List of ERP Questions to ask your Vendor

There are a various list of ERP questions that comes to mind when you are planning for any ERP software for your business. In this blog post after thorough research, we have listed down a Questionnaire that will be helpful before creating a final decision on ERP software implementation. The list of questions can be enhanced based on your industry. The list of ERP FAQs by globalteckz posses a list of potential questions to keep in mind while implementing any business enterprise systems.

Note: – ERP functions and features questions are not included as you know better about your business processes and the list of questions to be asked related to ERP functionalities. We covered some basic and general questions for ERP software.

Globalteckz frequently ask Questions for ERP Software poses Seventy Must ask questions for potential software suppliers that are critical to successful ERP selection projects. There are some basic, general questions about the product functionality of this blog doesn’t intend to be a list of questions relating to functionality features; in this blog, questions are designed to give the selection team a better understanding of software vendor general questions to approach to ERP implementation and customer support, annual maintenance fees, up-gradation of software, etc.

ERP Vendor Company Background 

After going through the requirements analysis, technicalities, functional areas within any ERP software. The next important task is to select the vendor who has experience in a similar kind of implementation. Below is one of the most important lists of questions one can ask while selecting the implementation vendor company. This list of questions may help you to understand the vendor’s background and gain confidence with vendor working.

1. Is the company an ERP software development company or value-added reseller (VAR)?
2. How many years has the company been involved in ERP software Industry?
3. How does the organization can compare to other organizations in the industry relative to revenue as per the employee?
4. Does the company provide a money-back guarantee or software acceptance period which will allow the company to ensure that software does everything that it was represented to do during the sale process?
5. Since the company was founded, how many times has the ownership of the organization changed?
6. What level of Involvement does the organization’s executive leadership have in the daily operations of the business and future product development? Has there been any recent changeover in the organization’s senior management staff including outside investment organizations?
7. Are senior executives at the organization readily available to speak with customers upon request?
8. What is the level of experience in the Company? Are the proposed software solutions currently in use for other companies in the same vertical industry that are similar size or larger?
9. In the last two years does the organization has an increase or decrease in the number of employees?
10. What is the organization’s track record for customers to achieve to justifies the return on investments from the purchase of the Proposed software solutions?
11. What does the Organization do, the software supplier, whether the team is ensuring that customer satisfaction continues to achieve a return on investment in the following years of software implementation?

Software Implementation and Customer Support

1. Does the ERP vendor outsource ERP Implementation services to the third-party services provider, or do the implementation services are in-house?
2. What is the average software implementation time frame for an organization for its respective size? (based on Trading, manufacturing or service Industry)
3. What are the Organization’s average implementation services and software licenses cost ratio?
4. What is the approach for an end to end-user training?
5. Does the organization prefer to train all end Users or to utilize a train the trainer approach?
6. Is end-user training will conduct on-premised, online, or both?
7. Who is responsible for answering questions for customer support calls?
8. Are support calls answered by members of the organization staff or outsource technical support?
9. Who is the first point of a contact person for customer support?
10. What is the level of experience of the support person regarding Software?
11. What is the organization fee structure for training, Like hourly, monthly, per-user, or package?
12. What is the fee for software training, project management, and programming services?
13. Where is the organization support staff location?
14. Does the organization provide a guaranteed maximum upper limit cost for any service work performed for the respective company?
15. Does the organization offer 24/7 technical support?
16. Does the organization offer an online customer portal? if so, What services are provided via the online portal, and is there free access to the customer portal?

AMC and Software Upgrades

1. How much Free ERP support period offered?
2. When does the organization start to charge new customers for annual maintenance?
3. What is the organization’s AMC fee?
4. How the maintenance fee is calculated?
5. What was the organization’s AMC fee five years ago?
6. Are software upgrades and future software releases included in the AMC maintenance fee?
7. How frequently does an organization release a major update or upgrade to the proposed software solution?
8. What level of effort is required to install future upgrades to the software?
9. Will the organization perform the customization as per the specifications of respective business requirements?
10. Does software customization nowadays hamper the respective company’s ability to upgrade to future software releases?

Software Licensing, Technical Information, Features, and Future Development

1. When was the first release for the proprietary software solution?
2. What is the current released for the proposed software solution?
3. When was the software formally for commercial availability?
4. Is the proposed software developer are the existing software supplier or was it originally developed by a software supplier who was subsequently acquired by the existing supplier?
5. Where did the organization development can be seen for the proposed software solution going forward in the future?
6. How long the organization continues to develop and support the proposed software solution?
7. Is the Complete application sources code included no additional cost in the price of software licenses?
8. Do Source code will be provided directly or the source code placed in escrow with NDA?
9. Is the software sold module by module basis, or is the software sold as an integrated whole for one all-inclusive price?
10. What modules are included in the cost of software licenses?
11. What specific functionality is not included in the base level software package for the proposed software solution?
12. Does the organization have the addons or bolt-ons are available to the proposed software solution as per the functional requirement?
13. Are the addons or bolt-ons are developed by the same organization for the core ERP solution or are they developed by a third-party?
14. What is the minimum number of concurrent or named user licenses required to buy?
15. Are software licenses sold on a concurrent user or named user basis?
16. Are the enterprise-wide infinite user’s licenses available for purchase?
17. Does the organization offer an ASP or hosted software solution?
18. Is the software written in a commercially available development language that is still being enhanced and supported b the developer?
19. Are there any restrictions on the database, hardware platform, network, or operating system environment for which the software is compatible?
20. Can the software run on any ODBC compliant database?
21. What is the degree of scalability offered by the proposed software solution?
22. Will the software existing functionality allow our business to grow without adding additional software functionality in the future to meet our needs?
23. What is the smallest or largest customer count that can use the proposed software solutions in a team of several concurrent users?
24. Does the organization’s proposed software solution include a fully integrated Warehouse Management System (WMS) in the price of Software Licenses? If so, then warehouse Management System RF and barcode enabled, or is there an additional fee for such functionality to be built into the application?
25. Are software help files available within the application itself, online, in a hard-copy training manual, or all of the above? Can these help files be edited by the end-user with appropriate security access?
26. How does the software support eCommerce, EDI, and XML transactions?
27. Does the software support multi-location, multi-company, multi-division, and multi-currency environments?
28. What is the language or development tool used to create and edit standard reports in the proposed software solution?
29. How many standard reports are included with the ERP software?
30. Does the system feature a built-in financial report writer that is included in the cost of software licenses?
31. Are customer references available?
32. It is possible to visit an organization’s customers to see the proposed software solution being used in a live transaction environment?
33. Does the organization give references to work done for the same vertical industry?
34. Does the organization is references or clients on their website?

About Globalteckz

Globalteckz has been established in the year 2013. We offer leading Open Source Software & Business Solutions such as Odoo ERP software development | Magento Web Development | Prestashop | WooCommerce | Custom Apps Development and many more. Our Company is located in the Financial Capital of India – Mumbai. We have a pool of experienced resources ranging from Project Leads, Sr. Developer, Testers to enhance every project development with powerful solutions and services. Our company has handled complex implementation for ERP & eCommerce development including industries such as Manufacturing, Trading, eCommerce, Services, etc.

“Client Satisfaction is our primary motto” We undertake projects ranging from small to large enterprises. We work with clients as a “Technology Partner” to help them grow their business with our Solutions.

What other questions you feel we missed – Comment below