The ERP market is exploding.
Almost a $78 billion projection by 2026. Vendors are shipping features fast, consultants are booked out, and exec teams everywhere are scrambling to “get a system in place” before their competitors do.
Thanks to SaaS, ERP timelines have decreased from over 15 months to around 9 months.
Sounds great, right? Faster, cheaper, easier; you know the usual pitch.
Except that’s not how this actually plays out.
More than 70% of ERP initiatives fail to hit the goals they were sold on. And about a quarter crash so hard the stories get whispered in conference rooms for years. Most of these failures aren’t even about bad software. They happen because teams rush into vendor selection without doing the necessary, often uncomfortable, preparatory work.
Everyone’s trying to pick a system.
Nobody’s stopping to ask, “Are we even ready for one?”
That’s where evaluations go sideways.
Choosing an ERP vendor isn’t tricky.
Choosing one that actually fits your business and won’t light your budget on fire, now that’s the real challenge.
Key Evaluation Criteria
Once you get past the shiny demos and the “industry-leading” buzzwords every vendor throws around, here’s what actually matters when picking an ERP:
1. Industry Fit & Scalability
Some ERPs are built for manufacturing. Some for retail. Some for professional services.
Pick a system that doesn’t understand your world, and you’ll spend the next two years customizing it into something it was never meant to be. That’s how budgets die.
2. Integration Strength
Your ERP must integrate seamlessly with your existing systems, including your CRM, WMS, payroll, and inventory tools. If integration is weak, you’ll be stitching your tech stack together with duct tape and swear words.
3. Deployment Model
Approximately 64% of organizations now prefer SaaS ERP solutions.
Cloud typically means faster deployment and fewer infrastructure headaches. It also presents new challenges, including shifts in security, compliance hurdles, and reduced control over customization.
If you're not ready for that, Cloud can punch you in the face just as hard as On-Prem.
4. Support Ecosystem
A great system with a lousy support network is still a lousy experience. Look at the vendor’s training options, partner community, and long-term stability. If their ecosystem feels thin now, imagine what it’ll look like halfway through your implementation.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
ERP failures rarely happen because someone picked “the wrong software.” They occur because teams enter the decision-making process without a clear understanding. Here are the big traps we see over and over:
1. Choosing Based on Licensing Cost Alone
Congrats, you saved money on the sticker price and then spent triple fixing everything the system couldn’t do out of the box. Cheap ERPs get expensive fast.
2. Ignoring Your Data Quality
If your data is a mess now, your ERP will turn it into a bigger mess at scale. Post–go–live cleanup can cost up to 10 times more than pre-migration cleanup. No system can magically organize chaos you have never dealt with.
3. Believing Faster = Safer
Shorter timelines sound efficient until you realize they usually mean someone rushed the prep. Panorama’s research shows “quick” ERP projects often skip foundational process work, and that’s exactly what comes back to bite you.
4. Chasing the Brand Instead of the Fit
“Everyone’s using NetSuite, so we should too!”
Cool.
Everyone’s also using email, but that doesn’t mean Outlook is your soulmate. Pick a solution, not a logo.
5. Skipping Process Mapping Before Evaluation
If you don’t know what your business actually needs, you can’t evaluate a system correctly. You’ll miss critical requirements, overlook workflow gaps, and end up blaming the software for issues that started on your side.
How Talentcrowd Helps
Most ERP disasters start long before implementation. They begin when teams assume they’re ready without ever checking. Talentcrowd steps in before things go off the rails and gives you the kind of honest evaluation that vendors won’t.
We run a Data & Architecture Health Check to surface hidden risks before you sign anything, so you’re not walking blindly into a contract. We also validate whether your chart of accounts and core processes align with ERP vendor data models. If they don’t, we tell you upfront, because no amount of configuration will save a broken foundation.
Inventory and workflow readiness are another big one. ERPs are unforgiving when your data or operational flows are inconsistent. We make sure those pieces are structured, accurate, and ready so the system doesn’t choke on day one.
And because even the best tech fails without people behind it, we bring structured change management and training to keep your team aligned, prepared, and confident through the transition.
In short: Talentcrowd gets you ERP-ready in the real ways that matter.
Before You Choose an ERP Vendor, Start with a Health Check
A Data & Architecture Health Check is the smartest first step you can take before signing anything. It’s how Talentcrowd keeps you from walking into a multimillion-dollar mistake.
We ensure your data is migration-ready, your chart of accounts is structured in a way that modern ERPs expect, and your inventory and workflows aren’t hiding problems that will arise later. We map your existing processes to ensure you don't introduce broken workflows into a new system, and we provide your team with the necessary change management support to adopt the new platform smoothly.
If you're about to choose an ERP, do not skip this.
