Best practice to get most value from an ERP Demo

You’ve convinced the executives and key decision makers that your organization needs an upgraded ERP solution or a new one. You have to choose the right ERP solution that suits your need from the list software application available. To make the smartest choice, you will need a product demo to get the information you require.

A product demo can show you how exactly the product works for your specific business needs. Because all the industry doesn’t work in the same way and even all the organization in the same industry works differently. A great demo will be a 30-60 minutes of time where you and vendor discuss your business in detail as much as the product.

To evaluate whether the product is right for you, you should have a solid assessment by the end of demo. Let’s dive into to understand the software selection process

Discover your ERP requirement

It may seem counterintuitive; the search of a good ERP solution doesn’t start with the demo. It actually starts with your team that operates and organization. Before schedule a demo, you need to consider thinking about the following

• Gather your team. When choosing a software like ERP with multiple functions, its always helpful to evaluate as team. Having a group of people allows to brainstorm together, share required features, and can get views from multiple perspective.
• List down your requirements. Write down all the features discussed as a team and categorize them into must have, should have, could have or wish to have. When the needs are categorized, your demo experience will be valuable.
• Plan questions to be asked. Having the questions ready will ensure that the demo doesn’t be like just the product show. While you ask questions as per your unique need, you can get the good look under the hood of their solution.                

Schedule the product demo

Before sitting down to the demo, spend few mins of your time with the vendor elaborating your business goals, core processes and any relevant information. The more information they get, they will be better equipped to highlight the most appropriate features.

With the demo scheduled, make sure you get the demo in the way you wanted it to be. Focus on the objectives conveyed to your vendor and never let them slip into the generic script. At end of the demonstration, ask the questions prepared to get to know the features of your interest. Take complete notes on the features discuss to have a comparative study between other solutions to finalize the decision.

Post demo evaluation with team

Following the ERP demo, make sure your team had the opportunity to sit together to share their first impressions, features they liked, what they didn’t, key takeaway points, concerns or additional questions they have, etc. As you debrief, you’ll be able to determine whether to have a second round of demo. That’s a good thing to deep dive into full functionality of a software like ERP solutions. At this point, the team can review the software performance, functionality and overall capability of the software.

After all the feature requirements are met, see how your vendor is willing to help you in getting the software implemented and train the employees to use. If the training and support they offer is fully satisfying, that’s a strong indication on how well they will help you throughout the implementation process. And it’s a right decision to select the solution for your organization.

Wrap Up

An ERP software demo is much more than a 30-60 minutes product overview. It certainly does that, but all the information you’ve received from the vendor until now, including Request For Information (RFI) responses and ERP demo should help you confidently move forward and make the decision on choosing the right ERP for your organization.

Make sure you have reassured all your requirements. If the ERP solution demo is satisfying, it is just the beginning of the relationship with the vendor. So, ask vendors about pricing, support, product capability to expand to evaluate in detail and confidently invest in the solution that fits your organization’s unique needs and avoid implementation failure. Be more careful before choosing the ERP and then you can enjoy quicker gains.

Leverage the best ERP – Horizon EBS solution to manage your organization. You can contact us via email at sales@fit.ae or call us at +971 4 353 3727 to get started on your ERP selection and implementation.