By Dave Piasecki Software selection and implementation services have become big business for consulting firms as well as the software vendors themselves. Selecting the right software for your operation and having a successful implementation can be an extremely difficult undertaking, even with outside assistance. Horror stories about failed ERP system implementations are unfortunately very common. If you are unfamiliar with business software be prepared to be bombarded with acronyms and buzz words. My first tip is that if after listening to a software vendor representative describe the software for 5 minutes you still don t understand what the software does you probably can t afford it anyway.
Enterprise software ranges in price from a few thousand dollars to millions.
You can also expect implementation costs to match or exceed the cost of the software. They can not only help to narrow down the list of potential vendors but can also help to prepare you in initial assessments of implementation costs and time frames. The most important part of the software selection process is to define the processes within your organization and to determine functionality that is key to your operation. Many times customers get lost in the bells and whistles and forget about their core business functions. If you are a manufacturer, manufacturing is your core business function and you should be looking at packages that have been designed specifically for manufacturers.