Don't you think that without these types of governance groups they would be many conflicts between the different business units? I have seen many different ERP systems across a business unit and it always have led to a bunch of problems when the business units try to combine data and they have had issues trying to combine inventory. Have you ever seen this happen?
Implementing an ERP successfully can be done with the help of some of the best practices stated in the article. One of which is to establish the right governance model. The main purpose why an IT governance model must be established is to sustain harmony among business processes of every business unit. A Business Process Governing Board (BPGB) is an IT governance organization that is made up of business process owners from different business units. They are formed in order to optimize all business processes that will enable improvement on the implemented ERP. One of the advantages of having IT governance when implementing ERP is the continuous improvement on the ERP system. A new system implemented by a business, like SAP during the late 1990s, will only be successful on the early stage of implementation. Without IT governance, when the implementation team disbanded there is no one to make continuous improvement to the system. Another advantage of having IT governance is to have unified business units. Without IT governance, different processes from business units will cause a drop in overall business performance over time. Based from the given example in the article, a Midwest-based HCE (heavy construction equipment) corporation without It governance caused its operating performance to suffer. With an IT governance model implementing a governing body like the BPGP helped the HCE's business units in continuing to improve their processes and gaining the ability to operate as a unified business. The IT governance is one of the keys in implementing ERP that should always be heavily considered to have a successful business operation.