ERP Cutover, Duplicate Master Data and Stakeholder Communication
Yangon distribution company Ayeyar Supply is replacing its legacy accounting system with an ERP on 1 April 2025, the start of its fiscal year. The migration covers 18,000 customer balances, 2,300 supplier balances and 7,000 inventory SKUs. During user acceptance testing, 3% of customer balances failed validation because of duplicate customer IDs; 120 duplicate customer records were found. Total customer balances are MMK 4.2 billion. The vendor calls the issue 'minor' and proposes cleaning it after go-live. The finance manager wants to proceed because the cutover date is fixed and staff have already been trained. Internal audit warns that opening balances may be unreliable and that manual workarounds will increase fraud risk. A two-week parallel run was planned but the vendor says it can provide only four days of support after cutover. The board asks for a go/no-go recommendation, a stakeholder communication plan, and post-implementation review measures.
1. Assess whether the ERP project should go live on 1 April 2025. Quantify the duplicate-customer issue and state the conditions for any conditional approval.
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The duplicate issue is not minor. 3% of 18,000 customer balances is 540 balances, and 3% of MMK 4.2bn is MMK 126m of customer balances exposed to duplicate-ID error. The 120 duplicate customer records must be resolved before opening balances are accepted; otherwise receipts, credit limits and statements can be posted to wrong accounts. Recommendation: do not give unconditional go-live. Approve a conditional go-live only if management completes a documented data cleanse, reconciles the 540 failed balances and 120 duplicates to the legacy ledger, obtains finance sign-off on opening balances, freezes master-data changes during cutover, and has a tested rollback plan. Because vendor support is only four days, extend support or keep a parallel ledger until at least the first month-end close. If these conditions cannot be met, delay cutover.
2. Design a stakeholder communication plan for the cutover, covering staff and suppliers.
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Communication plan:
- Staff: pre-cutover briefings by finance and IT; a cutover timetable with data-freeze rules; role-based training on duplicate resolution and manual workaround limits; a named helpdesk and escalation path; daily status updates to the steering committee and department heads.
- Suppliers: advance notice of changed payment and remittance processes and contact points; confirmation of bank details through a verified channel to reduce fraud; a temporary cutover helpline; clear message on invoice and payment cut-off dates.
- Customers: notice of statement and receipt changes only if affected; secure contact for balance queries.
- Board: one-page go/no-go dashboard showing duplicate clearance, reconciliation status, open defects and rollback readiness. Keep messages consistent, dated and owned by a named manager.
3. Recommend post-implementation review measures and controls to monitor opening-balance reliability and fraud risk.
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PIR measures: duplicate customer rate (target zero on opening balances), number and value of unreconciled legacy-to-ERP balances, inventory record accuracy by sample, invoice error rate, supplier payment delays, days to close the first month, manual journal entries, helpdesk tickets by severity, and repeat master-data changes. Controls: segregation of duties between master-data creation and payment approval; access reviews before go-live; change-control over duplicate merges; daily reconciliation of interface files; exception reports for duplicate tax IDs and bank accounts; audit-log review; and a formal post-implementation review at 30 and 90 days with sign-off. Track fraud-risk indicators such as new suppliers with changed bank details and manual payments around cutover.