Who Works on ERP: Roles, and Where the Developer Sits

ERP projects have a role vocabulary that does not exist in normal software teams. If you join a project and don’t know these titles, you won’t know who to ask, who decides, or who blocks you.

The roles

Functional Consultant

The domain expert for one module (FI, MM, SD, HR…). Configures the system, writes functional specifications, runs workshops with the business, does testing.

  • Speaks: accounting, procurement, manufacturing
  • Does not: write code
  • Your relationship: they hand you the functional spec; you hand back the technical spec and the code. Most of your day is negotiating with this person.
  • Titles: FI Consultant, SD Consultant, Supply Chain Consultant, Business Analyst.

Technical Consultant / ERP Developer (you)

Builds what config cannot: reports, interfaces, conversions, enhancements, forms, workflows, custom apps.

  • In SAP this work is famously bucketed as RICEFW:
Letter Meaning Example
R Reports Aged debtors report, custom stock valuation
I Interfaces Send invoices to the bank, receive shipment confirmations from 3PL
C Conversions Load 80,000 legacy customers into the new system
E Enhancements Extra validation on sales-order save
F Forms Printed invoice, purchase-order PDF, packing slip
W Workflow Three-level purchase-requisition approval

RICEFW is the estimating unit in ERP projects. When someone says “we have 240 RICEFW objects”, they’re describing the whole custom development scope. Learn to estimate in these terms.

Techno-functional Consultant

Does both. Rarest and best paid. This is the career target for most ERP developers — the moment you can run the workshop and write the code, your value roughly doubles.

Solution Architect

Owns the end-to-end design: which system does what, how they integrate, what’s standard vs custom, what the data model looks like. Approves or rejects your design.

Integration / Middleware Developer

Owns the ESB/iPaaS layer (SAP PI/PO/CPI, MuleSoft, Boomi, Azure Integration Services, Oracle OIC). Often a separate person because the tooling is its own specialty.

Data Migration Lead

Owns extract–transform–load from legacy. Underrated, brutal, and the single most common cause of a delayed go-live. See Data Migration.

Basis / System Administrator

(SAP calls it Basis; everyone has an equivalent.) Owns installation, transports, performance, users, patches, DB. If your transport won’t move, you talk to Basis.

Security / Authorisation Consultant

Designs roles, authorisation objects, and segregation of duties. Will block your “just give the batch user SAP_ALL” request, correctly.

Key User / Super User / SME

An actual employee from the business who knows how the current process really works. The most valuable person on the project and the one you should buy coffee for. They test, they train peers, they tell you which of the documented processes are fiction.

Process Owner

The business executive accountable for a process end-to-end (e.g. the O2C process owner). Signs off design decisions.

Change Manager

Handles training, communications, and adoption. Ignored on failing projects.

Programme Manager / PMO

Owns plan, budget, RAID log (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies), steering committee.

Typical org chart 

                     Steering Committee
                            │
                    Programme Manager ──── PMO
                            │
        ┌───────────┬───────┴────────┬─────────────┐
        │           │                │             │
  Solution      Workstream       Technical      Change &
  Architect     Leads (FI/MM/SD)  Lead          Training
                    │                │
             Functional         ┌────┴────┬──────────┬──────────┐
             Consultants        Devs   Integration  Data     Basis /
                    │                   Devs      Migration  Security
              Key Users

The consultancy layer

Most ERP work happens through partners, not vendors:

  • SI (System Integrator) — Accenture, Deloitte, IBM, Capgemini, Infosys, TCS, Wipro. Large multi-year programmes.
  • VAR (Value Added Reseller) — mid-market; sells licences and implements. The Dynamics/NetSuite/Acumatica world runs on VARs.
  • Boutique/niche partner — deep in one industry or module.
  • Freelance/contractor — very common at senior level; ERP has one of the healthiest contract markets in software.
  • In-house team — the customer’s own ERP team, usually doing support, enhancements, and rollouts after go-live.

Career paths 

Graduate/Junior Developer
        │
        ├──▶ Senior ERP Developer ──▶ Technical Lead ──▶ Technical Architect
        │
        ├──▶ Techno-functional ──▶ Solution Architect ──▶ Enterprise Architect
        │
        ├──▶ Integration Specialist ──▶ Integration Architect
        │
        └──▶ Product / Vendor side (work for SAP, Odoo, Microsoft on the product itself)

Lateral exits that pay well: fintech (you understand ledgers), logistics tech, billing/revenue systems, data engineering (you understand real business data), and independent consulting.

Project vs product vs support

Mode Rhythm Suits you if
Implementation project 6–24 months, intense, travel, go-live crunch You like variety and don’t mind pressure
Support / AMS Ticket-driven, SLAs, on-call for month-end You like stability and deep system knowledge
Rollout Repeating a template into new countries/entities You like structure
Product development You build the ERP itself You want to be a product engineer with domain depth

The single most useful thing a new ERP developer can do

Sit in the functional workshops. You will be tempted to skip them because “it’s not technical”. Every senior ERP person will tell you the same thing: the developers who understand why the business needs the thing become architects, and the ones who only take specs stay juniors.

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