ERP Software selection process as helpful to your organization as a buggy whip?

Like buggy whips, there was a time when the current software selection process was essential – that was in the 1990’s.

Today, when companies attempt to undertake an objective “feature/function” scoring approach they usually conclude two things:

1. The systems that they are replacing score much higher than expected (if subjected to the same lens as the potential new software solutions), and:
2. Often they are more confused at the end of the selection process about which software to choose than they were when they started.

The cost to complete this exercise is very real for both the organization that is trying to select a solution and the vendors that they are working with.  More disturbing is the amount of time and the resources that are consumed from the time that an organization decides to replace their ERP – this time lag is often 24 months.

I contend that the traditional ERP software selection process has little to no relationship to a successful ERP implementation – it is expensive, slow and no longer relevant.

When you read an airline magazine about a botched ERP implementation, it isn’t because of the software folks, lots of companies use these companies and it works for them – it’s the people and/or process that failed. Why is it then that companies invest the lion’s share of the time and money into the portions of the ERP selection process that are low risk and so little into the parts that are high risk?