ERP Vendors

ERP Vendor Reviews

ERP software systems are the backbone of a well-functioning business. This software provides a central database where data from all differing departments can be integrated and made available to all departments. Some of the departments handled by ERP are: finance, purchasing, inventory management, manufacturing, and customer relations.

The list of existing ERP vendors selling ERP software is long. It is important to consider this vendor list carefully because vendors are the experts. Vendors consult, clarify, install, adjust, customize, and provide continued maintenance support to the business which purchases their product. Therefore, it’s important to deal with a vendor who has a reputation not only for excellent products, but for excellent follow through.

While some vendor names, like Microsoft, Sage, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Net Suite are familiar, they in no way encompass the total number of current ERP vendors marketing, implementing, and maintaining very competitive and worthwhile products. So how to find the vendor who is going to work best for a particular business?

The relationship between ERP vendors and business-customers is one of partners. And, like with any other business partner, a company wants to find the vendor with which it connects and engages best. The ideal way to do this is for the business to first narrow the list of vendors down to those who sell the product it actually needs. ERP software is model-particular for company size, company product, and business functions -and not every vendor sells every model.

The next step is to evaluate all the ERP software vendors that meet the business’ initial criteria. They are not the same. It is important to note that independent research published this year concluded there is significant variation in average implementation costs, benefits realized, and time-lapse before financial benefits became noticeable.

Employees on the selection team should, therefore, be assigned to research trade magazines, websites, similar companies already using the product under consideration, and even ERP vendor reviews. ERP vendor reviews, although obviously put out by organizations with a financial interest in making the sales, are extremely helpful tools.  These reviews truthfully report decisive factors such as: functionality, flexibility, requirements fit, modules available, ability to integrate, and much more.  All of this is valuable information to a company trying to select an ERP software system.

After this research is completed, an important follow-up is to contact some of the different ERP vendors still being considered in order to ask them about issues pertinent to the unique operation in question, including how and why their product would be a good fit.

Written by :

Amy Cruz