Imagine Canada:
ERP Implementation Lessons Learned

A strong client–vendor alignment is critical to keep complex projects on track.

Many companies like to share experiences about projects that were executed on time, on budget, and as promised. To be fair, victories should be celebrated and shared to drive new business externally and rally the troops internally. At EEZEE Solutions, we also value honesty and believe that lessons learned from challenging projects should be shared, too. While confronting challenges can be difficult, they help drive improvement, making us better in the long run!

An example of a challenging initiative is an ERP implementation project that we helped to manage for our client, Imagine Canada.

The Client

Imagine Canada

Imagine Canada is a charitable organization based in Toronto, Canada, dedicated to providing charities and nonprofit organizations with programs, assistance, and resources to better support Canadians and the communities they serve.

The Situation

Before the ERP implementation, Imagine Canada used Salesforce to manage customer relationships and measure the value of the services it provided. Imagine Canada also used Dynamics GP for its accounting and financial reporting, a crucial component for assessing operational performance, especially important when grants and donations are a significant part of the organization's income.

The Challenge

The challenge Imagine Canada faced stemmed from a custom integration between Salesforce and Dynamics GP, which led to financial inaccuracies. As a result, a significant amount of time was dedicated on a monthly basis to investigating and resolving these inaccuracies. As a result, the efficiency of Imagine Canada's period-end close process was less than ideal, as it relied heavily on manual intervention, thereby increasing the risk of human error.

Project Timeline

Spring 2019: We were engaged by Imagine Canada to help them with a Business Process Management (BPM) exercise, to analyze its period-end close process and, by extension, its full-cycle accounting function and the accounting dependency on Salesforce. After a series of in-person interviews with the subject matter experts and analysis of the information gathered, we presented Imagine Canada with a couple of options for a path forward:

Solution 1: Keep the current technology in place and redesign the integration between Salesforce and Dynamics GP to address the inaccuracies.
Solution 2: Implement an accounting package that is built on the Salesforce platform, eliminating the need for an integration altogether

After evaluating these options with Imagine Canada, they decided to go with the second option to streamline their sales, customer relationship management, and accounting functions on their existing Salesforce platform. Subsequently, we engaged a few potential vendors to assist in deploying the new accounting solution. In the end, an agreement was made with a highly skilled vendor from the United States to collaborate on this project.

March 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the whole world. Companies, like Imagine Canada, shifted to a fully remote workforce, delaying capital projects like this ERP implementation, focusing on "keeping the lights on". The period was marked by significant uncertainty.

Fall 2020: As we all adjusted to the 'new normal' of the pandemic, discussions with Imagine Canada arose to kickstart the project again. Restarting a halted project is always a challenging endeavour. In our scenario, we had to reconnect with the vendor, review the scope, verify references, and focus on a feasible statement of work. These steps became notably more cumbersome without the convenience of simply arranging a face-to-face meeting to resolve matters.

End of June 2021: As time passed, the team improved collaboration while working remotely across different countries, successfully signing off on the statement of work. We were asked to stay on in a support role with Imagine Canada and the vendor in the implementation of the new accounting package.

July 2021: The project officially kicked off, with the vendor engaging Imagine Canada to define the use cases that would underpin the implementation. Despite turnover among key project resources, there was optimism about a system transition by July 2022.

Spring 2022: a key accounting staff member and contributor to the overall project decided to leave Imagine Canada, putting the project on hold until a staff replacement could be found. Leveraging our understanding of their accounting procedures, we stepped in to assist Imagine Canada with its period-end closings. Luckily, this interruption lasted only for a few months as this person returned to Imagine Canada in the summer of 2022.

During this period, new challenges arose. While the vendor itself was based in the US, many of its key project resources were located internationally, adding logistical challenges when scheduling meetings and a language barrier. Also, there was continued turnover on the vendor side, which caused Imagine Canada to exhaust its available project resources. Unfortunately, the vendor team's resources seemed less experienced over time, leading to sporadic progress due to their unfamiliarity with the project. As a result, the cutover date was postponed multiple times, initially to December 2022, then to July 2023, and finally to September 2023.

End of September 2023: We successfully transitioned to the new system. Although the process was challenging, we managed to complete it. The closure of fiscal year 2023 was also carried out in the new system, although with some difficulties, and we were able to accomplish it.

April 2024: While there are still some bugs to be ironed out, Imagine Canada is in a position to focus more on enhancements than bug-squashing. It wasn't the smoothest of landings, but we made it.

THE LESSONS LEARNED

While there are several takeaways from this project, the main lessons learned were:

Alignment between the client and the vendor is key

Many aspects of vendor management are beyond the client's control, including location and turnover. That said, ensuring the vendor understands the project's value and its significance to the organization must be the foundation for executing the planning process.

Risks need to be constantly identified and their impacts measured

Projects are journeys, and the circumstances under which they are executed are constantly changing. Team members may change, scope gets fine-tuned in response to fresh insights, etc. Consequently, risk is constant, necessitating a well-thought-out risk management strategy at all times.

The team members of a project must share accountability

Teamwork is crucial for successful project completion, whether a team member is internal or external. All team members are there for a reason: to execute the project as efficiently as possible. It's essential to celebrate victories and address setbacks together as you navigate the project's challenges. Both the client and vendor project leaders play a significant role in ensuring this collaborative approach.

Could we have played a bigger role throughout? Absolutely. I feel I may have stood back a little too much, letting the vendor figure things out when I should have intervened more proactively. I underestimated the value an internal project manager could bring to make things run more smoothly. As a result, we've decided to ramp up our project management service to help clients more directly and formally wear the project manager hat on their behalf.

In the end, a project is only as successful as its management. EEZEE Solutions has made the necessary adjustments to ensure our clients can trust us to help make their projects successful.

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Imagine Canada: ERP Implementation Lessons Learned