The key user plays an active and important role in the implementation of an ERP system, something which can be very enjoyable. Being motivated and enthusiastic are important characteristics of a key user, but still it will remain a difficult task. For many employees, the role of key user will be a new experience, as they will be implementing an ERP system at most only a few times during their active careers. Therefore a couple of tips in this blog of which you can take advantage.
1. Take your responsibility
During the implementation you will be talking a lot with the software consultants. They have a decent knowledge of the industry in which your organization operates, they know the software extremely well and they have extensive experience with implementing the software at similar organizations. Yet you should not blindly rely on what they tell you. You and your department will ultimately be working with the software and thus you are responsible for the process. Check and test carefully what the consultant teaches you.
2. Create work instructions
As a key user you determine, during the implementation of an ERP system, how your processes are supported. It is of crucial importance to document this carefully, even if your ideas are just broad concepts. If you don’t do this, you run the risk of forgetting all of it. While the work instructions provide guidance for you and the colleagues on your department.
3. Evaluate your current process with criticism
As a key user you should constantly wonder what the reasons are behind a certain step in a process. Why do you print this document? Why do you register this information? The software consultant helps you by also asking these questions constantly. By all means, ‘This is how we always do it’, is a wrong answer. Often your processes have indeed arised from the (im)possibilities of your current software solution and the way you preferred to work years ago. But you should let go of all that and think about tomorrow’s work methods.
4. Make sure you improve things
Perhaps the most important tip: look for ways to improve! That might be tricky, cause you are not used to do so. But the implementation of a new ERP system is the perfect opportunity to optimize your business processes. If no one had ever thought about making improvements, we would still live in a cave and hunt on animals with our spears in order to have some warm food on the table. By the way, that table was also invented because we were looking for improvements ...
Peter Gerhardt is Senior Lead Consultant Logistics at Dysel and helps customers achieve maximum results with business software.
