9 Games ERP Consultants Play

By |January 14th, 2013|

  Most people in the ERP industry agree that software consultants can play a major role in helping their clients successfully implement a new ERP package. While some consulting firms have more expertise than others do, at least most firms try to operate with their client’s best interest in mind. However, many firms within the ERP industry are outright thieves. They will not hesitate to take advantage of their clients with consulting games to pad their own wallets. In fact, some firms are [...]

ERP Software Selection: Do you want to be a Guinea Pig?

By |August 9th, 2010|

“If the software functionality does not do what we need it to do, nothing else really matters.” Back in the 1980’s, IT department preferences or mandates for specific proprietary mainframe technologies drove many ERP software decisions. They focused on the technologies the IT department could (or would) support, not the mainframe software that best satisfied business needs. Later in the 1990’s, the mainframe vs. open system (client/server) wars caused many to take a blind leap of faith into ope [...]

More on Vendor Selection Criteria and Methods for ERP Project Success

By |June 29th, 2010|

Using the RFI and RFP Process for your ERP or SAP Education During the vendor selection process, you should use the RFI (Request for Information) and RFP (Request for Proposal) processes to solicit comments, methods, tools, and resource examples of how knowledge transfer will be handled. In other words, be sure to actively engage in the RFI and RFP processes rather than simply using them as some kind of a checklist or scorecard for the correct vendor. This is your first and best chance to gain [...]

ERP Project Plan: Getting Real (Part 4)

By |June 17th, 2010|

Twelve Tips to Avoid an ERP Schedule Disaster In my previous blog entries, we established the need to develop a valid ERP project schedule as a tool to manage the project and set the right expectations (in terms of time and budget). The point is ERP planning is not about throwing darts to come up with dates or forcing a schedule to say what we want it to say. We can wish all we want, but a schedule should reflect project realities, and agreed upon planning assumptions. In addition, we previousl [...]

Sales, Software Selection Scams, and Performing Your Own Software Selection

By |March 11th, 2010|

A while back, I did a proposal to help a fairly large retailer do a software and vendor selection. Because of my many years of experience with SAP, they were concerned about whether I could be objective and unbiased. That is not only a fair question, but a critically important question. I decided to approach this sales presentation effort differently by providing solid, verifiable, and objective methods to evaluate software fit as well as vendor fit. Although the client company was gracious, acc [...]