ERP Selection: The Importance of a Quantitative ERP Software Selection Process

To help manufacturers and distributors in this process, TGI’s Software Selection Tool Kit offers, among other resources, software demonstration script templates and grading sheets to be used for onsite ERP software demonstrations. The selection team can use these templates to develop a software demonstration script that reflects the key software requirements of the organization. The selection team would then distribute these scripts to a select group (usually 2 or 3) of vendors with sample data (products, parts, ingredients, vendors, customers, etc.). The software vendors, in turn, would use the supplied sample data to follow the demonstration script prepared by the selection team. Using the software demonstration grading sheets contained in TGI’s Software Selection Tool Kit, the selection team can score how each vendor performed for each task in the demonstration script. Following the final onsite software demonstration, the selection team can compile scores for each ERP software vendor and see, quantitatively, how each software solution compared to the other demonstrated software solutions. The end result of this process will be a software vendor and solution that outscored and outperformed the other software solutions that were demonstrated.

By requiring software vendors to follow a demonstration script that reflects the organization’s key software requirements, the selection team will be able to see first hand how each vendor can meet those requirements. This process also prevents the software vendor from shying away from a specific software requirement that it knows it won’t be able to meet and ensures that each software vendor was evaluated in a consistent manner.

To download TGI’s onsite software demonstration templates and grading sheets, please click here.