The missing ingredient in successful ERP projects 

The missing ingredient in successful ERP projects 

Key takeaways from this blog:

• A dedicated internal change manager plays a key role in ERP project success 
• This individual acts as a bridge between the business and the service provider 
• Without this resource, projects can be delayed and benefits go unrealised 
• The role can be an internal hire, a new recruit or a consultant on secondment 

By Stephen McConkey and David O’Malley, Client Directors at ProStrategy 

Any business starting out on an ERP implementation for the first time, or upgrading an existing system, soon finds out the scale of the challenge – and what’s at stake if it goes wrong. It’s easy to get stuck focusing on features in the software or the technical side of the project. But we have found there’s a common thread in successful projects; a critical yet often overlooked element that often decides the outcome. It’s not a piece of code or a clever app; it’s a person.  

In our experience from years of successful ERP rollouts, many of the businesses that made it work appointed a designated ‘super user’ to act as the internal point of contact for the new system, guiding the business through the transition. This person understands the system well enough to answer basic questions, support colleagues, encourage adoption and reduce the need to escalate every query back to the IT vendor or delivery team.  

Without this crucial bridge connecting the technical consultants to the day-to-day operations of the business, companies risk getting caught in extended project delays, costly overruns, or poor staff adoption. 

In some unfortunate cases, businesses that ignored advice to appoint an internal lead found themselves struggling for months, and sometimes years, failing to properly onboard their new ERP systems. But what exactly does this position entail, what attributes are required of the person filling it, and is the financial investment worth it? 

What’s in a name? Defining the role  

Depending on the scale of the project, we use several different titles to describe this position. A ‘super user’ is best suited to smaller projects or to SMEs below a certain size. ‘ERP manager’ is a helpful name but the term we like to use the most is ‘change manager’. That’s because it immediately signals that an ERP upgrade isn’t just an IT project; it’s a fundamental business transformation.  

The role is ultimately about getting the entire business to embrace a new direction, ensuring everyone understands why decisions are being made, and highlighting where processes will improve.  

There are essentially three ways a company can fill the role. They can:

1. Hand it to an experienced internal employee
2. Hire an expert or business analyst
3. Ask their technology partner to make a consultant available

We recently took this third approach with Emerald Airlines, successfully seconding a ProStrategy consultant to support its team throughout the project for six to nine months.

Finding the right person for this role is not as simple as picking the employee who knows the most about the company. An effective change manager requires a blend of logistical availability, technical aptitude, and interpersonal skills. 

Essential attributes #1: capacity and bandwidth 

The bare minimum requirement for this role is capacity. A common mistake we see businesses make is treating the ERP implementation like an add-on to an employee’s existing day job. We’ve seen it happen where a business nominates the Head of Finance to manage a massive ERP rollout, on top of their usual daily duties! Not surprisingly, that person lacks the vital mental bandwidth needed, and the project inevitably struggles. 

In our view, the change manager must either park their current role entirely or pass a significant portion of their daily duties onto others. Moving from a platform that’s been in place for a decade or more to a brand-new system means business processes are changing and becoming more efficient. This requires dedicated time for training, extensive user acceptance testing, and understanding how to operate the new environment. Without dedicated time, and without the 100% backing of the steering committee from the Managing Director down, the role will fail. 

Essential attributes #2: soft skills 

If your business relies on workers inputting the right data so the business can track performance over time, it’s vital that they’re trained on the new system and are aware that the process has changed compared to the old way. The challenge here is that everyday users can be apprehensive or fearful of new technology, so soft skills are a key part of the change manager’s toolkit. They need the ability to communicate effectively with everyone across the organisation, from the finance team analysing margins down to the people at the coalface of a business; on the shop floor or storeroom. No jargon, just plain English and some empathy thrown in for good measure.  

Talking about any kind of new system in abstract fashion is a tough ask that anyone would struggle with. It’s the change manager’s job to listen to their colleagues’ concerns and gently win them over to new ways of working. For many people, the best way to win them over is to show them. Seeing is believing.  

A recent project involving the Traditional Cheese Company is a good example: early in the project, it recruited a business analyst who was able to set up quick demos for his colleagues during the handover process. MD Julian Carr specifically mentioned the consultant as a key reason why the company was able to reap the benefits from the new ERP system.  

In another project, a warehouse operator didn’t want to adopt a new double-scanning process at the delivery door, believing it would take too long. The consultant engaged with the worker, explained the practical benefits, and asked him to test out the new way. Within three hours, the worker returned, amazed by the new system’s efficiency, describing it as “magic”. This is exactly the kind of frontline friction that a dedicated change manager helps to remove. 

The costs question  

There’s no point denying it: appointing a dedicated change manager comes with financial implications. Whether you hire a new change manager, backfill an existing employee’s position so they can step away from their daily duties, or pay for a seconded consultant, it represents a significant sum of money over a period that can last six to nine months. 

This is a tangible cost that businesses need to budget for upfront, rather than letting it become a painful surprise later, during critical stages of the project like user acceptance testing.  

This cost will obviously vary significantly for each business and situation. A smaller implementation lasting roughly 40 to 45 days might only require a part-time super user, but larger rollouts lasting 100 or 150 days make a dedicated change manager an absolute necessity. 

Another way to look at it is, think about the financial and operational cost of a failed ERP implementation. Too many businesses don’t realise this until it’s too late.  

Despite the upfront costs, the benefits of appointing an effective change manager vastly outweigh the extra investment. Installing a brand-new ERP system or upgrading from a current one is an opportunity for a business to modernise its processes and make its operations more efficient. And those benefits are more likely to stick if there’s a dedicated internal leader for that change. 

Ultimately, whatever title they go by, a super user, ERP manager or change manager is the ideal internal ally for a critical transformation project. They ensure that everyone in the company buys into the new way of working, avoiding the disastrous scenario where a business spends years trying to onboard software that its staff refuses to use. (And we have seen this happen, too.) 

The additional cost needed to recruit or appoint a ‘super user’ or ‘change manager’ pays for itself many times over. Businesses that budget for the role will find out it’s one of the smartest investments they can make.