ERP Consulting Firm: 5 Areas to Question Before You Sign

The best way to choose an ERP consulting firm is to test it with specific questions, not to compare brochures. Ask about experience in your sector, who will actually do the work, how far customisation goes, what support looks like after launch, and who will vouch for them. Here is how to ask and how to read the answers.

Start with your own process, not their demo

Most ERP projects go wrong before any firm is hired. Teams walk into meetings without a written picture of how orders, stock, invoicing and approvals work today. The firm then fills the gap with its own assumptions.

Spend a week mapping your main flows on a single page each. Note where work gets stuck, where data is typed twice and which reports you never get on time. These notes become your question list and your yardstick for every proposal.

A firm that asks to see this material early is usually a good sign. One that jumps straight to a polished demo of its standard screens deserves more scrutiny.

How deep is their experience in your sector?

Sector experience matters because every industry has its own habits. A manufacturer needs bills of materials and production planning. A distributor cares about stock locations and returns. A service company lives on project time and billing.

Ask which projects they have delivered in your sector and what problems came up. A credible answer includes a mistake they made and how they corrected it. A perfect story with no friction is rarely true.

Also ask whether the sector knowledge sits with the people who will work on your project, or only with the sales team. Experience that stays in the sales meeting does not help you later.

Who exactly will work on your project?

The team you meet during the sale is often not the team that delivers. Ask for the names, roles and availability of the project manager, the lead consultant and the developers. Ask how many other projects each person handles at the same time.

Find out who on their side will make decisions when you disagree. A project manager with no authority turns every small issue into a long email chain.

Request a short meeting with the proposed lead consultant before signing. Ten minutes of direct conversation tells you more than a team slide.

• Named project manager with a clear decision role
• Lead consultant who knows your sector
• Stated plan for what happens if a team member leaves
• Your own internal owner who can give approvals quickly

Where does customisation stop being sensible?

Every company wants some changes to the standard system. The risk is not customisation itself but uncontrolled customisation. Each change adds cost now and makes future upgrades harder.

Ask the firm how it decides between adjusting a setting, building an extension and changing your process instead. A good consultant will sometimes tell you not to customise. That honesty protects your budget.

Ask how custom work is documented and who owns the code. If you ever change firms, you need to be able to take that knowledge with you.

What does support look like after go-live?

Go-live is the start of the hard part. Users find gaps, reports need tuning and new staff need training. Many firms are strong during implementation and thin afterwards.

Ask for the support model in writing: channels, working hours, response targets, and how urgent issues are separated from routine requests. Check whether support is handled by people who know your setup or by a general queue.

Also ask what happens in the first weeks after launch. A short period of closer attention, with scheduled check-ins, often prevents small problems from becoming habits.

How to run reference checks that tell you something

Reference calls are easy to waste. A friendly chat with a hand-picked contact rarely reveals much. Ask for at least two clients, and choose one of similar size and sector to yours.

Ask questions about behaviour, not satisfaction. Did the project stay within the agreed scope? How were changes priced? What happened when something broke after launch? Would they hire the firm again for a second phase?

Compare what you hear with the proposal. If the firm promised weekly reporting and the reference says updates were rare, you have found a real risk.

Compare proposals on the same basis, then decide

Proposals often look different because they are built differently. One includes training and data migration, another leaves them out. Put every offer into the same list of scope items before comparing totals. Clear pricing helps here, and our transparent price list shows how we set out costs so you can judge similar offers fairly.

Score each firm on the five areas above, with extra weight on the ones that worry you most. Then shortlist two and ask each for a small paid discovery phase. It is a cheap way to see how they work before committing to the whole project.

Your next step is simple: write down your process notes this week, send the same questions to three firms, and make the final choice only after you have spoken to the people who will do the work.