Important Factors In Selecting Proper ERP Vendors

Choosing ERP solution is obviously not easy and  can be both complicated and cumbersome given the range of choices. In addition to ERP software selection, you have to choose which vendor you will assign to implementing it. Typically the vendor which you purchase the software is also the vendor that implements it. Your ERP implementation will most likely fail if you choose inappropriate ERP vendors even though you have the best ERP software.

ERP Software Vendors

The easiest way to find proper ERP vendors is by either consulting or reviewing available information from other companies that have similarities in industry and business process.  But this approach can be very difficult to do that because in general no company will have same business process among the others and often are not eager to provide the type of comprehensive review that would be of benefit to you.  Fortunately there are few factors you can use to select among the top ERP vendors.

In this article I am going to share some factors to take into consideration when selecting appropriate ERP vendors.

Important Ranking Factors For ERP vendors

1. Industry experience. Select vendors that have many years of industry experience, various customers and also extensive knowledge of market. With such experience typically they are able to give good advices how to get maximum benefit of ERP implementation based on company’s business process. We can also consult with them regarding which existing business process still can be implemented and which ones should be changed / customized.

2. ERP Vendors Credibility. In my opinion we can know the credibility based on how many implementation they have accomplished and how many customers that satisfied with the service. An indicator you may use is the market share. For example you would like to implement SAP software and there are five SAP vendors in your list. You should check the market share between those vendors. If a ERP vendors ranking leads the share in recent consecutive years, you may use it as an indicator that the vendor has good credibility because we generally assume they have many good references that prompt customer to choose them rather than the others. However, you will get better result if the market share is in same industry. Again, the honest review of their clients is very important. If you can get it, go ahead.

3. Implementation Methodology. Some ERP vendors may have different methodology approach in implementation. I think the methodology is an important factor to take into consideration because in addition to determine the business process, we can know how they will transfer their knowledge so that users will be able to use the software independently. As we know the user knowledge and skill are two important components that make sure the continuity of software usage. Usually they will train a number of key users to be trainers for other users. But it may different between vendors. You should choose the methodology that fit with your company’s environment.

4. Customer service. Customer service is very important in ERP implementation because it’s complicated software that integrates information from several departments. In my experience, after signing off, we usually find few unexpected errors or a situation that was not covered in training scenario. That’s why we need support from vendor to solve it. Since it is so important you have to check out how solid customer service department they have.

5. Competitive edge: Today the competition between ERP vendors is very tight. The competition is not only between different ERP software but also between vendors that offer similar ERP software. Usually they compete in implementation rate and extra features. Obviously this situation presents you an advantage to get good price or additional features / service. However, I think credibility of vendors is still more important. You will waste the ERP investment if the implementation is fail.  Anyway, it would be great if you can get reputable ERP vendor with low price without reducing service quality. Absolutely it’s not easy but not impossible remembering very tight competition.

Feel free to explore pages of our site to discover more information about this topic. If you find other important factors in selecting proper ERP vendors, please let me know.

Other interesting article regarding ERP vendors :

Top ERP vendors
Choose the best ERP
ERP market share and vendor evaluation 2010
ERP market share and vendor evaluation 2011