By: Joe Blauert

“Just send me a quote, do a quick web-demo, and I’ll make a decision.” 

A quick decision approach is perhaps a tempting way to think about buying an ERP system, especially after multiple phone calls, demos, and visits with a number of different software vendors, but not a process that will typically yield the best solution for your business.  In order to make a good decision on an investment that will significantly impact the efficiency and performance of your company, you will need to invest significant time.  Software companies that are seeking your business should also be willing to invest significant time to ensure that they know the unique aspects of your business and can directly tie their solution to those requirements.  One of the most important steps in a software vendor’s pursuit of your business is discovery.  The discovery process entails a fairly detailed tour of your facility, in-depth discussions with all the key department stakeholders in your business, and a final visit or call to confirm their compatibility findings.  The discovery process should be completed before a vendor ever begins to demonstrate the details of its software.  When working with vertical market oriented software solutions as compared to broader application solutions, there should still be a number of different ways to allow you to execute on major business processes that incorporate best practices from a variety of similar businesses.  Knowing your unique requirements [read more in this white paper: How to Choose an ERP] will help a vendor show you very specific functionality that will greatly enhance your business.  If a software vendor is not interested in discovery, it is either not capable of meeting unique requirements, or not experts in the market that your business competes in.  Either way, the vendor is not a good fit for you and the solution will not provide the return you need to justify significant investment.