Project Details
We began work with a privately owned company that had recently been acquired by a publically owned parent. The parent company mandated the new acquisition to upgrade systems, which required the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP System) to support Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) compliance requirements. Five months were allotted for implementation because the system needed to be in place before the end of the year for the financial reporting purposes of the parent company.
The project was started on August 1st, and the company needed a live date for the new ERP system of October 3rd to allow for three months of data entry for the purpose of supporting a year-end SOX audit.
Processes and Solutions
In order to achieve the extremely aggressive schedule, several key items were put into place:
- A cross functional steering team was put into place
- All key stake holders and heavy system users were teamed up
- Weekly progress evaluations were established
- A full-time Project Manger was hired and put into place for the duration to drive all details.
Results
We launched the project as scheduled on August 1st with an integrated project management team in place and a full time project manager. We were able to launch the ERP system on time and the company was successful as planned by year-end. In late December, the SOX audit was passed and the objectives for the project within the short five-month time frame were met.