Choosing a good ERP provider is a decision that takes a fair amount of time to weigh up. You could say a business or organisation has to think hard about it, because it means building a management system for the enterprise, and that management system will affect the enterprise over the long term.

Beyond planning internally so that the ERP system can be implemented, another major challenge a business or organisation faces is deciding which ERP provider to choose.

This article offers information to help a business or organisation choose an ERP provider with greater confidence, covering 9 points as follows:

Technical expertise
Ability to upgrade and improve the ERP system
Technical support
Price and cost
Ease of adoption
Data security
Experience and references
Teaching and training
After-sales service

1. Technical expertise

A good ERP provider should have a team with technical expertise, an ERP system that genuinely supports the customer’s needs, and the ability to fix problems that may arise during the customer’s use of the system. It should be a provider committed to seeing the work through until the customer can close their books — not abandoning the customer midway.

Examples of problems that can arise when using an ERP system

A problem caused by the customer choosing the wrong data path, so the system does not display the desired result
A problem caused by the customer not entering all the conditions the system requires, so the system throws an exception
A problem caused by a cache in the system that slows it down
A problem caused by the ERP provider stopping or cancelling its service

In summary: to choose a good ERP provider, the customer should consider technical expertise that can resolve usage issues, and professionalism that means the job will not be abandoned before it is complete.

2. Ability to upgrade and improve the ERP system

When you use an ERP system, a good ERP provider will update the system for the customer regularly — for example, once a year.

In addition, the ERP provider should support improving or changing certain functions in the system, so the ERP system meets the customer’s needs as effectively as possible.

In summary: a good ERP provider should update the system regularly and be able to improve the ERP system to match the customer’s needs.

3. Technical support

A good ERP provider should have a support system to receive reports of problems from the customer’s use, and a team that can help resolve the customer’s technical issues quickly.

In an emergency, the ERP provider should be skilled and expert enough to identify the problem and provide a solution to the customer promptly.

It should also have customer support, implementer, and programmer teams who coordinate to solve the customer’s problems, so the customer can be confident that after installing the ERP system, the ERP provider will still advise and help resolve any system faults.

In summary: a good ERP provider should be expert at solving system usage issues and able to fix them quickly when the customer encounters problems using the ERP system.

4. Price and cost

A good ERP provider should explain the costs to the customer in detail. Implementing an ERP system includes both parts the ERP provider offers free of charge and parts that are chargeable, such as:

Examples of services offered free of charge

An appointment to present the ERP system for the customer to consider whether it suits their enterprise

Examples of chargeable services

System implementation
Training on how to use the system
Customising the system

Once the customer knows the price and the costs of implementing the ERP system, they can compare prices to find a reasonable one. The reasonable price may not be the cheapest or the most expensive, but should be one that is justified by the results the customer will receive — and not a price that means the customer pays money for no benefit.

Note: For the actual price/cost that arises when implementing the system, the customer should rely primarily on the contract agreed with the ERP provider.

In summary: a good ERP provider clearly tells the customer the details of the price and cost of the service, which should also be a reasonable price for the customer.

5. Ease of adoption

A good ERP provider should design the ERP system to be flexible enough to work with the systems the customer already uses, with a design and configuration that is simple and natural, so users can learn it and become familiar with it in a short time.

In real use, the customer or user may need to adjust their way of thinking to build an understanding of the system, which may take time, but in the end the customer or user will be able to use the system easily and fluently — which benefits work efficiency and the long-term efficiency of managing the organisation.

In summary: a good ERP provider should design the system to be easy to use, under a simple and natural concept.

6. Maintaining security and truth of data

A good ERP provider should design the ERP system to be secure in how data is accessed — that is, defining users’ permissions, specifying which data each user can access.

In addition, a good ERP provider should design the ERP system to maintain the truth of data, so it can be checked retrospectively when the user needs it.

Maintaining the truth of data includes the organisation’s various internal records that are created, edited, processed, approved, cancelled, or acted on in any way. The ERP system must record what happens to the organisation’s internal data accurately, truthfully, and straightforwardly.

In summary: a good ERP provider should design the system to maintain secure data access and to record what happens to the organisation’s internal data straightforwardly.

7. Experience and references

A good ERP provider should have experience that can genuinely be referenced — for example, a track record of implementing ERP systems for various businesses or organisations. Here the customer can ask the ERP provider they wish to contact directly.

In summary: a good ERP provider is credible, which the customer can verify from past reference experience.

8. Teaching and training

A good ERP provider should have a consulting team or training team that will train the customer on how to use the system.

The consulting or training team should have the knowledge and skills to use the ERP system functions that have been implemented for the customer, and understand that the customer may never have had experience using an ERP system before.

The consulting or training team should help the customer gain knowledge and understanding so they can use the system effectively within an appropriate timeframe — neither too fast nor too slow.

In summary: a good ERP provider should have a training team for the customer, so the customer gains the skills to use the ERP system, delivering the training within an appropriate timeframe.

9. After-sales service

A good ERP provider should have a support team that answers customer questions and provides technical support when the customer encounters problems using the system.

A good ERP provider should have a system for storing support records of the various problems resolved for the customer, because in reality using an ERP system involves both recurring cases of the same problem and brand-new problem cases.

For recurring problems, the customer can use the information previously received from the ERP provider’s support team to solve the problem themselves.

For new problems, a good ERP provider will support the customer, helping resolve the issue to completion.

Choosing a good ERP provider may be hard to define in a short phrase, but this article on how a business / organisation should choose an ERP provider can help customers understand what a good ERP provider looks like and give them information to select the ERP provider they want — which also makes the decision easier for them.

How should a business / organisation choose an ERP provider?