ERP SOFTWARE BUYERS GUIDE
Choosing a Trusted Partner
Whether to retain a third party consulting firm and if so, which consulting firm to retain are two choices that will dramatically influence ERP software implementation success. Below are several of the most frequently referenced criteria reviewed when selecting a third party consulting company.
- Prior experience with the designated ERP software system
- Degree of vested interest
- Caliber of consultants assigned to your engagement
- Experience and maturity
- Sufficient resource availability
- Specialists, not generalists
- Caution with references. Because there are no bad references (just like software vendors, consultants will never provide you a negative reference), a more common customer or market validation approach is to search the social media tools.
A few additional recommendations which can avoid great customer frustration and maximize the value of your consulting relationship include the following tips:
- Get the consultant resumes in advance.
- Review the recommended implementation methodology and implementation plan prior to contractual commitment. Also be sure to review total resourcing, timeframe, costs and planning assumptions in order to achieve mutual understanding before committing to a partnership.
- Avoid using Value Added Resellers (VARs) and system integration firms for software selection engagement or any consulting assignments which require independence and objectivity. The majority of VARs and integrators posses business partner arrangements and vested financial interests thereby predisposing any recommendation toward their own business interests.
Vendor Cultural Fit
Teaming with a consulting firm whose culture aligns to the mission, values and culture of your own company is a best practice that has proven to be extremely successful multiple times over. While this analysis is far less quantitative and more qualitative and for many companies there is no right or wrong criteria included or excluded in such an analysis, selecting a like minded business partner is proven to reduce implementation risk, result in a more productive engagement and achieve much higher long-term satisfaction. Several factors to stimulate your thinking for such an analysis may include the following items.
- Vendor business model – Is the ERP solution you’re procuring the vendor’s flagship product or one of several products in a broad vendor portfolio. For instance, does your vendor focus entirely on ERP software systems?
- Nature of the relationship – Are you looking for a software vendor or an IT partner?
- Do you simply want a vendor to perform tasks or will you desire advice and feedback on a long-term basis?
- Influence in the relationship – Do you desire to be influential with your vendor?
- Do you want anytime access to the vendor’s top technical people or executive management team or is acceptable to have limited access or only speak to empowered decision makers after incurring a chain of escalations?
- Implementation methodology – Do you intend to you the vendors implementation approach, a third party consultants implementation approach or possibly your own implementation methodology?
- Implementation roles – Do you desire the vendor, a third party consultant or somebody in your entity to play the lead role and perform the majority of the implementation services?
Buyers Guide Process | Buyers Guide Vendor Long List | Buyers Guide Vendor Short List | Buyers Guide Consultants
ERP Software Buyers Guide
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