Most ERP conversations start with a shortlist. That is the last question, not the first — and on a majority of the engagements we are called into, the honest answer is that the core is not the problem.
Complaints about reporting, manual re-entry, and a finance team closing the month out of a spreadsheet.
Replacement buys a single system and costs you the longest programme your organisation has run. Fixing the edges is faster and leaves the seams in place.
If the ledger is sound and the pain is all at the boundaries, that is an integration problem wearing an ERP costume — and it costs a fraction to solve. We would tell you so, and we would be the ones losing the larger project.
The licence. The number you can see, and the smallest of the three that matter.
Integration and data migration. Where the programme is actually won or lost.
A year of dual-running. Rarely costed at the point of decision, always paid.
We put all three in front of you before you choose, not after. Vendor-neutral means the recommendation is not shaped by what we would prefer to deliver — and the only way that claim is worth anything is if it sometimes costs us the work.