ERP Strategy & Selection

ERP selection that survives contact with reality

Most ERP selection processes produce a spreadsheet of features and a winner that hits the most checkboxes. Six months in, the gaps show. We run selection as a structured engagement that checks the things spreadsheets cannot.

Our process

1. Current-state — what you actually use, what you have paid for but don’t use, where processes are manual, where spreadsheets have replaced the ERP.
2. Requirements — prioritized with your functional leads, weighted by business impact, not vendor capabilities.
3. Longlist — the set of candidates that could fit. Usually 5–8 systems, including “stay and extend.”
4. Shortlist — the 2–3 that actually fit, scored against your weighted requirements.
5. TCO model — 3-year and 5-year costs with license, implementation, data migration, training, support, and realistic change-request load. Not the vendor’s quote, our estimate.
6. Recommendation — including the recommendation against replacing, where that is right.

Where our recommendation has gone

• Odoo: manufacturing mid-market, cost-sensitive scaling, EU / MENA regional coverage.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: deep Microsoft ecosystem, specific industry fits.
• NetSuite: US-focused, finance-heavy, subscription revenue.
• SAP Business One: certain manufacturing and distribution verticals, compliance-sensitive.
• Stay and extend: more often than vendors like to hear. Sometimes the honest answer is to fix the process and keep the system.