The Role Of An ERP Architect

It can be complicated for a business just adding an ERP to their toolbox to understand the collection of titles along the various ERP career paths. It’s not uncommon for our consultants to be asked by new clients “Do we need an ERP architect?”

There’s no one answer – it truly does depend on your specific circumstances.

By looking at the role filled by an ERP architect, we can hopefully give you better clarity even before you speak to us.

What Does an ERP Architect Do?

It’s not uncommon for ERP architects to be (or have been) developers beforehand, and the two roles have a lot in common. Architects tend to only work on larger, multi-person projects where they may take on more of the overall responsibility for planning and implementation than most developers.

The ERP Solution Architect is responsible for designing and implementing efficient software solutions to meet the specific needs of a business's enterprise resource planning system.

(You’ll also see developers handle planning and the like, but usually when they’re the only specialist on the project – so with much smaller scopes.)

Architects will usually have a background as programmers or software engineers. Their training and experience enable them to see the bigger picture for the implementation as a whole.

Architects must understand not just the ERP they’re working with but also every third party system with which it’s integrated. They might be working one day on streamlining process, then on the next looking at rolling out an update to best practice.

They have to be able to talk to the technical specialists on the ERP team and to the company stakeholders, who often will have little to know understanding of technical jargon.

An ERP architect might take over from a project manager once implementation is complete, or the same person might shift roles from a contract to permanent position. They will take ownership of the ERP installation, and look for opportunities to improve the performance of the system and the company.

Whether you need an ERP architect or not is determined by the complexity of your installation and the scope of your project needs. If not, you may be able to get away with a consultant or a single experienced developer.

To be absolutely sure of your conclusions, and to get the ball rolling on hiring someone for the roles you do need, contact us today.