While Selecting ERP solution and implementation partner for your company

Things to remember while selecting ERP or SCM solution and vendor for your organization


1. Requirement document: Prepare the complete requirement document for each of the functional area with the help of the functional users in Excel and categorize each need as following and evaluate the solution based on the needs of the users.
a. Must Have
b. Nice to Have
c. May have
Sometimes the users do not have experience or familiarty with ERP and SCM solution. It is better that these users have experience or familiarity before preparing the requirement document. Alternatively services from a consulting organisation can also be taken for this purpose.
2. Don’t get misled by big names- It is better to evaluate the ERPs based on your need. When you evaluate ERPs, you may find that the features you need are not available in big brands, while these are available in other ERPs. Now days big companies are offering multiple products, so you must check what products they are offering to you.

3. Technical Architecture: check for the architecture of the ERP. I strongly recommend for web architected solutions over client server architecture. Web architected solutions are better than other architectures in many ways.

4. Tools and Utilities : check for the availabilities of utilities such as Excel Export, Import Features, Workflow configuration, Alert configuration, customization tool kit, audit trail, Online help, integration, etc in the solution

5. Customisability: I have seen that big names do not offer customizability in the product and ultimately you end up with non integrated processes. So, you may check up with the implementation partner about the extent of the customization that can be offered with the product.

6. Implementation Partner: You must check, who is the implementation partner, his/her previous implementations, references, etc. It is advisable to ask for a visit at customer site of the ERP vendor. It is advisable to go for a big implementation partner as they can attract experienced & talented people as compared to the smaller one. You may have to pay the higher implementation charges for implementation but that is really worth.

7. ERP vendor: If the ERP vendor is not a big name then, you can check following things about the ERP vendor
i. CMMI 5 level certification
ii. Presence across the globe
iii. Product road maps and previous versions of the product
A good ERP vendor would be continuously upgarding and developing the new products based on changes in the technology.

8. Implementation Methodology: You must check for the implementation methodology being offered and insist for providing detailed project plan, efforts & resources planned by implementation partner in each phase. Success of an ERP implementation depends on the efforts planned for each of the phase and the quality of the resources. So you must check whether the implementation partner is providing good quality resources, enough time for each phase or not.

9. Demonstration: Always ask for a detailed product demonstration by prospective supplier by involving users of your organization and evaluate the product.

10. Selection of implementation partner: If OEM is providing implementation services then it is advisable that you should insist OEM to provide the complete services ie. Implementation, customization, etc. This can help you to negotiate the cost of license and AMC by leveraging your spend value for the project.

11. Total Cost of Ownership : It has been observed that the solution supplied, implemented, customised and maintained by OEM is very much cheaper in long run . When OEM and OEM partner, both, are involved in that case normally product is delivered by OEM while the partner carries out implementation and customisation. This results in significantly increased AMC cost where OEM would be charging the license on AMC ( 18% to 20%) and partner would also be charging AMC( 18% to 20%) on customisations seperately every year.