Independent ERP advice
Independent ERP advice is advice from a party that does not earn from the outcome. No licence income, no implementation hours, no vendor ties. A short definition with a hard check, because nearly everyone calls themselves independent.
What it is and is not
How advisers earn
How to test it yourself
What is independent ERP advice?
Independent ERP advice is advice from a party that does not earn from the outcome of your choice. No licence income, no implementation hours and no ties to a vendor. What remains is an adviser paid for time, whichever system you end up with.
The definition is short and checking it is hard, because nearly every firm in this market calls itself independent. The difference is not in what someone says, but in how they get paid and what happens when the advice runs against their own interest.
What it is not
- Not the same as objective. Even without a financial stake, an adviser has preferences and experience that colour the advice
- Not the same as cheap. Independence says something about the incentive, not about the rate
- Not the same as the party that builds it afterwards. Whoever builds has an interest in more hours
- Not something you can read off a badge or certification, because those are issued by vendors
The question is not whether someone is called independent, but what happens when the advice costs them money.
An adviser who also implements rarely advises doing nothing. An adviser who sells licences rarely recommends a product from someone else. That is not bad faith, it is the incentive built into the business model. Know the model and you can weigh the advice.
When does independent advice pay off, and when not?
Not every situation calls for it. Four moments where it pays, each with when you can skip it.
When it pays off and when not
| Situation | What it gives you | When to skip it |
|---|---|---|
| Before choosing a system | Getting your requirements sharp before you go to market, and a shortlist on fit rather than familiarity. | When your processes are conventional, your size modest and a common system exists for your sector. |
| When choosing a partner | Testing candidates on behaviour instead of on the quote, and settling the escalation route before you sign. | When you have known the firm for years and the staffing is named and settled. |
| During implementation | Having progress judged by someone who is not building, so bad news surfaces earlier. | When you have an experienced project lead who organises dissent and is allowed to. |
| When a project stalls | Establishing where it is actually stuck, which often sits in the brief rather than in the partner. | Rarely. A stalled project is exactly where an outside view helps, because the internal discussion is already coloured. |
We say this with a stake in it: we sell this advice. That is why the column on when to skip it is there. An adviser who never says no to an assignment is proving the opposite of independence.
How do advisers earn their money?
The business model sets the incentive, and the incentive shapes the advice. Five models you will meet, each with where the interest sits.
Business models and the incentive inside
| Model | How it works | Where the incentive sits |
|---|---|---|
| Advisory hours | You pay for the time the adviser spends, regardless of which system or which partner it becomes. | More hours. So agree the boundaries up front, and a point at which the advice is finished. |
| Fixed price per project | An agreed amount for a bounded assignment, for instance a selection up to and including the choice. | Finishing quickly. Check whether the boundary leaves room for the awkward questions. |
| Licence commission | The adviser receives a fee from the vendor when a licence is sold. | The product with the highest fee. This is the model that rules independence out. |
| Advice plus implementation | The same firm advises on the choice and then carries out the implementation. | A choice that suits their own people, and advice that rarely reads: do nothing. |
| Payment on outcome | Part of the fee depends on an agreed result, such as going live on a set date. | Hitting the date. That can collide with the question of whether the system is ready to go live. |
We work on hours and on fixed price, and receive no fee from software vendors. That is checkable with the first test below, and you are welcome to put the question to us.
How do you test independence?
Five questions that separate a firm that is called independent from one that is. All five fit in a first conversation.
Ask how they earn if you choose a different system
The question is not whether they are a vendor partner, because that gets denied. The question is what happens to their revenue under each outcome.
Anyone who answers this by pointing at their own expertise has answered it.
Ask about the last time they advised against buying
An adviser who has never advised against a purchase has only confirmed what the client already wanted. Ask for the case and what happened next.
Independence shows in an assignment lost, not in a pitch won.
Ask who writes the recommendation and who has read it
At some firms the advice comes out of a central method and the adviser in the room cannot explain the reasoning behind it.
If nobody can retell the trade-off, no trade-off was made.
Ask whether they may build it afterwards
A firm that wants the implementation after the advice has an interest in an outcome that creates work. That is allowed, provided you know it.
Settle up front whether the same firm may bid for the next stage.
Ask for a reference they do not arrange
Ask for a client who is not on the website, and call them yourself. Ask not about satisfaction but about the moment it grated.
A reference the adviser attends carries no information.
Going deeper per topic
Advice is about something. These two pages cover the decisions it helps with.
The selection
Two decisions that stand apart: the system and the partner. With the steps, the criteria and when a selection process is not needed.
Read about selectionThe implementation
The phases, the split of responsibility that rarely gets written down, and the moments a decision becomes irreversible.
Read about implementationFrequently asked questions
- What is independent ERP advice?
Independent ERP advice is advice from a party that does not earn from the outcome: no licence income, no implementation hours and no ties to a vendor.
Independent is not the same as objective. Even without a financial stake, an adviser has preferences and experience that colour the advice.
- How do you know whether an ERP adviser is genuinely independent?
Ask how they earn if you choose a different system, and ask about the last time they advised against a purchase. Those two answers say more than any badge.
Badges and certifications are issued by vendors, so they show a tie rather than the absence of one.
- What is the difference between an adviser and an implementation partner?
The adviser helps you choose and judges progress. The implementation partner configures the system. The moment those are the same firm, dissent leaves the project.
That does not mean a partner gives bad advice. It means their advice stays inside their own offering, and you have to weigh that.
- When do you not need independent advice?
When your processes are conventional, your size modest and a common system exists for your sector. A selection process then mostly costs time without changing the outcome.
We say this with a stake in it, because we sell this advice. That is exactly why it is here: an adviser who never says no to an assignment proves the opposite of independence.
- What should independent ERP advice cost?
That depends on the size of the project and on the model: hours, or a fixed price for a bounded assignment. What does not belong is a fee coming from the vendor.
So ask about the model rather than only the rate. The incentive inside it shapes the advice more than the level of the rate does.
Further reading
This page covers what independent advice is and how to test it. The articles below go deeper into the separate questions.
- What it is, when you need it and how to recognise it
- What it is, and what it is not
- Why a neutral view changes the outcome
- Keeping control without partner ties
This page was last reviewed on 4 September 2026.
Advice with no stake in the outcome
We do no building, sell no licences and hold no vendor ties. That is what lets us also advise you not to do something.
Where we help
- Establishing whether a selection process is worth it in your case
- Testing candidates on behaviour rather than on the quote
- Judging progress separately from the party building it