Align ERP for finance with corporate goals to improve operational efficiency.
- Gartner client? Log in for personalized search results.
Build an adaptable change management strategy to drive ERP success
The success of ERP implementation directly impacts the financial health and operational efficiency of your organization. Failing to manage organizational turmoil could come at a cost of millions spent on a program misaligned to the business’s current and future needs.
While critical for streamlining core business processes, ERP implementations carry the risk of negatively impacting employee performance and creating severe operational disruptions for customers and suppliers. An adaptable strategy ensures this doesn’t happen — and that the organization achieves its strategic objectives.
See Gartner research in action at our finance conferences and events.
Finance ERP strategies for value maximization
By aligning ERP objectives with business goals, assessing change readiness, enforcing rigorous training and fostering communication, you can drive enterprisewide accountability and ensure successful ERP adoption.
Connect ERP objectives with business strategy for optimal impact
To prevent costly inefficiencies and operational disruptions, collaborate with business partners to align ERP objectives with corporate strategy, emphasizing the business capabilities and KPIs that ERP will improve. Develop a model to capture both tangible and intangible benefits, such as enhanced data insights and improved controls and processes. As the organization evolves through new products or market channels, adjust ERP programs and related KPIs to align with strategic changes.
Ensure all functions and levels of the organization are engaged with your ERP program. Early on, clarify employee expectations of ERP and what support employees need to provide. Hold staff accountable for driving KPIs for their specific functions by standardizing processes.
Measure change readiness and tailor change management plans by role
Frequent ERP updates and new cloud functionalities can trigger employee frustration and change fatigue. To mitigate this, conduct an impact assessment for each workstream as new business processes are defined and standardized in the ERP program. Analyze the effects of the new ERP design on the organization by reviewing current and proposed process flows, and identifying changes by job group, role or deployment region.
Use a heat map to assess the impact of multiple ERP releases on individual roles, and guide change management decisions to minimize employee resistance. Review change management plans and timelines for each release among the steering committee, and engage additional functions, like HR or legal, for support when appropriate.
Enforce training rigor
Successful ERP implementation requires a well-defined training program. As you finalize the impact assessment, instruct your team to draft a training plan to prepare key individuals. Focus training on:
ERP technical functionality, including new reports and user interfaces
The new end-to-end business process
Impacts on existing tasks
The support organization readying the team for change
By attending ERP training, you demonstrate leadership commitment. Capture metrics, such as attendance by function and region along with question types, during training. Review these metrics in ERP steering committee meetings to address any issues.
Training demands tend to spike post-ERP launch, so offer regular, interactive and on-demand sessions. Engage local finance teams in training delivery. Tap superusers to identify trainees, conduct sessions and provide initial support, and change agents to define local training and communication strategies.
Build a cross-functional internal and external communication strategy
Take personal responsibility to communicate the ERP strategy, its importance and its implications for your organization. In companywide meetings or quarterly updates, reinforce the vision of change and encourage discussion of how the ERP program supports it. Empower process owners to share updates in these forums, rewarding those who embrace new finance technology. Customize ERP communication plans for individual functions, detailing specific impacts and linking them to broader business goals.
Prioritize external communication with customers, suppliers and stakeholders as well. Once you review the external messaging, engagement, timing and impact, notify customers and suppliers of new processes and potential disruptions during system cutover, and partner with them to resolve data quality issues in ERP master data. In board meetings and investor relations communications, clearly articulate the ERP benefits, along with cost and productivity targets.
Finance ERP FAQs
How can CFOs ensure successful finance ERP implementation?
To ensure successful finance ERP implementation, align ERP objectives with corporate strategy by identifying key business KPIs and capabilities the ERP will enhance. Conduct impact assessments for new processes and analyze changes by user group. Enforce rigorous, flexible and interactive training alongside local finance teams. Develop a cross-functional communication strategy to keep employees and external partners informed.
What role does communication play in finance ERP implementation?
Communication is vital in finance ERP implementation. Personally convey the ERP strategy and its implications for your organization, reinforcing the vision of change in meetings. Customize communication plans for each function, detailing specific impacts and linking them to broader business goals. Ensure ERP dialogue and progress updates within teams. Externally, notify customers and suppliers of new processes and potential disruptions.
How can CFOs address change fatigue in ERP for finance?
To combat change fatigue in ERP for finance, adopt an adaptable change management strategy. Conduct impact assessments to tailor change management plans by role, use heat maps to visualize ERP release impacts and offer flexible training opportunities. Regularly review change management actions and timelines, engaging HR and legal if necessary.
Attend a Conference
Join Gartner experts and your peers to accelerate growth
Gather alongside your peers in National Harbor to gain insight on emerging trends, receive one-on-one guidance from a Gartner expert and create a strategy to tackle your priorities head-on.
27 – 29 May 2026
Gartner Finance Symposium/Xpo™
National Harbor, MD
Drive stronger performance on your mission-critical priorities.