Anyone who demands major changes and efforts from people has to explain to them why and why all this is necessary and cannot avoid project marketing.* Project marketing is the effort to gain, increase and consolidate acceptance for a project using the means of marketing with a focus on information and communication. It is therefore an essential component of change management, which also includes a number of other measures - all with the aim of anchoring the project results in the organization. Particularly important in ERP implementations are, for example, a clever team composition with representatives from all affected areas, good stakeholder reporting and well thought-out training concepts. Whether the technical ERP solution is SAP, Infor M3 or Infor LN is important for the details, but not for the big picture. Part one of this article deals with this and answers the question of how project marketing can succeed even with a small budget, and provides ten helpful tips on project marketing as well as a guide on how to approach project communication correctly.

Communication planning even for small budgets

"Yes, we definitely need project marketing, but at the moment we have to ...", "We don't have the budget for that ..." Especially in medium-sized companies you see as project manager You may have little chance of establishing good project communication. But if you give up prematurely, you will inevitably experience the consequences of the fact that in this case, to paraphrase Paul Watzlawick, "you can't not communicate": the Communication comes by itself at some point, but too late, too little thought through and too little targeted. The most powerful communication channel will be the office grapevine with topics that rarely promote acceptance and support for the project. So they have no choice but to put the topic on the agenda. The good news is that it is by no means only the elaborate, expensive campaigns that work. Even with little money and resources, you can achieve a lot if you follow the tips below.

10 tips for efficient project marketing planning

The following planning tips will help you to ensure that your project marketing is professional and successful:

1. Insist on planning project marketing from the outset. If there is a lack of acceptance in management: call it training or risk management.
2. As part of a stakeholder analysis, clarify for yourself and your clients where you can best deploy your limited resources.
3. Use what is already there: project staff and consultants, communication experts (internal or external), project documents, communication channels.
4. Establish short and fast coordination channels.
5. Cover as many communication needs as possible through team composition and meeting culture.
6. Clarify the tasks of the core team members, key users and other roles as a communicative link to the specialist department.
7. Cover other target groups with reporting, especially management.
8. Maintain active personal contact with decision-makers and other important stakeholders.
9. Focus the actual project marketing (media, information events) on the target group of users.
10. Provide managers with the same information, but in advance, and actively ask whether everything has been understood.

The ninth project marketing tip has been carefully emphasized: The main focus must be on the users. The following section explains how this can be achieved.

Project marketing: Identifying the best communication channels

Various media can be used to convey information in a compact and well-prepared form, although electronic media such as project websites or electronic newsletters usually dominate in day-to-day business today. With ERP projects in particular, however, it may well be that important target groups need to be reached who rarely work on a PC, for example in production and logistics. In this case, a simple but attractively designed project ticker in digital print is a good solution, supplemented by information posters in highly frequented locations (e.g. at the entrance, canteen, recreation room). Using existing employee magazines is usually only an additional option because they lack the speed required for efficient project communication due to the long lead times and coordination procedures.

In order to find out where the target groups stand and what information needs they have, direct communication in the form of events is indispensable, whereby small and medium-sized companies with few locations naturally have an advantage. This direct contact has another major advantage in terms of project marketing: those who organize communication well receive valuable suggestions and feedback directly from the working level that is so important for SAP, Infor or other ERP solutions. And last but not least: the willingness to listen creates trust.

Take emotions into account

The introduction of ERP solutions such as SAPM3 or LN requires such a radical change that emotions quickly boil over and interfere with factual work. If you fail to recognize and address them, you will at some point wonder in despair why your explanations and factual arguments simply don't seem to be getting through. If you succeed in asking about current attitudes, for example in the context of direct communication, you can also respond to them.

Some see it positively

So what attitudes should you expect? Some see it positively and formulate this in statements like the one in the following picture:

Among employees with this attitude, you will find interesting multipliers for the project, potential key users, trainers and contact persons.

Critical voices

But of course, fears and concerns will also boil over, and very probably even predominate. You can see typical statements in the next picture:

In order to win these employees over to the project, it is first important to make the decision-making process comprehensible for SAP. So ask yourself very basic questions to be able to justify them for your employees, for example:

• Why is the new system being introduced?
• Why now?
• What are the benefits for the company and the individual employees?

Important for you as a project manager: You can and should actively communicate this information, but you are not responsible for its content. The decision to introduce an ERP system is a strategic decision that must be justified by top management. You can counter any mistrust of the solution provider, who "has no idea how things really work here", by providing information on how standard processes and customizing interlock.

The high cost - a perennial issue

You won't be able to argue away the dreaded high costs; this will be a permanent item on the list of topics. Confirm that it is unavoidable, but also show confidence that the project will be successful. During the course of the project, also mention the measures that will reduce pressure: additional resources, careful scheduling (including Training courses), including, if necessary, vacation suspensions and even postponement of the go-live. And when it is there, the stress: thank them again and again for their high level of commitment and organize such appreciative comments from other departments.

One of the biggest fears of employees when ERP is introduced is that they will no longer be able to cope with the new IT world - an understandable and justified attitude, especially among people who have previously only worked a little on computers. This is where the HR department or the change management sub-project is called upon to offer a good training concept that includes training courses, self-organized training opportunities and key user support in the workplace. Inspire confidence in the training measures. No one is left behind! This should not only be communicated by you on an ongoing basis, but also by the representatives from the specialist departments involved in the project, who are often the most trusted by employees.

Further information

Would you like to know more about the content of project marketing in an ERP project? Then we recommend Part two of this blog post. Information on TCI's activities relating to Infor systems can also be found in a recently published Blog post. SAP is advised by TCI on several topics, and in 2017 TCI also organized a successful event for SAP customers on the Variant management.

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*See also our article "People Management: How to start your digitalization offensive!"

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