What an ERP implementation actually costs

Where the money goes, and the line items people forget. · 2 min read

Subscription or license fees are usually the number everyone quotes, and usually not the biggest one. Services to configure, migrate and test the system often match or exceed the software cost over the first year.

The line items people forget

• Data cleansing and migration, especially open transactions and history.
• Integrations to banks, payroll, tax engines, e-commerce and CRM.
• Testing cycles, including regression testing for every quarterly cloud update.
• Backfilling the internal staff who are seconded to the project.
• Training, hypercare and the first year of support.

How to keep it honest

Ask for the services estimate broken down by phase, with named roles and hours. Keep a contingency of 15 to 25 percent and treat customisations as change requests with a price, not favours.