16 Jun 2023
Over recent years, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is no longer a luxury but a vital necessity for any business to run a successful operation. To conduct an ERP project, it depends on many aspects, standards and normally requires thorough preparation to avoid further interruption. Amongst those, it is critical to have the team manage and support leaders properly during the whole project. In this article, we would like to give you 3 simple tips that help build a perfect ERP implementation team.
Choose People By Competencies
It is obvious that businesses usually hurry in this step due to time limitations. However, companies should not be too hasty since it is not easy to find a knowledgeable and experienced team member. During the selection process, you need to recruit those who are qualified and savvy across the ERP system field, as such they can make meaningful contributions to the project in the long run. In addition, if the chosen people already have hands-on experience in working on technology implementation, they are able to help speed up and bring the operational process productivity to the next level.
Identify Key Roles With Clear Responsibilities
ERP implementation team is a set of people taking charge of different roles from management leaders, project sponsors, project managers to end-users. Technical responsibilities would be clarified at the beginning of the project based on each member’s areas of expertise and devotion time. Hence, each member takes their duties to undertake specific tasks.
Executive Sponsor
Executive sponsors play the role of driving the implementation strategy. They give an idea of the general vision and end goals for the ERP project by devising action plans and then receiving updates from the project managers during the running process. The executive sponsor is usually someone in the top-level managers of the organisation, hence they are also able to make final decisions about the projects based on input information gathered from the implementation team.
Project Manager
A project manager is the point person who makes sure the operation timeline is met and the project runs within a proper scope. This member typically has several duties, from outsourcing a qualified ERP vendor, planning out timelines and resources, and arranging demo sessions to serving as the liaison between executive sponsors and internal teams. They also have to be available anytime to sign off business documents, make decisions in urgent situations, and address unexpected arising issues.
Implementation Partner
The implementation partner is in charge of technical work and functional skillset that requires special experts. In collaboration with the internal system engineer team, the implementation team will help deploy system customisation and installation tasks for the companies. As these are all vital steps in the ERP software adoption journey, it is important to make sure the partner you choose has a deep understanding of your business case to provide sufficient support to walk through the entire project.
End-users
The end-user is also one of the most essential project pillars when it comes to building up the ERP implementation team. In the role of system users, those selected can raise any concerns related to the system’s setup faced by them while utilising the software. They also can help answer non-technical questions to their colleagues on how the system will run once it goes live. Thus, it is recommended that chosen end-users should have the capability of great communication skills to smoothen the discussion sessions.
Ensure Effective Communication
As the project involves many departments and processes at the same time, communication should be clear to achieve a smooth and effective information transfer. Firstly, there is a need to hold regular meetings to keep everyone updated on the progress of the project. Secondly, make sure that the communication flow is conveyed in a positive and effective manner. As such, members of the ERP implementation team from the upper to the lower level can all catch up with the latest updates and get to know how their project is carried out.
Read more: 7 Steps of a Successful ERP Implementation Process
Government Grant
To push up efforts in deploying the digitalisation system, the Singapore government has extended the Productivity Solutions Grant (PSG) which offers funding up to 50% of the qualifying cost. Businesses can also click on other grants such as Enterprise Development Grant (EDG) for more support.
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