Business Systems Advisory Services
Enterprise Resource Planning
We help companies leverage technology for tangible business benefits. Selecting the right Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System can help get you there quickly.
We offer a variety of services that scale from free bundled consulting with a DIY guide full of no-nonsense practical advice, to the development of a Request-For-Quote document with targeted candidate vendors, to a full-assist program that supports your entire ERP selection process.
“The free guide is easy to follow and helped us select the right technology. The booklet is loaded with practical advise and hard-knocks business lessons that kept us out of trouble. A must-read for any CEO running a small to medium sized company looking for technology.”
M E Johnston, ceo
Pick your track
If you want to talk business processes, call us. There are many reasons why technology can drive you to significant improvements in EBITDA and competitive advantage, or simply address obsolescence issues.
We offer three programs, outlined below, that should align well with your resources.
Program Options
DIY
2 Hours on us
Read and follow the process recommendations in our free DIY guide. Additionally, utilize our expertise and experience with any questions you may have, up to two hours at no cost to you. We just ask that you schedule calls to make sure we are available.
$0
Request For Quote (RFQ)
Get the right questions asked
In this program we come on site and spend 2 days in detailed discovery sessions with your team to make sure we uncover the key future state interests of each department and the leadership team. Thereafter, we will author your specific requirements document for your review and approval and prepare it for distribution. At your direction we can counsel your team on appropriate recipient candidate vendors.
$5,000 plus expenses
Full Selection Process
Short on resources? We do it all
We start with the same service as the RFQ program but we will manage the distribution of the RFP and hold introductory calls with a maximum of five candidate vendors. We invite candidate vendors to have free and unfettered access to your selection team within reason. As you can read in our guide, we believe many consultants make a serious mistake in restricting vendor communications. They will need plenty of context in order to respond and assess their compliance with your needs. We will also manage all aspects of the demonstrations, on site, including the preparation of presentation scripts and your scoring mechanism. Thereafter, your selection team should be quite capable and fully empowered to make an ERP selection. We do not assist with legal review as we feel strongly that terms and conditions are a private matter between your firm and the chosen vendor.
$25,000 plus expenses
Call or email to get started
The Use Case
Bad promises, bad costs, bad profits
How do systems and technology pains manifest themselves in business performance? Ever over-promise and under-deliver? Backorders grow and unhappy customers are reflected in un-paid, aging receivables. The lack of realistic available-to-promise or capable-to-promise calculations coupled with sales pressure can set the condition for poor performance and bad delivery estimates. In complex engineer-to-order and configure-to-order environments it is resource-consuming to accurately estimate the cost of a job. Therefore, simplified excel spreadsheets are provided to sales for quoting. Generally speaking, the accuracy of these spreadsheets is not only short-lived but they tend to generate seriously problematic variances. With material costs that are constantly moving, as well as work-center resources that are changing, bills of material and production cycle times no longer represent accurate component or direct labor costs. Overhead and outside services routing costs are also under-estimated. By the time you discover this, you are well past the commitment to deliver the product to your customer at a completely different cost, usually to your customers benefit, not yours. You are under-estimating cost and over-estimating margin and you are surprised by the lack of profitability in the business.
Growth and disparate systems
Many companies begin their business journey on QuickBooks. There is no real accounting skill internally and your external CPA does the heavy lifting. They reconcile your subsidiary ledgers and produce monthly financial statements. As the firm grows, it is not at all unusual to see additive technology such as CRM for your sales department, CAD/PDM for your engineers, QMS/LIMS for quality, eCommerce and portals to support your supply chain, MES for production and EDI for high volume clients. Perhaps the warehouse team is evaluating newer shipping systems with hand-held barcoding for improved inventory accuracy.
One source of the truth
While there is nothing inherently wrong with any one application, most of them have been acquired from different vendors. There is no integration. The leadership team becomes frustrated with the lack of a single trusted source of the truth. The same data is added three or four times in zero-value-add labor intensive processes. It takes longer and longer to get things done.
Let’s talk
There can be a million good reasons for us to talk, but if anything in particular resonates, know that we can help.
Download our DIY guide
There is plenty of practical advice in our ERP Selections DIY Guide. Have a quick read and always feel free to bounce your ideas off one of our talented associates at your convenience.
About Us
Free of conflicts
In the world of consultancies, we are an unusual pure-breed organization interested only in assisting you with your ERP selection. We have no revenue interests in project management. We have no revenue interest in any element of your implementation. We have no commissionable relationship and no revenue-sharing relationship with any ERP vendor. We have no affiliations of any kind with any ERP vendor and have no interests beyond helping you select the best, for you, ERP solution.
Vendors are not the bad guys
We believe ERP vendors also have your best interests in mind and if they choose to bid, will employ their own discovery mechanisms to make sure their solutions are compelling and competitive. We believe that communication advances context in the questions that are asked and answers that are provided. That is why we encourage vendors to visit your facilities and why we encourage you to provide unfettered and reasonable access to your selection team and leadership team. We believe in playing with open cards, holding nothing close to the vest. We therefore believe you should share with each vendor who the other candidates are and provide a full debrief to the losing teams. Be clear on why they were eliminated. Everyone is spending time and money here and we passionately believe in clean ethical business.
We are experts
We are subject-matter experts in how Enterprise Resource Planning systems can be leveraged for business benefit. We also have robust practical experience in most small to mid-market manufacturing verticals with exception of the public sector. We support make to stock (MTS), make to order (MTO), make to print (MTP), engineer to order (ETO), configure to order (CTO) and batch process (BP) manufacturing. By mid-market we generally refer to revenues of at least $20M to $200M although we have experience with smaller and larger firms. Don’t let the industry you work in or size of company discourage you from making a call. We can quickly determine if there is a fit issue.
Ethical business
In the sometimes murky world of consulting, often with conflicting interests, the kindest thing you can say to us is that you found it refreshing and clean, crisp, fair and easy to do business with ERP Selections and…… that you are confident we helped you make the best ERP selection, for you.
Contact
To contact one of our talented associates:
T: 949 533 5519 E: info.erpselections@gmail.com
ERP Selections 