The Competition Commission found itself in a bind with a human capital enterprise resource planning system that isn’t living up to its promise and it has learnt a few hard lessons along the way. At the 2024 HR Indaba, experts discussed how to avoid these issues.
The Competition Commission learnt a few hard lessons when it came to implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that simply didn’t provide what it needed, Londiwe Mncube, CHRO, Competition Commission told attendees at the 2024 HR Indaba.
Londiwe explained, “We had not identified upfront what good looks like,” explaining that the interpretation of what scope is versus what you are going to get is problematic.
“From a sales perspective, you are told you are getting a Rolls Royce, and you are getting a bicycle – not even an Uno bakkie.”
She said that she couldn’t overemphasise spending a lot of time in getting a visual perspective of what will actually be delivered, as well as maybe getting a quality analysis specialist in to examine the contract.
At the same time, said Londiwe, it’s important to define the role of each stakeholder, especially IT. She suggested taking time benchmarking the system and visiting other companies who had successfully implemented ERP, as well as those who had not.
Londiwe said the entire debacle was so bad that she even started questioning the terms of reference. This came after the department spent five years motivating why they needed a system, especially when HR became even more important during the global pandemic. “I’m not going to sit here and say it was a walk in the park,” she said.
The Commission, Londiwe said, must now adjust its process to align the team with what it could do.
S’ne Magagula, CHRO of Tiger Brands, also had a difficult time implementing a system and then had to start over with the process, again having to get critical leadership buy-in because the investment has to be approved in line with business, people and digitisation strategies. “It took us five-and-a-half years to get a system that was fit for our purposes.”
S’ne explained that, because of the nature of the business, it had to be fit for those purposes, which includes manufacturing and supply chain, with a focus on speed to market. “It’s about how it will enable the business to be more effective,” she said. This includes aspects such as having AI to assist in making data-based decisions, including forward looking predictions.
“It was very critical to make the linkage as to how our business would enable our people to automate transactions. You need to make sure that whatever you are justifying is aligned to your business strategy, aligned to your people strategy, but also aligned to your digitisation strategy.”
This, said S’ne, included helping people achieve their career goals.
Zain Mohomad, senior HR business partner at BAT sub-Saharan Africa, gave practical tips as to the process around implementing an ERP system. He said it needs to be based on a thorough needs analysis, whether it is off-the-shelf or customised.
Zain said it must meet the needs of the business, and there must be a proper project plan in place. “Project 101 is scope, time, and budget.”
Without a plan, the project will go over time, over budget, and there will be scope creep, he said.
Moreover, vendor selection is critical, and the company needs to consider training and after-sales support in terms of the system’s life cycle.
