How would you frame the ERP conversation so that your leadership team sees it as a business project rather than an IT project?

To frame the ERP conversation as a business project, highlight its strategic alignment with organisational goals. For instance, emphasise how implementing ERP software streamlines processes, like automating inventory management, thus improving operational efficiency and enhancing customer satisfaction. This way, the leadership team sees ERP as a vital tool for achieving broader business objectives.

ERPs generally are huge projects, and there are so many aspects to them - like the problem you’re trying to solve with it, the cost aspect, the time taken to implement it, how would it impact the current processes, what would it expect from the people and so on. 

For the leadership to see it is as a business project, they must see this trying to solve a business problem or gap or project business opportunities that they can understand. And since ERPs are big projects it is important to show the business value in a phased manner as well and not just after a really long implementation time. As someone’s rightly suggested, have a milestone or a MVP approach and use that to have the leadership align with the outcomes and the impact you expect that to bring on, say, productivity, results, reduction of waste, decision making, etc.

And if it is really an IT project only, focus on presenting it as solving the IT problem that is important for your function/department to solve. Do not try too much to make it look like a business project.

You need to find sponsors in the business unit that will be benefitted with it and try to get their investment in the project. Maybe do some quick demo pilots on how the ERP will solve a particular pain point that unit is facing.
Once you have a good number of sponsors sell to the rest of the team should get easier (while not easy).

ERP projects are generally large, complex initiatives that involve multiple organizational functions or departments.  When done correctly, they are much more than an IT project.

A few techniques that can help in ensuring an appropriate perspective on the ERP initiative:
1) Ensure that the executive sponsor is a leader from a function outside of IT.  Or, a jointly sponsored initiative by both IT and another department (e.g., Operations, Finance).
2) Ensure team member involvement includes other functional areas, including sign-off of (minimally) requirements and testing results from business functions other than IT.
3) Ensure that the objectives, and ROI if appropriate, include functional improvements outside of IT alone (e.g., supply chain, financial).
4) Ensure appropriate visibility such as to the Senior Leadership Team and Board, and focus on the business benefits in these discussions, not just IT.

Done correctly, an ERP initiative can elevate the CIO or next-level IT leader as someone who can drive complex, cross-functional projects and be seen as a savvy business executive who just happens to have a technology background.

Whoever is accountable for the budget of the solution owns it.  The process should be the business to identify the business requirements, IT then adds the technical requirements and puts forward their cost to deploy/test/operate.  The business needs to add costs for business process reengineering and change management.  IT delivers the cost (there could be options!) to the business and they make the decision to move forward or not based on a business ROI.  The business should intimately involved in tracking the solution deployment to hold IT accountable for cost/time/quality.
If this isn't happening then the CIO needs to have a conversation with the VP of finance and the CEO about delivery processes.