Confessions of a European Event Manager

 

Introduction

When a company or organisation wants to put on a conference or large event, it is unlikely they would consider doing it themselves. Most companies do not have all the necessary in-house expertise, and releasing personnel from their usual work could be less cost efficient than bringing in the experts. There is also a great deal more to organising a conference than most people would realise in that it is a very stressful and technical activity. The client therefore would usually call in another company that specialises entirely in conference and event management.

There are a great many companies offering Corporate Event Management Services so competition is keen. Even if you are the best you still have to compete with others who offer lower prices and might appear to be better value. One of the ways of countering the cut throat business in the UK is to look at offering Conference Production Services in Europe. European managers then have the option of using a UK or EU company to provide for their Conference or Event. UK conference services are more than able to offer competitive prices. In the current economic climate with the pound at its lowest value for many years, UK companies have a distinct advantage in the EU market. The following example will serve as a useful illustration of the many benefits of taking your event expertise outside of the domestic environment.

I plan to take you through a step by step account of the stages of managing an event in Europe using examples from a recent contract in Rome.

Step 1

As a company offering conference and event management services it is vital that the quality of service provided is professional and value for money. To this end attention to detail is paramount. The project manager will know his team and the quality and reliability of the technical staff, the quality of the electronic equipment and the soundness of the sets that are used. Once these items are in place and proven on previous jobs then the pitch to the client can be confident and knowledgeable so that the client can be reassured things will run smoothly.

Step 2

The Brief

The brief we were given was a three and a half day conference event in Rome in early February for approximately 150 international delegates attending, the majority of whom would be travelling from the USA.

Technical Specification

The technical requirement was to combine a rear projection set and a four speaker PA system with radio microphones. Also data and video switching, wireless table microphones for delegate interaction with presenters in question and answer sessions. They wanted two show laptop PC’s loaded with PowerPoint and various video software.

Step 3

A quotation was provided for all the physical hardware and the technical requirements and the services of the project manager and his team. No subcontracting was necessary. Details were agreed and the quote was accepted by the client and a contract issued. It is important to make sure you have a contract and in it, a clause for cancellation charges.

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Step 4

When organising any event abroad we find it more reliable and economical to use our own technical equipment and workforce who we know and trust. There are no problems with language and the team understand the technical issues that are likely to be encountered. They are used to working together, each having their strengths to contribute to the whole, and they can be trusted to do the best possible job with the minimum of fuss. However planning is a key activity particularly when organising meetings and conference events abroad. If you have forgotten something it’s too late to go back when you have driven 600 miles. So having decided to transport the full conference set, staging and equipment by van to Rome we then worked out the details of how best to achieve it.There will always be last minute and additional requirements from presenters and our team can be relied upon to deal with last minute glitches, that need immediate and effective technical support, as a matter of course.

Step 5

Transportation

The size of the event is critical to the choice of haulage. In our Rome example it was possible to convey all the required equipment in a hire van which could be driven using a standard UK driving licence. If the scale of a conference or exhibition event is much larger it would be recommended to use a dedicated freighting company to collect, deliver and return staging and technical elements to the destination. Using a dedicated freighting company also has the benefit of delivering the key personnel to the event without them being tired out after driving across Europe. In other words the team can be flown out to the event so that they are fresher on arrival. With cheap flights to Europe it can also work out more cost effective than overnight stays for eight or ten people driving en-route.

However, in this case it was decided that the event technicians would drive the van to Rome which would still be well within budget for all staging and technical elements. When hiring a vehicle it is essential to pay attention to maximum load capacity of the vehicle. The weight of the technical equipment and set must be less than the maximum load and once the main systems are onboard, care must be taken not to fill it to the brim with extra bits and pieces.

It is so easy, when being helpful, to add the client event material, such as delegate registration systems and materials, brochures, display and graphic panels. The result can easily mean that the maximum safe load allowance for the vehicle is compromised. As the load capacity is a legal necessity it is never a good idea to say yes to extra items on behalf of the client without being aware of the likely impact on overall weight.

Step 6

The Journey

As the distance was twelve hundred miles there and back it was decided that with an allotted journey time of two and a half days each way to Rome would be adequate. Although it would have been possible to travel to Rome in two days we have learned from experience to allow a margin for any delays en route. It also allows for the technicians themselves to be fresh enough after the road trip to be able to work effectively.

When travelling long distance across Europe and at a time of year when the weather might be inclement, it is essential that the safety of personnel and other road users is paramount. By dividing the travel time between two drivers and rotating them every two hours, we have found that neither is unduly fatigued. This system allows large distances of up to 600 miles a day to be covered with safety. Regular breaks help to maintain concentration and awareness, with total travel times of no more than ten hours in any day and preferably no more than eight hours a day.

Some companies offer tailor made team building events that combine company events management with exhilarating activity.

Having decided on the route to be taken from the UK to Rome we left the UK via a ferry from Dover to Calais and then journeyed to an area just North of Dijon on day one. From Dijon on day two, the journey continued as far as Bologna via the Mont Blanc tunnel. We decided on day three, to make an early start for the half day drive from Bologna to Rome and deliver the equipment to the venue, then rest up for the remainder of the day so the crew would be fresh to start work the next morning.

Navigation across Europe is now much more straight forward with Satellite, but we would also suggest printed route plans and local maps of any places where a stop-over is planned. It has sometimes been the case that even with the latest updated information the Sat Nav cannot always find the precise location of the road you want, due to the ongoing construction of many new motorway networks. You may find yourself suddenly stuck on a road it doesn’t know and this is when the co-driver can be a great help to navigate you through the confusion.

Step 7

Accommodation for Overnight Stops

Choosing accommodation for suitable overnight stops is worth some research. There is a plentiful choice of motel stops near to all major roads in France and Italy all of which are reasonably priced. However, there are great guest houses away from the main cities and major roads which offer a much more relaxing experience for a tired traveller and are usually cheaper than the chain motels. Often these places have secure parking enhancing vehicle security from theft and damage. After all, when freighting audio-visual systems with a value stretching to tens of thousands of pounds, peace of mind is useful to say the least.It is advisable to spend time during pre-event production locating places to overnight. There is little benefit from having to find a room late in the day at an unknown cost which may impact on the profitability of the job.

Step 8

On Site Conference Production

On arrival in Rome we drove the van to the conference venue so that the audio-visual equipment and staging could be unloaded directly into the conference room. This was to secure the items and have everything ready for fitting the following day. Getting an early start to set up the equipment allowed for the client to begin presentation rehearsals on the afternoon of the rig day. Later on the same day there was to be an evening reception and brief welcome presentation to all attending delegates. The setting up procedures are tried and tested and the team worked like a well oiled machine so that all the audio-visual elements were complete and in place on schedule and all the technical systems were working correctly by the time the client presenters arrived from the USA.

Step 9

Audio Visual and Production Content

An example of the kind of last minute technical hitches that has to be resolved is when a conference presenter is unable to submit his presentation during the pre-production period and will arrive on site with it in his briefcase (Probably having worked on it during his flight over). The production team will not know until late in the process what presentation format is required. However the presenter will still expect his material to be incorporated seamlessly into a master slide deck. If a conference set uses a wide screen projection format the content will need to be generated in a sixteen by nine aspect ratio. Unknown to the presenter however, the offered material may have been built around a slide template that used a four by three aspect ratio instead. Depending on content, this may have minimal effect on the look of the presentation but if there are images of people, or pie chart graphs, these will then appear as stretched and elliptical shapes which would be unsatisfactory. Fonts and text boxes may move out of alignment and embedded applications such as XL may well be impossible to read. The added value for European clients of using a UK based corporate event supplier is that the British are famous for their ability to be innovative and come up with solutions to problems at the last minute and particularly under pressure.

It is worth shopping around for corporate audio visual hire because it is a very competitive market and there may be some bargains to be found.

During the rehearsals for the first day of the conference one of the American presenters had travelled to site with a power point presentation containing video footage. Unfortunately the video content had not been embedded into his presentation so it did not appear as he expected. The video content was hyper-linked to files that were inaccessible from the PowerPoint presentation – supplied to us on a memory stick. Fortunately with our technical proficiency we were able to download the video from source and convert the video footage into a high resolution format that would be compatible with our audio visual systems. This is when event support specialists, who speak English as a first language and are familiar with the requirements of such last-minute complications, are invaluable.

In an ideal scenario, all presentation content will have been presented during the pre-production phase to minimise such last minute glitches, but more often than not on-site changes are required to re-format a presentation. Whilst it is by no means out of the question that a local AV company might well have been able to do the same, feedback from client events in Europe suggests that when they have used a local supplier they have often failed to be sufficiently expert to support such needs.

Step 10

During the Conference

Over the period of the two and a half day event we were able to further increase our reputation with the client and delegates. Something that they had overlooked until the last minute was to provide appropriate themed music for role-play exercises. Although it had not been part of the original conference production brief, we were able to provide apt and timely presentation support at very short notice from our on-site database of over thirty thousand music tracks.

Whilst seeming relatively negligible points in themselves the above types of scenarios can be very stressful for conference and event organisers, who already have responsibilities that go beyond the presentation content. The corporate conference event being organised by the client is a huge task of delegate management and event logistics, so that any projects that can be left to an experienced dedicated event management team such as ourselves, frees them up to focus on their own tasks of delivering a successful delegate experience.

Step 11

Language Issues in European Conferencing.

When working in Europe either as an event manager, conference producer, or production company, it is always helpful if you are able to communicate directly with the people you meet at the venue and along the way. Whilst all major event management destinations and hotels across Europe have staff who will speak English, there are occasions when they will not be available. We are happy to have colleagues with rudimentary skills in French, Spanish and German who are all keen to improve their language skills. They are prepared to have a go whenever possible to try out what they have learned and this has sometimes proved to be invaluable. It may seem obvious to say, but we recommend that at least one on your production team should have a working knowledge of the local language and should be encouraged to use their language skills as often as possible. It is often surprising how a little effort can generate a much better response from those who you are working alongside.

Conclusion

If you haven’t given much attention to the idea of working in Europe then we really recommend it. Conference events in Europe can be undertaken by a UK event production company at comparable cost to our European colleagues in the audio-visual supply sector. Favourable exchange rates add a further competitive edge to the costs of bringing your audio-visual and staging from the UK. Researching and planning the route and method by which conferencing systems are freighted and delivered will provide surprisingly low cost delivery solutions.

Taking your preferred conference production team with you to Europe will give increased peace of mind with regard to the quality of your technical support. Our client in Rome was very happy with the service and level of attention to detail we brought to their conference and repeat European corporate events are now routinely part of our conferencing diary. Fortunately our team really enjoy the experience of travelling abroad and having the opportunity during ‘down time’ to experience life in another culture and country.

 

Family Business Management

Introduction

What is understood by the term ‘family business management’? Does it mean a business managed by one member of a family or by many members of a family who are retained in the business? It could be that all the family members who are part of the business have an equal share of the profits and therefore have an equal say in the decisions to be made in the business. Alternatively it might be that the family member designated as the Managing Director makes all the business decisions without necessarily needing to consult other members of the family.

However the business is organised, the understood view of a family business is that it is owned and run by a family, and members of that family work together to make the business successful. There are many variations of how the management of the business works, but ultimately it is a privately owned company and all the profits are retained for the benefit of the business and the family.

Managing the Family Business

A family run business has many complicated dimensions to the interpersonal dynamics compared to a public company that can make or break the owners. The dynamics of personal and professional issues combined create an added pressure which can hinder good business decisions. Unresolved family conflicts will undoubtedly be carried into the workplace and impact the motivation and productivity of everyone involved.

I have current experience of managing a family business where we find it is important to have our different areas of responsibility. I am the Managing Director and main Project Manager, then we have the Accounts and Admin Manager and the Chairman who presides over the meetings and keeps an eye on the overall direction and functioning of the business. We have found over the years that there are some important issues which have to be resolved in order to work compatibly together. Mainly they are the issues around boundaries. Respecting each other’s different skills and trusting they can do their job well are key elements. If there are new skills to learn fundamental training is offered to ensure that person can do the job effectively.

It is important to realize managing any business in today’s environment is a complicated process but when you have the added dimension of family dynamics it can so easily get out of hand. One of the crucial elements to resolve is the historic patterns of relating between family members. Usually there is a lack of awareness that these patterns exist because they are habitual and familiar. However once they start to impact on the effectiveness of the business these issues need to be discussed so that changes can be made and the issues resolved. One obvious example is where a child works with a parent. It is usually difficult for the parent to see the child as a responsible adult and still treats that person in the old habitual way. The child might then feel devalued, disempowered and impotent because of the old habit of respecting and obeying the parent. This will produce a lot of frustration, anger or even rage generating manipulative and destructive behaviour.

One of the reasons the series Dallas, about the fictional Ewing oil barons was so successful was because of the constant family problems that cropped up. They were a never ending source of material for the story line and never seemed to be resolved.

Sourcing and supply of self employed sales agents is one of the services my family business provides so you can be sure we have a lot of experience dealing with the family relationship dynamic!

Leadership

One of the prime issues in a family run business is that of leadership. There has to be a leader whom everyone should be able to respect and is capable of making sound business decisions. If two family members are in a power struggle to be the leader then the business will suffer. I have seen this happen in a firm that was not between family members and it nearly brought the company down. Loyalties become divided and business decisions are often made for the wrong reasons resulting in loss of production and revenue. So when embarking on a family business the leadership needs to be decided at the outset. Once the decision has been made then the rest of the members working in the company need to support that decision and not undermine it.

There are different styles of leadership:-

The Autocratic Ruler -This sometimes works as long as the rest of the family are willing to do what he/she wants. But long term I don’t think the autocratic ruler is particularly good for business. When the time comes for someone else to take the helm there could be no one strong enough to fulfil the role.

An example of autocratic leader is the father of a family friend who was a successful plastics manufacturer. The son was encouraged to follow a path of water ski trick jumping and became a member of the British team. His father did not encourage him to continue in further education with the belief that the son didn’t need it as he would run the business after him. The day came when the son could no longer continue with his sport because of injury and settled down the work in the business. After about six months he had a big falling out with his father and left. The problem then was he had no other skills options open to him other than selling insurance. After about 3 weeks he returned to work in his father’s business because it was very lucrative and had a level of status for him.

The Democratic Ruler – will encourage each individual to speak about their area of responsibility or their view of a business strategy. All members will be listened to respectfully and their view considered. This way a full and fruitful dialogue can take place in order to find the best decision for any one topic. New or younger family members will be supported to learn the business and encouraged to broaden their outlook so they become another valuable asset to company.

If the autocratic father had been more far sighted and encouraged his son to further his education, then find work with another company for a period of time and left him the option to come and work in the company when he had gained experience elsewhere, he would have benefitted from a more mature, confident, creative and experienced manager who could have brought new ideas to the organisation and participated fully in all aspects of the company policies. The son’s enthusiasm for modern technology could move the business forward into the modern age.

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Conflict Resolution

Family businesses can be a minefield of unresolved conflict and resentment. It is important to find healthy ways of dealing with conflicts before even embarking on the path of family business management. When we first set up together in our family business we agreed that if we were not happy with some behaviour or something that was said, then we would say how we felt and give the other person the opportunity to amend it in some way. The most important thing for us was to listen to each other and respect the other person’s point of view. So when difficult decisions needed to be made to ensure the survival and the profitability of the business, discussion and argument, chewing over the policies and relevant information were signs of healthy processes on which to base sound business decisions.

Attitudes and Values

Being part of a family business means for the most part the attitudes and values are shared. In a regular company there are many varied attitudes and values which generate tensions when working together. Listening and understanding each other is Key to good working relationships. One of the benefits of having a family business is intuitively knowing the other members and being able to trust them with your life if necessary. Even if there are disagreements you will know exactly the integrity and reliability of each individual. (Or not as the case may be!)

Well Known Family Businesses

When looking at the commercial world there are hundreds of family run businesses both large and small. Some are very well known companies such as the Ford, Murdoch and the Mars family, others are only known locally like my family butcher. But whatever their size there are only a small percentage of businesses which have been successfully passed down through the generations.

Rupert Murdoch the son of Keith who started the original newspaper empire in Australia, has built up a huge global network of media and entertainment companies worth millions and is still in charge at 77 with his son James as a possible heir. In the case of Ford the family now in the fourth generation own 40% of the voting stock but Mars is still 100% family owned and is not floated on the stock market. Frank and Ethel Mars started the company in 1923 and were responsible for inventing the Milky Way Bar. Their Son Forrest quarrelled with his father and the story goes that his father gave him a significant sum of money and said ‘go and run your own company’. He came to England and set up the factory in Slough making Mars Bars, later branching out into make pet food (Pedigree Petfoods) based in Melton Mowbray. His sons John and Forrest Mars Jr, were educated and trained to take over the business. When old Mr Mars retired he set up a small company making specialist chocolates so he would be kept busy while his sons got on with running the global business.

My local butcher Robert inherited his shop from his father who inherited from his father. The instigator had two sons who worked in the shop and now their sons run the business together which is still organised in the traditional way. It is very successful even during these times of crisis. The most famous family firm in the UK of course is the Royal family who live and work the business for life.There is a quite a revolution going on in the retail market today. Whereas shopping over the last 30 years has appeared to become a national pastime, many people are now turning to the internet to shop. So many businesses are waking up to the idea that if they want to survive the recession they need to offer their goods and services on line.

The sale of goods and services over the internet has been brought about by ecommerce web design solutions being provided by companies like mine. Today you can buy all sorts of presents men will enjoy online as well as on the high street.

There is an enormous list of larger family run businesses in the world. Often the instigator of such family firms build up the business from the ground and once they become very successful the parent hopes the children will carry on the business. Sometimes this happens, but more often than not the children show very little interest in working as hard as their parent. They do not seem to have the motivation or drive to carry the business forward and often do not have the talent of the parent.

A good example of this is the Mower family that produced the Neways products which they sold via multi level marketing across the world. They had seven children and the father, who was an industrial chemist, developed a skin product for his wife who had always suffered badly from Acne. Once he started doing research into products available in the stores he discovered that they were full of chemicals that, as a chemist, he’d had to wear protective clothing when handling because they were considered dangerous. From this beginning he developed other health supplements and through the network marketing they became so successful they made millions of dollars. The children of the family having worked for a time in other companies came in to join the family firm. The maintained they would always keep the company in the family and it would never be floated on the stock market.

However as is the way of the world, success spoiled them. The parents suddenly separated and divorced. At first they announced they would continue to run the company together but in the end they sold it to a group in the Netherlands who now run the company. Although the Mower children had worked outside the family firm I always got the impression that they did not manage their departments particularly well and showed none of the talent and drive of either of the parents.

Inheritance

It may be important to tackle the issue of succession in the business especially if the owner of the business has more than one child. In many cases it is inevitable the children will fight over the ownership of the business if it has not been made clear who will inherit. There may be a temptation to skimp on education thereby limiting the development of the successor. To avoid these kinds of situations one idea is to eliminate the feelings of entitlement. It might be just a matter of planning. Having a defined succession guide will enable the children to earn the right to succession and find their effective roles enabling them to work harmoniously together in the business.

Conclusion

Running a family business can be a rewarding and satisfying job with the added bonus of working in a familiar environment where trust is implicit. However family conflict will inevitably affect working relationships so it is preferable and healthy to separate business from personal matters. This allows the business owner to make decisions with less bias and more flexibility for the betterment of the company.

Even if all the members of the family do succeed in having a good business relationship, living separate lives outside of work with exposure to a greater variety of ideas and stimuli, which family members can bring to the workplace, will be of benefit. Probably the most important thing in managing a family business is ensuring that the whole family have a good relationship that will last even if the business doesn’t. Ultimately, blood is thicker than water and family is more important because the business can be replaced but your family cannot.

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Website creation basics

Tim Berners-Lee published what is considered to be the first website in August 1991. Berners-Lee was the first to combine Internet communication (which had been carrying email and the Usenet for decades) with hypertext (which had also been around for decades, but limited to browsing information stored on a single computer, such as interactive CD-ROM design). Websites are written in a markup language called HTML, and early versions of HTML were very basic, only giving a website’s basic structure (headings and paragraphs), and the ability to link using hypertext. This was new and different from existing forms of communication – users could easily navigate to other pages by following hyperlinks from page to page.

As the Web and web design progressed, the markup language changed to become more complex and flexible, giving the ability to add objects like images and tables to a page. Features like tables, which were originally intended to be used to display tabular information, were soon subverted for use as invisible layout devices. With the advent of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), table-based layout is commonly regarded as outdated. Database integration technologies such as server-side scripting and design standards like W3C further changed and enhanced the way the Web is made. As times change, websites are changing the code on the inside and visual design on the outside with ever-evolving programs and utilities.

A web site is a marketing tool but in basis is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. A web site might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page. Multimedia and diseño web is the key for a success website.

There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For non-commercial web sites, the goals may vary depending on the desired exposure and response. For typical commercial web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

The content: the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.

The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.

The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.

The visibility: the site must also be easy to find via most, if not all, major search engines and advertisement media.

A web site typically consists of text and images. Since a website can be a business, selling and trading on internet is comercio electronico.

Once a web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet.

Once published, the web master may use a variety of techniques to increase the traffic that the web site receives. This may include submitting the web site to a search engine posicionamiento google, exchanging links with other web sites, creating affiliations with similar web sites, etc.

Multidisciplinary requirements

Web site design crosses multiple disciplines of information systems, information technology and communication design. The web site is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. The observable content (e.g. page layout, user interface, graphics, text, audio) is known as the front-end. The back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components that process the output from the front-end. Depending on the size of a Web development project, it may be carried out by a multi-skilled individual (sometimes called a web master), or a project manager may oversee collaborative design between group members with specialized skills .

Stress Free Project Task Management – Powerful Project Planning

How many times have you been assigned to or attempted a considerable task, only to become bogged-down at the sheer enormity of time called for to accomplish the chore? If that’s true, do not worry, you will be happy to discover that you are not alone – coping with big, long-term projects is a trying prospect, even for skilled task managers. Now look at coping with 5 or probably more tasks at one time – this is a sobering expectation for many people.

All the same, if you glance around your workplace, you will probably notice some individuals who absolutely seem to shine at it and really do it very well. And while those people may not seem to be more intelligent or enterprising than you, however it looks just for some strange reason they welcome the opportunity as you shy away from the chance.

The central difference between yourself and these people is merely this – they totally grasp and utilize a really basic concept of Project and Task Management.

Despite the amount of effort implied or the timeframe needed for closing, they understand that every chore can be broken down into minor, easily managed undertakings, which are promptly completed in the short-term. Whenever each lesser job is accomplished, it adds to the completion of the bigger task, in time.

Typically, each particular task can then be separated into a set schedule, permitting you to progressively and systematically work on them over a predetermined amount of time. Based on the kind of chore, it may well be feasible to focus at numerous jobs concurrently, by setting aside a relatively small measure of time on each task, daily.

The secrets of Task and Project Management are diligence and regularity, but moderated with flexibility. A few undertakings might need to be paused if it is held up by other unfinished jobs or an unanticipated problem shows itself. With variable scheduling and a readiness to adjust to these surprise road blocks, the complete job can persist because you explore alternatives to resolving them.

The people who stand out at Project Task Management do so chiefly because they manage tasks in such a style that they gain some level advancement each day on at least one of the tasks at hand. This may mean setting aside merely 10 to 30 minutes a day or occasionally hours on each chore. During any given project, the amount of time committed every day will positively vary.

Consequently, as a result of this, project managers are constantly able to manage multiple jobs concurrently however not get stressed out with the workload. Managing various tasks at once actually lessen the monotony of dealing with one single task at any point. This gives a way for the project manager to pull back from each task for a little while and then pick it up the following day with a clear head.

Although we should never take or eye off of the complete task, by centering on Project and Task Management, precise scheduling and consistency in how we set about our daily chores, we can quickly increase our personal productiveness without overly torturing ourselves or getting stressed on our workload.

6 Reasons Why ERP Fails

There are multiple reasons why ERP fails as new systems are deployed into companies. Outside of the two primary factors, poor sponsorship and or leadership engagement and lack of project manager experience, there are six elements of why ERP fails that should be considered as companies consider ERP transformation:

1.Lack of User Involvement – Without user involvement nobody in the business feels committed the ERP system, and can even be hostile towards its utilization within daily management. Users need to be involved from the start, and continuously throughout the development. This requires time and effort which sometimes is not high on an organizations priority.

2.Poor Requirements Definition – Too often, ERP projects have high level and vague requirements. This has led to cases where IT developers, having no input from the users, build what they believe is needed, without having any real knowledge of the business. Inevitably when the system is delivered business users say it does not do what they need it to support the business need.

3.No Change Control – Business change is happening at a faster rate than ever before. So it is not realistic to expect no change in requirements while an ERP system is being built. Uncontrolled changes will play havoc with an ERP system under development and will cause many project failures.

4.Scope Creep – Scope Creep is the insidious growth in the scale of an ERP system during the life of a project.  Scope outlines the holistic measure of the project’s implementation; therefore, the slightest change in the effort’s scope can have severe ramifications between module dependencies being implemented properly.

5.Unrealistic Time Scales – Long timescales for a project have led to ERP systems being delivered for products and services no longer in use.  The business model has surpassed the system’s ability to support the business need.  Time scales should be short so that the project team can deliver the appropriate ERP solution to end-users.

6.Lack of Sub-Project and Deliverable Integration – Misunderstanding deliverable dependencies and the architecture of an ERP system’s expected support features is critical.  Without clear relationships mapped between modules, project failure is certain.

As is outlined above there are six fundamental elements to consider why ERP fails.  Taking these six factors into account can separate the difference between successfully implementing a system and failing to meet customer requirements.