Implementing an ERP system is a major undertaking for any manufacturer. It affects nearly every part of the business, from engineering, purchasing and inventory to production, accounting and shipping. It also changes how people complete their daily work and how information moves between departments.
It’s like renovating a house while you’re still living in it. Your business needs to keep running while your team learns a new system, updates established processes and prepares for a different way of working.
That disruption can lead to significant improvements—but only if the implementation is planned and managed properly.
To explain what a successful ERP implementation really takes, we spoke with Christian Pouliot, Director of Professional Services at Genius ERP. Drawing on his years of experience, Christian shares what manufacturers should expect, how to prepare their teams and which mistakes to avoid along the way.
You’ll learn how to prepare for a successful ERP implementation, from setting clear goals and choosing the right system to building your internal team, preparing your processes and data, training users and measuring success after go-live. You’ll also get practical advice from Christian Pouliot on what to expect, which mistakes to avoid and how to keep the project on track.
Christian Pouliot is the Director of Professional Services at Genius ERP, where he oversees the teams responsible for implementation, continuous improvement projects and custom development.
Over his seven years with Genius, Christian has worked closely with manufacturers to understand their processes, train their teams and tailor Genius ERP to their needs. His department supports manufacturers during their initial ERP implementation and helps them continue to improve how they use the system over time.
“Our role is central to the success of an ERP project: our teams are on the ground with the client, training users, making sure they understand the company’s processes, and building the solution hand-in-hand with them.
“An ERP is a powerful tool that structures a company’s processes—but it’s people who determine whether a project succeeds or fails. If users don’t adopt the system, the project is at risk.
“That’s why we put people at the heart of the process. We work with users to ensure they understand their role in the system and how their actions affect their coworkers and the organization. Strong adoption is the key to long-term success.”
— Christian Pouliot, Director of Professional Services, Genius ERP
A successful ERP implementation starts with a clear purpose. Before selecting a system or signing a contract, your company needs to understand why it is making the change and what it expects to accomplish.
“A good project starts before the contract is even signed. The company needs to know why they want an ERP, what goals they’re aiming for, and what benefits they expect.
“It’s a complete transformation—and you need the right people, solid processes, and a clear strategy.”
— Christian Pouliot
Those goals might include improving scheduling, reducing excess inventory or getting more accurate job costs. You may need better coordination between engineering and production—or greater visibility across systems that currently make it difficult to understand what is happening throughout the business.
Defining these priorities early gives your team a foundation for making decisions throughout the implementation. Clear goals help establish the scope, guide trade-offs and provide a way to measure whether the project delivers the expected results.
They also help employees understand why the company is changing. People are more likely to support new processes when they recognize the problems being solved and see how the new system can improve their work.
The ERP you select can make the implementation easier or considerably more difficult.
A generic system may be able to support manufacturing, but it often requires extensive configuration or customization to handle processes such as bills of materials, routings, material planning, scheduling, shop floor tracking, engineering changes and job costing.
An ERP built for manufacturing already understands how these processes connect. That reduces the amount of work required to adapt the system and allows implementation teams to spend more time improving processes instead of building basic manufacturing functionality.
Fit matters, but so does the implementation partner. Look beyond the product demonstration and ask who will implement the system, what experience they have with manufacturing and what support will be available when the project becomes difficult.
Genius ERP develops, implements and supports its software using its own in-house teams. Our implementation specialists work directly with manufacturers and include professionals with experience in manufacturing, engineering, accounting and business processes.
Because both our system and our implementation approach are built around manufacturing, our team understands how information needs to move from estimating and engineering through production, inventory, shipping and accounting.
Our process is structured around clear stages, achievable milestones and close collaboration with the client. We won’t pretend that implementing an ERP is painless. It takes real work from both teams. But we will be transparent about what is required, stay involved when challenges arise and work with you to get the system live successfully.
Early in the project, your company will need to identify an internal ERP champion. This person serves as the main link between your business and the implementation provider, coordinates the project internally and helps keep the team engaged.
The ERP champion needs more than enthusiasm. This person must understand the company’s operations, have enough authority to make decisions and be available to give the project the attention it requires.
The right champion should also be a strong communicator. Employees need someone they can approach when they encounter problems or have concerns about the changes being introduced. Small issues are easier to address during implementation than after they have developed into larger operational problems.
The company president or owner may not be the best person for this role. Senior leadership needs to visibly support the project, provide resources and reinforce its importance, but the champion must be close enough to daily operations to understand how decisions will affect users.
“Early in the project, we also identify a project champion. This person plays a key role: coordinating the project internally, rallying the team, and serving as a direct link to us.
“An ERP project usually involves major change. If that change is driven only by upper management without involving staff, the project will likely fail. User involvement is essential for successful adoption.
“The champion plays a central role: They drive the change. They need to be able to rally their team, communicate the reasons behind the change, and highlight the benefits.
“We talk to the client about this role as early as the sales process. We help identify the right person—someone with time, authority, and strong knowledge of daily operations.”
— Christian Pouliot
Your ERP provider and internal champion will guide the implementation, but you cannot complete the project without significant involvement from your company.
The internal team should include people who understand your business’s real processes. Department heads and supervisors are important, but the team should not consist exclusively of senior management. Employees who quote jobs, purchase materials, create BOMs, schedule work, enter production information or manage inventory often understand the details and workarounds that are easy to miss from a management perspective.
These employees can help the implementation team understand how work is actually done—not just how it is supposed to be done. They can also test the system using realistic scenarios and help coworkers adjust to new processes.
“To really understand a company’s needs and realities, we need to meet with department heads—or power users—because they manage day-to-day operations.
“Our consultants also meet with supervisors and, often, front-line staff in each department to understand how they actually work. This helps us tailor the solution as closely as possible to real-world conditions.”
— Christian Pouliot
Every ERP provider has its own implementation process, but manufacturers should expect the project to include business analysis, process design, configuration, training, testing and preparation for go-live.
At Genius ERP, implementations follow a clear sequence designed to prepare the system, data and users before the company goes live.
“Our implementations follow a well-defined structure. After the sale, we organize a kickoff meeting with the client. We introduce the teams and review goals and expectations together.
“Next is the business analysis phase. Two consultants go onsite to analyze the client’s processes from A to Z, department by department. We look at procedures, roles, inputs—everything.
“Back at the office, we tailor Genius’s processes to match the client’s reality and create a coherent solution. We then develop a project plan and a requirements document, which we present to the client.
“Then comes the core of the implementation: training, configuration, and testing in a customized sandbox environment. This phase usually lasts four to six months, sometimes more, depending on the project’s scale.
“Finally, we run a full simulation in an acceptance environment using the client’s real data. Once everything is validated and users are ready, we go live.
“After go-live, our teams stay involved for four to eight weeks to ensure a smooth transition.”
— Christian Pouliot
ERP implementations require significant time and attention from people who already have full-time responsibilities. Manufacturers cannot stop production while the new system is being implemented, so project work has to happen alongside normal operations.
A realistic plan accounts for both demands. It defines which processes and modules are included, who is responsible for each area and how much time employees will need for meetings, decisions, data preparation, training and testing.
It also leaves room for the unexpected. Questions will come up. Data cleanup may take longer than anticipated. Testing may expose a process that needs to be revisited. Rushing these steps to preserve an arbitrary go-live date usually creates more work later.
The budget should reflect those demands as well, including implementation services, training, data preparation, internal staff time and room for unexpected work.
Depending on the size and scope of the project, a phased approach may make the implementation more manageable. The goal is not to get every possible feature running immediately. It is to establish a stable system that supports the company’s most important processes and can be expanded over time.
“The biggest challenge is the upheaval. It’s a major change—often the company’s biggest tech investment—and must be done without disrupting daily operations.
“Clients can’t put everything on hold for the project. So we schedule work sessions that fit their reality. They also need to absorb the knowledge, understand it, and make decisions. It’s a balancing act.
“Another challenge: unrealistic expectations. Some think ERP is like a mobile app. But it’s a complete digital transformation. It requires serious time and commitment.”
— Christian Pouliot
An ERP implementation is an opportunity to examine how work moves through your business. Some existing processes may still make sense, while others may have developed around the limitations of spreadsheets, disconnected software or an older ERP.
The goal should not be to reproduce every existing process in the new system. Before requesting a customization, ask whether it supports a genuine business requirement or merely preserves an old way of working. Necessary customizations should be clearly defined and documented, but unnecessary ones can add time, cost and complexity to the implementation.
Data preparation deserves the same level of attention. BOMs, routings, part numbers, inventory records, vendor lists and costing information are often incomplete, duplicated or out of date. Moving those problems into a new ERP will not solve them. It can lead to incorrect inventory, unreliable schedules, inaccurate costs and a loss of trust in the system.
Data cleanup should therefore be treated as a major implementation task. Decide what needs to be migrated, remove obsolete records, consolidate duplicates and validate critical manufacturing data well before go-live.
Training should teach employees more than where to click. Users need to understand the complete process, what information they are responsible for and how the quality and timing of their work affect other departments.
“We don’t just focus on features or screens. What really matters are the processes.
“Take quoting, for example: A quote becomes a sales order, then a production job, then a project. If users understand their role in this chain, everything runs more smoothly.
“Every action in the system—like clicking a button—can trigger transactions elsewhere: in manufacturing or accounting. So it’s important not just to know what to do, but why it matters.
“It’s not just about clicking buttons—it’s about understanding the ripple effects throughout the system.”
— Christian Pouliot
Practical testing is equally important. Realistic scenarios reveal gaps that generic exercises can miss. Your team should test typical work as well as exceptions: revised orders, material shortages, engineering changes, incorrect entries and other situations employees encounter in the course of a normal day.
A successful simulation confirms that the system works, the data is ready, and employees know how to complete their responsibilities before the business depends on the ERP in a live environment.
“Adoption starts with training. We use Genius Academy to provide self-directed learning backed by live training sessions. Then, we move into micro-simulations, where users complete real tasks in practical scenarios.
“This method—learn, practice, confirm—validates their understanding. We finish with a full simulation in an acceptance environment: a day in the life with Genius, from start to finish.
“After go-live, our team continues to support the client. The first two weeks are intensive, then we gradually reduce the frequency of check-ins as the client becomes more self-sufficient.
“For users who struggle more, we provide individual support. We adjust our approach based on their needs—especially for more complex modules like finance or engineering.”
— Christian Pouliot
Going live is an important milestone, but it is not the only measure of a successful implementation.
Return to the goals established at the beginning of the project. If you wanted to improve production efficiency, reduce inventory or produce more accurate job costs, look at the results. Determine what has improved, where the business is falling short and what additional work is required.
“The first measure of success is whether the initial goals were achieved. We review the outcomes with the client. For example, did they want to increase production efficiency by X%? Did they reach that? We look at the numbers together.
“If a goal isn’t reached, we dig into why and how to fix it. We want the client to see tangible results.
“Once goals are met, the project closes. That’s when our Customer Success team takes over for long-term support. They check back 90 days after go-live to assess satisfaction, uncover new needs, and propose continuous improvement paths. Most of our clients are growing, so there’s always a next step.”
— Christian Pouliot
An ERP will likely remain at the center of your business for many years. Your processes will evolve, employees will change roles and new people will join the company. Meanwhile, your ERP provider will continue to release new tools and improvements.
Continuing education helps maintain knowledge across the organization and prevents employees from gradually returning to spreadsheets or old workarounds. It also helps the company use more of the system’s functionality as its needs change.
Treat your ERP provider as a long-term partner. Regularly review your processes, explore underused features and invest in training for both current employees and new hires. The end of implementation should mark the beginning of continuous improvement—not the end of your work with the system.
Even with good planning and a capable team, difficult moments will occur. That does not necessarily mean the implementation is failing. A smooth implementation is not one where nothing ever goes wrong. It is one where the team expects challenges, communicates openly and resolves problems before they undermine the project.
The mistakes that create the greatest risk are often the ones discussed throughout this article:
“The most common mistake is thinking it will all happen on its own—that it’ll be easy, just press a button and everything works.
“But an ERP project takes real effort. It’s a complete overhaul of how things are done. Some clients underestimate how much time and energy it takes.”
— Christian Pouliot
Manufacturers that enter an ERP project with clear goals, realistic expectations and committed people will be in a much stronger position to succeed. Above all, Christian advises manufacturers to be clear about why they are undertaking the project:
“Don’t underestimate the importance of the implementation. Ask yourself the right questions before diving in: Why do you want to make this change? What problems are you solving? What goals are you aiming for?
“An ERP isn’t a magic fix. It’s a transformation project that takes time, resources, and, above all, a team that’s ready for change.
“If I had only one piece of advice: Do it for the right reasons.”
— Christian Pouliot
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