Now that you have a basic idea of what ERP is, there are some simple steps to get your ERP education up and running. Step 1: Start asking questions
There is no better place to begin in pursuing an ERP education than speaking with anyone and everyone who has done an implementation. These can be staffers working for partner companies, consultants who might be in your shop for other reasons but who have done ERP, or fellow consultants you communicate with as colleagues. If an ERP sales rep visits your company and you can corner that person for 10 minutes, by all means do so. Start asking questions, soaking up war stories, and getting perspectives -- anything you can do to get a feel for what ERP entails. Step 2: Read, read, read
There are paper journals, online journals, and books by the score that all focus on ERP. Do online searches on Google, and you'll turn up more reading material than you can cover in five years. Pick some good sources and start reading. Step 3: Choose and study a development environment
There are a number of ERP-friendly development environments (and Java leads the pack). While it may be beyond your means to attend an ERP training course in another town for a large fee, you can certainly home in on a development environment that you can use in the future and pursue it at a much more reasonable cost -- and on your own time. For instance, if you choose to learn J2EE, you're talking about a couple hundred dollars spent on some of the excellent books available and some evenings dedicated to reading them thoroughly. Step 4: Consider course work
There are many platform-specific courses available for ERP, offered by the vendors and by third-party companies. These are expensive and awkward to schedule and, therefore, are probably out of reach of most IT managers until a CIO springs for the course. But having such courses on your resume can make a big difference when you're pursuing that first ERP implementation. The career benefits
If you are considering making a career move and becoming a consultant, a self-motivated ERP education is self-justifying. You will simply be more attractive to a larger number of potential clients if you are ERP-knowledgeable than if you're not. While many available ERP consulting positions seem to want at least one implementation experience, this isn't a big hurdle. You can overcome this issue by pursuing certification or simply marketing yourself at a bargain rate. Having an ERP knowledge base but no practical experience is certainly a much better skills position than not having any ERP knowledge at all. If you realise the probability that your company will soon go to ERP, then a proactive approach to learning the ropes will make you the point person when the CIO begins putting the program plan together. There could be no better career move than to be three jumps ahead when the reinvention of your company gets under way. You'll be indispensable to the CIO and CTO and a tremendous aide to all your peers. And keep in mind that even if you go to the trouble of learning ERP only to find that your company won't be converting anytime soon, your career and potential advancement have been greatly enhanced and will prove beneficial despite your company's ERP setback. Unless your company is some kind of unusual standalone that just doesn't work with vendors or customers, your non-ERP shop is still required to work with partner companies that are. The tasks involved in this kind of relationship include setting up portals, designing shared B2B apps, and, in general, accommodating the partner company that is into integrated and distributed processes. Once again, you will become the go-to staffer if these tasks are on the table and you're the one with some ERP know-how.
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