Service · Consulting
Overview
Our consulting work exists to fix the front end of ERP programmes. We document how the business really operates, decide what the system must do and what can wait, compare platforms on your scenarios rather than theirs, and produce a roadmap with costs and risks you can defend to a board.
Because our consultants also run implementations, the advice accounts for the unglamorous work — cleansing ten years of product data, rebuilding reports, training a warehouse team on night shift — that determines whether a plan survives contact with reality.
01The problem
Hundreds of line items, none prioritised, half of them describing the current system's workarounds rather than the business need behind them.
Vendors show their strongest flows on clean demo data. Your awkward scenarios — consignment stock, split deliveries, landed costs — never get tested.
Licence and configuration costs are visible. Data migration, integrations, report rebuilding and internal staff time usually are not.
Without measurable goals, scope expands to fill the budget and nobody can say whether the project worked.
02Our approach
We start on the floor, not in a meeting room. Walking the receiving dock, watching a month-end close, sitting with customer service for an afternoon — that is where the real requirements are. From there we write a prioritised requirements set in which every item is tied to a business outcome and graded must-have, should-have or later.
For platform selection, we build scripted demonstration scenarios from your own processes and data, and score vendors against them. Cost comparisons cover five years: licences or subscriptions, implementation, integrations, hosting, support and the internal time each option demands.
The final deliverable is a roadmap: phases ordered by value and dependency, a realistic budget range with assumptions written down, the main risks with mitigations, and the decisions leadership needs to make before anything is signed.
03Capabilities
Process walkthroughs, systems inventory, spreadsheet audit and a frank view of where time and money leak today.
Prioritised, outcome-linked requirements with acceptance criteria, written so vendors cannot interpret them loosely.
Long list to shortlist, scripted demos on your scenarios, reference checks and a weighted scoring model.
Five-year cost models covering licences, delivery, integrations, hosting, support and internal effort.
Future-state processes that use standard ERP functionality instead of rebuilding old workarounds.
Phased delivery plan, budget range, risk register and governance structure for board approval.
04Technical considerations
We profile master data early — duplicate customers, inconsistent units of measure, products without costs — because data quality changes both timeline and platform choice.
Every system that must exchange data with the ERP is listed with volumes, direction and ownership. Integration count is one of the strongest predictors of project cost.
SaaS, managed platform or self-hosted; data residency; identity and access requirements; backup and recovery expectations.
Transaction volumes, user counts and growth plans for the next five years, used to rule out platforms that will not keep up.
05Process
Stakeholder interviews, process walkthroughs and data profiling across each department.
Prioritised requirements and success measures agreed with leadership.
Platform and approach options compared on fit, cost and risk — including improving the current system.
Scripted vendor demos, reference calls and commercial review if replacement is the answer.
A phased plan, budget range, risk register and governance model ready for approval.
06Outcomes
Leadership sees the options, the evidence and the reasoning, not just a vendor recommendation.
Data, integration and adoption work is planned and budgeted from the start.
Clear requirements and competing options make vendor and partner proposals directly comparable.
Where it applies
Related services
Insights
A step-by-step ERP selection process: defining requirements, building a shortlist, running scripted demos, comparing total cost of ownership and choosing the right implementation partner.
A practical method for calculating ERP return on investment: which benefits to count, which to leave out, how to estimate costs honestly, and a worked example you can adapt.
When custom ERP development makes sense, when off-the-shelf ERP is the better choice, and why a hybrid — standard core plus custom domain app — is often the answer.
FAQ
Yes. We implement Odoo and build custom systems, but we do not resell licences or take vendor commissions. If another platform is the better fit, we say so and can support the selection.
A focused assessment and roadmap for a mid-sized business typically takes four to eight weeks, depending on the number of sites, departments and systems involved.
No. The roadmap and requirements are yours to use with any partner. Many clients do ask us to deliver, but the consulting is designed to stand on its own.
Yes, and sometimes the answer is no. Fixing configuration, cleaning data and adding a few integrations to an existing system can be far cheaper than a replacement.
Consultation
Talk to a consultant about the decision in front of you. We will tell you what evidence you need to make it well.