4 Big Software Selection (ERP) Gotcha’s
1.0 Rushing the Selection Without Understanding Internal Needs
The mistake: Companies often jump into vendor demos or shortlist systems based on brand recognition, price, or peer recommendations, without fully understanding their own requirements.
Every organization, regardless of size or industry, has a unique combination of functional requirements, business compliance, and pain points. What works for a peer company, or even a competitor, might not work for you. Relying on surface-level comparisons or skipping a thorough internal assessment can lead to misaligned solutions that ultimately create more problems than they solve.
How to avoid it:
Start with a comprehensive internal assessment. Engage stakeholders from across departments to identify process pain points, inefficiencies, compliance needs, and future growth plans. Create a detailed requirements matrix that aligns your goals with ERP functionality with an experienced ERP consultant. The right system is one that fits your business, not the other way around.
2.0 Focusing on the Features Your Business Needs and Not on the Shiny Objects
The mistake: Sometimes you can be impressed by sleek and modern features, rather than the deep functionality that the software can deliver, without assessing the ERP system performance, vendor’s consultancy to deliver a solution, post-live support, or long-term product enhancement and future roadmap.
How to avoid it:
Vet the vendor’s skillset to implement their ERP and the functional features available for a long-term solution. This means figuring out what their support entails and asking for customer references in your industry. It is also worthwhile to dig into implementation methodologies and post-go-live support plans. You’re buying a long-term partnership, not just software.
3.0 Letting One Department Lead
The mistake: Either Finance or IT takes over the selection without enough business input, or business users drive it without technical guidance. Both approaches lead to blind spots.
How to avoid it:
Make ERP selection a cross-functional initiative. Involve both IT and business leaders from finance, operations, HR, and any other impacted departments. IT ensures scalability, integration, and security; business users ensure the system will actually work for the people using it every day.
4.0 Ignoring Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
The mistake: Many organizations focus on upfront costs like license fees and implementation costs and are then blindsided by unexpected expenses such as additional project scope, customizations, data migration, report development, integrations, and post-live ongoing support.
How to avoid it:
Consider all the implementation costs for a full solution, taking in consideration all the unexpected costs stated above, as well as modeling the total cost of ownership for the software and support for 5 years. Also consider the internal resourcing that will be needed to achieve the project schedule.
In Summary:
Avoiding these common mistakes requires discipline, transparency, and a structured approach that puts your organization’s unique needs first.
If you’re considering a new ERP system or unsure where to start, we specialize in helping organizations make confident, informed ERP decisions, and can help you clarify your needs and avoid missteps.