during business hours to answer questions and provide support and 24/7 support is always available for emergency situations. Support is always included at no cost when on maintenance or active subscriptions. We also have an extensive online help system with lots of walk-throughs and videos, and we offer in-depth monthly client webinar training on common topics at no cost.

Some clients may want more dedicated one-on-one training in the future and we’re happy to help with this need. Clients may request more formal training sessions at our normal hourly or daily rate. We understand that every client is critically important to our future success. We won’t stand for anything less than raving fans of our software, our support and our people. We achieve this by providing world-class software and support at a very fair and competitive cost.
Watch some videos of our customers who will tell you themselves how great our training and support is. If you’d like to talk directly with shops who have implemented ProShop, please ask us for references!