30 minutes with a senior advisor. Walk away with a vendor-neutral shortlist, a requirements sanity-check, and an honest read on a realistic programme.
No cost. No sales pitch. Senior consultants only — no junior gatekeeping.
Selected client work
The problem
Five vendors, fifty modules, and a board demanding a decision. Without a structured selection framework, teams default to whichever vendor demos best — not whichever fits best.
Every vendor promises a unified platform, AI-ready data, and a 6-month go-live. An independent advisor pressure-tests those claims against your real processes and integration estate.
Most ERP overruns are baked in before contract signature — unclear scope, wrong SI, under-resourced client side. The fix is upstream advisory, not more change requests.
The 30-minute call
No deck. No sales pitch. A working session with someone who has done this 50+ times across the industries that look like yours.
Capabilities
From boardroom strategy through to client-side delivery teams — engage at the stage that matches where you are.
Align business, digital and application strategy. Boardroom engagement to shape the transformation case before vendor selection begins.
Enterprise application selection across IFS, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Salesforce and Workday — plus the right System Integrator behind them.
Definition and design of business and IT operating models so the new ERP lands into an organisation that can actually use it.
Independent oversight of in-flight programmes, including intervention to turn around troubled implementations before they consume another budget cycle.
Due diligence, Day-1 readiness, separation/integration delivery and post-deal value creation — with 10 PE firms backing the methodology.
Application landscape rationalisation, capability and vendor alignment, commercial contracting — the architectural spine of large transformations.
Selected case studies
Retail & Consumer
£100m, 5-year channel change — delivered >40% of Costa revenue
Designed a 5-year digital transformation roadmap, established an internal digital capability with MuleSoft as technical enabler, and built the Costa Digital Channel app and loyalty solution.
eCommerce
PE-backed digital platform supporting organic + M&A growth
Aligned business and technology strategy for the PE-backed group, led due diligence on the Chain Reaction Cycles acquisition, then designed and led the integration of the combined entity.
Manufacturing (16 countries)
End-to-end business separation across a global, unionised footprint
Designed the PE-backed separation approach including TSAs, led the operational separation, outsourced infrastructure services, and stood up the standalone business while supporting an ERP & MES transformation.
Retail
5-year digital transformation, multi-channel cloud delivered on Microsoft + Board
Business & application strategy alignment, software selection, then delivery of a multi-channel cloud solution covering eCommerce, analytics, EPOS, finance, buying & merchandising, CRM and customer service.
Searchlight is led by partners with prior senior roles at Capgemini, KPMG, CSC and Getronics. Engagements are run by people who have been accountable for the outcomes they're advising on — not pitch-deck strategists.
Trusted across manufacturing, retail, consumer, financial services, healthcare and travel. Multiple industry award nominations. Crown Commercial Services supplier on G-Cloud 13/14 and Digital Outcomes & Specialists 5.
Book a call
30 minutes with a senior Searchlight advisor. Round-robin scheduling across the partner team — you'll get the right person for your sector.
Searchlight is an independent UK-based business-transformation consultancy established in 2008. They have ~340 consultants and associates and have led large-scale ERP and digital transformations for Costa, Wiggle, FatFace, Filtrona, Greggs, Travis Perkins and others — across manufacturing, retail, consumer, education, healthcare and private equity portfolios.
ERP Research is vendor-neutral — we don't take referral commissions from ERP vendors. Searchlight is the same: their advisory work is paid on its own merit, not on which ERP product gets selected. That alignment is rare and it's why we refer high-intent buyers their way.
The call is 30 minutes with a senior Searchlight advisor (no junior gatekeeping). You walk through your transformation goals, current systems, and the constraints you're working under. They walk you through whether they're the right fit — and if they're not, they'll tell you.
No. The discovery call is free. If there is a fit, Searchlight will scope a paid engagement; if there isn't, they'll point you to where you should be looking. ERP Research does not receive a kickback from any outcome.
Searchlight Consulting is an independent transformation consultancy. ERP Research refers high-intent buyers to Searchlight but does not take referral fees from ERP vendors. Advisory engagements are currently available to organisations headquartered in the United Kingdom and United States.