Everything You Need To Know About The Roles & Responsibilities Of Functional & Technical Consultants
Planning to implement ERP? Want to get in touch with a certified ERP Solutions Company or CRM Consulting firm? But, not sure who to consult either a technical professional or a functional consultant? No worries! We are here to help and guide you through the process.
In this article, you will find a complete overview of the roles, abilities, and skills that are required by functional and technical consultants. By the time you finish reading this piece, you will have a clear vision of what you need from an ERP &CRM Integration professional and who would be the best resource for you.
Difference Between Functional And Technical Consultant
Before we start reviewing the skills and abilities required for both roles, you need to know that these roles somewhere in the continuum overlap with each other. But the thing that separates both is technical, communication, and problem-solving skill. Moreover, if you have the ability to clearly communicate what you need from a CRM consultantat Techloyce&ERP solutions company then you can go with one and consult a technical professional. However, if you have even a tiny speck of doubt then employing both would be highly recommended.
Roles & Responsibilities of Functional Consultant
If you are looking for a professional who could identify the loophole and bottlenecks in your businesses and convey everything in easy-to-understand language to developers then a functional consultant is what you need. They are experts in communication. In addition to this, they have deep knowledge about the workflow of every industry whether it is health, entertainment, or SaaS service provider.
Moreover, they can help you in mapping the workflow of your business and help in untangling the workflow loops and knots. Also, they would help you drafting documentation for your business and user guides to help the employee or other managerial official in a business vertical.
Hold On! The best thing about the functional consultant is they utilize their communication skill to educate the employee about the process and utility of ERP by providing training sessions. For this very purpose, they interact with the employee to identify the facts that restrict new technology integration. Afterward, they craft customize training sessions that address the problem faced by an employee on the mental, skill, and technical levels.
Roles & Responsibilities of Technical Consultants
Unlike functional consultants, technical professionals possess entirely different skillsets and expertise. As the name suggests, technical consultants are responsible for providing backend support to the companies AKA codding and programming.
The work of technical consultant starts right after the functional consultant provide briefs and indicate things and modification required by the clients. In rare cases, technical professionals play the role of functional consultants. This usually happens either when the client asks or when the technical consultant is good enough to communicate the idea and workflow without any hesitation.
Another thing that makes the technical consultant role different from functional consultant is they are solely responsible for the implementation of ERP or CRM. Want to know why? Because they had the backend knowledge. And, after receiving the briefs from functional consultants, they had to identify the loophole and fill the gap by integrating third-party applications or some tweaks.
Skills Required ForBoth Roles
Let’s start with the functional consultant. Since they had to communicate with clients all the time and relay the requirement to the development teams, therefore, the most important skill required for functional consultants is communication ability.
This leads to another skill that is the knowledge about the business operations, the workflow of every industry, and familiarity with the business verticals. All of these skills come together and assist Functional professionals in connecting dots in order to provide a solution for Odoo ERP integration and CRM implementation problems faced by the clients.
On the other hand, the primary skill required to become a technical consultant is python, coding, and programming. Also, another skill is to identify a gap in the client’s program and fill it by integrating applications or modifying the workflow. Usually, the role of the technical consultant is heavily dependent on the communication and briefs provided by the functional consults.
Conclusion
Nowadays every business has a team to address specific roles even they have in-house teams of developers to fix general issues faced by the company. However, when it comes to ERP implementation, it is advised to seek professional assistance. Why? Because in-house teams rarely possess the skills to handle the integration and implementation. Therefore, it is recommended to hire a third-party ERP Solutions Company or CRM Consulting firm to address the issues for you. Before going into the meeting, it is recommended that you should note down the problem and identify who you want to consult. For backend coding and programming, only a technical professional can help, but for workflow loophole identification and proxy communication, you can hire a functional consultant.
