in: Acumatica, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Company News
The right team can make your company’s cloud ERP implementation much easier than you thought. By assembling people from various departments and clearly explaining their roles, the implementation team can make quick headway into all the considerations needed for a successful cloud ERP implementation.
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Acumatica’s eight-step ERP Playbook to Implementation is ready to download and offers you more tips and help to implement your new system. And, once you’ve got your Acumatica system in place, Mindover’s Acumatica Tips & Tricks offers you more insight into the system’s many features.
Who Should Be on Your Cloud ERP Implementation Team?
“Why even ask?” some might wonder. “Isn’t IT supposed to be in charge of software implementation?”
Yes, and no. While the information technology team is indeed an integral part of the cloud ERP implementation team, building a team with members from various departments offers many benefits.
- Executive Sponsor:The Executive Sponsor may also be called the project Champion. This person provides a direct conduit to the executive team as a whole, bringing any questions, needs, or updates from the group to the company’s executives. They may also be the person who launched the project or who secured financing for the project. It’s important to choose the right Executive Sponsor for a cloud ERP implementation team. The sponsor should be someone who understands the company’s need for a cloud ERP solution, but also someone with enough time to attend the frequent and necessary project update meetings.
- Project Lead (or Project Manager): The Project Lead is the person in charge of the overall project design, roadmap, and management of the project team meetings. While this person may be someone from the IT department, they do not necessarily have to be an IT person. They need to have a good grasp of how an ERP system works and what is important for the implementation and rollout.
- Technical Lead (Technical/Business Analyst):The Technical Lead or Business Analyst is the one who must document all the project requirements as well as reporting needs from various departments. This person must have a logical mind and the ability to understand what non-technical people may be requesting and translate it into a clear and coherent workflow.
- Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Subject Matter Experts are people from each department who are experts in their areas, but who may be new to ERP. Each SME should represent a department that will use the system. Marketing managers, people from operations and warehousing, manufacturing and inventory experts, anyone who will use the ERP system to help them do a better job, and who represents a specific area of the company can be considered a SME.
Assembling the Team
You can invite individuals to be part of the cloud ERP implementation team or ask managers for recommendations. A few things to note when assembling your implementation team:
- Time: Give everyone a rough idea of the time commitment each week and month to the project. Will being on the implementation team take one hour a week or four hours per week? Managers need to understand this to delegate resources effectively.
- Alternates: Make sure that there is continuity on the teams and that if someone cannot attend a meeting they have an alternate picked out who will attend in their stead.
- Milestones: Every implementation project team should work from a shared project plan and an understanding of what is expected of them and by when. Creating project milestones and sharing these with key stakeholders is vital to the success of the project and helps maintain the enthusiasm and support of the executive sponsor and the entire executive team.
With good organization and planning, as well as the right team in place, cloud ERP implementation can be a much easier task than you thought. Although it’s never entirely “easy,” it can be drama-free with the right elements in place, including people, to accomplish the company’s goals.
Mindover Software
Mindover Software provides ERP software consulting, training, and implementation. For more information, please contact us or call 512-990-3994.
