ERP Comparison

ERP Comparison FAQ

Why compare ERP systems?

Comparing ERP systems is a mandatory process for a successful ERP project. It's important to undertake an ERP system comparison in order to derisk your project by ensuring that you select the best ERP for your company during your ERP comparison process. Evaluating ERP systems is one of the most crucial elements of your ERP selection process and enables your organization to identify which ERP systems best suit your needs, increasing the fit between your business needs and the systems inherent functional capabilities. This reduces the time to implement a new ERP solution and increases the chances of ERP project success.

How do you compare ERP systems?

For an effective ERP comparison, most organizations will review and evaluate up to 10 ERP vendors & solutions. Whilst the list may be long initially, oftentimes an organization will quickly discount 4-5 of those solutions after an initial ERP comparison. It is important to compare those ERP solutions based on their fit to your particular company needs. Many ERP systems will be well suited to organizations of a particular size or in particular industries of geographies. An effective and thorough ERP software comparison can take anywhere from 2 months to 1 year or more depending on how many ERP systems you choose to compare, the amount of functionality required, the size of your evaluation team and their bandwidth.

The first step of an ERP comparison process is typically to perform research of the ERP vendor market. This can be done online, using websites and sources such as ERP Research. Secondly, you will want to arrange initial calls with ERP system providers for your ERP comparison process.

How long does it take to compare ERP systems?

Performing an ERP comparison process can take anywhere from 1-2 months to several years. An ERP comparison process relies upon a strong set of ERP requirements. After you have gathered ERP requirements for your ERP comparison process, you then need to select a number of vendors and ERP solutions to evaluate.

In most cases, it will take longer to compare ERP systems than you originally anticipate. Common factors which delay an ERP comparison are generally: unexpected absences, unexpected business changes and impacts, vendors or ERP systems integrators taking longer than planned, RFI or RFP extensions, delays in preparing ERP comparison demonstrations and more.

How many solutions should be in an ERP comparison?

We recommend that you compare ERP systems from at least 4 ERP vendors, however many organizations will compare as little as two ERP systems and as many as 20. If you wish to compare ERP systems from a large number of ERP vendors, then we recommend doing this in several stages, whittling down ERP systems step by step based on fundamental ERP selection criteria.

Each company generally has a different approach on comparing ERP software. In some cases, an ERP comparison can simply be a box-ticking exercise which is completed to provide commercial competition for an ERP solution they have already been recommended or intent to purchase.

What is ERP software?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software enables an organization to integrate data from different departments to get one view of their business. By integrating data, an ERP system can also provide workflows which enables an organization to automate tasks and process across multiple departments, entities and geographies in real-time. ERP software can include a variety of modules depending on the needs of your business, including financial management and accounting, human resources, manufacturing, production, professional services automation and much more.

What are the benefits of ERP?

ERP systems can provide multiple benefits depending on the organization that chooses to implement it.  In general, an ERP system will provide the following benefits:

• • Increased efficiencies through ERP automation.
  • Greater visibility of key business metrics and KPIs.
  • Reduced compliance risks.
  • Greater customer satisfaction.

How much does ERP software cost?

When comparing ERP systems and software, a major part of your ERP comparison should consider the costs of purchasing and implementing that enterprise resource planning software. The costs of an ERP project generally include licensing, implementation, support and upgrade costs. These costs can fluctuate depending on various factors, including which ERP software you choose to implement, which is why it's so important to compare ERP systems.

How long does it take to implement ERP software?

ERP implementations can last anywhere from 2-3 months through to several years. The length of your ERP implementation will vary depending on multiple factors including:

• • Size of organization implementing ERP.
  • Complexity and scope of business processes being implemented in the ERP.
  • Bandwidth of your internal resource to dedicate to the ERP project.

How many ERP Vendors & Solutions are there?

Part of the reason why ERP Research exists is because there are literally hundreds of different ERP vendors & solutions available on the market. Some ERP vendors such as SAP, Microsoft and Oracle even have several different ERP products. Comparing ERP like Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Workday and Dynamics can take a very long time, which is why we make the process faster with our self service, online tools and resources.