Severe problems with new software
The lubricant manufacturer Liqui Moly from Ulm is currently experiencing problems with new software. Now the profit in the first half of the year has collapsed. Liqui Moly boss Ernst Prost is extremely angry and blames Microsoft or the service provider. This is what WiWo author Michael Kroker writes on 11.07.2019 in his online article.
But is it only Microsoft’s fault? According to the picture of Liqui Moly boss Probst, one could think so.
Maybe you have been stuck with your old system too long?
It is a fact (the author continues) that “from one day to the next” (from an old, highly individualized system based on an IBM AS400) the company switched to the new ERP software.
This is of course not possible. We rather assume that the old system on the AS400 was exhausted until the system reached its limits. So there was no other alternative than to introduce a new system as quickly as possible. And within this new introduction, one or two project errors were certainly committed due to time pressure.
The result: many processes ran unevenly and – as the company boss says: “I have never had to apologize to my customers as often as in the last 6 months”. A decrease in sales of about 1 %, but in the result of about 30 % (comparison of the 1st half of 2019 to the 1st half of 2018).
Seen from a distance, many questions remain open: Was the legacy system used for too long? Did the company and the service provider ignore basic implementation rules? Were experienced project managers (on the side of Liqui Moly as well as on the side of the Microsoft service provider) and process experts on board? Was the timeline for the Go Live too optimistic?
Conclusion
When such an important project is run into the ground like this, many mistakes have been made. And not one of them alone is guilty. That’s obvious. We will try to bring more light into the darkness in the next days, because we can only learn from such experiences. Malice is – as always – not appropriate.
Update 09.08.2019: Liqui Moly ERP introduction, the 2nd – Mr. Probst is following up in the WiWo
Picture: Liqui Moly, GF Ernst Prost
Note: This is a machine translation. It is neither 100% complete nor 100% correct. We can therefore not guarantee the result.
