During the period from 2010 to 2015, VKG constructed new Petroter plants. Production was the priority, and IT support was secondary. Since the year 2000, BaaN IV was in use for financial management. The implementation of it had so many issues at the time that later, there was neither the desire nor the ability to carry out further developments or version upgrades.

At some point, the limited functionality began to be a hindrance. In Estonia, there were a lack of users and expertise, integration was not possible, and even exporting information to Excel was problematic. When the technical risk became apparent, it was clear that continuing in the same manner was not an option, and the decision was made to implement a new ERP.

We had enough experience from our previous situation to understand that the goal couldn't be just a new technical solution. We needed a platform that would provide the opportunity to redesign our work processes in the most efficient way possible. 

First, we established the team, assessing our own competencies. We relieved one financial manager of their daily duties, appointed lead users, and key users. Then came the first setback, which later proved to be very beneficial. Our internally chosen project manager turned out to be a methodical person who ordered the book "Control Your ERP Destiny," read it, and announced two things. Firstly, in order for the project to succeed, the project manager should be an external hire. This eventually led us to collaborate with RockSoft. 

Another important thing was to free up people's time to focus on the project. 

We are satisfied with the result, and the result can be assessed in various ways. For example, we evaluated the time spent on certain functions before and after. As a manager, one sign of success for me is that people no longer talk about the ERP system – which means it's working.

Professional project management from RockSoft allowed us to focus on the right issues, raised the level of demand for our own work, and helped keep track of the implementation process. From a technical standpoint, we wouldn't have been able to organize such detailed work ourselves. Additionally, RockSoft undoubtedly possesses knowledge that we do not, which helps avoid mistakes when purchasing services from implementers.

The decision to hire a project manager from outside, which is quite common for us, may be unfamiliar to many others. However, when you consider the need to free up a project manager from other duties, it makes just as much sense to hire someone externally.

Ahti Assmann

Chairman of the Board

Viru Keemia Grupp