Many software manufacturers have built up a network of sales partners and value-added resellers (VARs) who also offer their software products - sometimes supplemented by their own functionality or pre-configured for special sectors. Therefore, one is often still spoilt for choice - even if one has decided on a system.
The markets are heterogeneous, the number of different software platforms is already considerable and the options available are even more diverse when sales partners and value-added resellers (VARs) are taken into account. For example, the study "ERP in Practice" identified 157 different ERP products - the number of implementation partners specifically named by the study participants was over 400!
Before deciding on a software partner for your company, you should take a close look at the following aspects.
One should get an idea of the size of the company of the partner's typical customers. Experience shows that project characteristics differ significantly depending on the size of the user company with regard to the required functional depth, project complexity and, last but not least, investment volume.
For larger projects - especially in the case of internationally distributed locations - it should be checked which personnel resources and which locations a sales partner has at his disposal in order to ensure smooth implementation and in the interest of rapid operational support. For smaller user companies, the regional availability of the partner plays a significant role, both against the background of the reaction times in the project and later support cases, as well as with regard to the associated costs.
The industry positioning of the partners of a software platform is probably one of the most important criteria in defining the market. The industry focus of the solution determines the scope of functions and the appropriate configuration of the functionality with regard to the business processes to be supported. The offered combination of solution core and specific industry add-on should come as close as possible to the required range of functions "in the standard", so that the remaining customising efforts are kept to a minimum. The industry suitability can best be checked by the existence of corresponding reference customers.
