Running the evaluation: turning a long list into a shortlist, scripting the demonstrations so every vendor answers the same questions, and documenting why the decision went the way it did.
When nobody internally has selected a system before, or when the committee cannot agree and needs the argument put on paper rather than settled by whoever is most senior in the room.
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.
A written statement that the adviser takes no fee, referral or margin from any vendor or reseller, for this engagement or any other.
The evaluation criteria and their weights, agreed by you before any vendor is scored.
Demonstration scripts built from your own transactions, not the vendor’s demo data.
A decision paper naming the runners-up and why each fell away, so a successor can audit the choice.
Named people, with the hours they will personally spend, not a firm-level promise.
Usually a fixed fee for the selection, sometimes a day rate with a capped total. Fees contingent on a system being chosen, or on the licence value, are a conflict — the adviser then earns more from a bigger deal.
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”
Its own wording: “ERP Selection & Implementation”, “ERP Project Recovery”, “Expert Witness Services”, “Digital Transformation”
Its own wording: “ERP Technology Selection”, “ERP Implementation”, “ERP Recovery”, “Organizational Change Management”
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.