During ERP system selection, the various costs and possible benefits are analyzed in considerable detail and then assessed for each vendor. Oddly enough, one important factor is often completely missed during this process. Which one? The cost of the next ERP system!
The selection of a new ERP application is never done as a back-of-an-envelope exercise. After all, most organisations want to profit from the new tool for many years. Many prospective buyers tell us something like the following:
"From a bookkeeping standpoint, the investment's term of depreciation is 5 years. But ideally we want to work with the new solution for 10 years or more".
Anyone who wants to work with a system for that long must have a really good ...