Lean & Operational Excellence and Independent ERP Consultants

Implementing an ERP system is a huge undertaking for most organisations. A strong internal implementation team will greatly increase the likelihood of project success. 

Outlined below are some points to consider when forming your implementation team.

Effectively negotiate and influence key players to acquire suitable team members

Forming the right project team is a precursor to successfully achieving all subsequent project steps and warrants significant effort in the early planning stages of the project. The best people for the team are typically the people with least availability. Do not simply accept resources you are offered without question. If there are more capable, better qualified or more motivated people elsewhere in the organisation, try to get them rather than the people you have been offered. You may need to act as a salesperson to these individuals to get them interested in coming onto the project, while working as a negotiator with their managers to get them released. It sounds like a lot of work but this effort will be rewarded as the project progresses. Failure to acquire the necessary human resources for a project may affect project schedules, budgets, quality and risks and ultimately the success of the project.

Try to get enthusiastic people with essential skills

So what sorts of skills are important for an ERP project team member? Ask yourself the following questions before you pick your team:

• How quickly will they be able to learn how to use the new system?
• Will they be capable of rapidly understanding new concepts and ideas, and making sense of how business processes might change as a result of the new system?
• Will they be capable of preparing documentation? And of using desktop tools like Word, PowerPoint, Project and Visio?
• Are they thorough, meticulous and detailed in what they do?
• Are they task-oriented? We all know people who never seem to finish anything. Well, ERP projects need “finishers”!
• Will they work and interact well with other team members, or are they likely to prefer working on their own in isolation? Good communication with the rest of the team is hugely important.
• Are they personally interested in the project?
  
  • Some people will often volunteer or request involvement. Interest and enthusiasm are often worth far more than apparently better skills on paper. 

Use psychometric or occupational assessments to identify the candidates suitability for the role

So how do you get the brightest and the best? We recommend using psychometric or occupational assessments to identify how well each of the candidates is suited to the requirements of their role on the project team. As well as identifying particular strengths or positives, the assessment can also help to identify weaknesses or potential problem areas. Maybe you have a candidate who is generally strong, but who has a problem with time management or asking for help when they encounter difficulties. If you know about these weaknesses in advance then you can plan around them. In certain circumstances you might have to think about reassigning responsibilities – but that’s much easier to do at the start of the project than further down the line when you’ve run into a problem.
 

Don’t underestimate the effort and commitment required

Your team needs people who’ll go the extra mile, who’ll stay late if there’s a deadline that needs to be met and who’ll pull out all the stops to get the job done. Their total effort on the project will be a multiple of the number of days provided by external vendors. A total of three times as many days wouldn’t be unusual. No matter how capable or hard-working they are, it’s unrealistic to expect key team members to do their normal day jobs as well as participate on the ERP project team for an extended period of time.
 

Find a balance between internal and external resources

You should not fall into the trap of only considering the people you have available within your organisation for the implementation team. Many organisations will have limited resources internally and should consider external sources for staffing the project team. Good technology staff, particularly those with deep ERP experience are often best sourced externally. Finding a balance is key, as over staffing with contractors and consultants is expensive and knowledge gained during the project leaves the organisation when external resources leave at the end of the project.

This Opinion was written by Chris Monaghan, Senior IS Consultant at BSM. If you would like further information on the importance of team selection in ERP projects please send an e-mail to Chris Monaghan.