Documenting functional requirements is a fairly clear step when you want to choose a new ERP system. How to use the requirements as part of the selection process is not very clear. The company regularly goes to the problem and the cost of documenting detailed functional requirements is only to fully ignore this valuable information later in the selection process.

Say you have done the right thing and try to document your needs - how should you use this information with the maximum effect in other selection processes?

The first thing to do is enter the requirements in your tender documentation and ask the vendor to respond specifically for each requirement. Their response will then allow you to compare relative functional strengths and weaknesses for each system.

But can you trust their responses? Surely it is their interest to exaggerate their abilities (at least to some extent) to remain in the game?

In practice, vendors tend to respond honestly when they know that the next stage in the process of involving script demonstrations. This also helps if you tell them that the tender response will form a part of the contract documentation for the selected vendor.

The second step is to use the requirements as a basis for the demonstration test script: then you can see how well the system is according to your business needs and processes, and you can judge how honest the tender response is.

It's not good to have a demo if it is not based on your functional requirements. It is amazing how often we see companies lose the value of this step in the selection process by providing unclear scripts and agendas for demonstration sessions. There is no doubt that it's really vital to be specific if you try to see how well a system matches your business.

There are a number of reasons why this is very important:

The vendor will not protest if the script is not clear and not specific, because it gives them a license to show off what they consider to be a strong point of their system. But there is no guarantee that what they show that you will have relevance to your business.

If the vendor shows irrelevant functionality, it is likely to make the audience frustrate and make everyone dissatisfied. Although the system may still be suitable for the work you need to do, the vendor has not shown that it can meet your functional requirements. Visit: https://www.captivix.com/blog/erp-selection/

Unclear scripts and agendas will also mean that each vendor tends to take different tactics in terms of how they approach the demonstration. Although every individual demo may succeed well, it will be very difficult to compare what you have seen based on joy-for-like.

Documenting detailed functional requirements is only the first step in finding the right ERP system for your business and must be used to encourage the selection process. It is very important that all this good job is not forgotten later in the selection process.