ERA system — implementation team
“Get the right people on the bus and in the right seat” — James C. Collins
You’ve Discovered where your opportunities within your sales process are, you’ve gained value from data through Insights and now you want to harvest that value from data on a regular basis. You know you need an Effective Reporting System but how to implement it?
We have already covered a number of tips. Most importantly — keep it Agile. Don’t fall into a trap of a major two to three years project — the chances of success won’t go up and while you’ll be able to forget about the project for the time being you might as well forget about it completely as your company will have moved by then.
To get on the right track you will need to create a Data Dictionary to know which data matters, focus on getting your users on your side and together clean up the data.
What else do you need to know?
- Who will implement it, and
- How to bring all the data together
Let’s focus on the implementation team today
I believe in minimalist approach. The less people are involved the clearer the accountability, the shorter the discussions and the faster the progress.
Here is a recipe for an ERA project. You will need:
- 1x Executive Sponsor
- 1x Data Analyst (who should also be the project manager)
- 1x IT Expert
- 2x Business Champion (one from marketing, one from sales)
An executive’s support is crucial. There is always a myriad of projects taking place at the same time and without proper prioritisation which is always driven from the top a project has a very little chance to survive.
If you don’t have an Executive Sponsor yet, postpone the project and focus instead on pitching the idea to get a sponsor on board. Going back to the Insight stage might help you generate the fodder you need for the business case.
Every project needs a project leader, in case of an ERA projects I suggest it’s the data analyst — they understand data and business, they know what they need from data perspective in order to deliver the promised outcomes and they are neutral and independent of both Marketing and Sales who might be a bit biased at times. If you don’t have an analyst who is also a great project manager (PM), throw a PM in the mix.
Having an IT person on board is clearly a must. Certain tools enable analysts to do a lot with data on their own but with a strategic system like this you want to go for a solution with strong infrastructure.
When choosing your IT expert for the project focus primarily on their attitude. You want someone who likes to work in an agile way and who is efficient at that so the project moves ahead swiftly.
Many data projects are being done without direct or intensive involvement from the business users. I’ve tried that and it didn’t work — it’s risky — you can too easily end up building something that turns out not being useful for the business.
By involving business users from the beginning, you make them more vested in the project. Therefore when the time comes to launch the solution to the wider audience the biggest issues will have been discussed and resolved and you will have valuable supporters inside the community. This heavily increases the chances of end users embracing it.
When selecting the business champions go for those who will be the actual consumers of the reports and analyses. Don’t go for their managers as it sometimes happens, the managers often have a very different perspective and experience.
Also pick natural leaders in their departments — people who are being respected by their peers. A clever move is to pick the most vocal and opinionated person — that’s often a sign they care — it’s better to have them on your side and it will give you a chance to understand each other and find great win-win solutions. But if they are being difficult and just want to argue, forget them.
Thoughts and tips on bringing all your data together coming up next.
