Comfortable that this had gone well, the stage was now set for Monday.Users were allowed to go on the system gradually, starting with thefirst group in one area, followed by another group two hours later.Every hour after that, another group was added. This approach alloweda sufficient number of people from the team to explain how to fixissues, and kept the helpdesk from being flooded with questions.

Apart from a few minor issues, the 'go live' went virtuallyflawlessly. The business was back to normal within weeks. And this wasnot merely a case of first time lucky. Since the 'Big Bang', P&WC hassuccessfully implemented a fixed-asset solution, a plant maintenancesolution, a human resources solution, and what it calls itsexperimental engine process, as well as upgrading to SAP 4.6.

John MacFarlane points to senior management's commitment to qualityintegration as a key success factor.

"We routinely conduct three complete month-end processes before we golive with any solution," he said. "Our current Vice President,Finance, Miguel Doyon will not sacrifice on integration testing. Aftertwo cycles have proven there are no issues, he'll always ask when thethird cycle is planned to start."

Challenges Of Post Implementation