ERP Leadership: How Leaders Guide ERP Transformation
Key Takeaways
- ERP leadership needs to adapt as a programme moves from initial decision-making through procurement, design, testing and go-live.
- Assessing digital readiness early can expose risks around data, processes, technology, people and governance before they affect implementation.
- ERP should be viewed as part of a wider digital transformation, not simply a system replacement.
- Strong ERP foundations can create better quality, more connected data for automation, analytics and AI.
- Successful transformation depends as much on leadership, adoption and new ways of working as it does on technology.
How Leaders Guide ERP Transformation
Putting in new digital systems is hard; putting in a new ERP is even harder. Understanding the stages of ERP implementation and how leadership needs to evolve through each one can make a significant difference to whether the transformation delivers lasting value.
ERP systems are one of the vital organs of an efficient and effective business. They connect processes, data and teams across an organisation, so ripping out an existing system and replacing it can understandably feel daunting. That is why ERP leadership is critical.
Strong ERP leadership throughout the lifecycle of an ERP implementation is critical to ensure people working on the programme remain committed and focused. But the style of leaders needs to adapt and evolve in tune with the lifecycle of the implementation. Leaders need to be aware of what their people are likely to face, and when, so they can stay ahead of it.
Leadership through the stages of ERP implementation
Let’s take a look at the stages of ERP implementation, which is not a single event but a structured journey with distinct phases, each bringing its own challenges, decisions and opportunities. Leadership at each stage directly impacts engagement, adoption and the value realised from the investment.
1. Deciding you are going to change your ERP
This period is likely to see a lot of reflection from your people in terms of their pain points and frustrations in their current roles. For some, this will be exciting; for others, the status quo is a safe place. Recognising both is important.
Knowing you will have different people in different places is important, and starting to build a vision of the future, and what the benefits of new ways of working are, is helpful in motivating people.
Assess your digital readiness before choosing the technology
Digital transformation success starts with readiness, not simply with the technology itself.
Before making significant decisions about ERP platforms, organisations need to understand whether their processes, data, technology, people, leadership and governance are ready to support the change.
Nine Feet Tall’s Digital Readiness Assessment provides a practical way to understand your current position, expose risks and identify the priorities that could unlock greater value from digital, data and AI.
A readiness assessment can uncover issues such as:
- Inconsistent or poorly defined business processes
- Data quality or ownership concerns
- Legacy technology constraints
- Gaps in digital skills and confidence
- Limited capacity to deliver transformation alongside business as usual
- Misalignment between leadership teams
- Barriers to adoption and behavioural change
Finding these problems now is much better than discovering them during design, testing or go-live.
It also gives leaders a clearer view of the organisation they are actually transforming, rather than the organisation they assume they have.
ERP Leadership – top tip
Adopting a visionary style of leadership is important here. Creating a compelling vision of the future will help guide your people and inspire them to work towards it as they focus on what opportunities a new way of working could create.
My reflection is that involving people in the development of a vision also goes a long way in terms of people feeling like they have some control over where the organisation will go. This will be important later down the line. Things could get tough, so when people have been involved in setting a direction, it’s much easier for them to be resilient when it’s needed.
2. Procuring your ERP solution
This is an exciting time for your people. They start to see what options are out there and what new ways of working could be. People should be given the freedom to operate within a framework. What I mean by this is there’s no point showing someone what a £5m product can do if there’s not the budget for it.
If you’re employing consultants, they will be doing most of the heavy lifting. Your people will get to see a taster of potential solutions and start to think about what this might mean for them.
Connecting ERP decisions to digital readiness and AI capability
The decisions made here should also connect back to your digital readiness findings.
If data maturity is a challenge, for example, selecting a platform with advanced AI capabilities will not magically solve it. AI depends on reliable data, sensible governance and clearly defined business problems. Buying more sophisticated technology before those foundations are in place can simply create a more sophisticated problem.
ERP Leadership – top tip
Taking a participative approach to leadership can be really powerful at this stage. Involving people in decision-making will naturally give them a stronger feeling of ownership in future stages of development.
Procurement approaches also naturally lend themselves to this way of working, where lots of different parts of the business can input and score solutions and how well it would work for them.
3. Designing your solution
Again, this is an exciting time, your staff get to shape the solution that has been procured. Some of the foundations previously laid here will be tested though, and coming back to vision and what you want to achieve is paramount.
While discovery sessions can be exciting for staff, it’s also the first time they really get into the detail of how a new solution will work end to end.
Design for the business you want to become
As most solutions now are evergreen, the more customisation an organisation creates, the larger the technical debt it will create longer term. Reinforcing the guard rails necessary to deliver the benefits you considered at the start is crucial.
ERP design should also consider the wider digital transformation roadmap. If your organisation wants to make greater use of automation, predictive analytics or AI, think about the foundations those capabilities will need now. That includes data quality, process consistency, integration, security, governance and clear accountability.
Don’t treat AI as something that can simply be plugged into the ERP later. AI can potentially help organisations automate repetitive activity, identify patterns, improve forecasting and accelerate decision-making. But its value depends heavily on the quality and structure of the information underneath it.
That means good ERP design and good AI readiness are increasingly connected. Nine Feet Tall’s wider Data & AI capability combines technical expertise across areas such as data engineering, analytics, architecture, data science and governance with transformation and project delivery expertise.
ERP Leadership – top tip
What style you develop here will depend on what your organisation’s culture truly is. If you’ve been able to lay the foundations effectively to this point, you will be able to continue to be participative or visionary in your style. But you’ll need to police yourself.
My reflection is that there is no point investing heavily in technology if you’re just going to recreate what you do now, but with a white elephant.
If people have wholly bought into the vision, they will be with you in terms of new ways of working, but some may want to revert. You may need to be more directive here to ensure what is designed meets the critical success factors you designed at the start, which more often than not will focus on automation, autonomy and ownership.
4. Testing your ERP solution
Now it starts to get harder. Your team will be under pressure to test, and probably be responsible for doing things they’ve not done before.
They might also be tired. It can take a long time from deciding you want to change your technology to get to this point. Importantly, at the same time, the pace will pick up, and lots of people will be asking them for things as you also prepare and shape training.
Vision remains important, but so does doing lots of engagement to remind people of the benefits. Checking in on how they are feeling, and thinking about what incentivises your staff (both personally and as a group) will help too.
Test the transformation, not just the technology
Testing shouldn’t only prove that the system technically works.
You also need confidence that the processes work, the data is reliable, users understand their roles and appropriate controls are in place.
If AI-enabled functionality, intelligent automation or predictive features form part of your roadmap, leaders should also think about how outputs will be governed and used in practice.
Who is accountable for decisions? Where does human judgement remain essential? Are users confident enough to challenge an AI-generated recommendation rather than accepting it automatically?
Those are change and leadership questions as much as technical ones.
For more on that relationship, see why AI investment needs change management from day one.
ERP Leadership – top tips:
- It might feel counterintuitive, but you may need to adopt a more pace-setting style here. The period for testing doesn’t have to be too long, but it’s important that high standards are set and that quality outcomes are delivered.
- Pace-setting is important here, but also perhaps think about who tests your solution. Yes, those involved in the project from the start will naturally want to be involved, but bringing in others from the business here will help reset motivation for everyone.
5. Getting ready for ERP go-live
People will probably be tired by now, but they will need to keep going. Let’s be honest: some people might have found it too much or decided the new ways of working are not for them. Obviously, this isn’t ideal, but recognising that people might leave is important. Otherwise you won’t be prepared for when it happens. And it often happens at the most critical of times.
Again, coming back to why is really important, but so is context. Reminding people that going live is just the start is key. It’s like learning to drive… you only really learn what to do once you’ve passed your test and you’re in the car by yourself.
Reassess readiness before go-live
Digital readiness shouldn’t be something you measure once and then forget about. Before go-live, leaders should revisit whether the organisation is genuinely prepared for the transition.
Ask:
- Are people trained and confident?
- Are business processes understood?
- Is data sufficiently accurate and complete?
- Are leaders aligned?
- Are support arrangements ready?
- Can teams operate the new solution without relying excessively on the programme team?
- Are new digital, automation or AI-enabled ways of working understood and governed appropriately?
Technical readiness and business readiness aren’t the same thing. A system can be ready to launch while the organisation isn’t ready to use it effectively.
Leadership – top tip
You might need to be more directive at this point, even if it’s only for a short time. Some people will be really excited, but others will be nervous. Getting the programme over the line so that people can start using the new solution in business as usual is imperative. It’s the only way performance can get to where you’ll want it to be.
6. Leadership after ERP go-live
Going live isn’t the end of ERP transformation. It’s the beginning of embedding new ways of working, improving processes and turning the investment into measurable business value. Leaders need to monitor adoption, reinforce expected behaviours and listen to the people using the platform every day.
This is also where some of the longer-term digital opportunities can begin to open up. With better integrated processes and more reliable data, organisations may be in a stronger position to explore automation, advanced analytics and AI use cases.
But don’t rush to introduce AI simply because the technology makes it possible. Start with clear business outcomes. Make sure the data can support the use case. Put appropriate governance around it. Most importantly, prepare people for how their roles, decisions and ways of working might change.
Digital transformation doesn’t finish when new technology arrives. It succeeds when the organisation learns how to use that technology to work differently and deliver better outcomes.
Why I wrote this for leaders in ERP
I wanted to show leaders that complex transformations demand different styles of leadership at different points. At times you’ll need to be visionary. At others you’ll need to be participative. There will also be moments when being directive or pace-setting is exactly what’s required.
The same is true when ERP forms part of a broader digital transformation. Technology, data and AI can create significant opportunities, but they don’t remove the need for strong leadership. If anything, the pace and complexity of digital change make leadership, organisational readiness and adoption even more important.
At Nine Feet Tall, we deliver complex change and understand the pressures transformation puts on an organisation. Our focus is not simply on getting technology live, but on connecting people, process, data and technology so change delivers sustainable value.
Ready to lead your ERP transformation?
Successful ERP transformation requires more than selecting the right software. It requires clear leadership, digital readiness, strong data foundations, effective change management and a realistic understanding of how people will respond throughout the stages of ERP implementation.
Nine Feet Tall can help you assess where you are today, strengthen your readiness for digital transformation and guide your ERP programme from early planning through to adoption and long-term value. If you’re considering an ERP transformation, get in touch to discuss how we can help.
