Click here to read more about EstesGroup’s side of ERP implementation methodology.
In Part One of this blog for ERP system implementation tips, we outlined the Estes Group specialists we will assigned to your ERP implementation, and the specific roles they will play to ensure success of your project.
But as we’ve said, every project is a partnership — a meeting of minds, specialities, and expertise from your company and ours are what make a successful ERP collaboration strategy.
So who are the people we hope to work with from your enterprise? What will their ERP implementation roles and responsibilities be in creating the most effective implementation of your chosen ERP solution?
For our ERP collaboration strategy, we always prefer that our clients have a well-informed Project Sponsor who takes an active role in your implementation project. Your Project Sponsor is almost always a company executive: the CEO, CFO, or President. Ideally, this person sees your ERP implementation as we see it: the best opportunity for your enterprise to retain or advance its competitive edge in your sector.
Over the years, we’ve managed to accumulate a lot of success stories at EstesGroup. By far the best and most frequent success stories share a common, pivotal character. They all have a client-side Project Sponsor with a clear and specific future state vision. Someone who’s as excited to implement your chosen ERP solution as we are.
We’ve noticed a huge difference between clients with active, interested implementation sponsorship and more laid back approaches. One of the best ERP system implementation tips we can give is that the active, interested Project Sponsor sets the tone for the entire implementation. His or her energy becomes contagious. The encouragement, guidance, resources and advocacy they provide is invaluable.
Your Project Sponsor will chair your project’s Steering Committee, which is typically comprised of executives from VP to C-level. Responsibilities of the Steering Committee include:
- Ensuring project success
- Establishing company goals and priorities
- Defining the project scope and approving any changes that occur
- Providing adequate resources to ensure the project’s success
- Monitoring project milestones to make sure they’re met
Your team will also have a Project Manager tasked with synchronizing all the various moving parts of your ERP implementation. Your Project Manager shoulders the bulk of the day-to-day work required to make your implementation successful. His or her specific responsibilities include:
- Learning and following the EstesGroup 5-stage implementation methodology
- Managing resource participation
- Assigning specific tasks to your Customer Core Team members
- Conducting meetings of the overall implementation project team
- Reporting progress to your Steering Committee
Your Customer Core Team is often comprised of your unit managers, line managers, and subject matter experts. As part of our ERP collaboration strategy, your core team members and ours interact directly, as counterparts, to ensure seamless communication between the specific processes of your enterprise and the ERP solution being implemented to handle them.
Responsibilities of your Customer Core Team members include:
- Following the methodology plan as led by the Project Manager
- Executing all individual tasks with the skill required to maximize the overall implementation
- Participating fully in the proof of concept and all subsequent reviews
- Preparing and reviewing policies, procedures, and data conversion
- Documenting progress
- Training end users and co-workers
- Presenting stage reviews
Click here to read about successful ERP collaboration with both teams.
