It is extremely rare that any company has a 100% success rate on projects within their organization. A great many failures are due to a lack of proper management, or inexperienced management in a new area that the organization is expanding into. For companies that have no ERP, or an existing ERP and are interested in switching to Epicor ERP, it’s important that they have someone at the helm of the project that is experienced in Epicor project management.

Project Managers

Project managers are the leadership that employees go to for any project in a company. Project managers have several core functions, and they must be ready for all phases of the project management cycle in order to guarantee success. Project managers are specially trained in techniques that are effective at improving team productivity and to keep projects on time and within the assigned budget. A lot of organizations waste money every year on unrealistic timelines and budgets, or because of managers that were unable to prevent scope creep due to inexperience, or complacency. Company strategic goals must be met in everything a company does, and project managers are at the helm, steering the employees towards those goals.

Epicor Project Management

Epicor project management is just like any other project and experience is what is necessary to ensure a smooth transition for a company moving into a new ERP. While organizations can rely on their own project managers for the implementation of a system like Epicor, they may be better served by hiring an experienced Epicor project management company. Epicor is an easy-to-use system, but the implementation can be complex, and internal project managers would have to spend a large amount of time and resources training on the implementation process, when that money could be better spent on an experienced manager and management team.

What an Organization Gets from an Experienced Epicor Project Manager

Experienced Epicor project managers will have several smooth and successful Epicor ERP implementations under their belt and know the exact steps and care that must be taken to ensure nothing is forgotten or lost during the implementation of the new ERP.

Prepare:

When an Epicor project manager is brought up, they will start the first phase of Epicor project management, and that is the preparation phase. During the preparation phase, the project manager will ask many questions of the current company leadership so that they understand the company’s short- and long-term goals when it comes to choosing to implement Epicor ERP. The preparation phase is all about research, so when the next phase starts planning, the project manager has all the information needed to make informed decisions when it comes to timelines, resources, training needs, and budgets.

Plan:

With the knowledge from research in hand, the project manager will start to develop an organization-wide plan for the Epicor ERP system. The priority in this phase is to determine a timeline, including which systems are core functions of the organization that must be implemented first, and planning for the data migration that must take place.

Design:

In this phase of Epicor project management, the manager will determine the resources needed and where to place them, including employees necessary for smooth implementation and operation once deployed. Designs will include which modules will be necessary to include in the Epicor ERP implementation, and since there are many to choose from, not all will be necessary for every business.

Validate:

Before any new system or workflow is implemented in an organization it should be validated. Unvalidated projects will often fail because missed issues arise that could have easily been caught in the validation phase. Validation is one of the most important phases in terms of keeping a project on time, and on budget.

Deploy:

Deploying is the most stressful part of any project, but with an experienced Epicor project manager at the helm of the Epicor project management, everything will have been taken into consideration, and the resources and training will be in place for the deployment of a validated Epicor ERP project.

Epicor Project Management

Leadership is necessary in an organization, and for a large project such as the implementation of Epicor ERP, an experienced Epicor manager is crucial to the success of the project. Proper Epicor project management will lead to a project that is on time, and under budget.