Shannon Wade is a project manager at Avista Utilities. She joined the project management office to lead work for the upcoming Avista ERP implementation project. Previously she worked in the enterprise technologies department and has experience managing different system based projects from initiation up to deployment.
I sat down with Shannon to mainly talk about how her role as a project manager would be affected by the ERP implementation and the pros and cons she sees for managers and employees once this system is deployed.
During our conversation Shannon first spoke about the pace of change that the project management office has already been experiencing. The PMO recently transitioned to a new Cloud solution (this was around the same time I joined the company) and the team is still adjusting to that system through fixes, training, and ongoing changes. Because of this, the upcoming SAP ERP implementation represents another major shift for the same group of employees. From her perspective the biggest concern is the cumulative effect of these changes. Continuous system transitions over several years can be stressful for teams, and she questioned how much change employees can reasonably absorb before it begins affecting morale or retention.
Another major theme that emerged from the conversation was the concern employees have about job security and role changes. Shannon described conversations with employees who had spent years building and maintaining systems that will eventually be replaced by the ERP platform. In one example she described an employee who had spent more than a decade working on a single system that is now being phased out. For individuals whose expertise is tied closely to legacy systems, the transition creates uncertainty about what their role will look like afterward. Although Avista leadership has repeatedly stated that layoffs are not expected and that changes would happen gradually through attrition, there is still a level of anxiety among employees who wonder how their skills will translate into the new environment.
At the same time Shannon emphasized that the ERP system offers significant operational benefits once it is implemented. From her experience supporting the finance team, she described how much time is currently spent gathering data from different systems and reconciling spreadsheets. Many teams must wait for one system to finish processing before another system can access updated numbers. The ERP platform would bring many of these data sources together, allowing teams to work from the same platform and the same numbers across major business functions. For project managers specifically this could significantly improve visibility into project budgets and financial tracking. Instead of receiving financial information once a month, teams could potentially work with data that reflects much more current activity.
She also discussed the data structure of ERP systems as a major improvement over the current environment. Instead of maintaining multiple versions of the same information across different systems, the ERP approach maintains a single core record that can be referenced in different contexts. This design reduces duplication and can simplify the way organizations manage data about customers, vendors, or employees.
Shannon also stated on how her perception of the ERP initiative changed over time. When the project was first proposed she was initially skeptical and questioned whether such a large transformation was necessary. Over time, as she became more familiar with the platform and the long term goals of the implementation, she began to see the broader value of the project. Although she acknowledged that the process will involve a significant amount of work and organizational disruption, she now views the investment as something that will pay off in the long run.
When discussing potential risks, Shannon drew heavily on her experience deploying many systems throughout her career. In her view most major system failures do not occur because of the technology itself but because organizations rush deployments to meet predetermined deadlines. When leadership pushes for a system to go live without sufficient testing or integration validation, organizations often end up spending large amounts of time and money fixing problems afterward. For a project of this scale she believes the greater challenge will be managing the large number of integrations that exist across Avista’s systems.
Rather than expecting the ERP system itself to fail, she anticipates that the more realistic challenges will come from small dependencies that were overlooked during planning. Some processes may rely on systems or data flows that are not immediately obvious. When those connections surface after deployment they may temporarily interrupt people’s ability to complete their daily work. Because these situations are difficult to predict in advance, she emphasized that communication and support will be essential when problems arise.
The conversation also touched on the cultural dimension of the project. Shannon believes the organizational culture at Avista is generally supportive of the ERP initiative, especially compared to earlier stages of the project when there was more uncertainty. She credited strong leadership communication and consistent project sponsorship for helping employees understand the purpose of the transformation. According to her, much of the resistance that existed in the early stages has gradually shifted toward cautious support as employees become more involved in the implementation process.
In her view the cultural impact will likely be less dramatic than some people expect. Because many employees are already involved in the design, configuration, and training stages of the project, they are not being introduced to the system suddenly at the end. Instead they are gradually becoming part of the build process. This involvement may help create a moment after deployment where employees realize that the new system simplifies tasks that previously required navigating multiple tools.
At the same time she acknowledged that some individuals may still choose to leave if their work changes too significantly. Employees who have spent many years specializing in a particular type of development work may find that the ERP environment requires a different skill set. For some of them the decision may come down to whether they are willing to adapt and learn new roles within the organization.
Toward the end of out conversation Shannon reflected on the overall emotional landscape of the project. She described the experience as a mixture of excitement, anxiety, and cautious optimism. The project is still in an intense phase where many people are juggling responsibilities and filling gaps across the organization. While that environment can create personal pressure for employees who want to perform well, she ultimately expressed confidence that the organization will manage the transition successfully and that the long term benefits will justify the effort required to get there.
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