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ERP Selection Process: Tips and Selection Criteria

The ERP selection process is of paramount importance. In simple words, you have to do the following:

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  1. Involve Everyone

    1. Begin by forming a team who'll work together to choose your ERP. Include all departments that'll use the software. Each member of your ERP buying team should play a different role in the business. This way, you won't overlook something by accident that could cause big problems for one group.

  2. Perform Needs Analysis

    1. Knowing what you need from your new ERP begins with taking stock of your company’s current struggles. Then, think about where you would like to be in 5 to 10 years. Convene your ERP buying committee and ask yourselves the questions that are detailed in the white paper that you can download as described below.

    2. Best practices that are standard for your specific industry should be checked and implemented. What good is it to use the inventory management module of an ERP if your warehouse storage is a mess ( similar items are not grouped, and are all over your warehouse, items are not labeled properly and are not barcoded, etc).

  3. Choose a Champion

    1. This should be someone in upper management who supports buying a new ERP and sees the value in it. That person must also be able to determine the priorities and budget constraints of the company now and in the future. That person can not be an ego but, must be able to reconcile different interests and opinions. That person must be customer oriented by being involved with customers.

  4. Keep an Open MInd

    1. Your current ERP vendor may have been very supporting but, their solution is old technology (not  web based, not in the cloud).  At least you have to look at other options​​​​. 

  5. Set Realistic Budget and ROI Expectations

    1. An ERP implementation can be very expensive, and not give you the payback as expected. Please read more details in the attached white paper​​. 

    2. Do a cost break even analysis. How much revenue do you need to make, and how much quantity to you need to sell  to cover your fixed costs. Internet Customer Solutions can help you with this to do it right. 

  6. Determine the Consulting and Implementation fees

    1. There are many steps such as: installation, training, configuration, data migration, ​​testing, piloting, testing, deployment, customization, testing, deployment, possible application development, integration of line of business applications, maintenance and technical support.

    2. An experienced ERP vendor partner is crucial to help you, to train you and to guide you. 

    3. When done right, your ROI will be amazing good. 

    4. More details in the attached white paper

 

Not following the ​​​above best practices can lead to disasters like discribed here.

ERP Selection Process Guides

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Many ERP market research companies issue their own ERP selection process guides. Most of them are independent and quite thorough. A few reliable ones are listed below: 

 

  • Intelligent Technologies, NC

    • ​White Paper: ERP Selection Process: Tips and Selection Criteria

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This white paper is written by Intelligent Technologies, NC, which does resell MS Dynamics and Acumatica. The white paper is objective. More ERP reviews can be seen at https://erpsoftwareblog.com/cloud/. At the end of the white paper is a long list of articles about ERP Comparisons. 

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  • Tips as discussed briefly above. More details in the white paper

  • ERP Selection Criteria: Deployment options, Scalability, Pricing, etc.

  • Comparison of:

    • Acumatica​

    • Microsoft Dynamics GP

    • Oracle NetSuite

    • Sage Intacct

 

Download White Paper

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  • Mintras Study

    • Six criteria not to ignore​

      • The top criterium is: Ease of use, ease of navigation, ..​

      • The second most important criterium is: Fit and functionality

        • Of course the ERP system has to do what your company requires it to do, to function properly. ​

          • However this doesn't mean that your company needs to have an ERP system built from scratch to satisfy your specific requirements.  Building an ERP specific for your company or even your micro-vertical (eg. fish distributor) is totally wrong. The ERP development company will never survive since there are not enough customers in the microvertical. It will be nearly impossible to  find people on the market with experience in that specific ERP. The right approach is as follows:

            • Buy a good cloud ERP that uses the latest software development technologies (like Acumatica cloud ERP) that can integrate easily via Rest APIs to 3rd party/ISV applications​

            • Buy a 3rd party/ISV application that handles the requirements specific to your company and microvertical if the cloud ERP doesn't handle your specific requirements.

          • Page 5 of the Mintras study explains this very well. ​

      • This study confirms our general ROI of a cloud ERP: ERP cost will be 100% recovered in 2 years, or 50% in year 1, and 50% in year 2.​​​​

      • Download the study​​

  • Acumatica ERP selection process and worksheet​​

    • The ERP selection process according to Acumatica employees, who have gone through such a process, is described here. It emphasizes the involvement of people and a good discovery (requirements analysis).

    • The Acumatica selection worksheet lists all the important cloud ERP selection criteria, and provides a blank column where you can check off the selection criteria that another cloud ERP vendor may satisfy. ​

    • Download the ERP selection worksheet

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