ERP Selection: Define the Process Before You Watch a Demo

Most ERP selections start with demos. A few vendors are invited, each one shows a clean order flow on clean demo data, and the team leaves impressed. A few weeks later, the choice is made on screens, features and a feeling.

Then the implementation starts, and the real questions arrive. How do we handle returns? What about customers with three delivery addresses? Who approves a credit note? None of it was in the demo, because nobody asked.

A good ERP selection works the other way around. First you decide how the business should run. Then you check which software supports that best.

Why demo-first selections disappoint

A demo is a sales presentation. It is built to show the strongest parts of the product, on data that has no exceptions. That is fine, but it means a demo tells you very little about your own business.

Selections that start with demos usually run into three problems:

1. The requirements are a feature list, not a process. “Must have warehouse management” says nothing about how your warehouse actually works.
2. The exceptions are missing. Daily work is mostly exceptions: partial deliveries, price agreements, rush orders, corrections. Those decide whether a system fits.
3. Nobody owns the choice. When every department scores the demo on its own wishes, the decision becomes a compromise instead of a direction.

Step 1: Describe how the work runs today

Start with the main flows, from trigger to result. For most SMEs that means:

• Order to cash: from quote or order to delivery, invoice and payment.
• Purchase to pay: from need to purchase order, receipt and supplier invoice.
• Stock and warehouse: receiving, storage, picking, shipping, counting.
• Service: installations, maintenance, complaints and returns, if you have them.

Talk to the people who do the work, not only to their managers. Write down the steps, the handovers, the systems and spreadsheets used, and where it goes wrong. Keep it simple: a page per flow is enough.

Step 2: Decide what the future process should be

This is the step most selections skip. A new ERP is the moment to remove steps that only exist because the old system could not do better. If you copy today’s process into new software, you pay for a new system and keep the old problems.

For each flow, decide what should change and why. Link it to a few business KPIs you want to improve, for example order lead time, orders delivered complete, or time spent on manual corrections. Those KPIs will guide the selection, and later the project.

Step 3: Turn the process into requirements

Now write the requirements, based on the future process:

• Must-haves that come straight from your processes and KPIs.
• Exceptions that happen every week, with real examples.
• Integrations with the tools you keep: CRM, webshop, planning, EDI, banking, reporting.
• Volumes: orders, order lines, articles, users and entities.

Keep the list short enough that you can actually test it. Fifty sharp requirements are worth more than five hundred generic ones.

Step 4: Make vendors show your process

Instead of a standard demo, give each vendor a script: two or three of your real flows, including the exceptions, and a sample of your own data. Ask them to show how the system handles it, and to say openly where they would need customisation.

Score each vendor on the same script, with the people who do the work in the room. A system that needs few changes for your key flows will usually be cheaper and easier to keep up to date.

Step 5: Look beyond the software

The software is only part of the choice. Also look at:

• The implementation partner. Working with a Microsoft partner, or any established partner, brings continuity. If a consultant leaves, colleagues can ideally take over fairly quickly. Ask who will actually work on your project, and how continuity is organised.
• References in your sector. Ask to speak with a similar company, ideally one that went live in the last two years.
• Total cost over several years: licences, implementation, support, upgrades and your own people’s time.
• What happens after go-live: who supports users, who maintains master data, who handles changes.

Who should run the selection

An ERP selection needs one owner on the company side, with the authority to decide. It also helps to have someone independent at the table: a person who knows ERP projects, has no stake in which vendor wins, and keeps asking how each option serves the business KPIs.

Ben Van Aken has led ERP selections and migrations, including a selection that resulted in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. He approaches them as a business generalist: process and KPIs first, software second.

A short checklist

1. Map the main flows with the people who do the work.
2. Decide what the future process should be.
3. Pick three to five KPIs the new ERP must improve.
4. Write sharp requirements, including real exceptions.
5. Give every vendor the same script and your own data.
6. Ask who will actually work on your project, and how continuity is covered.
7. Call references in your sector.
8. Compare total cost over several years, not only licences.

The bottom line

The best ERP selection is not the one with the most impressive demo. It is the one where the company knew what it wanted before the vendors arrived. Define the process first, and the software choice gets much easier.