Rolling out one Distributor Management System across two countries sounds like a copy-and-paste job. It isn't. On a recent rollout in Cambodia and Laos, each market had its own way of pricing, invoicing, handling returns and reporting to the authorities. These are the five lessons I would take into the next one.
1. Agree the core flow first
If the first workshop starts with "how is your market different?", every session turns into a list of exceptions. Start with one standard flow from order to cash and agree it. Then add local variants only where law or the business genuinely requires them.
2. Every gap needs a decision
A fit-gap list is only useful if each row ends in a decision: configure it, build it, change the process, or defer it to a later phase. A gap without a decision is just a complaint in a spreadsheet, and it will come back during testing.
3. Localisation belongs in the first workshops
Tax rules, invoice and credit-note numbering and legal reports are not details to tidy up before go-live. They shape the design of the invoice, the returns process and the integration with the ERP. Put them on the agenda from day one.
4. Master data ownership is a business decision
Distributors, outlets, products, geographies and salesmen all need an owner. When nobody owns the outlet list or the price list, every step that depends on them fails quietly. Deciding who owns what is a business call, not an IT task, so get the business to make it.
5. Test returns as hard as orders
Orders get most of the attention in UAT. Returns are often where pricing and promotion errors show up, because the system has to reverse the right amount, including any discount already given. Build real return scenarios into testing early.
The short version
One core flow, a decision on every gap, localisation from the start, clear data owners and serious testing of returns. None of it is complicated. It just has to happen in the right order.