ERP (Enterprise resource planning) software implementation is a crucial investment for any organization, but it comes with its own challenges. Effective project management appears to be lacking in organizations when it comes to examining the reasons for the failure of ERP implementation. Due to this reason, it is essential for businesses to appoint a professional, dedicated, and qualified project management for a successful ERP software implementation.
What is Project Management?
ERP system implementation is an enormous and complex IT project that can impact various aspects of an organization, including customers and vendors. In many cases, business processes need to be adjusted to implement new technology that can affect the day-to-day jobs of employees. Capital management techniques are used in project management to ensure that projects are completed on time and within budget. The project manager plays an essential role here by leading the company, setting the tone for the project, and preventing and managing the issues.
Companies have to manage every aspect of the ERP software implementation and for that, it is crucial to have a project manager whose responsibility is to handle the changes effectively that comes with a new system. They also assist in minimizing interruption and managing the expectations of employees. An internally assigned project manager should work with a project manager who is assigned by the ERP vendor.
They enable a link between the enterprise and the provider for controlling, tracking, and coordinating various activities required in the ERP implementation. Project managers also have the authority and support of higher management to successfully navigate the application of ERP solutions throughout the whole process.
Qualities of a Successful Project Manager
Companies need to hire a project manager who has the relevant knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience with project and project management. It is also essential that they are familiar with the company processes, technology, and the industry. They should also be flexible, disciplined, motivating for other employees, and have an empathetic understanding of consumer issues. Project managers with a clear vision of the implementation process and the potential to follow through, help them make decisions that ensure success. Project management is essential for the successful launch of new products in the fashionable jewelry market. The chances of failures are less if companies appoint a person having these qualities who also has a clear understanding of goals.
The Project Manager Helps to Avoid these Challenges
- Slow decision making
- Poor planning of agendas for meetings
- Unnecessary scope challenges
- Poor communication with ERP implementation consultants
- Poor or slow delivery of legacy data
These issues can be resolved, with the ERP management, with the help of both external ERP consultants and internal ERP project manager.
Duties of Project Managers Include
- Each week they should dedicate a sufficient amount of time to implement project tasks.
- They should review ongoing systems and procedures, including both manual and electronic.
- Managing implementation timeline.
- Delegate and supervise stakeholders for completing implementation tasks.
- Considering the perspective of overall business goals.
- Ensuring smooth transition between the old processes and the new ERP system.
- Providing internal development efforts, user acceptance testing, end-user training, etc.
- Enabling change management practices in the company to check the user acceptance of the new system.
High-level Responsibilities of a Project Manager
- Implementing strategies and plans: Companies have project managers to handle and monitor every aspect of their projects. The product packaging project manager is responsible for ensuring that the packaging meets the project requirements, budget, and timeline. A project manager works with a team, and they are responsible for defining the overall project implementation strategy and plan. It helps them ensure that the project will be completed on time and within the budget. Many times a company tries to handle this project and creates plans themselves. But they are usually not familiar with the ERP software and are unaware of the implementation process. It leads to them missing the necessary steps of the process or best strategies, which can cause delays or rework. It may result in management or employees wasting their time and resources.
A project manager has experience with the overall process of project management and system implementation. With this experience, they can identify essential steps and better strategies. It ensures a smoother ERP implementation. Besides this planning stage, a project manager also tracks progress against the plan using vital methods to check the overall progress. Without the help and guidance of the project manager, project teams can get stuck focusing on individual problems instead of focusing on the big picture.
- Tracking and resolving the issues: The role of the project manager is not about getting a solution to the issue, but they ensure the team identifies, tracks, and solves the problem. They also protect the budget and schedule by managing the scope. Project managers check whether or not the issue is growing into undocumented requirements and that the team is not focusing on activities that do not offer benefits from the ERP system.
Team members and subject matter experts often go into the details of a particular area, which is their expertise. Without the essential guidance of a project manager, the team won’t be able to identify when it is good enough, or they won’t even manage to escalate the issues to make necessary business decisions.
- A single point of communication and management: It gets very frustrating for the project management team to decide who to communicate with when there is an issue. The team has to determine who is responsible for providing regular status updates. And ensuring that the project sponsors, steering committee, and company executives are kept in the loop; and their concerns are addressed. Stakeholders consider every project significant and pay equal attention to them, but they also have a lot on their plate and other issues to deal with besides one project.
Other stakeholders are also either involved or impacted by the scope of a project. Managers and department heads often put their inputs and have concerns, and the end-users will also be interacting with the system. Companies should have an individual who can manage relationships across all these levels, has a proper understanding of project status, and can direct the comments and concerns to find the responses and give them back to sources. It is one of the most overlooked yet crucial roles of a project manager.
Effective project management with an active and responsible leader who drives for accountability, transparency, and decisiveness is essential to ensure the successful implementation of the ERP software. However, a qualified and well-experienced client-side project manager also plays a crucial role and should not be overlooked while determining the project team.
Author’s Bio:
Deepali Daiya likes to read and write on technologies that form the bedrock of the modern-day and age like ERP, CRM, Web Apps, machine learning, data science, AI, and robotics. Deepali works for Sage Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a leading provider of ERP and CRM solutions to small and mid-sized businesses in India.