"By 2018, enterprises will insist on post modern ERP project deployments that deliver proven value in less than two years" (Gartner Research 2016)

The reality is that Organizations now expect Faster ERP Implementation cycles

The benefits of Rapid ERP Implementation for Small & Medium Organizations are plenty.

So how do you go about a Rapid ERPNext Implementation for your Organization?

Generally, it is best to divide your implementation into two phases

1. Test
2. Live

1. Test Phase

For an Initial Evaluation and Fitment Analysis of ERPNext, you can follow the steps listed below

1. Set Up a free account
2. Refer to our help videos and guides
3. Create Masters (Manual Entry or using Data Import Tool)
4. Item
5. Warehouse
6. Customer
7. Supplier
8. Employee
9. Chart of Accounts, if not using System Default
10. User Pilot Run of a Standard Sales Cycle 
11. User Pilot Run of a Standard Purchase Cycle
12. User Pilot Run of a Standard Manufacturing Cycle, if applicable
13. Identify essential customizations needed 
14. Create Custom Print Formats
15. Sales Quotation
16. Sales Order
17. Purchase Order
18. Sales Invoice
19. Create Custom Fields, if needed

2. Live Phase

After a thorough run in the test phase, you can prepare for a production run with the below steps which may vary business to business

1. Clean Up your account of test data or Initiate a fresh install
2. Use "Delete Company Transactions" to retain master data
3. Add additional Set Up to streamline Master Data
4. Item Group
5. Customer Group
6. Supplier Group
7. Use Data Import tool or Manual entry for setting up of     
8. Items
9. Addresses & Contacts
10. Customers
11. Suppliers
12. Warehouses
13. Chart of Accounts
14. Employee
15. Opening balances (Journal Entry)
16. Open Sales and Purchase Invoice
17. Fixed Assets
18. Create Users with appropriate Roles and Permissions
19. Set Up your default Outgoing and Incoming email addresses. Purchase a 3rd Party SMTP relay service.
20. Validate your essential customizations i.e. Custom Print Formats and Custom Fields

3. Implementation Help

During the test phase, you could seek help from the below communication channels.

1. Forum
2. Service Providers
3. If you need help, you can also buy support

4. Conclusion

Rapid Self Implementation is an ideal way for Small and Medium Enterprises to implement ERPNext because of the following benefits

1. Low entry cost for evaluation due to the availability of a free trial account
2. Early User Pilot possible due to pre-configured Set Up Templates
3. Essential customizations can be done quickly
4. Implementation by involvement leads to faster User Adoption