Everyone talks about software. But the hardest part of any implementation is the people. I watched a 300-person company almost implode because the sales team and the finance team simply stopped talking to each other. They had two different “truths” about revenue. Enter ERP Consulting, but not in the way you’d expect.
The “War Room” That Fixed Everything
The ERP Consulting team didn’t start with a system demo. Instead, they set up a “war room”—a physical room with whiteboards, sticky notes, and a strict rule: leave your title at the door. The CFO had to sit next to the regional sales rep and explain why he couldn’t get his commission report for six weeks.
It was tense. But after two hours of arguing, they landed on the real issue: they defined a “sale” differently. Sales counted when they sent an invoice; Finance counted when the check cleared. That gap was costing the company two weeks of working capital every month.
- They created a single, shared definition for “booked revenue” that both teams could live with.
- They set up a weekly 15-minute “process check” meeting, not a status update.
- They gave the sales team a simple dashboard that showed real-time cash availability, not just orders.
Why This Worked Where Other Efforts Failed
The typical approach is to buy a system and hope it forces alignment. It rarely does. The ERP Consulting team focused on building trust first. They didn’t try to automate the conflict; they resolved it manually. That simple “war room” exercise cost them two days of time but saved months of implementation delays.
Within a quarter, the sales team started sending cleaner invoices. Finance started releasing payments faster. Their cash conversion cycle improved by 12 days. That’s real money, not a system feature.
Your Takeaway: Solve the People Problem First
Don’t assume a new system will fix broken relationships. It usually makes them worse. Use a workshop—like a war room—to get your teams to agree on one single definition of a key metric. Do that, and your ERP Consulting project will run smoother than you ever imagined.