Implementing MYOB Advanced – Choosing the right implementation partner

This is blog 4 in the Leverage Technologies MYOB Advanced implementation and information pack – aimed at helping prospective customers achieve an on time, in full, within the budget implementation of MYOB Advanced. Helping your business get the desired business outcomes and a quick Return on Investment from MYOB Advanced.

Over the past few years, MYOB Advanced has emerged as is one of the bestselling cloud ERP solutions in the SME market across Australia. Implemented across multiple business sectors including finance, distribution, manufacturing, services, projects and field service, MYOB Advanced is helping companies move from entry-level accounting to ERP solutions. Achieving business benefits from automation and digital transformation.

In that timeframe between deciding that MYOB Advanced is the right solution for your business and the full delivery of the solution (which is when you start to reap the rewards of automation) there are a number of important decisions to be made:

• What implementation methodology will you use – waterfall or agile?
• Will you ask for a fixed price proposal?
• How long will it take to implement MYOB Advanced?
• What resources will you and your MYOB Advanced implementation partner require?
• How much project management is required?
• What data will be converted?
• You will manage user acceptance testing?

Most likely, the most important decision you will make across all these MYOB Advanced implementation questions will be “how do we make sure that we choose the right MYOB Advanced Implementation Partner?”

MYOB Advanced is a cloud-first ERP solution – the software and cloud infrastructure (server, back-up etc.) is provided by an Australian brand that we all know and trust – MYOB. The implementation of MYOB Advanced is managed through MYOB Advanced accredited implementation partners. The implementation partner is (together with you, the customer) responsible for:

• The implementation of MYOB Advanced
  • Scope of works
  • System configuration
  • User training
  • User acceptance testing
  • Data conversion
  • Integration and development
  • Go live
• Post-go-live and on-going support
• The management of additional post-go-live projects
• ISV (3^rd party) integration
• Post-go-live account management
• Assisting with the management of upgrades and updates to MYOB Advanced

Given the importance of ERP solutions across your business – touching almost every part of your business it is critical that you choose not only the right ERP software but also the right MYOB Advanced implementation partner.

When selecting your MYOB Advanced implementation partner consider the following:

• Partner experience – how many sites have the MYOB Advanced implementation partner completed, does the partner have experience with similar companies to yours – size, complexity and industry?
• Size – is the implementation partner of a size that they are small enough to care deeply about your business but big enough to manage your implementation in a structured and process-driven way? Does the implementation partner have enough resource to cover for any unexpected changes in scope and requirements, development work etc.?
• Cultural fit – is there a good cultural fit between your organisation and the implementation partner? Does the implementation partner plan to manage the implementation of MYOB Advanced in a way that works well for your business and your people? A good ERP implementation partner will focus on the people aspects of the implementation – user training, user acceptance testing, change management. These interactions between your business and your MYOB Advanced implementation partner require good people management skills.
• The proposal – check your implementation proposal carefully – what is included and importantly what is not included in your implementation proposal? Check the small print carefully and make sure that you are comparing “apples with apples”. For example, what is included in the data conversion, who is managing the user acceptance testing, how much user training is included, what amount of time has been allocated to project management? The proposal should indicate how much resource is going to be provided by the reseller/implementation partner and what internal resources the implementation partner expects you, the customer, to provide. As an example is the implementation partner providing a full data conversion plan that the partner is responsible for or, is the partner providing data conversion assistance and you, the customer has to provide the resources to manage the data conversion process. There is no issue with either plan (one managed mostly by the partner with assistance from the customer and the other managed by the customer with assistance from the partner). The challenge is ensuring that you fully understand the proposal and resource requirements when selecting your implementation partner.
• The methodology – closely aligned with the proposal topic – what is the implementation methodology that will be used? Is the implementation partner recommending a fixed price, managed to a scope of works waterfall methodology or pay as you go agile methodology? There are no right or wrong answers here, each methodology has its pros and cons. Once again, work with your implementation partner to better understand the offer that they are making and the roles, responsibilities and resource requirements. When choosing an implementation methodology to consider:
  • The nature of your business
  • The size of the project
  • Project and business complexity
  • Budgetary constraints
  • Resource availability
  • Expected business outcomes
• Post-go-live support – assuming a great and on-time implementation of MYOB Advanced, the next phase (post-go-live support) is critical for on-going user satisfaction. Make sure that you understand your MYOB Advanced implementation partner support offering:
  • Response times
  • What is included in the support agreement?
  • What is excluded from support?
  • Support hours
  • Support process
  • How can support calls be logged?
  • What experience does the support team have?
  • Is there a structured support escalation process?
• References – are references available – in your industry, companies that are of a similar size for projects of similar complexity.
• Are you comparing apples with apples? – when comparing the implementation proposal, resource requirements and methodologies do you fully understand the project inclusions and exclusions?
• Resources – what resources will be allocated to your implementation? Have you checked the relevant experience of these resources? What other jobs are these resources currently working on and how much dedicated time can these resources provide for your implementation?
• Project management – project management goes beyond having a project manager assigned to your project. What additional resources and project management reporting will be provided as part of the implementation process. You should expect regular project management reporting, dashboards that help you understand budget vs actual and RAIDE logs that help keep your team and the implementation team on track.
• The team – the team – your resources, your implementation partners resources and support team will make all the difference when it comes to implementing MYOB advanced.

The team at Leverage Technologies approaches every project with a structured, consultative and process-driven approach. We listen. We carefully train our team to ensure that you, our valued customer get the most out of your MYOB Advanced solution. To ensure that MYOB Advanced is the right fit for your business, we make sure that we understand:

• Resource requirements
• Timeline
• Functional requirements
• Budget requirements

We conduct a pre-sales Requirements Analysis – helping you implement MYOB Advanced with confidence. If you want to know more about the Leverage Technologies implementation process or the pre-sales requirements analysis, feel free to contact us and talk to one of our friendly, experienced MYOB Advanced team members.