ERP Jobs and Opportunities

According to Wikipedia “An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is an integrated computer-based application used to manage internal and external resources, including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. Built on a centralized database and normally utilizing a common computing platform, ERP systems consolidate all business operations into a uniform and enterprise-wide system environment. An ERP system can either reside on a centralized server or be distributed across modular hardware and software units that provide "services" and communicate on a local area network. The distributed design allows a business to assemble modules from different vendors without the need for the placement of multiple copies of complex and expensive computer systems in areas which will not use their full capacity.”

ERP has become a wonder tool in terms of number of quality jobs it has generated in the past few years. ERP has shown tremendous growth opportunities in the recent past and still is growing at an unmatched pace and it is anticipated that in the years to come, this growth will continue. Because of this growth, ERP professionals are in great demand at all levels. They are required globally for helping organizations to achieve their business goals, devising solutions and thereby meeting the organizational requirements. There are various roles available in the ERP Field but broadly they can be classified as Technical, Functional & Technofunctional. There are several challenging ERP jobs that have evolved in the business world, namely:

ERP Functional Consultants

Functional Consultants are the experts having understanding of the business processes and data flow on one hand and has the capability to fit these business requirements in the vendor ERP product, analyzing gaps, if any. In any ERP Implementation (generally valid for most of the software product development organizations), there are two parties involved, one are the business users/experts who give the requirements/wish lists and understand how the business processes are conducted at present and how they want the future system to be. Then there are technical experts who are expert in various technologies and they can write code to meet those requirements. Functional Consultants take these requirements from business users and translate them to technical people so that they can understand in technical terms the business requirements. For example in case of any financial management software, functional experts having domain knowledge of Finance will give inputs on how the software should work.

Functional Consultants are generally domain specific like Finance, HR, Manufacturing, and Procure to Pay etc. They have educational background and experience in the relevant business process area, for example you will find a Chartered Accountant working as a General Ledger Domain Expert. They acquire ERP Product knowledge by undergoing a short training on ERP Module they are working in. A good Functional Consultant will have in-depth understanding of the business processes, product features and ability to propose a solution for the business requirements.

A functional ERP Consultant is expected to benefit business by suggesting improvements in the proposed solutions to match the business requirements. He is responsible for integrating processes, activities, and managing internal and external client relationships.  Functional Consultant should possess the minimum educational qualifications as prescribed by the respective company along-with strong domain expertise in the area of Client. He must have an analytical bent of mind, strong communication and presentation skills. He must have an in-depth knowledge of the way business processes can be configured in the underlying ERP Package and able to do mapping and gap analysis. Now days the projects are run under aggressive timelines and have the ability to make sound decisions under strict deadlines.

ERP Technical Consultant:

Technical Consultants are the experts having knowledge of the code, coding standards and implementation life cycle. Technical Consultants need not be any domain specific like Finance, HR, Manufacturing, and Procure to Pay etc. Their main role is to do customizations, extensions, modifications, localizations or integrations to the existing product and develop reports. They have educational background and experience in computer science as IT Experts, Engineers or Software Developers. People with software development / technology knowledge are considered as Technical Experts.

Their main responsibility is to design the software based on the inputs given by functional/business experts. They are also termed at system analysts and are responsible for maintenance, support and administration of ERP applications in the organization. His role is to ensure that the ERP is designed to meet the business goals and all the development standards are being followed to ensure sustainable business solutions through the use of ERP. They are responsible for the integration of application and technical components with the legacy applications that are used in the organization. They are also responsible for the framework of designs relating to platforms, networks and servers. Expectation is that they must have a thorough knowledge of coding, designing and testing of program modules with strong analytical bent of mind, strong communication and presentation skills.

ERP Developer or Coder

The role of an ERP developer is to help customizing the ERP Package to solution business requirements that cannot be catered by out of box ERP functionalities. He should follow strict documented guidelines issued by the ERP Vendor and the Client to ensure consistency and re-usability of code being developed. He should also suggest improvements in the present plans, policies and procedures of the organization. Developers must possess strong coding and development skills in the underlying ERP Technology and must have organizational qualities such as team leadership, team training and case resolution along with in-depth knowledge of related system configuration, processes and sub-processes. He must have the ability to make sound decisions under strict deadlines besides having the required educational qualifications.