Everyone knows about the unwary who was caught in costly implementations that went awry or even worse purchased software and never utilised it to its full potential.

These are the 10 key areas you need to look at when looking for ERP systems to make sure you are making a smart investment.

  1. Required Functionality: This is the biggest requirement for any investment that you make, and doubly so for any ERP system that you are looking for. It is important to spend the time to analyse the key areas in your organisation and how you wish to modify these areas wish to achieve your goals. Required functionality of any prospective system should be your ‘bread and butter’ and form the key to what you want your new system to achieve.
  2. Common Platform: A widely accepted and popular platform is important. It avoids the use of low use, high cost software which is usually associated with high cost technical labour. The more common a platform is usually equates to a more reasonable product and services. Most vendors choose to work with Microsoft products like SharePoint and SQL server for these reasons.
  3. Support Resources: Always look for ERP providers that have a wealth of resources to assist with your implementation and support. Things such as support plans and teams that are cross-trained in server and connectivity and support infrastructure are key areas to look at.
  4. Total Cost of Ownership: When evaluating a solution do not fall into the trap of buying the cheapest or most discounted product. Software functionality, implementation services, hardware and ongoing maintenances, support and upgrade costs are all key areas with are important to return on investment and can be very costly.
  5. Protection against Obsolescence: Software buyouts are more prevalent than ever, and it is important to look for a support guarantee for your product. Without this, you are at risk of hidden costs in upgrades or if a vendor decides to discontinue the product.
  6. Cap on Annual Support fees: Look for a vendor who offers an annual fee, which includes software updates and support but also future research and development. Having an annual fee means you are budgeting and accounting will be more accurate.
  7. Powerful Business Intelligence: The payoff of having an ERP system is the effective use of data. While smaller systems do, a fine job of processing transactions ERP systems ultimately can access all of your business data and utilise this to provide a competitive advantage for your organisations decision making and intelligence.
  8. Vendor stability: When evaluating and ERP system the vendors track record is very important. Consider any possible vendor’s staying power in the market and their expertise to be able to maintain the best levels of service possible.
  9. Familiarity: Your success depends on how comfortable your users are with learning the new ERP system and their willingness to embrace change. Making sure the interface is easy to use and intuitive make it easier on your staff to learn the new system quickly and efficiently.
  10. Safety in Numbers: Software stability is largely dependent on how many companies currently bug-proof it in actual production environments. Look for an ERP solution that is widely accepted and used by similar companies in your industry.