There are many varied career paths in the world of ERP. Many begin as Finance or HR professionals and are introduced to the world of ERPs as subject matter experts during an ERP implementation. Others come from a project management or business change background. Some begin in the technology space, while a few are brought in directly to the ERP industry through an apprenticeship-type programme.

The ERP Academy helps you get recognition for the experience and learning you have gained.

Here are some of the more common career paths and associated courses.

Product Owner Career Path

The product owner career path is firmly rooted in the business side, with Finance, HR or Supply Chain expertise often being central to the skill set.

Subject Matter Expert

A subject matter expert, often abbreviated to SME, is a key role in any ERP implementation, providing functional expertise to represent the needs of the HR, Finance or Procurement teams to the consultants configuring the new system.

Product Owner

The product owner is responsible for ensuring that the system is meeting the needs of the organisation. They decide on upgrades and requests for enhancements. Depending on the size and complexity of the organisation, there may be a product owner for each module of the ERP and another one with overall responsibility for the whole system.

Senior Responsible Owner

The Senior Responsible Owner or SRO is the most senior executive in the ERP programme. They are not usually involved in day-to-day delivery of the programme, but operate at a more strategic level ensuring that other senior leaders in the organisation are aligned to and supporting the ERP programme.

Functional Lead Career Path

The term Functional Lead is used to describe the role of someone who configures the ERP to meet business needs. It requires someone with a blend of functional knowledge (Finance, HR, etc.) with technical knowledge of how to configure the ERP.

Junior Functional Lead

As expected, a Junior Functional Lead will be someone new to the work and will probably be working under the supervision of a Functional Lead or Senior Functional Lead. The technical skills needed to understand how the ERP works are best learnt from the ERP provider or a suitable specialist training provider.

Functional Lead

A Functional Lead is able to configure an ERP in their area of expertise, such as HR, Finance, etc. They can operate without supervision and are able to advise business users on their options. Again, the ERP-specific skills are best gained from the ERP provider or a suitable specialist training provider.

Senior Functional Lead

A Senior Functional Lead is able to provide more strategic advice to the organisation. They also have business analysis skills and can facilitate design workshops.

Programme Manager Career Path

Project and programme management is a mature profession with several qualifications available. The roles described below supplement this foundation with ERP-specific expertise.

ERP PMO Support

ERPs tend to have a wider stakeholder group than most programmes as they touch on every part of the organisation. This may require the PMO team to track more dependencies. This role should have at least a foundation knowledge of project management.

ERP Project Manager

Implementing an ERP in a smaller organisation, or upgrading an existing ERP, may be delivered by a Project Manager. This role will benefit from a practitioner-level qualification in project management, or equivalent. The ERP Implementation for Programme Managers will cover all the ERP-specific knowledge to enable them to lead the client-side project team in an ERP implementation.

ERP Programme Manager

ERP implementations are typically considered programmes because they include a significant about of business change. They are often called transformation programmes. In the jargon, projects will deliver a capability (a new system) while programmes will include the new policies, processes, operating models and associated business change. Each of these elements could be managed as a project within the overall programme. The ERP Implementation for Programme Managers is perfect for experienced programme managers who are new to ERP transformation programmes.

ERP Programme Director

Very large organisations may appoint a Programme Director. They have the authority and experience to work with senior leaders across the organisation. They may benefit from the ERP Senior Responsible Owner course in addition to ERP Implementation for Programme Managers.

ERP Change Manager Career Path

Implementing a new ERP is a challenging technical problem, but supporting an organisation through the transition to enable them to thrive with the new system and processes is much harder, and much more important. Unfortunately, business change is too often seen as an afterthought and insufficiently resourced. The following roles can help ensure the programme outcomes are achieved.

ERP Champion

ERP Champions work at a local level to support their colleagues and teams through the transition to the new system and are vital in the weeks and months after go-live, ensuring that people are supported through the change and gain the skills and confidence to use the new system effectively. They may find the ERP Implementation for Managers training course a useful foundation.

ERP Communications Lead

Keeping stakeholders properly informed and engaged through the programme from first inception to after go-live takes a significant and prolonged effort. It’s vital to understand the culture of the organisation and how stakeholders prefer to receive communications, using language that they understand. It’s too important to be left to technologists who may lack the necessary capability and capacity to do effectively.

ERP Change Manager

Effective change management begins before the contract begins and continues long after the system goes live. It goes beyond simply providing online training courses and guides to using the new system. It’s important to follow up to track adoption and sentiment, and to address issues and blockers. The business case for the ERP is often based in part on people adopting new, more efficient processes. If this doesn’t happen, the looked-for benefits will not be achieved.

ERP Transformation Manager

Implementing a new ERP gives an organisation a better tool to manage itself. It can make the finance and HR departments more efficient. Those efficiencies can release capacity. What happens next is critical. Most business cases assume that this will lead to reductions in headcount that will deliver the return on investment that justifies the implementation costs. Very often however, these teams use the released capacity to allow them to complete work that they couldn’t resource before. ERP Transformation Managers need to be able to challenge this: it may be the right decision for the organisation, but it should be by concious choice, not by stealth.

ERP Support Career Path

Properly supporting an ERP requires a professional approach. This starts by defining roles and the skills required for each.

ERP Support Assistant

A more junior but important role. Support Assistants are often the first point of contact for staff, and they need to combine excellent customer management skills with attention to detail and the perseverance to see a job through. Knowledge of the ERP is essential, as is a good understanding of the business. Support Assistants often specialise in certain ERP modules.

ERP Support Engineer

A Support Engineer will almost certainly specialise in a specific area of the ERP. They will need a degree of knowledge of how to configure an ERP, similar to a Functional Lead. There is an element of cross-over between these two roles.

ERP Support Manager

A Support Manager is responsible for ensuring that the ERP support service is meeting its Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Support teams can often be asked to implement changes, such as configuring and switching on new functionality released by the ERP vendor, and it’s the Support Manager’s job to ensure that the team have the skills to do this. They work very closely with the Product Owners, but have a different set of responsibilities that is covered by the ERP Support Manager training course.