As you start the process of updating your ERP system, you should be prepared to have a strong project manager on your side. A client-side project manager is a specialized consultant who will act on your behalf, ensuring the project is run properly and every task is completed.
Many ERP implementations fail — you need a plan to ensure yours does not. Client-side project management or independent consultants cover the tasks that will help improve your business processes focusing on your success.
Client-side project managers work against your deadlines and financial plans utilizing a full suite of project monitoring tools, guaranteeing your project team collaborates intimately with the implementation partner. They additionally gauge and provide solutions for any predictable risks by continually being a couple of strides ahead in the Process Improvement Plan.
Still not certain you need extra help? Here are a few instances of ways a client-side project manager can assist you with accomplishing a successful ERP implementation.
Collaboration for Process Improvement
Be a Bulldog
You need a client-side project manager that will essentially be a bulldog for your organization. They should be a fierce advocate, guaranteeing that everybody including the seller and execution accomplice are offering the types of assistance required. Simultaneously, a venture director should have incredible relational abilities and have the option to urge individuals to complete their undertakings without making enmity. It’s a sensitive equilibrium, and the best ERP project directors do it quite well.
Get Things Done
An ERP system implementation is an enormous undertaking with many moving parts. There are various steps that should be done by people within the client’s organization, on the vendor’s side, and with the implementation partner’s firm. The most important way to achieve a successful implementation is to affirm every one of these undertakings are being done on schedule per the task plan.
A client-side project manager has the ability to stay on individuals, ensuring that they show up and that they complete their doled out assignments. If necessary, a project manager can oversee the task plan, see what must occur, and find out why it does not yield results. They can spot a delay and focus on that area to uncover the challenges.
Get People What They Need
All throughout an ERP project, people will require assistance with tasks. A project manager can look at the overall task plan, see what should happen, and discover why it is not working. They can recognize a deferral and quickly go into that territory to find what is turning out badly.
Issues that may hold up an ERP implementation project include:
The project team is missing data to achieve one of their tasks.
The vendor needs an inquiry answered from the client side of the task.
Testing has slowed down because of lack of training.
Data migration issues or clean-up of data is required.
A question from the vendor in regards to configuration should be resolved.
The client-side project manager will delve into each issue, uncover what is keeping somebody from delivering their task, and guarantee that individual gets what they need to push ahead.
Bring Everyone Together
Another significant part of an ERP system implementation is communication. Tasks do not happen without a great deal of meetings and coordination among individuals from multiple organizations. The project manager can acquire individuals on a call and get everybody talking together, including the vendor, customer, and implementation partner.
Without correspondence, assignments on the task plan could be missed or ignored, and steps could be done erroneously. In addition to ensuring that communication is occurring throughout the ERP implementation, a client-side project manager can likewise guarantee that everybody is on the same page. Just because people communicate does not mean every person is understanding the other. The project manager can act as an outside set of eyes to look at everything from a different angle and see things others might miss.
Move from One Task then onto the Next
A client side project manager is someone who is willing and ready to complete cycles. You need those “dones” to have an effective ERP implementation. The project manager will go quickly and efficiently starting from one task onto the next, moving rapidly to the next one. This expertise is significant for the task, as any lethargic can have a domino effect and cause more serious delays near the end of a project.
A few assignments may take longer than others, but a project manager has the ability and expertise to deal with these longer tasks, while also completing others. A project manager’s definitive objective is to guarantee that every single step of the ERP implementation plan is completed. Having a person like that working for your organization is vital to the successful completion of your project.
Get Organized
Being extremely organized is another necessity for a good client-side project manager. As an ERP implementation plan incorporates various moving parts, the task director needs to monitor all of those parts and not let anything become lost despite any effort to the contrary. An accomplished venture director will do the entirety of this well indeed.
Project managers must keep track of meetings and make sure they are happening as often as needed. They will also ensure all deliverables are being delivered and track the progress of each one throughout the implementation. You will find that a project manager will have every aspect of the project written down and can easily tell you the status of all tasks. This information can be crucial to your project.
Complete What They Start
The objective of each client-side project manager is to verify that any ERP implementation they start is finished. They will never be satisfied with an incomplete project and will take the necessary steps to complete your task. A project manager will not rest until their customer is totally happy with an ERP implementation.
Frequently an ERP system implementation will fall into difficulty close to the end, during the most basic pieces of the cycle: testing and go-live. This is the point at which you will require a skilled client-side project manager that can step in and can push through any issues.
A few issues that can happen close to the furthest limit of a task include an implementation team getting diverted by new projects, or they could basically become weary of the task and not be inclined to battle through any of the last-minute issues that will crop up. Your project manager will be the force expected to make certain each deliverable is met, and the product goes live effectively.
At the point when you are prepared to begin an ERP system implementation, employing an experienced client-side project manager can be one of the most important steps you take.
Conclusion
An area where an independent software advisor really provides a lot of value in is identifying that there is more to the picture than what you may originally have looked at. A lot of times, a client will come and say they need a new manufacturing application to track their manufacturing and how that process goes. However, they are not really looking at the rest of the organization and that is a pitfall. You really need to look at all the areas of the organization to understand exactly what the needs are, what the problems are, how those applications are working with the other areas in order to really identify the right process and the right needs to go with that software and make sure those requirements are met.
It also makes you realize that a lot of what is going on and the problems clients are experiencing with their applications are on the manufacturing side or after sales hands it off to the next department. When they go in and help a client identify those needs, they are not just looking at a single area, but independent advisors are looking at the entire organization and all of their needs. That is one thing we would highly recommend doing whenever you are looking at maximizing your software replacement: do not create a narrow scope, have a broader scope to really understand what is in it for you by considering an independent consultant who would look at the entire process and create better roadmaps ahead.
Remember, independent advisors act as clients and as part of their team to get their business with technology, creating optimal outcomes and make full use of their investment as it releases value to that investment in the organization.
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