Love is all about compatibility, and so is ERP software selection. But what goes into compatibility? Personality, like-mindedness, and shared interests are all things that transition from personal to business—these traits are just called cultural fit, industry expertise, and common understanding in a business relationship.

Aligning Your Business with Your ERP Partner

The same goes for knowledge—often, people seek out others with similar educational and professional backgrounds. In business, this often manifests as alignment of business size. Similar to the dating scene seeing few doctors in relationships with GED-holders, it’s rare for a mid-sized or large business on either end of the ERP transaction to get a ton of value out of firm who doesn’t align.

Much like the dating scene, this is something that works both ways, and in an ERP implementation project, this is something that could make or break the transaction. When you work with a firm that’s too small for you, you’re going to end up overwhelming their staff—extending the timeline, increasing the risk, and reducing the value.

However, you also could end up experiencing problems when you work with a massive reseller or vendor. This, however, is for different reasons. Rather than overwhelming the company with requests, it’s often your company who is overlooked. Instead of treating your project as a top priority, you’re often left with the early-career professionals, those who fail to understand the nuance of your project or the importance it holds for your firm.

The Challenges for the ERP Buyer: Understanding Who’s Who

Unfortunately, there are many ways to miss the mark in your ERP purchase. Something we discussed in our guide on finding an ERP Partner for your business, the company you trust to put a solution into action matters as much as the product itself. Unfortunately, there are rarely a lot of entities within the ecosystem who deliver value.

As noted, there are many players in the ecosystem—vendors build the software, ISVs develop their own products to help vendors achieve better fit, business process outsourcing companies take on the business side of an ERP decision, and VARs are the ones who put it into action and do the legwork.

Each of these can exist in the somewhat harmonious ecosystem—but it’s the customer who suffers when they work with someone who steps beyond their bounds. Just because each of these plays a vital role in the channel doesn’t mean they are going to stay in their lanes.

Team Allocation Matters: The Right Focus Means the Right Size

But what does all of this mean to you? When the ERP ecosystem works together, everyone—especially the customer—benefits. Once a party “crosses the stream,” they’re promising you something they likely can’t deliver. Unfortunately, this creates problems for you. From a lack of experience in the implementation space to a lack of depth within your industry, lack of people skills to train your users, or misaligned communications, customers often get left out in the cold.

Driven by profit motive, investor pressure, or ROI expectations, it’s relatively common for some companies—often vendors, sometimes ISVs—to cross the streams and move into the implementation partner space.

Learn more about finding the right size ERP implementation partner.

Finding the Right Partner for Your ERP Project

The team you trust to put your software into use needs to configure the product, migrate the data, and train users—and they need to have a lot of experience doing so. VARs—the companies who specialize in this process—have put years or decades of effort into building their team of implementation and training specialists. Others have not.

But what goes into searching for and selecting a partner you can trust to deliver? How can you avoid someone who crosses the streams into a different service model? How can you find a partner who is going to put you first? Our recent guide has the answers.

Reducing ERP Project Risk: Why the Right Partner Matters explores a variety of the topics mentioned above and discusses a variety of topics including:

  • Common reasons why ERP projects fail
  • Errors made during the pre-selection, selection, and implementation process
  • Disadvantages of working with ERP publishers
  • Important tips for selecting the right partner

Click here to download this comprehensive guide.

With the right ERP implementation, you can gain a 360-degree view of your entire business. From orders, fulfillment, tracking and shipping, to marketing, sales, accounting and e-commerce, MIBAR gives you the tools and technologies to automate workflow and empower smart decision-making. Learn more about our ERP software and implementation services or contact us today for a free consultation.

Additional ERP Implementation Resources

Hammer or Full Toolbox? Don’t Approach a Complex ERP Project with a Simple Mindset

Five Reasons ERP Projects Fail and How to Prevent Each

The Right Partner Matters: Why Publishers Might Leave You Hung Out to Dry in ERP