Five major mistakes to avoid when purchasing ERP software

The informatization process of enterprises in China is moving forward. In order to win the favor of customers in the competition, various ERP manufacturers often make every effort to blow their own products. So, how can customers stay clear about the selection of ERP systems and find the appropriate ERP system? The following are the five errors that are frequently encountered during ERP purchase for your reference.

1. I don't know what kind of ERP software I really need

Before selecting a solution, take some time to understand what you actually need. First, determine whether you need fully integrated ERP software? Or is it software of a single best brand? This usually depends on what kind of problems you want to solve, as well as the size and architecture of the company. For example, if a small and medium-sized enterprise has very limited budget and resources, a fully integrated ERP software system needs to be considered. Such systems will allow lower costs and fewer resources to streamline your business processes and improve productivity.

To ensure data consistency in your operations and the normal operation of a single system, you need to master the business rules and every response in the business process.ProgramIf you are not prepared to perform a lot of work frequently to switch between different systems, it is better to fully integrate the ERP software.

Unless you need to be very specific, choosing fully integrated ERP can be much easier to get a much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than choosing the best brand solution for a single item ). Using an independent best brand solution will usually greatly increase your overall authorization and implementation costs, not to mention reducing overall operation efficiency. For a single best brand solution, you may not be protected by version elimination, which may lead to additional investment. In addition, the support for your company's system operation will also result in, because you must solve the problem of multi-vendor cooperation and communication.

For small and medium enterprises, the best choice is to fully integrate ERP software. However, this solution can only meet part of your key business needs, not for a simple application. To overcome this problem, you can select a partner with industry expertise to meet your key business needs.

2. Ignore the uniqueness of the business

Every industry is unique. The lack of specialized functions in software is a common cause of failure in ERP software selection. Generally, you need to customize a solution that does not support industry services to meet the needs of your business model, and it must be integrated with other internal systems. If the initial authorization and maintenance costs are low, but due to a large number of customized requirements, updates, maintenance, and longer system deployment periods, such solutions usually lead to an increase in costs; reduce and delay your return on investment.

How to make the ERP software available for you to promote the development of the company's business, instead of binding the foot stone, should consider whether the software company has specialized functions when selecting software, to solve the business needs of the company's industry, not just part of the needs, usually select an ERP software solution specifically for your industry, this gives you a clear and targeted solution to meet your unique business needs. Suitable solutions can improve efficiency, reduce costs, increase revenue and return rates, and provide faster ROI ).
3. You have not selected the most qualified ERP software vendor.

When purchasing ERP software, you can select the right vendor to achieve successful ERP implementation, the final result may be an implementation that is far from meeting your business needs.

One of the most common mistakes in vendor selection is choosing an ERP software vendor that does not know your business. Policy makers usually have such a wrong idea that choosing a provider with a higher name is equivalent to obtaining a greater return for investment. However, most famous providers are often too large to provide specialized industry knowledge for any specialized industry.

Choosing a partner with a deep understanding of your industry can help you use your ERP software solutions more quickly and efficiently. In many cases, the reseller is forced to learn your business and then launch a customized solution that meets your needs, which will eventually cost you more money.

Stay away from vendors who only know the process and do not know your business in this industry. Find a vendor that understands the future development direction of this industry and is very familiar with industry standards, relevant processes can also be integrated into their standard ERP software solutions to address these needs. By reducing the process of customizing your solutions to meet industry standards, you can save money. In addition, the ERP software vendor you choose should ensure that the solution authorization includes unique and necessary modules, such as EDI, RFID, and refund management.

When planning to establish long-term partnerships with ERP software partners. Beware of the vendors that run after your system is implemented, because you need to continue to develop your business, the vendor shall provide product Response Support, the latest product release, user forums and user meetings such as the online computer bulletin board.

4. Lack of attention to the implementation of ERP software

The most common problem with ERP software implementation is the lack of a dedicated project manager representing the customer. If the customer's project manager spends 80% to 90% of their time on project implementation, most of the implementations will be successful. The role of the project manager is to streamline the implementation process and grasp the implementation progress of the project. In order to improve the efficiency of your business, a dedicated project manager is assigned to ensure the correct implementation of the system, is necessary.

The company's president or other senior managers should also be involved, not that they must lead the daily activities of the project, the tasks that can be completed by the full-time project manager, what they need to do is participate in the project progress meetings, as well as the commitment and support from the senior management to ensure the success of your new ERP software implementation.


The successful implementation of the ERP software system determines whether the company's internal opinions are unified, whether it is willing to change its business process, whether it is willing to accept new ideas and concepts, and enjoy the long-term benefits of the new system. It is also worth noting that a good ERP software partner not only provides you with a system to achieve your business goals, but also provides a guide, you can use the best practices of the industry to guide your business development.

Another common mistake is that after implementation, the business process is not documented. If you write a document for each department, you can achieve the most successful transformation. This facilitates the company to guide the business to the maximum extent during the transition and study period. In addition, when an employee leaves the company or is transferred within the company, the successor to this position should have relevant documents as guidance, you can quickly learn about the job in this position and complete the job more efficiently.

Do not perform preliminary training for your company during the implementation process. All the training problems for your additional employees will be solved, this is another misconception that may cause your new ERP software solution to fail. After the software implementation is complete, even if documents have been formed to help employees familiarize themselves with the new system, continuing training for employees is also necessary. Once the new system runs, the user should continue to follow up the training, whether it is 4 months, 6 months or 8 months. This will enable your ERP system to discover and improve deficiencies in the gradual training.

Incomplete testing is also a common omission in implementing ERP software. It is necessary to carry out a test data for all departments of the company. During the testing phase, a simulated real order is used to complete the entire process, in this way, you and your users can truly discover errors in the process. In many cases, the details that need to be fine-tuned during the test phase are common. In order to minimize errors after deployment, and maximizing the potential of ERP software is crucial to testing all your data, programs, and processes before starting.

5. No selection of ERP software from the perspective of long-term investment

When selecting ERP software, you must have a realistic understanding of your cost expectation and understanding, select the right ERP software, and provide fast and effective implementation and high ROI) and the low total cost of ownership (TCO) after implementation is also critical. The characteristics of human nature usually lead us to choose cheap ERP software, but this often happens. The lowest cost solution is not the least invested solution in the long term. A reliable suggestion is that if you find that a vendor's offer is much lower than that of other vendors you are looking at, it is usually an "pie in the sky.

Vendors that provide such pie-like contracts are often tricky. After implementation, you will find that it lacks some basic functions required by the business. Many inexpensive systems usually provide rigid solutions, making it difficult for you to meet the special needs of customers and businesses. To get the flexibility you need to ensure that cheap ERP software can serve you more efficiently, you may need to invest more money to upgrade, this actually reduces the amount of money saved when purchasing software.

When comparing the provider's costs, use your intuition and good business judgment capabilities. Find out the applications that support you and achieve your company's main strategic goals. Make sure that you can see the return on investment at an expected time, such as a budget. The hasty selection of the cheapest ERP software provider or solution may cause you to have a headache for hidden costs in the future, and ultimately reduce the ROI of your business ).

The above are my five common mistakes in ERP software selection. I hope to help you and your company. I also welcome you to express your own opinions on your problems.