10 Common Pitfalls to Avoid in ERP Software Evaluation

Through my experiences of working with over 1,000 end companies in manufacturing and distribution and over 200+ consulting organizations over the past 3 ½ years, here is a list of what I’ve come to see as “10 Common Pitfalls to Avoid in ERP Software Evaluation.” I felt that if I came up with some snappy way to describe them, it would be both more entertaining (at least in my mind) and have more impact than by just writing a bunch of narrative.

I’ll list them now, and will take each one of these to describe what is meant by the situation and what is recommended to overcome each of these scenarios. So here are “10 Common Pitfalls to Avoid in ERP Software Evaluation”…

1. “If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will do”
2. “It’s just an IT project”
3. “I don’t know what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it”
4. “Analysis Paralysis”
5. “I want a new system that looks and acts exactly like the one we have”… AKA “‘Here’s how we do it in the old system’ syndrome”
6. “The Beauty Contest”
7. “If only I had known then what I know now, before we said, ‘I do’”
8. “The World Tour”
9. “Let’s just let ‘good ole Joe’ run the project”
10. “Once selection is done, my job is over”