Frank Hohmann & digitalisation – a drama in several acts.
Disclaimer: This article reflects the views of Frank Hohmann. Drawing on his experience in the housing industry, the digitalisation expert has developed a multi-part blog series in which he looks, at times ironically, at the successes, insights and lessons learned from various projects. But Frank also describes wrong decisions, stumbling blocks and hurdles in an honest & likeable way.
Act 1: Examining the IT infrastructure of a housing cooperative
Not so long ago, a housing cooperative decided to put its IT infrastructure under the magnifying glass. In this case, the magnifying glass was me – as head of corporate development, responsible for IT among other things. In a company where IT staff still printed out and filed their emails, there was clearly a need for action, and the board recognised it as such.
They were seasoned, experienced and very forward-looking managers who were at least vaguely aware that the magnifying glass would probably also need a hammer.
And I got Mr “Hammer” – in the form of an excellent consultant who helped me prepare the organisation for the fact that change would inevitably have to come if we wanted to stay ahead in the competition for employees.
So I wrote a digitalisation strategy. The first step was to introduce a new ERP system. Partly with homeopathic doses, partly with more robust methods, the organisation was brought into line. Support within the departments grew, and my colleagues in the management team warmed to the idea that if anything went wrong, the magnifying glass would be responsible. “It can’t really be that hard,” or so I thought at least.
ACT 2: Analysing ERP systems for the housing industry
While the hammer was undergoing further training in the anvil department of a DIY store, I analysed the solutions on the ERP market for the housing industry.
It quickly became clear: it had to be the market leader. Competitors with similar offerings were disregarded. As early as 2015, I suspected that the market leader would soon take over the owner-managed company from the greater Bremen area, whose product was also on our shortlist.
The hammer, back from the DIY store and now in good spirits, wrote a decision paper for the board together with me. Budget, timeframe, resources and risks of failure were assessed. All with an ambivalent degree of truth – in the end, what counts is the will to do something. You deal with problems when you come up against them. So the decision was taken – in theory, we could get started.
The steering committee is digitalisation in outdoor jackets – the fax paper roll of the hosting world, so to speak
Before that, however, a “very helpful” instrument was set up: the steering committee. Made up of the board members and a group of nice, elderly ladies and gentlemen from the supervisory board.
Digitalisation in outdoor jackets, if you like – the fax paper roll of the hosting world.
This was where we had to report regularly on the status of progress and possible obstacles. This committee was actually also entitled to pull the plug on the project if necessary.
There is little room for the truth in presentations to committees like this. The board was always informed about the current status. In the steering committee, only successes were ever reported.
So negotiations with the ERP provider began, and I felt like a fish in water – after all, I actually come from the world of digitalisation and the related technologies.
Requirements were drawn up, offers were made, rejected, improved and finally, after a lavish evening in a well-known restaurant in the dunes of Sylt, the contract was signed.
ACT 3: Well-maintained master data is the key
Anyone who has ever dealt with ERP systems, and especially with switching ERP systems, knows that the key lies in the master data. If it is well and cleanly maintained (which it isn’t anywhere – anyone who claims otherwise is lying), then everything takes care of itself.
Anyone who claims their master data is well maintained is lying
In our case, the data was of the quality you would expect to find in a camp of travelling knife grinders. Complete chaos – but the staff had got so used to it that the company ran perfectly well.
It took us more than a year to prepare the data for export to the new system. Budget and timeframe began to wobble, and support within the organisation started to crumble. On top of that, the delay meant we had to switch in the middle of the financial year.
The board stayed strong and stood by the project – Hammer lived up to his name and, together with me, hammered the project over the finish line.
We had done it! In short, the system basically worked the way we had imagined.
Now things could really get going!