ERP selection
ERP for mid-sized businesses
Selection decides more about the outcome than implementation does. Comparing three quotes that contain different things is not comparing anything, and it only becomes obvious when the first change request arrives.
Quotes that cannot be compared
The quotes look alike and mean different things. One prices licences over three years, the next over five. Data migration sits inside the price in one and is billed as effort in the other. Interfaces to the systems you already run appear as a line item or not at all. The lowest price wins the selection and carries the highest total cost, because whatever was missing comes back later as a change request.
How we run selection and implementation
Requirements first, the market second
We record how your operation actually runs and derive from that what the system has to do. A vendor shortlist without that groundwork is an opinion.
Put every quote on one basis
Same scope, same period, same assumptions about users and sites. Only then does the price difference tell you anything.
Total cost over five years, not the implementation price
Licences, running costs, customisation, training and the development that follows go-live. The implementation price is the smaller part and the only one anybody talks about.
Go live in phases, with a way back
One area in production, measured, then the next. A cutover where everything moves at once has no way back and teaches you nothing along the way.
Bring the workforce with you, or the rest does not count
Training by role, documentation in the language the team actually works in, and a named contact per area. A system nobody uses is an expensive archive.
What you end up with
A decision you can justify
You know why this system and not the others, and what you are knowingly accepting along with it.
Quotes you can compare
Costed on one basis, so the price difference is a statement rather than an accident of how each was cut.
A project without surprises in the change requests
What is missing is settled and budgeted up front instead of being billed later as a change.
An operation that works with it
Trained, documented, with someone responsible per area instead of a handful of power users.
Why work with us
We do not sell licences
We are not a reseller, so there is no margin pulling a recommendation in one direction.
We implement the systems as well
The selection comes from the people who own the operation afterwards. An advisor who only advises never carries the consequences of a convenient recommendation.
We also say when you do not need an ERP
Sometimes the bottleneck is a process or a missing interface. Then that is the recommendation, and it costs less.
Delivered from Cairo, responsibility with us
We deliver projects with our own team from Egypt, under our direction, with responsibility for the result resting with us. Cairo working hours overlap the Gulf and Europe, so questions are settled within the same working day. Company details are in the Legal Notice.
More in this area
Common questions
Where do ERP projects in mid-sized businesses fail most often?
On three things, and none of them is the software. Scope that grows during the project because it was never written down. Data carried across unchecked, which costs the system its credibility. And a go-live without training, after which people return to the spreadsheet.
What does an ERP implementation cost?
It depends on scope, user count, migration effort and depth of customisation, and any figure quoted without those is a guess. The structure is more reliable: licence or subscription, implementation, data migration, customisation, training and running costs. We put numbers against those items using your figures, before any vendor enters the conversation.
How long does it take?
For a mid-sized business covering finance, purchasing, inventory and sales, a few months is realistic. Manufacturing, several sites or a large legacy estate extends that. We cut the work into phases so one area is in production before the next begins.
Which system do you recommend?
That follows from your operation, not from a preference of ours. We implement Odoo and ERPNext, and we compare them openly against each other and against what you run today. We earn nothing on either licence.
Can we carry this with our own staff?
Partly, and it lowers the cost considerably. What should stay in-house is subject-matter ownership per area. Where outside experience saves money is in cutting the scope and in the migration, because that is where the expensive mistakes happen.
Let us put your quotes on one basis
We record how your operation runs, make the vendors comparable and cost the five-year total before you commit.