ERP Readiness Series: Implementers, 3 Must-Have People on Your Core Team

This is post #4 in our ERP Readiness Series. Up to now, we have only mentioned the Core Team. In this post, we are taking a closer look at what the Core Team is—who is on the team. In the next post, we’ll discuss what the core team does.

Implementers or Core Team?

By way of introduction, let’s briefly review what ERP Readiness means and then clarify some terminology.

Determining whether or not your organization is ready to implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, requires you to take a critical look at your people, your processes, and your technology.

Starting with people, we’ve already outlined the roles you need to have in place to achieve a successful ERP implementation, and we’ve examined the responsibilities of the Executive Sponsor and Project Manager roles.

One of the more complex roles to examine is that of the Implementers. Implementers, plural, because there is always more than one. In fact, there are three specific roles under the term “implementer.” We introduce these roles together as Implementers because the word describes what this group of people do: They implement the work that is set forth and managed by the Project Manager. In practice, this team of implementers is sometimes called the Core Implementation Team or, more often, the Core Team. Likewise, in the rest of this post, we will refer to the team of Implementers as the Core Team.

How Big Is Your Core Team?

Small companies will differ from midsize and large companies in the number of people that will be needed on the Core Team. Aside from a Core Team Project Manager, a small company should expect to have at least three people on its Core Team, one person for each role listed below. Mid-to-large sized companies will have anywhere from five to ten people on their Core Team depending on the complexity of the implementation and the number of Functional Experts needed. More on that, below.

The Three People on Your Core Team

1. Functional Experts

Functional Experts are typically the most knowledgeable employees in your organization. The word functional, here, refers to your business functions, such as finance, accounting, purchasing, customer service, procurement, production, shipping and receiving, and others. Your Core Team is made up of the employees who are experts in each of these areas.

The number and types of Functional Experts needed on the Core Team are based on the scope of the implementation and how your company is structured. In other words, how big is your implementation and who is in charge of the business functions effected by it? It may be that one person is a Functional Expert in more than one area of your business—this is often the case in small-to-midsized businesses. Many times, Functional Experts are at the manager or senior supervisor level, but not always. The key is the amount of experience and institutional knowledge a person brings to the Core Team, rather than their title. Their input and buy-in is crucial as these are often the employees that will being using the ERP system on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

By definition, Functional Experts are found in-house rather than outsourced. (There are exceptions to this, but the ideal is to have your Functional Experts sourced in-house. We will discuss the costs vs. the benefits of outsourcing Functional Experts in a separate post.)

2. Business Analysts

Implementing an ERP system will almost always reveal inefficient business processes. Business Analysts have a well-rounded combination of business systems and process skills. These are people that can analyze current business processes, understand them, and improve them when needed. Often, they will have experience in Business Process Mapping or Value Stream Mapping and can create best practices in relation to your ERP implementation. This often enables a business to realize a higher, quicker return on investment from their ERP system. .

Often times, larger companies have Business Analyst skills in-house. Smaller companies typically do not and need to outsource this role. Similar to what we wrote about finding an outsourced Project Manager, finding an outsourced Business Analyst that is really good at transferring his or her skills to your people will really enhance and empower your team when the implementation ends.

3. Technical Analysts

As the name implies, Technical Analysts really understand the technology that underpins an ERP implementation. They are the developers and programmers who will be in charge of making the ERP system work. Most importan

tly, Technical Analysts will transfer your company’s data to the new ERP system. More broadly, Technical Analysts will make su

re that your IT infrastructure will support the ERP system, and they will work closely with your business’s Functional Experts and Business Analysts to ensure that the ERP system meets your business requirements from a technical perspective.

It is rare that Technical Analysts are in-house staff in smaller companies. Usually, we see some of these skills in-house in larger companies within an IT department. Again, it is helpful to look at outsourcing a Technical Analyst as an opportunity to hire someone who will train your staff with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to maintain, support, and even optimize the ERP system after implementation is over.

Assembling the Team

We already know that the Project Manager is responsible for managing the Core Team and executing the project plan, but what does that mean? What responsibilities does the team, itself, have? We will discuss the responsibilities of the Core Team in more detail in our next post.

In the meantime, if you know that your organization needs a new ERP system—or needs to upgrade or optimize an existing one—and realize that you may not have all of the roles described above on your team, drop us a line. We are happy to help you brainstorm solutions to get your organization ready for ERP.

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