How an ERP Selection Program Runs - The 16-Week Plan
A full ERP selection for a multi-site company takes twelve to twenty weeks from kickoff to signed contracts, runs through eight phases, and needs about six to ten hours a week from each business-process owner during the requirements and demonstration weeks. This article walks through the sixteen-week version we run most often, drawn from recent programs at a multi-site fabricator and a commercial-stage life-sciences company, so a leadership team can see what it is signing up for before it starts.
Why a program, not a project
The word matters. A selection that is treated as a procurement project produces a purchase order. A selection that is run as a program produces a decision the organization understands, a set of requirements the implementation partner is contractually tied to, and a team that has already practiced working together before the implementation starts. The difference shows up eighteen months later.
The sixteen weeks
Weeks 1–2: Mobilize - Confirm the sponsor, the steering committee and the business-process owners (BPOs) for finance, supply chain, operations, quality, sales and IT. Write down the business drivers in plain language and the goals the new system must serve. Agree the decision criteria and their weights before anyone has seen a demo, because after the demos it is too late to be objective. Set the cadence: a weekly status meeting with the sponsor and a working session with each BPO group.
Weeks 3–6: Requirements - Each BPO group works through its processes with us, and we turn what they say into requirements that a vendor can respond to and that an evaluator can score. A good requirement describes a business situation, not a feature. "Support multiple deliveries and milestone billing under one customer PO" can be demonstrated and scored; "strong order management" cannot. The list is prioritized, and BPOs sign it off. For regulated companies this is where validation, audit-trail and traceability requirements are written, not bolted on later.
Weeks 6–8: RFP - The request for proposal carries the requirements, the operating model, the integration landscape, the data volumes and the timeline ask. It goes to a deliberately short list, typically four to six platform-and-partner combinations chosen for fit rather than fame. Vendors get two to three weeks. We manage all vendor communication so the client team is not pulled into sales cycles.
Weeks 8–9: Shortlist - Written responses are analyzed for company-specific fit, delivery readiness, commercial clarity and timeline credibility. Usually three finalists advance. A vendor whose response is illustrative rather than committed is not advanced, however good the software.
Weeks 9–12: Scripted demonstrations - Finalists receive scripts, scoring criteria, sample data and a session schedule by business-process area three to four weeks ahead, and get six to eight hours each to demonstrate against the company's own scenarios. BPOs score only the sessions they attend, and a debrief after each vendor captures concerns, gaps and open questions that numbers miss. This is the most demanding stretch for the client team and the most valuable.
Weeks 12–13: Scorecard, sentiment and total cost of ownership - We consolidate the scorecards, separate functional fit from vendor sentiment, and build a three-year TCO matrix that normalizes very different quotes: implementation by phase, licensing by user type and year, managed services, future phases and travel. The point is not the lowest number. It is a like-for-like view so the decision is about fit and risk, not about which vendor left the most out of the quote.
Weeks 13–15: Decision and contract - A decision document lays out the finalists, the rationale, the risks and the conditions to protect in contracting. Targeted follow-up sessions close open questions; reference calls are made. Contract review covers scope boundaries, named resources, change-order rules, price protection and go-live criteria.
Weeks 15–16: Partner selection and mobilization - Where the software and implementation partner are not sold together, the partner is selected on its own merits. The program ends with a mobilization plan: Phase 1 scope and deferred scope, data-readiness tracker, named data owners, governance and escalation, and the readiness criteria for kickoff.
What we need from your team
Sponsor: an hour a week, plus the decision meetings.
Steering committee: ninety minutes every two weeks, and a half day for the decision.
Business-process owners: six to ten hours a week in requirements and demonstration weeks, two to three otherwise.
IT: four to six hours a week throughout, more in the integration and data sessions.
Project coordinator (client side): the person who books rooms, chases sign-offs and keeps the internal calendar. Programs without one run late.
What it costs
We quote a selection as a fixed hours budget with a named team, and we report budget-to-actual monthly. Recent programs have finished under budget because scope was controlled, not because work was skipped. The right comparison is not the fee; it is the cost of a wrong platform or an implementation that starts without agreed scope.
Frequently asked questions
How long does an ERP selection take? Twelve to twenty weeks for a multi-site company, depending on how many sites and functions are in scope and how quickly BPOs can be made available. Sixteen is typical.
How many vendors should we look at? Four to six in the RFP, three in demonstrations. More than that and the team cannot evaluate properly; fewer and you lose negotiating position.
How do we choose an ERP implementation partner? Evaluate the partner on the people who will actually be on your project, their experience in your industry, their methodology and governance, and their commercial clarity. Scripted demonstrations show the product; follow-up sessions with the delivery team show the partner.
Do you select the implementation partner too? Yes. Partner selection is part of the program, and we stay on the client's side of the table through contracting.
What happens after the decision? Either a pre-implementation preparation phase that sets scope, data readiness and governance before kickoff, or a hand-off to the partner with our decision document and requirements as the baseline.
If your program looks like this, talk to John about your ERP program.
