What is the Role of an ERP Advisory Consultant?

Most project groups from mid-market manufacturing and
distribution organizatons are challenged by an ERP analysis and selection
mission.  The sheer dimension of the
project is a key cause. The typical ERP mission cuts throughout every space of
the enterprise, impacting practical areas from finance, accounting, and provide
chain, to buy ground, manufacturing, stock, high quality administration,
delivery and etc.   It’s troublesome for
staff to free themselves up from their practical duties and instant duties and
apply the wanted time, effort and a focus to the project.

Also, noteworthy – it’s extremely unlikely anybody on the
mission staff has gone by means of or led a complete analysis and selection
project. At greatest, maybe one staff member has some expertise within the
space, however usually, their expertise took place a decade or so in the past.

Another important issue – a profitable ERP choice and
implementation calls for a myriad of skillsets – from project administration,
enterprise process mapping, change administration and danger administration, to
a full understanding of contemporary enterprise expertise and the seller
panorama.

That’s the place the position of an ERP guide comes into
play.

Driving
Value – That’s the Role of an ERP Consultant

With ERP expertise and experience, the function of an ERP Advisory consultant
includes figuring out the very best practices for evaluating and implementing
techniques, mitigating danger, serving to the mission keep on time and on price
range and driving ROI.

We have grouped the specifics of the position within the
following classes:

1. Offering Experience,
   Independence: Drawing on many years of expertise in enterprise
   expertise, the position of an ERP advisor is to view the mission from an
   out of doors perspective based mostly on trade greatest practices.
   Independent consultants will not be software resellers and don't receive
   compensation from software firms. They maintain up-to-date on the vendor
   panorama, technology platforms and choices of recent ERP and might present
   unbiased and vendor-neutral steerage.
2. Sharing Industry Knowledge: The
   function of an ERP advisor is to supply expertise implementing ERP
   software in a particular business or with different related companies. An
   excellent guide may also recommend greatest practices from exterior of the
   trade that may very well be of assist to the enterprise if included.
3. Providing Specialized Skill Set: The position of an ERP advisor
   additionally includes mission administration, practical experience, danger
   mitigation and scores of different particular abilities.
4. Leading Business Process Transformation: There’s worth in acquiring
   unbiased opinions about what’s working or not working relating to
   enterprise processes. This professional outsider’s perspective could be
   invaluable all through the project to counter the staff’s private biases,
   based mostly on their job roles and the way issues have been finished
   previously.
5. Driving Change Management:  Selecting and implementing an
   ERP system ends in massive adjustments for the complete enterprise. These
   adjustments could be overwhelming on your staff and the remainder of your
   workforce. An ERP guide attracts on organizational change administration
   abilities to assist in consumer adoption and acceptance of the project.
6. Managing Implementation: When the function of an ERP
   advisor is concerned in implementation, the mission has the next
   probability of success when led by assets with expertise in setting the
   plan, project administration,  ERP
   data conversion, and all facets of ERP implementation. Once again, the
   involvement of an unbiased useful resource helps maintain the mission on
   time, inside scope and on price range – and helps mitigate any conflicts
   with the seller.
7. Providing Training:  In many projects, the
   position of an ERP advisor is to assist develop and ship consumer
   coaching, ERP training and help throughout your entire project – from
   choice to go-live.

The Role of an ERP Advisory Consultant: The Place to
Start

As we’ve made clear, with the intention to enhance the prospect
for achievement and cut back dangers, ERP project staff works more successfully
when drawing on professional methodologies. When contemplating the position of
an ERP advisor, the place to start out is enterprise process transformation.
When the main target is enterprise course of transformation, and not solely
expertise, the project staff has a greater likelihood of conducting an
efficient expertise analysis that's designed to fulfill future state needs.

For at present’s
profitable tasks, the function of an ERP advisor is to information the group by
means of the essential part of Business Process Improvement. Before any
dialogue of ERP vendors or system features, it’s a greatest apply to place into
motion multi-dimensional BPI (Business Process Improvement) methodologies.  Apagen’s confirmed BPI methodology contains
the following phases:

Current
State: For
true enterprise course of transformation, an ERP advisor guides project groups
to begin with a present state evaluation that includes in-depth discovery
actions to establish present enterprise processes in all practical areas. This
entails a complete overview of

present “As Is”
processes, accumulating all of the enterprise course of enchancment
alternatives or “pain point” reducing throughout every practical space of the
enterprise.

Education: Taking the time for an
intensive training of all these concerned within the mission is important for
the project staff to be nicely versed in ERP ideas and business greatest
practices. This is a key space led by the ERP Advisor Consultant.

Future
State: The
subsequent step is ERP necessities definition to establish sure standards a
brand new enterprise software program ought to deal with, which is decided by
means of thorough future state mapping. The future state is a improvement of
the “To Be” state, with standardized processes throughout all practical areas
that meet the alternatives or “pain points” revealed within the Current State
evaluation.

Moving to
Evaluation, Selection: After the Future State evaluation, and constructing out
the particular listing of necessities, the focus of the ERP advisor turns to
analysis of the technology merchandise or products from the enterprise software
program distributors that greatest serve the trade and aligns with enterprise
necessities. Enterprise software program selection is deceptively advanced –
involving a complete overview of the findings from present state and  future state evaluation.

Final
Thoughts

The function of an
ERP advisor consultant serves to make the method go loads smoother, speed up
time to worth, cut back the possibility of threat and supply the group with a
lot wanted ongoing administration and assist.

Heading
into an active project?  Contact Apagen for a have a look at the worth an ERP
consultant can deliver to your organization.