6 minute read

‘Personal connection comes first at Deloitte’

Lisanne Meurs & Rick Kelderman

Would you like to work as an ERP consultant in large business transformations? ‘It certainly helps if you are interested in IT, but you don’t need to have a background in IT’, Rick Kelderman and Lisanne Meurs say. Both work as Senior ERP Consultants in Programme Leadership at Deloitte Consulting. ‘We are not IT-developers; we don’t do configurations in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. ERP-systems enable integrated management of main business processes. We are the sparring partner of the programme manager and we are at the centre of the transformation e.g. We take prime roles within the Programme which include but are not limited to the management and maintenance of the programme plan or PMO, to support and guide the entire transformation.’

According to Rick, this role fits like a glove. ‘We are the link pin between professionals with their various fields of expertise. This job is fun, diverse, and comes with great responsibility’, he explains. ‘This is exactly what I was looking for when I switched to Deloitte in January 2018.’ After he graduated in Change Management at the University of Groningen, Rick worked for a year as an Assurance Adviser and two years as a Consultant for a small consulting firm. ‘I used to think the Big Four firms were strictly formal and hierarchical. But at my first job interview at Deloitte I realised my presumptions were wrong. Everyone is approachable and professionals have a lot of freedom and responsibility. If there’s something you’re interested in, you can start working on it and/or join a team.’

Lisanne also graduated in Change Management at the University of Groningen. ‘However, we never met each other at that time. Besides that, our paths towards Deloitte were very different. During my Bachelors, I already realised that I wanted to work at a large consulting firm. But when I graduated, I was only 22 years old. So, I decided to travel for a while and after that, I started an IT management traineeship at a large mail & parcel delivery company in the Benelux. I worked there for 4.5 years before I switched to consulting. At that time, I already worked together with Deloitte SAP Consultants. Deloitte’s company culture has always appealed to me. At Deloitte, people with various backgrounds and from all over the globe are welcome. You can really be yourself, which I appreciate very much.’

Currently, Lisanne and Rick are members of the same team within Programme Leadership. However, that doesn’t mean they have the same jobs. Lisanne: 'ERP, which is the linking system between an organization’s business processes, is of added value to large organizations in different sectors. From public to private, ranging from the manufacturing industry to the financial sector. ERP touches all core processes that enable organizations to accelerate. Therefore, our client portfolio is very diverse. ’ Traditionally those systems were stand alone and data was stored locally. Nowadays, more and more organizations are transforming to cloud-based solutions, which makes it possible to use real-time and synchronised data, which creates both business opportunities and lowers costs’. ‘The variety of projects is huge, too,’ Rick continues. ‘Sometimes we are involved in the transformation of an entire ERP landscape, at other times we focus on one specific module such as Finance, HR or CRM.’ ‘The issues we are asked to solve, are complex. It’s always fun to get to the bottom of things’, Lisanne says. ‘For instance, I’m currently working on a huge transformation within the public sector. The entire organisation is about to adopt a new system, from Purchasing to Finance and Logistics. It’s an interesting challenge on which I’m working together with another colleague from Programme Leadership and around 20 other Deloitte professionals. To me, the intense collaboration with colleagues and the client are the best part of my job. If you do it well, an ERP system can be very beneficial – it can provide better insights, shorter lead times and more cost efficient. However, people must be able to work with a system. In my opinion, the human aspect is the biggest challenge.’

Rick is currently working on a global project for a large client in consumer business. ‘The scale of the project is vast, even though our focus is only on one of the ERP modules. On a global scale, 180 Deloitte professionals are involved, including four from Programme Leadership. The differences in nationalities and cultures are fascinating, and the project itself offers a lot of variety, too. For instance, we guide the entire process from collecting requirements and building the system to testing and “Go Live”. Every step of the process has its own challenges, especially when you’re working with experts from the UK, Denmark, or India. Every culture has its own set of communication rules and ways of working, so collaboration requires flexibility from all of us.’ Lisanne and Rick are excited about their team and the team dynamic. Lisanne: ‘All of them are ambitious people who want to achieve the best they can. However, at Deloitte people are never competitive at the cost of their colleagues. Everyone is willing to help each other and learn from each other. Even if you have no background in IT, but you are enthusiastic about this vacancy, then there is plenty of reason to apply. Programme Leadership offers you a training curriculum in order to understand the basics. And it is mainly a matter of getting started. There’s always a more experienced colleague who will support you.’ ‘And new ideas are always taken seriously’, says Rick. ‘People are truly interested in each other. “Work hard, play hard” certainly applies to our team. We are ambitious and always looking for improvement, but we also like to go for a drink, have a team barbecue, or go on a skiing trip. Personal connection comes first at Deloitte, whether it’s with colleagues or with our clients.’

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