Assembling an ERP Project Team: Three Things You Didn’t Anticipate
ERP projects are never easy. Companies typically have an internal project team designated to
the initiative as well as experienced external resources. Theoretically this should be a winning
combination.
Let’s dig a little deeper into what we as outside independent ERP consultants sometimes find
are drawbacks when forming and maintaining your internal project team:
1. Dedicated but Not Dedicated
Too many companies resist putting their best resources on the initiative and backfilling their
positions. The reasons are many, but consider these points:
The business resists placing their strongest talent on the team because they are integral to
the success of day-to-day company operations. Then there’s the cost consideration of
backfilling your ERP project core team and can you really backfill for “experience?” The
show must go on and the ERP initiative is a bit of a sideshow (meaning it’s not given a high
enough priority) until the music stops.
The company believes “a portion” of their best employees’ time can be dedicated to the
project. This never ends up working well for the person or the project. Go down this path
and it will bite you. That doesn’t mean that you can’t access your SME’s at strategic times,
but don’t ask them to divide their time and expect good results.
ERP project plans fail to plan for turnover. In our experience > 65% of teams will experience
impactful unplanned turnover before any new software gets implemented. Expect that a
certain percentage of key team members will change jobs or leave the company prior to
implementation of the new system. Some of this turnover will be attributable to the stress,
intensity or longevity of the project.
2. Desperately Seeking Susan
Susan represents the morphing “identity” of members of your company’s senior
management team and ERP executive steering committee. They will profess their
dedication to the project, but their ongoing actions often don’t live up to their words (or
cleverly drafted emails).
Consider that:
Internal teams need a tremendous amount of support at all stages of an ERP project. It’s new
ground for most of the internal team, and they don’t need cheerleaders as much as they
need thought leaders. Business leaders too can’t separate themselves from the daily
running of the business or emergencies that crop up – thus their accessibility and focus
wharfs leaving the team wanting and needing more.
Your C-suite isn’t as aligned as they profess. Most execs support the “idea” of new
technology, but the silos start to emerge (or re-emerge) when execs get whiff of the amount
of change that will take place within their parts of the organization. A frown, misplaced
comment, etc. will start to erode the much-needed executive support and alignment the
team needs to succeed. (Also read our recent article about how to get executive alignment
on your ERP implementation).
Executives who are typically good at managing things aren’t experienced in ERP but won’t
admit it. This impacts their ability to make good decisions and provide effective coaching
and guidance. They have business acumen but lack the technical understanding and
knowhow of managing the people impacts of a project that has no one clear path to the
finish line.
Most are not experienced in handling the big hurdles, which range from adoption to
integration. This is not a criticism as much as it is an observation that can lead to anything
from cost/time overruns to ERP project failure. If you don’t have medical credentials you
don’t treat patients. Yet business leaders attempt to manage the most transformational and
expensive technical projects their companies have ever attempted without experience or a
track record.
3. Green Light = Bad?
Companies can suppress success by supporting a culture of only wanting or expecting good
news surrounding ERP initiatives. If “positive news only” isn’t written in the project charter
it sure is implied.
So how do team members with divergent ideas and good business instincts contribute?
Here’s where the rub can start to hurt:
It’s uncomfortable for team members to gain expertise and show decisive decision making in
a complex initiative where they lack experience. Disagreement or concerns get muffled
because the need for consensus typically takes precedence. A team will all “get along” and
consistently show the project as positively moving forward (green) until something big
happens and it suddenly isn’t. Some team members will have sensed this (and might have
felt angst) but didn’t feel empowered to speak up. Most corporations underestimate how
dangerous this behavior is within the context of an ERP initiative and the overall ERP project
management.
The balance of work or time spent will not be equitable within the project team. Thus, a
project manager or strong team member (maybe based on a hierarchical role or title) will
directionally begin to lead the narrative. This diminishes the intended combined thought
power of the team. It can put the project on a dangerous path (think misalignment,
adoption issues, etc.) that in the end can become major obstacles. Choose your team
members not by their titles, but by the character and competencies they will contribute.
Within an ERP project there are few (if any) easy buttons to push. Most teams fail to
recognize or encourage the power of a “pause button.” A pause button stops a project
(when needed) until a deep dive into the issue at hand is resolved. It is a sign of a strong
and confident team. More commonly we see teams burying larger issues within status
reports (sometimes with no clear resolution) to maintain that positive “green light” that
senior management or the ERP project manager wants to see.
In Conclusion
The collective power of combining internal and external resources continues to be a winning
formula. This blog points to some of the considerations when assembling a team of internal
resources; specifically, some notable things to avoid doing or watch out for.
As an independent consultancy, PT Rajawali Adikarya contributes a unique perspective and set
of skills to ERP projects. One that is not influenced by customer habits nor constrained by some
of the cultural issues holding companies back from implementing new technology successfully
on their own. We bring a proven framework and methodology to customers around the globe
that is based on experience. We become “trusted advisors” who shepherd projects.
Supporting our customers’ objectives with bandwidth and expertise is what we do for a living.
Hired to achieve specific goals, in the end we are held to this standard which in a changing
world can mean pushing the “status quo” towards innovation, while preserving what made
each company successful to begin with. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your ERP or
digital transformation – we are happy to be an informal sounding board as you continue your
transformation journey!
Learn more about how Epicor ERP, a visionary blend of agile technology and global
functionality, can help you optimize your performance, whether you operate on a local,
regional, or global scale. It is not just another ERP – it is ERP done your way!
Find out how we provide the best fit solution for ERP Software, using Epicor ERP so that you
can more easily adopt new business technologies to stay ahead. Also, get more detailed
information about Epicor products and its integrated solutions, discover how we can help our
Customers grow their business, and learn about our solid excellent ERP Implementation as well
as Epicor Implementation experiences in a number of Indonesia's prominent companies.
Contact our Representative Person now.