Interviewing the people who do the work, writing down what the system has to do, and separating what is genuinely required from what is habit inherited from the current software.
Before any vendor is contacted. A requirements document written after the demos describes the software you saw, which is how a committee ends up buying the best demonstration rather than the best fit.
Put these in the engagement letter rather than the kick-off meeting. Each one is a thing that is awkward to ask for later and cheap to ask for now.
Requirements stated as outcomes, not features, so two systems can be judged on the same wording.
Every requirement marked must, should or nice by you, not by the adviser.
The current process documented alongside, so a requirement that only exists because of the old system is visible.
The document in a format you own and can hand to vendors without the adviser present.
Named exclusions: what is deliberately out of scope for this phase.
Fixed fee, priced by the number of processes and sites in scope. Often bundled with selection advisory, which is reasonable as long as the requirements are yours to keep either way.
Stackmark publishes no day rates. Nobody in this market posts them, an adviser’s rate varies more by who is assigned than by the firm, and a range we made up would be exactly the invented figure we refuse to print for licences. Ask two firms for a fixed fee on the same written scope; the comparison is the number you actually need.
Firms whose own site names this work, alphabetical. A listing is a documented claim by the firm, not a recommendation by us, and there is no tier, rating or paid placement anywhere on this page.
Its own wording: “Needs Assessment”, “ERP Selection”, “ERP Implementation”
Its own wording: “ERP Selection”, “ERP Strategy & Planning”, “ERP Implementation”, “Business Process Transformation”
The page on each firm’s own site that names the service, and the date we read it. The reading of those pages — which of our seven services a firm’s wording maps to — is Stackmark’s, which is why the firm’s own words are printed above.