ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning and a functional ERP consultant has many responsibilities. The consultant must meet the client’s requirements when implementing the modules. The functional ERP consultant should be able to improve the business process instead of customizing the ERP system to the existing business process. A functional ERP consultant is required to understand the business environment and process. You should be able to study the existing business process and design current business flow charts. The consultant should use the predefined templates to categorize and document everything. You will need to produce a document AS IS and a document TO BE. The TO BE document is the result of the mapping and gap analysis that must be carried out for each module. ERDs and DFDs must be performed prior to starting future business setup in SAP. The tests should be performed as system integration tests, unit tests, user acceptance tests, performance tests, etc.

Aside from all these responsibilities, an ERP financial consultant is required to document the setup made by him or her. The consultant must also prepare a user training manual and provide end-user training. A project status update should be provided to the project leader or manager.

The ERP financial consultant will interact with end users, other consultants, implementation team members, project manager, core team members, and technical consultant. You must possess good communication skills to be able to communicate and interact with all of them. There must be good writing skills to be able to generate reports, documents and emails. Compelling capabilities are a must, as the consultant is required to explain and convince the client. The ERP consultant must quickly understand the customer’s requirements and be able to provide a solution to the problems in the business process. You will need to be familiar with the latest business intelligence tools. The consultant must ensure that the system works as required by the client and also follows the standards and restrictions.

The functional ERP consultant must know the business models such as Customer Relationship Management, Production, Manufacturing, Human Resource Management, Supply Management, Finance, Product Life Cycle Management, Inventory, Purchasing, etc. This job requires the consultant to design the business process and establish the rules, regulations, and standards. High communication skills are needed to interact with the people involved. You need to help the technical team to design the test cases for functional analysis and provide user training on the functionalities of the system. A functional ERP consultant should be used properly to save time and money by implementing a hassle-free system. The consultant’s knowledge should be used to its fullest and the knowledge should be transferred to the staff in an appropriate manner. The staff must become familiar and self-sufficient with the help of the consultant. An important role of the functional ERP consultant is to act as an advisor.