Who should be involved in the selection committee for Mid-Market ERP implementations?

Ryan,

While I agree with Matt, above, I would not disqualify the team members he mentions as "junior people". I've found that many times in an organization the people who have the deepest grasp of the real business processes are those who have been in their "Contributor" position for many years.

My recommendation for Selection Team Members is to identify the business areas that will be most impacted by the new system and select individual contributors with the deepest experience. Often the additional responsibility of participating on the Selection Team will be disruptive to the business process when these key resources are removed from the activity chain. In those instances, you should identify the person who fits as much of the following criteria as possible: a) Not technology adverse, b) Has been through similar events with other employers or similar projects in your organization (example: Lean, ISO, Agile, CRM, Etc), c) Process-oriented d) Someone with the personality to know their limitations and reach out successfully to the resources with deeper knowledge of specific areas.

Ryan,

The selection committee needs to be comprised of employees representing all the impacted functions in the company. The members need to be of a high enough level to understand both the tactical and strategic objectives that are targeted by the Executive Staff and for each function.

Each functional member of the team must be responsible to fully understand the requirements for that function, including lower level employees. In addition, a critical element for a successful selection is that each selection team member needs to communicate effectively and be the champion for their function. The communication requirement is bi-directional; from functional employees input to selection committee and selection committee decisions and status to functional employees. A highly respected employee needs to be one criterion for selection team membership so that they will be listened to and heard by the committee and in addition will have the confidence of the functional employees.

Finally, at least one member of the team should be from the Executive Staff to ensure this project stays focused and on task. An alternative approach is to have the selection committee present to the Executive Staff, on a regular basis, such that status, issues, obstacles and guidance can be discussed and resolved in a timely manner.

Ryan,

The selection committee for such a task won't (or shouldn't) look much different for a mid-market ERP implementation than for any other size enterprise. Most importantly, you need to think horizontally and vertically when considering members. This means having participants from functional groups whose current processes feed into the big picture, as well as different layers (staff, management, executive management) within those groups. Due to the nature of the task, it is likely that the group will have more managers than staff members, but don't exclude the input of trusted, knowledgeable staff who work directly with the process each day.

Do not assemble a committee until or unless clear objectives have been determined and communicated. And don't confuse the catalyst for change with the objectives to be realized from the change. For example, older legacy systems are often tossed because it's too hard or too expensive to source the hardware required to run them - this is a catalyst for change, but in no way should be reflected in the project goals and objectives.

Also don't assume that employees with the longest tenure will always be the best members of a selection committee. It's good to consider including at least one member who might have some broader, outside experiences that can help pave a new path for the group.

Be mindful of the size of the selection committee. Somewhere between 5 and 8 members is optimal. This doesn't mean that they shouldn't get lots of feedback from others - they absolutely should, but for the final analysis, you want a manageable number of highly-engaged participants.

Once selected, it can be a great exercise to get the team together and go through a mini-selection in order to demonstrate ground rules and establish your own guidelines. This can be a good time to engage a consultant, one who can assist with brainstorming fundamentals, process maps, effective communication, etc. These are all skills that will serve the committee well as they go through the selection phase.

Depending on the size of the operation, an individual or a steering committee (with five to seven stakeholders) should be named Project Leader and put in charge of the needs assessment and selection process. The project leader may be actively engaged in procuring departmental input and making selections, or simply oversee the process, and delegate work to others.

Independent consultants can save time and provide valuable expertise, depending on the operation’s size, system requirements and internal capabilities. For complex initiatives that are broad in scope, consultants often get involved early on and oversee the needs assessment. In other cases, the needs assessment is conducted internally and product selections are narrowed before a consultant is hired. Then again, many businesses successfully manage the entire assessment and selection process on their own.

Key managers within each department should be brought into the planning process to optimize cooperation and buy-in. To identify problems and bottlenecks, solicit feedback from personnel at all levels who interact with the accounting system, input financial information, or generate reports based on financial data. Ask IT staff for advice on technology platforms best suited to the organization’s systems and skill sets. The more inclusive the process, the more cooperative stakeholders will be, making a successful implementation more likely.

For more tips, please visit my Brief on this topic http://www.focus.com/briefs/finance/upgrading-accounting-system-what-every-bu...

I think there have been some great responses to your question of who should be on the selection committee. You also asked how to determine what's important to evaluate.

I like to use a technique that I learned years ago.

Step 1: Have the team you selected above brainstorm to come up with a list of attributes that are important to them in an ERP system. These attributes can range anywhere from the price of the software to the capabilities of the implementation consultants to specific functionality.

Step 2: Label each attribute as a "Need" or "Want". A "Need" is an attribute that you cannot live without. If your ERP package does not meet even one of your Needs, it will be dropped from the selection. A "Want" is not absolutely necessary and may vary in importance depending on how the team feels.

Step 3: Assign an importance value to each "Want". The most important "Want" will have a value of 10, the least important will have a value of 1.

Step 4: Wherever possible, qualify a "Want" with a corresponding "Need". In example, you may have a "Want" of low price. The corresponding "Need" could be not to exceed a predetermined amount.

Step 5: Through research and demos, determine the most likely ERP candidates and put the name of each at the top of a column beside your Needs and weighted Wants.

Step 6: Evaluate each alternative against your list of Needs. If any one of the Needs fail, drop that alternative from your list of potential solutions.

Step 7: Evaluate the remaining alternatives against the Wants. Assign a "fit" value from 0 - 4 for each attribute for each alternative. 0 means it does not meet that requirement at all. 4 means it meets it perfectly.

Step 8: Multiply the weight from Step 3 by the fit from Step 7 for each Want.

Step 9: Sum the resulting column for each alternative. The one with the highest score should be the best fit.

Step 10: As this is not an exact science, go back through your results and identify where you may have given a score based on uncertain information. This is just to double-check your results and identify where you may have additional risk in your selection. This is especially important if the numeric results do not indicate a clear winner.

Now that you've made your selection, the real fun begins.