ERP RFP & Evaluation Questions

Updated: July 2026

The most important ERP RFP questions fall into six categories: functional fit, implementation, pricing and total cost of ownership, security and compliance, support, and customer references. Ask each vendor and implementation partner the same questions, and document your requirements before you send the RFP.

This guide gives you a comprehensive, ready-to-use list of ERP RFP questions to ask vendors and implementation partners so you can evaluate which ERP software is right for your business. It is built for the business leaders, finance teams, and IT managers who are writing or leading an ERP request for proposal (RFP).

We answer the questions buyers ask us most:

• What questions should I ask during my ERP RFP process?
• Which questions should I ask an ERP vendor?
• Which questions should I ask an ERP consulting company or implementation partner?
• How do I compare ERP vendor responses fairly?

Before you write a single question, document what you actually need. A strong RFP is built on a clear set of requirements, so start with our ERP requirements guide and ERP functional requirements breakdown, then formalize your criteria with our ERP selection criteria framework. When you are ready to structure the document itself, use our free ERP RFP template rather than starting from a blank page.

The fastest way to produce your requirements is our interactive tool below — it walks you through industry, processes, and modules, then exports a vendor-ready list you can drop straight into your RFP.

Build your ERP requirements free Explore functional requirements Compare ERP systems

Vendor background & viability questions

Before you assess features, confirm the vendor and product are stable enough to bet your business on for the next decade. These questions gauge financial strength, market traction, and long-term investment.

• How many businesses use this specific ERP product today? (Be precise — many vendors sell several products.)
• How many customers in my industry run this ERP, and can you name a few?
• How many customers in my country or region use it, and does it support our local accounting and tax requirements?
• When was the product launched, and what is its market position versus competitors?
• What is your product roadmap for the next 12 to 36 months?
• How often do you release meaningful updates, and how are they delivered?

Why it matters: Low adoption in your industry can signal missing functionality, and a thin roadmap is a red flag that the vendor is under-investing in the product. Frequent, meaningful updates show the platform will keep pace with your business and stay supported long after you sign.

Functional fit & requirements questions

This is the heart of the RFP: does the software actually do what your business needs? You can only answer that if you have documented your requirements across every department first.

Most companies list their needs across:

• Finance and accounting
• Procurement and purchasing
• Supply chain and inventory management
• Project management
• Manufacturing and production
• Human resources and payroll

Then ask each vendor:

• Which of our documented requirements are met out of the box, versus through configuration, customization, or a third-party add-on?
• Can you demonstrate our top priority processes in a scripted demo using our data?
• What industry-specific functionality do you provide for our sector?
• Which requirements can your product not meet today, and are they on the roadmap?

Why it matters: Vendors will happily say "yes, we can do that," but the real cost lives in the difference between standard, configured, and custom functionality. Forcing a written, per-requirement answer exposes gaps before you sign, not during a stalled implementation. We catalogue the strongest fits by sector — including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, professional services, medical devices, retail, distribution, and construction.

Technical, integration & architecture questions

ERP does not run in isolation. These questions confirm the software fits your technology environment and can exchange data with the rest of your systems.

• Is the product cloud-native (multi-tenant SaaS), single-tenant hosted, or on-premise, and what are the trade-offs for us?
• What integration options do you offer — APIs, pre-built connectors, middleware, or file-based transfer?
• How will you integrate with our existing systems (CRM, e-commerce, WMS, payroll, BI)?
• What is your uptime and where is our data hosted?
• How do you handle customizations during upgrades — do they carry forward automatically?

Why it matters: Poor integration and upgrade-breaking customizations are two of the most common causes of runaway ERP costs. Understanding the architecture up front tells you how flexible, future-proof, and expensive the platform will be to run.

Implementation & timeline questions (for partners)

Your ERP is only as good as its implementation. Most ERP is deployed by an implementation partner, reseller, or system integrator — so ask them, separately from the vendor:

• How many implementations of this product have you completed, and how many in my industry?
• Which companies do you typically serve, and where would we sit in your customer base by size?
• Have you implemented ERP for any of our competitors or peers?
• What is your implementation methodology, and what is a realistic timeline for a project like ours?
• What is your resourcing model — onshore, offshore, or blended — and who exactly will be on our team?
• What is your current availability and resource utilization?

Why it matters: Sitting in the middle to upper end of a partner's customer base makes your project a priority. An overbooked partner causes delays, while one with too much idle capacity may be a warning sign. Knowing the resourcing model and named team protects delivery quality, cost, and timeline.

Data migration & training questions

The two areas buyers most often under-scope are data migration and user adoption. Pin them down in the RFP.

• How will our data be migrated, cleansed, and validated, and what is expected of our team?
• How much historical data can we bring across, and in what format?
• What training do you provide, and is it role-based?
• What change management support is included to drive user adoption?
• How do you handle testing, user acceptance, and go-live cutover?

Why it matters: Dirty data and untrained users sink more ERP projects than software gaps do. Getting migration and training scoped in the RFP prevents expensive change orders later.

Pricing & total cost of ownership (TCO) questions

Never evaluate ERP on the sticker price alone. These questions surface the true multi-year cost.

• What is the full breakdown of license or subscription fees by user type and module?
• What are the one-time costs — implementation, data migration, integrations, and customization?
• What ongoing costs should we budget for (support, maintenance, sandbox environments, add-ons)?
• How long is pricing fixed for, and what are the renewal and price-increase terms?
• What is the estimated three-to-five-year total cost of ownership?

Why it matters: Many ERP buyers are stung by price hikes once the initial contract term expires. Asking about fixed-price periods and renewal caps up front locks in protection, and a full TCO view lets you compare vendors on the same basis. For a deeper cost breakdown, see our ERP selection criteria guide.

Security & compliance questions

Security and compliance are non-negotiable, especially for cloud ERP that holds your financial and customer data.

• What certifications do you hold (SOC 2, ISO 27001, and any industry-specific standards)?
• Where is our data stored, and can we choose the data-residency region?
• How is data encrypted in transit and at rest?
• What is your incident-response and breach-notification process?
• How do you support our compliance obligations (GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, or industry regulations)?

Why it matters: A security failure at your ERP vendor is a security failure for your business. Documented certifications and clear data-residency and incident-response answers separate enterprise-grade vendors from the rest.

Support & SLA questions

After go-live, support quality determines your day-to-day experience with the system.

• What support tiers do you offer, and what is included as standard versus paid?
• What are your guaranteed response and resolution times in the SLA?
• Is support provided directly by the vendor or through the implementation partner?
• What are your support hours relative to our time zones?
• How do you handle escalations and critical outages?

Why it matters: A published SLA with real response and resolution commitments is worth more than a vague promise of "great support." Clarify who owns support — vendor or partner — so nothing falls through the cracks after you go live.

Customer reference questions

Vendor and partner claims mean little without independent proof. Always secure reference calls before you sign.

• Can we speak directly with at least one customer of similar size and industry?
• Can we talk to a reference the vendor did not hand-pick?
• What went well, and what would you do differently, on your implementation?
• Did the project land on time and on budget?

Why it matters: Nothing beats a first-hand review from a trusted source. A vendor unwilling to arrange candid reference calls is telling you something important. Use references to validate the claims made in the rest of the RFP.

How to compare ERP vendor responses

Ask every vendor and partner the same questions in the same order, and score their answers against your documented requirements using a weighted ERP selection criteria matrix. Weight the categories that matter most to your business — functional fit and TCO usually rank highest — and insist on written, per-requirement responses so you can compare like for like. When you are ready to shortlist, compare leading ERP systems side by side.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should an ERP RFP include?

An ERP RFP should include a company background and project overview, a documented list of functional and technical requirements, and a structured set of questions covering functional fit, technical and integration needs, implementation, data migration and training, pricing and total cost of ownership, security and compliance, support, and customer references. It should also state your evaluation criteria and timeline so vendors know how they will be scored.

How many questions should an ERP RFP have?

There is no fixed number, but a thorough ERP RFP typically contains 40 to 100 questions spread across the core categories, plus your detailed requirements list. Quality matters more than quantity — every question should map to a decision you need to make. Too few and you cannot differentiate vendors; too many and you overwhelm both the vendors and your own evaluation team.

What is the difference between an ERP RFP and an ERP RFI?

An RFI (request for information) is an early, lightweight document used to gather high-level information and build a longlist of potential vendors. An RFP (request for proposal) comes later, goes to a shortlist, and asks for detailed answers, pricing, and demonstrations against your specific requirements. Many buyers issue an RFI first to narrow the field, then send a focused RFP to three to five finalists.

How do you evaluate ERP vendor responses?

Score each response against your documented requirements using a weighted scoring matrix, giving more weight to the categories most important to your business. Insist on written, per-requirement answers, run scripted demos using your own data, and validate claims through independent customer reference calls. Comparing vendors on the same questions and the same total cost of ownership basis keeps the evaluation objective.

Should I use an ERP RFP template?

Yes. A template ensures you cover every category consistently and lets vendors respond in a comparable format, which makes scoring far easier. Start from our free ERP RFP template and tailor the questions to your industry and requirements rather than sending a generic list. Pair it with a documented requirements set so vendors answer against what you actually need.

Who should be involved in writing the ERP RFP?

The RFP should be a cross-functional effort. Include representatives from finance, operations, IT, and any department the ERP will touch, plus an executive sponsor to set priorities and a project lead to own the document. Involving end users early improves the quality of your requirements and drives adoption once the system goes live.