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"So, how many IT people will be here on Saturday?" It was Wednesday afternoon, and our CFO and I were going over the pre-go-live plans for the first phase of our ERP conversion: converting our back-office accounting functions. This was his phase, and there was concern in his voice.
"Just two, plus I'll be in," I said. "Two? This is an IT project, isn't it?" he said with humor, but the tension of more than a year's planning was there too. He was concerned that there would be twice as many accounting associates as IT staff, in addition to our five consultants. I reassured him, "If anything comes up in the conversion, all hands will be here."
We closed business on Friday at 5 p.m. sharp. Scripts were executed and churned out data through the night. We had converted historical and static data the weekend before, leaving only current-period changes for the final conversion.
The noisy line printers were still clacking away when the first team members showed up at 6 the next morning. They arrived with big Starbucks cups and armloads of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The team gathered to review the game plan. "And if we get done by noon, we'll go to lunch wherever you want," our CFO said. A generous but safe offer.
Minutes after we adjourned, desktops disappeared beneath mounds of green bar paper displaying trial balances and financial reports extracted from our legacy system. The march was on to make sure the new system's data matched the old. I overheard conversations about which high-priced restaurant North Coast would treat us to.
We computer guys stood around like firemen at a July Fourth celebration, then drifted back to our desks. Like any office Saturday, we spent hours clearing up the week's loose ends, waiting for a fire that never appeared.
Still, we missed the lunch offer, and dinner too. Little imbalances kept the accounting team searching for dollars lost and gained during conversion. The last person left at 9 p.m. But IT had nothing to do. We were home in time for dinner.
Final Reconciliations
The Monday morning we had alternately anticipated and dreaded for months arrived. It too proceeded unremarkably. Only two issues caused anxiety. Our accounts payable clerks were 40% below their pre-conversion productivity levels, largely because the invoice-scanning process was taking five times longer than predicted. We soon discovered that clerks were trying to match the way they used to organize invoices. After conforming to the new procedures, they were back on track. Of greater concern were imbalances in the balance sheet and income statements. Though we will be running on two systems for four months until we bring up our last branch, we need to figure out what causes these discrepancies.
Now the system has been up for two weeks. Anomalous transactions have snuck in, but the go-live anxiety is over. During phase two, I'll begin certifying the first branches that we bring up on the new system.
I recently sat down again with our CFO. "I have an answer to the question you asked me last Wednesday," I said. "The answer is no. This isn't an IT project." "Right," he said, smiling. Actually, he's smiling a lot more these days. "It's a business project."
Next: We travel to the branch offices.
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