Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a crucial system that determines the sky-rocketing success of a business or failure depending on nature and integrity of implementation and how project managers can interact with their ERP system. ERP outlays interconnection and exchange of information between branches of any company such as human resource, finance sector, procurement, production department and accounting among other branches.
A well-defined ERP system is a basis of business success since it guides the head managers through the whole system in an interconnected view. This brings forth a number of merits, such as spotting a weakening section and its effect across the business, reduction on running costs, improvement of customer services, assist in judgements and decision-making as well as becoming a tool for future planning. The success of the implementation of the ERP system is highly dependent on the skills, abilities and the understanding by the project managers.
Project management must have some key features for the success of its implementation. The project management must be flexible. He/she must be able to take in various changes that comes up along the course of the project. Flexibility also dictates the manager’s behavior when something difficult arises that may complicate the implementation of ERP. They must also be flexible in the sense that there is a good relationship between them and all the personnel working in the company. It also involves handling new trends in the market that requires a change in the form of production or customer relations to ensure that the company continue to have its niche in the competitive market. High discipline.
The project management must be highly disciplined for proper implementation of the ERP. Discipline involves sticking to the company’s road to success and goals. Deviations among the member of the business organization frequently occur but the management should be in a position to keep everyone focused. It is all about the ERP manager being glued to the end result of the business/company and actually bring the defecting members back to being function-oriented.
ERP manager should be well trained and educated. This builds on the technical ability of the management. Managers could constantly take upcoming training forums and seminars since this equips them current trends in the market. It also puts them in a position to make decisions that positively influence the organization. Well educated manager is a good and fast decision maker. Teamwork. This is an important aspect in any kind of organization.
Project manager must be team players and participate in the activities that occur in the business. This way they motivate the workers and also understand what it takes for certain tasks to be complete. Effective communication is also key either upward or downward the ERP system.
How tasks and project management work together ERP manager must be able to exercise a daily control on the task leaders as well as the resources required for the project. In such a case there should be a healthy communication line between the ERP manager and task leaders so that the manager can get clear information on what is on the ground.
The manager has a responsibility of ensuring that there is effective planning process of projects and creating a schedule that accommodates all other ERP projects. The task leaders present to the manager the enough resources that are required and the time that shall be taken to complete them. This way the manager is able to calculate the amount of resources required and total time to achieve company’s goals. Importance of Projections and timelines There are a lot of thing to schedule and organize in ERP. Some of them must be done concurrently and therefore putting clear timelines is vital.
An effective and thorough project planning must be put underway in order to accommodate the high number of people, a lot of projects and sub-projects as well as taming conflicting ideas arising from the organization. With expertise, project manager in the ERP should come up with a schedule that gives priority to major projects but still flexible enough to deal with upcoming issues along the way.
Harmonizing time and human resource to (offer the services) is usually problematic. Issues such as sickness, vacation and leave always pull people away from their duties and results in failed schedules. Therefore when projections are made, such factors should be put into considerations in order to meet timelines. A clear critical path analysis on the project schedule in order to identify the resources are required along the schedule of the project. This prevent the business’s projects from stalling due to absence of an important resource.
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