ERP Implementation Kickoff Meeting Agenda
This is a practical guide to building a kickoff meeting agenda for an erp implementation project — the agenda that aligns the team and stakeholders at project start, adapted to the realities of replacing or deploying an enterprise resource planning system across the whole organisation.
What a Kickoff Meeting Agenda is
A kickoff meeting agenda is the agenda that aligns the team and stakeholders at project start. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Kickoff Meeting. On an erp implementation project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an ERP Implementation project
ERP Implementation projects live or die on replacing or deploying an enterprise resource planning system across the whole organisation. A well-built kickoff meeting agenda gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how erp implementation projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Purpose and objectives
- Scope and plan walkthrough
- Roles (RACI)
- Ways of working
- Next steps
ERP Implementation-specific considerations
Tailor the kickoff meeting agenda to the risks that most often derail erp implementation projects:
- Under-estimated data migration
- Business-process change resistance
- Customisation over-reach
Example
On a real erp implementation project, the kickoff meeting agenda would be shaped by replacing or deploying an enterprise resource planning system across the whole organisation. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — under-estimated data migration, business-process change resistance, customisation over-reach — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.