Selecting a Right ERP Package is not an easy task with the amount of Investment, Resources and Time it requires. Many ERP Implementations have miserably failed either because it was not user friendly, or because it could not be best integrated with the third party or because business requirement was not correctly mapped before Implementing ERP Package, and believe it or not some that could not keep up with ERP Maintenance costs. 

Many Believe it’s the ERP that has nothing to offer its customers and does not fit in their business, but that is a wrong conception, If the right product is selected that best suits your business and you have ensured the gap that needs to be filled in between the software and your requirement is minimal then it’s a go ahead, no ERP Package in the market is made keeping a specific customer in mind, a ERP Package is made after lot of research fitting requirements for all kinds of business, as they would like their product be useful to all types of customers. 

Over the years we have seen many ERP packages coming up in the market name it from top brands like Tally, SAP, ACCPAC or ORACLE. But when your business has reached a stage where it becomes utmost important to make it full proof, Now there needs to be a wise decision made in terms of selecting the right package work for your business. Here are some of key points that can help you make that decision which I have learned though real time experience 

Setting Goals and Objectives For Your ERP

It’s very important  that your goals and objectives are laid out as clearly as possible, as considerable amount of time can be saved for the implementer during Business Requirement Phase , and would give them an opportunity to think out of the box solutions for your kind of business, Since ERP Implementation are costly, if you have budget constraints sometimes vendor may try to wrap up the project as quickly as possible as they would not like their important software resources occupied and their cost to go up. so have goals and objectives set way ahead as this would play an important role in completing the project on time.

Appoint an ERP selection team and include your key users in the selection phase

It’s very important that your key users are experienced and have spent considerable amount of time in the company and have good track record and are employees that like to stay with you in long run, as we dont want birds that will fly away after receiving the training, Changes are not appreciated by many as it would disturb their routine, so be careful during selection process make sure your key users who demonstrate the willingness for a change are on board , as these are the resources that would  later control or motivate other employees to adapt the change, Implementing ERP Package requires that all employees across the organization are on same boat, and being in management position if you think this will not help, then go ahead hiring people on board with little experience in ERP before, this can be done once you know what kind  of ERP product your selecting , it will be highly effective in the long run.

Find out which ERP systems can be adapted to company specific requirements

I would suggest do not go by Brands if it does not fit in your budget or your requirement, even if brand is not popular but it meets your needs then its fine, because the initial quotation may be different when you start the implementation , and let say may be in between the project you realized there is further requirement from your end, then trust me it is a disaster for both parties, the quotation will be revised and you may have to pay more then what you have expected, because in many good ERP Package initial setup are very important and they are permanent and if later you have made the decision it will not help, for example yours was a Average Costing Organization, but you made a wrong decision selecting Standard Costing based on in experienced SCM Head decision, and the behavior of software after implementation does not behave as per you business process as you have changed may be the line of goods, then it’s a big failure as all the setups have to be revised, so its very important that you know what best ERP System fits your business ,if required Hire third party officials who can give you a insight before making the decision, may be external ERP Analysts firms can be hired to help you take good decision, depending solely on the vendor words or key people may not be reliable.

Distinguish between "must-have" and "lower priority" functions

As I said before all good ERP packages come with all the functionalities even including other types of business, that is may be not required by you, so it is important what functionalities you want from the product are decided and the once you don’t want may be excluded from the project for example you may have a Third Party software that is giving you daily product activity or a system that is providing you reports much better then what you have seen the ERP  demo, then you may exclude that option , as it will be cost effective and help the project finish on time

Talk to several reference customers about their experience with the ERP Package Can the software be easily upgraded? What are the costs and durations of an upgrade?

Let me give you an example in oracle 12.0.4 Version, there is no Landed Cost Management Module for logistics, but in the later version like 12.1.3 oracle did come up with the module ,as it was very much required by the customers, but since we had 12.0.4 we had customized it according to our needs, but once we knew now landed cost management is available for the logistics, we applied for a upgrade, believe it or not the upgrade was for free, so its important that any ERP package that you select gives you the option of upgrading. But I am sure you will agree with me there was a trouble the setup had to be reworked again, but you can save yourself from this if you had waited for the right version to be launched, over the year my experience has been that, do not go for any ERP Package or Version that is recently launched in the market, wait for the product to be established, because during this phase many ERP Vendors are testing their product, so don’t be  guinea Pig, like in the given example my company could have waited for 12.1.3 and then implemented the product. 

User Friendliness - How many minutes does it take to perform typical tasks? How many clicks does it take and how many screen do I have to open?

I am sure the very first time you buy your car, you take a considerable amount of time to get use it, at least to know what are the functionalities it has, and a performance of a car directly relates to its build, the better the build is, the costly the car is and the performance is just great, but if you plan to put cheap parts I am sure it wont run for long and starts giving you problems, same way is ERP Software, if your organization is big let’s say 1000+ users , you cannot do with a windows server but may have to rely on SUN Servers or other high end servers which offer security, Better performance etc, if you do cost cutting here then you should be ready for the complains pouring in from all the departments where the modules have been implemented, no one says ERP is cheap but it is defiantly a dream car that every business likes to own. Anyhow if that is taken care minutes and clicks don’t count as the performance will obviously be good, as the business grows, data grows, the more data grows, more space and performance is required and it will cost you to maintain the same. But if your resources are limited and the number for users are less, then you could also settle for other brands that meet your needs, when i had joined a company users were very reluctant about the screens, as they were complex but with matter of time I see now they navigate screens in matter of seconds and they have learned the tricks of navigations on the software, so it’s just matter of time and your users willingness to give it a try.     

Does the vendor have proven experience with international projects?

It is important that the vendor undertaking  implementing the project has experience with your kind of business, some business are unique and may require different kind of setups or customization as per their needs, so when negotiating the talks with vendor it is highly essential that he should be able to provide you with  customer references or a site visit or provide you  a live demo where he would have implemented in your kind of business, most of the vendors have tendency to show in their demonstrations big names in the market, so don’t be fooled by it, instead ask for types of business that you can relate to.   

Compare several ERP vendors and their packages in terms of quality criteria

These days any one wants to be gold partners and silver partners for Implementation of ERP, and I am not quit sure whether that is earned through quality service provided to the customer or for just adding customers to the list to earn that, I Recommend no matter which vendor you choose for your implementation, always have on board your own consultant or a project coordinator or make a team of ERP personals having experience and involve them in the project with implementation team from the very first day, I am sure they would not like that as poking nose in their business, but it is good to have your own consultant who could advise you along the project, as most of the time vendor maps his quality to the revenue he has earned from you, i.e for example he may hire less experienced Implementers then putting on board experienced personnel’s , trust me it not worth a risk, as most of the times user and management face the issues , when the project is done and goes live, then they start to find faults with the system. 

and last but not least listen to your gut-feeling, if you do feel that the business is not ready for such a huge step it is always good to cover gaps in other processes before Implementing ERP, at the end of the day it is human who operate it, just remember if you feed in junk the output system will give you is Junk.