12 things your ERP vendor will never tell you

Like any business relationship, that between ERP vendor and client is a balance of trust and circumspection. That trust is built by both valuing your vendor’s expertise and demanding from them the highest standards.

Enterprise resource planning implementations are often large, lengthy and complex projects. The 2016 Panorama Consulting Report on ERP software found only 57% of respondents considered their new software a “success”. Reasons for dissatisfaction included schedule and cost overages caused by a variety of issues, including: data migration, expanded project scope, unrealistic timeline, priority conflicts, resource constraints and training, technical and organisational issues.

Organisations implementing an enterprise resource planning solution also experienced operational disruption to various extents. This could involve anything from difficulty shipping products to inability to close the books at the end of the financial quarter. An experienced ERP vendor will have processes in place to mitigate the risk of operational disruption, including the allocation of sufficient resources to organisational change management. One of the most important factors in the success of any ERP project is how well the organisation handles the business process reengineering and organisational change management.

Trust and circumspection means both valuing your vendor’s expertise and, at the same time, demanding from them the highest standards. What should you know in order to ensure a successful ERP implementation? Here are 12 things most software vendors will never tell you.

1. Secrecy has no place in an ERP project
2. Avoid a lengthy sales cycle
3. Let ERP vendors extract the truth
4. Beware software consultants who rush
5. Ask the tricky questions
6. The right contract for your ERP system
7. Licence sales
8. Resource your ERP project properly
9. Do the data cleansing NOW
10. Gear up for testing
11. Challenge slippage
12. Enterprise resource planning at warp speed

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