There are many causes which led to the challenges that were met at Aux Bons Soins. One of the challenges is lack of involvement with all the business functions of the company. This is seen in the way the first project manager does not include the other business areas to give views on the way the project should be implemented in order to include the views of all the members. This is something of concern for the whole project members. There is a need to include the project managers from the whole business because of the views of the different business functions. This challenge come from the assumption that all because of the fact that it is a technical project, it should be led by the It professionals. This should not have been the case because the source of most information in the business areas is from the leaders of the different functional units of the company. In the development of any system, it is important to have the views of the business units that will be affected to be involved in the whole process (Amoako-Gyampah, & Salam, 2004).
Another cause of the challenges of the project is the lack of involvement of the other business units of the units and the concerns that they were to be included in the new system. This is something lacking and should be a point of concern for most project leaders. The competitive advantage of any project should be derived from the contribution of all the functional units that are found in an organization. This is an important function that should be looked into when undertaking feasibility study of any project. Roberge failed to understand that the project will be managed and led by the person who understands what the business wants. The solutions for most of the problems that are faced by the different functional units of the company come from the managers of the functional units. This is because they have dealt with the business processes and understand what is needed in the whole process and the solution that is being sought. This is something that the project manager failed to understand. It is important to involve the knowledge from the other departments because they understand what they need to be solved in the company. Strategy is not about providing the best solution to the company alone (Aladwani, 2001).
One of the most important elements of the success of the project is the choice of the leader. The leader had both leadership from technical perspective and the one from management perspective. It is important to understand the people who are being managed and how to handle issues when they arise. The success with the second project manager is because of the way the second manager handled most of the issues that were met in the company. When there was discomfort from the team members, there would be an understanding and amicable solutions to the whole tea, so that there are inclusive participations from the stakeholders taking part in the project. In any project, it is important to understand what is being carried out and how the team members are coordinated (Bingi, Sharma, & Godla, 1999).
There are some key elements which led to the successes of the project in the company. One of the elements is the assessment of the solution from both the business and technical perspective. It is important to understand what needs to be included in the project from the business departments who are involved in the project. This will ensure that the project takes into consideration the views of all the people who will take part in using the system. There is a need to have a session that the users of the system know what is developed for them. The issues like the system would disrupt smooth flow of information in the system were cleared with the use of the system. The project manager understood that the users are required to be kept informed about the new changes that will take place in the system. This clearing of confusion led to the achievement of a coercion between the team members and the users. All the issues that arose were cleared before they could bring issues to the group (Holland, & Light, 1999).
Another element of success that was realized with the second manager is that there was coordinated and effective management of the events which led to the acceptance of the project. This is an important aspect of the project. With the appraisal of the project, user training, and effective management and coordination of events of the project, it will be hard to have a successful project in the end. The project manager had the end of the whole event and involved all the stakeholders in the planning of the project. This is important as it helps understand what is needed and enhance acceptance of the system by the users. Working on a project in isolation will bring a lot of issues in the end. The project manager ensured that the project runs according to schedule and budget (Hong, & Kim, 2002).
References
Aladwani, A. M. (2001). Change management strategies for successful ERP implementation. Business Process management journal, 7(3), 266-275.
Amoako-Gyampah, K., & Salam, A. F. (2004). An extension of the technology acceptance model in an ERP implementation environment. Information & Management, 41(6), 731-745.
Bingi, P., Sharma, M. K., & Godla, J. K. (1999). Critical issues affecting an ERP implementation. IS Management, 16(3), 7-14.
Holland, C. P., & Light, B. (1999). A critical success factors model for ERP implementation. IEEE software, 16(3), 30-36.
Hong, K. K., & Kim, Y. G. (2002). The critical success factors for ERP implementation: an organizational fit perspective. Information & Management,40(1), 25-40.
