Success & the Admin!
By Holly T. Kutil 01/19/19
Many titles are given to the role of ERP Administrator, such as the IT Manager, Business Analyst, System Manager or Admin, and in some companies CIO (Chief Information Officer) and of all of them past and present my favorite is NAV Admin. I was fortunate to work at a company that saw the importance and necessity of employing someone to keep a finger on the pulse of the company’s heart beat through their ERP, technology, and automation. Not all companies see the need for someone in that position or feel they have the luxury of allocating funds to this position full time. If you are in that situation my tip to your company is to talk with your ERP partner and allocate some time and funds to bringing in a virtual CIO through them once a quarter. We will talk more about this at the end of tour chat today.
Many times someone in the company, stands out as what we call a “Super User” in the world of ERP’s and ultimately become dubbed as the System Administrator (titles vary) either part time or full time, not a job you signed up for, went to school for, but one day you woke up and magically became the go to person at the company overseeing all things related to the ERP. We also see this trickle over into all things related to technology, automation, and the internet of things. Thank God for Google! Am I right?
Zig Ziglar said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.” and this rings true when you are appointed the role of ERP Administrator and have no idea what that means. To be a successful administrator it is vital to know our role(s), we need to know what it means to be an administrator, to manage and be the caretaker of an ERP. We all juggle many roles in life, for me wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, leader, follower, virtual CIO, employee, and customer servant (one I am enjoying immensely) to name a few. The awareness of the roles you lead will make you more effective in all that you set out to do by clearly defining actions, behaviors and expectations. When you have a keen focus and understanding of your role you are more productive and successful in the tasks at hand. Our next few chats are going to be dedicated to getting to know our role as the ERP administrator.
I equate the ERP to be much like the heart, the heart pumps and everything that goes on in the body happens when the heart is healthy and doing its job. In the same respect the company can work at epic levels if the ERP is health, functioning, and doing its job; you the administrator are charged with making sure that happens. As the administrator you will wear many hats, you will need to know what they are, their order of importance, and which ones to train someone else to wear the majority of the time.
Below are some of the hats you may be expected to wear as the ERP Admin:
- Trouble Shooter
- Support Desk
- Security Manager
- Maintenance Dept.
- Communications Director
- Trainer
- Conductor
- Analyst
- Gate Keeper
- Developer
- Consultant
- Project Manager
Every company is different and the hats you wear along with their importance will also differ from other companies. They tend to shift and change on a daily basis at your company depending on the current projects, the bottlenecks you are experiencing and opportunities that come up during the day. It is key to know the skills you are expected to have and will need in your daily workflows. This along with having the tools in place to focus on the tasks at hand and practices that reduce the noise and busyness around you will improve your abilities and value to your company.
As we usher in the New Year and begin to identify the events and goals for the upcoming year as a whole, it is essential that we know and understand the roles we are expected to play. Taking time to continuously improve the skill sets we need to accomplish our roles will be key to an exceptional 2019.
If you would like to talk about coaching/training in the role of a Business Central (NAV) Admin, or are interested in the assistance of a Virtual CIO in the New Year, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or one of our customer engagement specialists at Innovia Consulting.
Hats off to Success & the Admin in 2019!
I hope you are enjoying the blog and continue our journey together in 2019.
