ERP Readiness Series: Subject Matter Experts Expand the Core Team Without the Bloat

In our first post in the ERP Readiness Series, we identified seven distinct roles in a properly staffed ERP solution change initiative. We went on to detail the responsibilities of the Executive Sponsor, Project Managers, and Implementers (also known as the Core Team). In this post we take a brief look at Subject Matter Experts and Users.

Starting at the (End) User

As the term “User” obviously denotes, Users are the employees who will use the ERP system in their day-to-day work once it is implemented. Some refer to User as End Users—the terms are interchangeable. Members of the Core Team (usually Business Analysts and/or Functional Experts) will train Users of the system in the final stages of implementation.

Subject Matter Experts  (It’s Not You, It’s SME!)

Between the Core Team and the Users are a group of people known as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). SMEs are essentially Functional Experts that cannot serve on the Core Team due to resource constraints.

Remember we defined the role of the Functional Expert on the Core Team:

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.

Also, recall that we stated that small businesses typically field a Core Team of three people, ideally one functional expert, a business analyst, and a technical analyst. Medium and large-sized businesses typically field a Core Team of five to ten people, adding more Functional Experts to team.

Small and medium-sized businesses still require the input of multiple Functional Experts from across the organization but often cannot afford to pull these experts off of their day-to-day jobs in order to devote 50-75% of their time to the Core Team. Functional Experts who are not on the Core Team are SMEs and are pulled in occasionally by the Core Team for specific process advice and functional knowledge. In this way, smaller businesses are able to manage the size of their Core Teams; avoiding what we call “core team bloat” and enabling their Core Teams to remain nimble.

In all other ways, SMEs are treated like Users, engaged in the same training, cut over and go-live phases of an implementation. However, SMEs provide important input to the core team and are highly valuable. Having SMEs involved, and communicating effectively with them, also improves User buy-in on a broader level.

Need help identifying your organization’s Subject Matter Experts? Want to talk it over with an ERP expert? That’s us! Give us a call. We’re happy to help.

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