4 Critical ERP Consultant Requirements
Selecting a qualified ERP consultant to lead your implementation is pivotal to your success. Best-in-class companies leverage this success factor. According to Aberdeen, 84% of organizations assign project managers to their ERP implementation processes.1
Whether or not you assign adequate internal or external support to your implementation can impact your bottom line, too. It has been shown that when midmarket organizations utilize the help of service organizations in their ERP implementation processes, they see a 9% greater reduction in operating costs as a result of their new ERP.2 Clearly, the investment and return in an ERP is maximized when you have brought in the right ERP consultant for project support.
After deciding to allocate resources to project management, you now face the challenge of moving from ERP consultant interviews to the final selection. What are the most critical requirements that would ensure you have selected the best partner to guide your implementation? Based on our team’s collective experiences in successfully leading ERP implementations, we agree the following is essential:
- Business analysis experience and knowledge of best practices relevant to your industry
- System configuration and customization experience relevant to the solution and your industry, so that they can properly tailor your ERP to your business
- Extensive ERP project management experience, showing ability to drive your project continuously forward to an on-time, on-budget satisfactory completion
- A proven methodology that lays out how they will
- Engage your team
- Provide necessary documentation and training
- Lead you through configuration, data conversion, mock go-live and go-live
- Assist with change management to ensure adoption of the new technology and processes it brings
When it comes to assessing the firm’s ERP expertise, be sure your questions are posed to more than just the consulting firm’s sales team. Request time to interview the integration team lead. Technical questions will usually be more fully addressed by a technical team member than by a sales person alone. The integration team will have first-hand experience with what the implementation will look like, and can provide the detailed responses you need about system capability, project management, and project risk. Your project is too important to move forward without assurance that the implementation partner has the technical capacity to follow through on their commitments.
Related articles:
Managing the 5 Stages of an ERP Life Cycle
5 ERP Implementation Strategies for Deploying Ahead of Schedule
ERP Implementation Services by Trek Global
Sources cited
1Aberdeen Group. ERP Implementation and Training.
2Aberdeen Group. A Guide for a Successful ERP Strategy in the Midmarket: Selection, Services, and Integration.