Are You Considering Everything When Looking for an ERP Partner?

When selecting a partner to help with your enterprise resource planning solution there are certain traits you tend to look for. A proven track record of success with clients in your industry is usually at the top of the list. Others may include costs, the services provided or even the amount of attention they give you prior to signing a contract. There are, of course, other characteristics that you will look for in a potential partner however, there are some that are often forgotten about. These are the ones that can help you choose between an average partner and a great one.

How well they understand your processes

If you haven’t realized it by now, your ERP solution is all about helping you improve the efficiency of your business processes and leveraging data to make faster, better decisions. Most partners understand general business processes and show how they can help improve them, but are they using your business processes as the examples? The partner you want to have on your team is the one who will take the time to map out your processes and really understand why they are in place to truly lead your ERP deployment project down the path to success.

How they plan to train your team

Have you ever spent time in a generic software training session? Most of the people in there are watching the trainer show them things that have no bearing on their day to day job duties. And forget about specific issues that may come up, those usually aren’t in the script.

Good training sessions, however, are tailored to the specific users. They don’t rely on the cookie cutter approach rather they pull individuals into sessions that teach them what they need to know to do their jobs and they address the roadblocks that they will likely encounter as they are using the system.

Are they visionaries?

Replicating success can be a good thing because the methods are proven to work. However, your ERP implementation partner should not limit you to just what works. You want them to help you look for the best ways to leverage your ERP solution in the future as well. They should be helping you build a roadmap for future success. Make sure that they are looking for new ways to help you improve your business operations by tying your data and other software systems into the ERP solution they are helping you put into place.

It takes quite a bit of time to sift through ERP implementation partners, and sitting through conversation after conversation gets old after a while. Yet when you consider the fact that 75 percent of all ERP projects fail you can see how finding the right partner can make all the difference in helping you understand the confusion that most businesses face. The same study from Gartner that revealed that high failure rate also found that 55 percent of businesses want an ERP partner that understands their business requirements. This comes from selecting the right partner, not just the one who looks the best on paper.