Why You NEED an ERP Project Manager (Pros & Cons)
Do you really need an E R P project manager? In this video, I'm going to explain to you why you do and what are the pros and cons of not having a project manager on your E R P implementation project. Let's think about it this way. Can you cut your own hair? Yeah, you can, but do you? No. Could I take out my own appendix? Yes, I could, but should I? No. And I don't. It's something like that, right? A project manager is a position that is just that if he or she is responsible for managing the project, especially a project as large as an E R P implementation or a modernization or an upgrade, is you can't let that just fly on its own and know you, Mr. CFO or IT director. This isn't something you should be doing in addition to your day jobs, right?
You have a very important job. You're responsible for the city's or the county's finances. You're responsible for the IT infrastructure. You're responsible for three or 400 people in your organization. As an HR director, you do not have the bandwidth to do this on your own because an E R P implementation is really a full-time job, and in many cases it is a once in a career, once in a lifetime project that really you don't want it to go sideways. In order for it to be successful, you really need to have a project manager, whether it be a consulting team or someone on your staff who does nothing but manage the implementation of your financials, HR system, permitting systems. N E R P system implementation is not a piece of cake. And you need a project manager to full-time pay attention to all the intricacies of the project that can be thrown up at any time.
So what does a project manager do? The project manager is really responsible for a few key things. Everything. They are responsible to make sure that the project team is communicated with, that the vendor's not taking advantage of you. That any bills that are coming in, any invoices the software vendor sells or sends are invoices that you're supposed to pay for, that you've received the goods and services that you were promised. Project managers are critical in any E R P implementation because they are the ones that manage, or their teams manage all of the different moving parts that take place or that are involved in an E R P implementation. The project manager is responsible for communicating anything that comes from the software vendor needs to be vetted by the project manager. It needs to be part of the project plan. And project managers are the ones that disseminate this information.
Communications Plan
And this can happen through a communications plan. They might have a project management assistant. They could use the cities or county's communications and PR team to do internal communications. Whoever does it, the project manager is responsible for coming up with the communications and for disseminating it. They're responsible for managing everything, right? When you go out and pick a software, the vendor on their end will have a project manager on your side. You may have a project sponsor that is responsible for finding the money and making sure that they're getting council approval. That typically tends to be the city manager or the CFO or the finance director. The project manager then is responsible to take that initiative, take that direction, and make this project happen without a project manager. We've seen many projects fail. You know the saying, when everyone's in charge, no one's in charge.
You need one focal point to manage and take this project forward to success. And when there are failures, when there are road bumps, the project manager is responsible for anticipating them, keeping the risk register, making sure everyone is communicated with, and that the risk register is being carefully watched, and that when risks are taken care of, when they're mitigated, that it's all taken care of and communicated with all the stakeholders. The project manager is also responsible for vendor management. The project manager on your team is responsible to make sure the vendors are delivering per promises and contracts made and that they're not trying to pull a fast one on you. And we've seen that happen many times, especially when there is no project manager involved. Let's take for example, you choose an E R P system that is supposed to deliver to you a modern financial HR, payroll work order asset management inventory system.
Project Plan
The vendor, the software vendor side sends you a project manager who gives you a 200 line item work plan and says, we're going to do finance first, then we'll do hr, then we'll do payroll, then we'll do blah, blah, blah. And in all of this, when that project plan is thrown at you as the finance director, as the assistant finance director with your day jobs and your other responsibilities, how are you supposed to keep up with a 200 line item work plan? How do you even know that it's accurate? We had a client recently where they went out and selected a vendor, a software vendor. And when it came down to project planning, of course, one of the first things you do is send the software vendor your blackout updates. What dates are you not available? Are there budget restrictions? Are there audits that's that are going on?
Do you have any external constraints that will not allow you to participate in the implementation for these blackout dates? So they sent all of that to the vendor. What does the vendor do? The vendor's PM send them a project plan that had activities scheduled for the blackout updates. Now, that's a very simple, irritating example, but you can see how that can be taken to the next level and things can really fall apart if you're not paying attention to the project plan. Because the vendor will hold you accountable and responsible when they say, Hey, here's our plan. We anticipate that you will go live on July one of next year. Pay real good attention to that plan and make sure it works for you. And if you have a project manager on site on your team, that's their job, and that is a full-time job. So without a project manager, your team and your project can fail. So please don't do that. Please don't take that responsibility upon yourself. You really, really need a project management team or at least a project manager to walk you through and make sure that this project is going well. If you are embarking on an E R P project that is modernization or buying a new system and you need project management help, please reach out to us. Thank you.