Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation of an Insurance Firm

ERP Implementation
Name:
Institution Introduction
Aux Bons Soins (ABS) is a general insurance firm from Quebec Canada. The company made an organizational decision of adopting and implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) driven strategy. This case study on ABS reveals that such strategies are encountered with drawbacks and pitfalls although there are also acceptable successes that the project achieved. This paper investigates conditions at ABS before and during the ERP implementation to provide in-depth insight into understanding the main causes of the difficulties with that project. In addition this review will help us to understand the important elements behind successful implementation of the project at ABS. ABS main aim for implementing the ERP software in ABS to harmonize activities across the various departments of the company into a single software. The various departments include Human Resource, Production, Marketing and Accounts (Bernier & Brunelle, 2006).
The elements that led to the ERP implementation success
Time
ABS took its time in the implementation and did not speed up the process. The implementation team was provided with ample time by the management which helped the team in understanding and handling all the project aspects such as the organization structure, system's specifications, forecasted risks and ERP requirements in detail (Bernier & Brunelle, 2006).
Top Management Involvement
Another element was the involvement of the high level management to the implementation process. The acceptance and continuous monitoring for the implementation of the ERP created a good environment. The top level management at ABS established a well-qualified project implementation team that was given some decision making autonomy regarding the ERP implementation process. The project implementation team was liable for preparing a work plan, and observing the project timeline (Bernier & Brunelle, 2006).
Phased approach
The ERP implementation project at EBS was broken down into smaller phases. This made the whole implementation process easy to manage and the implementation team was able to access whether they were on the right track (Bernier & Brunelle, 2006). Errors were easy to identify and rectified before going very far with the implementation process which would make it tedious to go back and correct errors. The achievement of smaller successful milestones was also a source of motivation for the implementation team that enabled them to continue with the project.
The Implementation Team
The implementation process at ABS was the responsibility of the IT department in the company. Other departments such as Finance and Marketing were also involved. The unity of all the departments in the implem...