ERP and CRM Selection Consulting

Choosing an ERP or CRM is a decision most organisations make two or three times in a generation, usually under time pressure, advised mainly by people who sell one of the options. It is unsurprising that so many implementations disappoint.

We provide vendor-neutral selection consulting. We do not resell any of these platforms and we take no vendor commission, so the recommendation is based on fit.

What the Work Involves

  • Requirements definition — what the business genuinely needs, separated from what is merely familiar.
  • Process review — because buying software to preserve a broken process is the most expensive mistake available.
  • Realistic vendor evaluation — scored against your requirements, with demos scripted around your scenarios rather than the vendor’s.
  • Total cost analysis — licences, implementation, integration, data migration, training and the ongoing cost most proposals understate.
  • Integration assessment — what it takes to connect to the systems you are keeping. See CRM and ERP integration.
  • Implementation planning — phasing, resourcing and the internal capacity actually required.

The Questions That Predict Success

In our experience the outcome is decided less by which platform is chosen than by whether the organisation was honest about three things: how much configuration it will really need, who internally will own it after go-live, and whether leadership will support changing a process rather than customising the software to preserve it.

Sometimes the Answer Is Not to Buy

If the real problem is that two existing systems do not talk to each other, integration is dramatically cheaper than replacement. We will tell you when that is the case, even though it is a smaller engagement.

Tell us what you are evaluating and why and we will help you make the decision on evidence.

Related services