An example ERP implementation team structure for your project

Given the many complexities associated with ERP implementation, it is entirely logical that various management stakeholders should be present to ensure efforts are kept on the straight and narrow. While the organization of an ERP implementation team can range from informal, to bureaucratic in structure, the goals are always the same – get the ERP up and running efficiently; while marginalizing costs wherever possible.

To help you achieve this, we’ve offered our take on what a successful team structure looks like, which individuals are involved and which roles they typically play. 

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Steering committee

This group of senior leaders define and manage the overarching goal-set for the ERP implementation. Committees of this type usually involve major enterprise or divisional heads that guide project planning.

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For example in the case of a multinational company, operating in numerous locations, a typical erp implementation steering committee roll-call would look like this:

• CEO or EVP - headquarters
• COO and/or CIO – headquarters
• CFO – headquarters
• VP/Director IT – headquarters
• VP/Director Sales/Marketing – headquarters
• VP/Director Production - headquarters
• Director Finance - headquarters
• Director Facilities – headquarters
• EVP – first off-site division
• EVP – second off-site division
• Director Production – first off-site division
• Director Production – second off-site division

Again, this committee scenario suggests a large-scale company, representing the operation and management of many international business elements. However a similar approach to can offer the same value to an ERP implementation team within a smaller companies as well.

Project management team

This group of operational leaders typically manage and direct the practical installation phase of an ERP implementation. This team usually involves direct stakeholders that act on major and subordinate elements to ensure all technical processes are defined and established congruent with a project’s operational schedule.

Again, to maintain an appropriate apples to apples comparison we are suggesting a multinational company, operating in numerous locations.

• VP/Director IT - headquarters
• VP/Director Production - headquarters
• Director Finance - headquarters
• Director Facilities – headquarters
• EVP – first off-site division
• EVP – second off-site division
• Director IT – first off-site division
• Director IT – second off-site division
• Director Finance – first off-site division
• Director Finance - second off-site division
• Director Production – first off-site division
• Director Production – second off-site division

Implementation groups

Finally, this additional group of stakeholders serves as a support team of line-oriented respondents, who get into the weeds of what/how/when each ERP module is to be applied. This team includes:

• Major line of business constituents
• Key external partners
• Third-party partners (technical/business)
• Necessary consultants

Once again, this project structure is a simple pro forma approach to the matter of a comprehensive ERP implementation team. Whether a company is large or small, this complex of “knowledge-engineers” must be utilized as a critical element of an implementation; to do otherwise can cause a company to find itself quickly adrift in a stormy sea, where rocks and shoals of cost-overruns are plentiful and can quickly drive an effort to the bottom in a heartbeat.

Photo by Sebastiaan ter Burg / CC BY 2.0