Answers
How to understand ERP business processes across functions
Quick answer
Start with the business process, not the ERP module. Map how work moves through finance, supply chain and manufacturing, then identify where teams share information or hand off decisions. Rohan Hall’s historical PeopleSoft work covered financial modules, procurement, inventory, order management and manufacturing, including a global implementation. That experience offers a useful lens for examining processes that no single functional team owns end to end.
Map the work before the system
Choose a process that matters to the business and trace it from the initial activity through its downstream steps. Record which team performs each step, what information it needs and where responsibility changes hands. This gives business leaders and technology teams a shared view of the process before they discuss ERP functions or transformation.
Connect the functional views
Use the relevant ERP areas to make the map specific. In finance, that may mean General Ledger, Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable. Supply-chain work may involve procurement, purchasing, inventory or order management; manufacturing adds its own processes. Look closely at the points where an activity in one area affects work in another. Historical PeopleSoft domain experience spanning these areas informs this cross-functional view.
Account for global implementation
A process map should distinguish the shared flow of work from differences between locations and teams. Rohan Hall was a technology lead for a global PeopleSoft ERP implementation at Corning spanning the United States, Europe and Asia and including manufacturing, supply-chain and financial products. His enterprise systems work also covers business processes, integration and transformation.
Make the understanding transferable
Write down the process flow, handoffs and terms so that people beyond the original project team can use them. Hall helped develop PeopleSoft Manufacturing and related enterprise-systems curriculum and taught PeopleSoft courses and train-the-trainer programs to implementation partners and enterprise customers. That education experience reinforces the value of making functional knowledge understandable across roles.
Frequently asked questions
- Should teams begin with ERP modules or business processes?
- Begin with the work people perform and the handoffs between teams. Then use the relevant ERP functions to locate where each step is supported.
- Why include people from more than one function?
- A finance, supply-chain or manufacturing team can explain its own steps, but a cross-functional discussion helps reveal what happens when work or information passes between them.
- How can teams keep the process view useful after a project?
- Document the flow and teach the shared terms and handoffs to the people who will use them. Train-the-trainer education is one way to extend enterprise-systems knowledge beyond individual experts.
See the documented background behind Rohan Hall’s enterprise architecture and transformation work.