Working documents for the people doing the work

Run the selection yourself. Here is the paperwork.

ERP Strategy publishes the phase calendars, requirements registers, demo scoring sheets, and vendor comparisons an internal team needs to run its own ERP selection and keep its own program out of trouble. Vendor-neutral, written for the IT director, the program lead, and the plant controller doing the work, not for a consultant selling it to them.

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The clusters

Organised by the document in front of you right now, not by a product pitch.

Selection and RFP

How to run an ERP selection with an internal team: the phases, the requirements register, the RFP, demo scoring, SI contract terms, and reference checks that tell you something.

How to run an ERP selection yourselfPillarFree Most ERP selections run by an internal team take four to seven months from naming the team to an approved decision paper. The time is decided by three choices: about 200 differentiating requirements, three vendor demos, and two vendors kept in commercial talks until the paper is signed.

Vendor and platform comparisons

Where S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion, Dynamics 365, and the tier 2 field actually win, scored on the criteria that decide a shortlist rather than a feature grid with no opinion.

S/4HANA vs Oracle Fusion vs Dynamics 365 over $1BPillarFree Across eight criteria that decide a tier 1 ERP shortlist above $1B in revenue, no vendor wins more than three: S/4HANA takes manufacturing depth and deployment choice, Dynamics 365 takes talent cost and the extension platform, and Oracle Fusion takes AI shipped in production.

Manufacturing ERP

The requirements generic checklists miss, the ERP and MES boundary, plant-level vendor comparisons, and what to test in a demo for discrete, process, and job shop production.

Manufacturing ERP selection: the 40 requirements checklists missPillarFree Free manufacturing ERP checklists stop at module names, about 17 features on the most-visited one. A manufacturer needs around 40 behaviors tested in a scripted demo, and 27 of the 40 change depending on whether you run discrete, process, or job shop production.

Utilities ERP

Four scoring areas weighted by utility type, the billing-versus-ERP boundary, and how to sequence a program so the rate case and the filing calendar both survive it.

Utilities ERP selection: the four scoring areasPillarFree A utility ERP selection holds up when it scores four areas, asset and work management, meter-to-cash, regulatory reporting, and field service, with 8 to 12 requirements each, weighted by utility type before the first demo.

Program delivery and AI

Where AI agents are actually in production use inside an ERP program, the global process owner role, and how to check an SI build without redoing it.

AI agents in an ERP programPillarFree AI agents are in real production use in four of nine ERP program phases: requirements capture, configuration, test design and execution, and training content. Every output still needs a named human sign-off, because the best published accuracy figure for agent-built configuration is 85%.

Tools and the selection toolkit

Live

ERP selection toolkit

A charter, phase calendar, tagged requirements register, demo scoring sheet, reference questions, and a decision-paper outline for a team running its own selection.

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Live

Manufacturing ERP fit finder

A ranked shortlist from twelve vendors based on your manufacturing mode, plant count, revenue, and whether an MES is already in place.

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Live

Utilities ERP fit finder

A ranked shortlist weighted on asset management, meter-to-cash, regulatory reporting, and field service, matched to your utility type.

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