More Enterprise Software Selection Questions Than Answers

We are beginning an enterprise software selection to span all areas of the business: acct/finc, PLM, mfg, procurement, forecasting, DRP, supply planning, distribution/fulfillment, multi-channel retail, and direct marketing. We are a $250 million vertically integrated designer, mixed-mode manufacturer, and multi-channel retailer of fashion-oriented consumer products with a rapidly changing product line. We manufacture in five plants and distribute/fulfill from a central DC. We maintain 6,000-7,000 active SKUs that we sell through 50 retail stores, our eCommerce web store, and a catalog mail order call center. Our business is extremely seasonal, and our products are highly sensitive to the promotional effects of their presentation in catalogs. So though we are not a large company, we have large-company business complexity and therefore need "industrial strength" enterprise software. We know that won't be able to go totally "best in class" because even the Tier 1 vendors don't have everything we need. But we are maintaining a "less is more" strategy with regard to the number of vendors we will integrate to minimize implementation complexity and cost. What guidance can you provide on how we should modify the traditional selection process to meet our needs and garner the attention of vendors that are sophisticated enough to meet our business requirements, but typically don't serve customers of our size? Also, how should we balance two approaches: Tier 1 ERP with a Multi-Channel Retail partner vs. Tier 2 ERP to reduce cost with additional niche partners. Lastly, who should we add to or subtract from our current list:

• Tier 1 ERP: SAP, Oracle
  
• Multi-channel Retail: CommercialWare, Escalate
  
• Tier 2 ERP: Sage, Axapta, SAP All-In-One
  
• Niche specialists: Logility, Manugistics, Agile, PTC
  
• Tier 3 ERP: Navision, Great Plains, QAD, SYSPRO, ACCPAC, Multiview, Epicor

Hopefully, that consultant will tell you that you are crazy to try to do all of this at once -- pick a high need, high-value area and tackle that first. A company your size shouldn't be engaged in a big-bang re-working of its entire IT environment: that's a prescription for failure, guaranteed and no money back.

Once you've narrowed the scope of the project into something you can do in six months and for less than $400,000, get your consultant to create a short list of vendors for the project. Garnering the attention of these vendors should be easy: If the local sales rep for your short list won't pay attention, contact the vp of sales for that vendor and let him or her know that you're being given short shrift. Promise that person that a less-than-timely response will be reported directly to MA, where I or someone else will be eager to write about how a vendor that pledges undying love for mid-sized customers is leaving one waiting at the altar.

Finally, that old Tier 1 vs Tier 2 vs. Niche Specialists vs. Tier 3 question. In general, I would opt for a Tier 1 or Tier 2 solution, with the proviso that you probably don't need as much specialization or niche-like functionality as you think. The companies you list in the top two tiers should be plenty good enough to meet your needs, especially after you've narrowed the scope of the project. But, it may be that your initial project will need more of a multi-channel retail solution than a general-purpose ERP solution.

So, until you've narrowed the scope of the project, don't worry about this. Your list is a good one, but you'll really want no more than four vendors competing for this job, otherwise you'll spend way too much time nit-picking your way through largely similar offerings. Good luck.