By Joe Blauert

The product demonstration is in many ways the most important step in the buying process. Unfortunately, many prospective customers approach this with too little preparation and forethought.  In order to truly see how the prospective software will work for you, you need to invest time into preparing for this event.  Provide the vendors with real samples of your data, and a script of the key business processes you want to see demonstrated in their product.  Even with a focused and scripted approach, a demonstration that is detailed enough to show you what you need to see will probably take eight hours. Doing it in less time will rob you of the opportunity to see what you really want to see.  You may even want to break it up into two half-days so that your internal evaluators are focused and fresh, and so you have some time each day to do your regular jobs.  A sample outline for a batch process manufacturer looking at ERP might look something like this:

Bill of Material/Formula Management
BOM layout & Multi-level BOM’s
Revision Tracking
Overhead/Burdening of Intermediates/Finished Goods

Quality Control (QC/QA)
Entry of QC/QA tests and definitions
QC tests for RM’s, Intermediates and Finished Goods
Entry of test results and reporting of results
Reporting, C of A, Lot Tracking

Research & Development (R&D)
“Sandbox” environment use live data, including costs
Experimental / R&D item  entry
Quoting
From R&D to mass production

Manufacturing and Purchasing
MRP Functionality with Manufacturing
MRP Supply/Demand Report
Generation of Work Orders (Batch Tickets)
Scheduling of Work Orders (Batch Tickets) – Capacity Planning
Posting of Inventory from Manufacturing
Blanket Purchase Order Process
Scheduling the Receiving of Raw Materials
MRP Functionality with Purchasing
Posting of Inventory from Manufacturing
MRP Functionality with Purchasing

Inventory Management
Inventory by Location Options
Specifics to an Inventory Item
Types of Items handled
Warehouse Solutions – Handheld scanning

Order Entry
Customer Maintenance
Definable specific customer requirements
Ability to document specifics about orders and customers
Specific customer payment/sales terms
Item Pricing/Contract Pricing
Order Entry process
Shipping Process
Generation of Shipping documents

Accounting (GL/AP/AR)
General Ledger
Accounts Payable
3 way match, Approve to Pay, Print Checks
Bank Reconciliation
Landed Cost
Accounts Receivable

For more information on how to choose an ERP system that is right for your business, download our whitepaper, attend a webinar,  or contact the ProcessPro consultants to help guide you through the process.