Things to consider when choosing the ERP vendor

If you’ve decided on implementing an ERP to streamline your business processes then it means you’ve successfully crossed the first hurdle.

Now you’re in the middle of hundreds of ERP solution available in the market and not choosing the right software has a disastrous consequence. As the organization’s overall automation and management depends on the ERP solution, wrong choice of solution leads to implementation failure and causes huge loss to your business.

Doing the ERP selection process with the clear evaluation and understanding the ERP vendor can help in avoiding the consequences. That’s why we are here to guide you with few important things to be considered when choosing the right ERP vendors.

Determine your organization’s need

Before starting the ERP vendor selection, it’s important to evaluate your complete business process. The current process will help to define the requirements that you need in the new ERP solution and find the right solution that perfectly fits in, and in turn that system automates all your day-to-day operations.

A typical ERP solution has various modules Financial Accounting, Project Accounting, Project Management, Procurement and Inventory Control, Fixed Asset Management, Sales Management, Human Resource Management, Customer Relationship Management and more. The evaluation has to summarize the current business process and how that can be improved and performed efficiently.

All the modules are designed in a way of plug & play, and it can be implemented based on your business needs. With the wide-range of features, you can drill & down to know the exact solution that solves your current need and meets your future requirements.

Vendor selection terms

Now, you’ve the information on what you can receive from an ERP solution and the problems that are solved. With the detailed requirements in hand, you can cross-check the ERP features provided by each vendor.

For your specific business goals, some features of an ERP play a vital role in supporting the growth. You can evaluate the features that has higher impact in growth, essential functionality and nice to have. By ranking each required feature, you can easily prioritize what’s more important and it will help you in choosing the vendor who has solution is compatible for your needs.

Some of the other common factors to be considered

• The solution deployment is in cloud or on-premise in your own servers
• The scalability of the solution to adapt with the increase in users and other functionality requirements
• The implementation time frame to go live
• The compatibility to integrate with your existing software if any.
• The customized features to exactly cater to your unique business workflow
• The maintenance, support and data security of the solution
• The training program to get your system user’s well trained with the new application

Plan the budget and timeline

Now you know the complete features you want, it’s time to analyze the budget to spend on it. There are wide variety of ERP solutions in multiple price range and need to select the best that comes within the budget. An ERP solution is a business investment that brings significant return when used efficiently.

When an ERP is implemented on-premise, there are other cost factors to be considered. It includes the hardware that requires to deploy the software, the power the device consumes, the employee to manage the both the hardware and software, space to place the servers, etc.

If you are going for a cloud-based ERP solution, the above factors can be neglected. The complete hardware and software maintenance, and other required utilities will be taken care by the vendor. But you need to make sure that you have proper internet access, bandwidth to accommodate multiple users to access the solution at the same time.

When it comes to the time of implementation, it depends on the data to be migrated, training and customizing to meet any specific business process. It takes months to years depending upon the size of the business. The ERP solution is the only software the entire departments rely on for its day-to-day operations, and it has to be confirmed that it is without any glitches before going live.

Shortlist ERP vendors

With the complete knowledge on the ERP requirement and other dependencies, it’s time to start looking for the solution that matches your need and engage with them.

Each organization follows a different approach based on their understanding of the market and the data they gather about the vendors. If you are stuck on where to start, you can look for the ERP that is designed specifically for your industry. You can refer any software listing portal or get help from your industry association peers to get the ERP vendor list.

When you have the list of vendors with the potential solution, you can arrange for a demo with their representative, check out online demo or try free trial to get a clear picture of the software in action. You can share your detailed requirement with them, and see the product potential and understand how efficiently it can handle your business operations.

Compare with the list

Once you have the hand-picked list of vendors who stand up to your measures and requirements, you can compare to find the best fit. With the ranking we discussed earlier, you can rate each vendor and finalize the perfectly goes well for your business.

Take time and implement

Selecting the right ERP solution for your business is a huge process, so take time to clearly analyze the requirement, budget planning, evaluation and vendor comparison. Implementing an ERP is a long process and consumes time initially, but when it is deployed successfully, generates a great ROI.

Talk to our Horizon EBS implementation team. We have successfully completed 1000+ implementation in various industry in MENA region. Our team will provide you with the appropriate consultation for your ERP requirement. You can write to us at sales@fit.ae or call us at +971 4 353 3727.