ERP package and partner selection without vendor bias

ERP package and partner selection independently assesses software and implementation partner before contracts are signed.

A suitable ERP package is not enough. The implementation partner must also fit processes, team, decision-making and capacity for change.

A second opinion is useful before demos, contract choice or partner decision, especially when shortlist or criteria do not feel objective enough.

There is no general answer, and that is the point. Licence price is rarely the item that decides the outcome. Total cost is driven by the customisation your exceptions force, the number of connections you need and who manages the system after go-live. Two organisations choosing the same package end up with very different costs.

The vendor builds the software and earns from licences. The implementation partner configures that software at your site and earns from hours. With some packages these are the same party, with others they are not. That distinction determines where your counterpart’s interest sits, and therefore which questions you ask when.

From first inventory to signed contract, a selection usually takes several months. The duration is rarely set by our work, but by the availability of your own people for sessions and demonstrations, and by the pace of your decision-making. Agreeing in advance who decides what shortens it.

A tool that scores packages on features produces a list, not a choice. Almost every mainstream system ticks almost every feature. The difference lies in what works as standard within your way of working and what only works after modification, and that only shows when someone puts your own orders and exceptions on the table.

We sell no licences, hold no reseller contract and are a certified partner of no vendor. Our specialists work on the buyer side, not for the building party. We receive nothing from software vendors, and you are welcome to check that with every vendor on your shortlist.

You supply the people who know the work. We can map your processes and ask the questions, but only your own employees know which exceptions occur daily and which of them genuinely matter. Expect sessions with key users, attendance at demonstrations and decisions at fixed moments.

If your processes are conventional, your size modest and a mainstream system exists that comparable companies in your sector have run for years, a full selection process is overkill. A short test of your own assumptions is then enough. We would rather say that beforehand than afterwards.