ERP implementation is a challenging process which, upon successful completion, will affect most aspects of your business. ERP partners should be 100% well equipped in making your project a success and committed to a long-term partnership.
Many companies are searching for a perfect partner to support them in digital transformation. However, a few of them to choose partner who understands their needs, vision and act as a strategic partner. Your competitors are disrupting industries by leveraging latest digital practices and processes. Customer expectations are constantly evolving for the most advanced, hyper-connected, seamless experiences. IT functions are under pressure to support capabilities such as data analytics, automated processing, fast reporting and integration with latest systems.
In this context, selecting the right ERP implementation partner is as important as choosing the right software for your business. Once you have selected which ERP software to deploy, you need to make extremely important decision, on which company to partner with. The success or failure of your project will highly depend on your partner’s experience, competence, project management skills, and, of course, availability of consultants in the region. If ERP implementation is healthy, it can provide vital insights to the management where they can make the right steps to battle competitors. But what should you look for in a partner? Why local support and presence is important? If your project succeeds or fails depend on following key considerations:
Key considerations for selecting SAP Partner
Stability & Experience
Make sure to select a partner with strong track record and years of experience in selected solution who have developed a methodology for implementing ERP and set of experience to back it up. For large scale implementations it is always safe to select a company with many years of experience, that has client success stories and case studies to prove it. You will need to review and research if they have been stable partner for other customers throughout project implementation, go-live and ongoing support in the region. Technology partner has to understand your entire business, not just its IT software. It can be too tempting to focus only on the software, however the ideal partner should understand business processes.
Reputation in the SAP Community
SAP community is like being part of family, everyone knows each other, and you build a reputation within this community which gives you credibility and visibility as a leader. Reputation is key on your partner selection. Check background information and contact existing customers and partners for support, if company has a proven track record.
Fit for purpose
There are any software companies who are well knowledged in basic systems, however, a lot of them are lacking of competencies in organizational change management which can lead to fail the entire project as it is underestimated part of implementation. You need to find best fit in partner who could support you on understanding of the impact when transitioning from current way of doing business to future state equipping users with training necessary.
Expertise is necessary but not sufficient; culture matters too
Working side by side on implementation project is simply human interaction. And some implementations could take more than 6 to 8 month. Chemistry and cultural fit, sharing the same values which helps to make a successful team. So, make sure that they get a long well and fit each other.
Geography matters too. Onsite Consultants
Without skilled professionals by your side, you run the risk of failing. It is absolutely vital to have consultants onsite before choosing the partner. Understand the resources you are on-boarding and interview prior to project start, to make sure that they are available locally where partners regional office located.
Cost
I’m sure you have heard the saying: “If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.”
When you’re first starting out, it’s always tempting to go as cheap as possible to get your digital transformation done. If you are deciding on lower rate partner, there is a reason for that. Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out to be a great idea for many companies as while cutting costs on local consultant and hiring remote, you are risking to fail your project.
Post implementation support
After the project is completed, technical support with monitoring and assessment, to see if further improvements can be made to optimize the benefits. Routine support and maintenance is highly recommended and many partners don’t have local support consultants. Not only they need to be there for implementation, but for as long as you own the system.
Conclusion
FairFax Solution is one of the fastest growing SAP companies in India that offers a strong portfolio of SAP Business One solutions and consulting services to SMEs which cover the entire business requirements helping every customer to become a Best-Run business. With over 10 years of industry experience, Fairfax has enabled business transformation for many clients with solutions, based on Business Application.
