While en world Japan were experiencing rapid growth, behind the scenes they were struggling with considerable strain on their business systems and processes. Here’s how PM-Partners helped them deploy a complex, multi-lingual, multi-currency Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) via a custom business programme.

Highlights 

• Due to aggressive expansion into new markets, en world Japan was seeing major strain on its established processes and systems.
• PM-Partners came on board to manage the implementation of a complex ERP system – a vital resource for a multi-lingual, multi-currency business – and was subsequently also engaged to manage vendor sourcing and mentor the internal project management and execution teams.
• Thanks to solid performance across all advisory and delivery services, PM-Partners is now a trusted advisor and partner of en world Japan.

Customer background

en world Japan is an international recruitment company that supports candidates and clients in the global talent market, including 94 of the top 100 Japanese companies. With multiple offices across Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Korea and Vietnam, they were aggressively expanding into other markets. They needed new management systems to reduce the mounting pressure on their current processes and support the growth of their complex, multi-lingual global business.

The challenge

Due to rapid growth, en world Japan’s established systems and processes were put under tremendous strain. People, processes and technologies were being hampered by disparate platforms that:

• Were no longer scalable, either in functionality or number of users.
• Did not operate with multiple languages or currencies.
• Required labour-intensive and repetitive data-entry steps, and relied on manual spreadsheets.

This had flow-on effects to all parts of the business, and created a need for a complex, multi-lingual, multi-currency Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) to ensure their critical systems could be streamlined and adaptable for further growth.

Knowing that an ERP implementation process could be prone to disastrous results, senior management realised they needed support from external experts and engaged PM-Partners to manage the programme.

How PM-Partners helped

In programme managing the ERP initiative, PM-Partners:

• Worked closely with all key stakeholders to define measurable business objectives and benefits.
• Mapped those business objectives to requirements.
• Managed the consistent use of project management and business analysis standards and systems across all projects.
• Monitored and maintained the schedule status, project dependencies, risk issues, resources and change control.
• Reported on programme delivery information to programme and corporate executives.
• Developed a benefit-realisation framework.
• Coordinated all key project and governance forums and committees.

A series of interactive workshops and company-wide updates were designed to create a keen awareness of the business’s needs, as well as to gain consensus on how to approach the right solutions.

This leadership and expertise meant that en world Japan subsequently engaged PM-Partners to create a request for tender (RFP) for the ERP solution, and manage the entire RFP process – including vendor identification, response evaluation and shortlisting, facilitating vendor presentations, and using weighted evaluation to select the successful vendors.

Outcomes delivered

PM-Partners’ solid performance across all advisory and delivery services cemented them as a trusted advisor to en world Japan. This resulted in further engagement to manage the overall implementation, which involved:

• Working closely with the vendor to ensure alignment of the solution with the business’s needs.
• Mentoring and assisting the en world Japan project management and project execution teams.
• Providing templates for organisational change and roadmaps for communication.
• Reinforcing the principles of structured project management to achieve continued success.

In addition, PM-Partners worked on the negotiation elements of the contract to provide an ERP solution, which resulted in en world Japan receiving the most cost-effective solution to meet their needs – including negotiating a 72 per cent discount on licensing fees.

“PM-Partners Group successfully established and managed the programme, provided the executive suite with peace of mind, and delivered a quality outcome.”

– en world Japan, client

The ERP solution will continue to evolve with en world Japan’s aggressive growth into Asia, and PM-Partners will work alongside them as a trusted advisor and partner.

To find out more about how PM-Partners can support the implementation of complex solutions within your organisation contact the team or call us on 1300 70 13 14 today.