An ERP partnership is a strategic relationship. Your ERP partner will have access to your key company data and will be responsible for your business management solutions – finance, customer relationship management, supplier management, inventory control and more. The relationship should be built to last. Considering the importance of this relationship, it pays to step logically through a decision matrix prior to committing to an ERP vendor.

Over the past 10 years the team at Leverage Technologies has helped almost 200 companies implement ERP solutions. Here is some practical advice to help you choose the right ERP system for your business.

Firstly – make sure someone else was the guinea pig. Get a tried and tested ERP solution installed in companies with requirements similar to yours. Reference sites in your industry is a key indicator that the ERP provider can implement the solution successfully.

Ask lots of questions of your potential ERP provider……

• What database is required to run the ERP solution?

• Is the database mainstream and globally supported?

• Is the ERP solution scalable?

• Can the ERP system be customised and if so what programming frameworks and languages can be used?

• Can third party applications be integrated to the ERP application?

• What add-on solutions are available?

• Can user defined fields and tables be easily added to the ERP solution?

• Is Cloud an option?

• How is remote access achieved?

Functional requirements are critical

Functional requirements are usually specific to each company – some examples include:

• Does the solution include multi-warehouse functionality?

• Is Customer Relationship Management integrated to the rest of the ERP solution?

• Is recurring invoicing available?

• Are profit centres supported in the GL?

Make a list of your functional requirements (for each department) and present those requirements to your potential ERP provider.

ERP Implementation is what makes all the difference

Choose an ERP provider with an experienced team – with knowledge of their ERP application, business knowledge, an understanding of your industry and technology (database, reporting and technical applications).

Spending more time and effort upfront choosing the right ERP application will have great returns for your business. If you want the complete guide to selecting an ERP application you can download it here……..