Why you need an In-House ERP Team

The hardest myth to break for leaders going into their first ERP implementation is that even if it is packaged software, it is not simply a purchase transaction, quick configuration, then everything is set. For most businesses, their ERP implementation is their most expensive, risky, and complex project they will experience. Conveying this to people who have not seen it is quite difficult. These projects require total buy-in and participation from the employees allocated to the project.

The magnitude of your project will depend on its scope, which will generally depend on your business size and/or complexity. Regardless of the size, it is critical you have an experienced in-house team (or individual, depending on your size), fully dedicated to delivering the project for you. Now, depending on your business strategy, you may not want to hire a team, but you understand the risks to not having any expertise in-house. There are other options. For example, you could hire a contractor that specializes in ERP projects. You could also hire a company that specializes in designing programs, managing risks, and supporting the relationship between you and the vendor delivering your ERP.

Choosing not to have this approach will increase your project risk. Below, I will list three key reasons.

Agency

This is a big one. There are certainly implementation vendors out there who want what is best for their customer and truly want to do a good job. Unfortunately, there are also far too many vendors that are focused only on their bottom-line: These means selling the work (by any means necessary) and doing the bare minimum. Further, even the vendors acting in good faith are agents of their business, not yours. So, when push comes to shove, they may be forced to act in their business’s best interest, not yours.

Therefore, regardless of the intent of the vendor, you need someone knowledgeable to own the program on your side, acting in your interests. This person will help you design a program and identify what is needed before you even connect with a vendor. They will watch for red flags during the selection period. During the project, they will manage risks and hold the vendor accountable for the work. Lastly, they will ensure the plan for cutting over from old systems to new (a highly complex and risky process) is successful. This requires experience and expertise not generally possessed by a standard project manager, good as they may be in other areas. This brings us to the next point.

Expertise

As mentioned above, whoever is leading the project from your side of the table is responsible for some pretty big stuff. All of these things require background in the ERP space to operate effectively. This is not to say you cannot have a project manager or other resource shadow this lead and quickly operate at a decent level. But your lead must be a person who has seen this before.

Employee Capacity

ERP projects can take anywhere from 6 months to multiple years to complete. Assuming medium to high complexity, you will absolutely have at least several resources dedicated at a very high level to the project. This is not sustainable if they are expected to also complete their day jobs. Unless you are very small, adding capacity to the team in some way is required to not affect the business in other ways.