Re: Top Ten Questions to ask your proprietary ERP salesman

[Stanley A. Klein]

There's an important question I think you missed.  It is "What happens if
the needs of my business don't match the features of your software?"

I've heard that most proprietary ERP providers have the philosophy that "If
your business doesn't match the features of our software, change your
business."  This works if the business uses information in a very generic
way.  But it is a particularly important concern if the way the business
uses information is part of the business's competitive edge.

I heard of an instance with one ERP package where a major manufacturer
reviewed the package and found that the package was based on their
principal competitor's way of doing business.  It turned out that this
manufacturer's competitive edge was based on their using information
differenly from the way the competitor used it.  Of course, they rejected
use of the ERP package.

With GNUe, we provide the tools and you can use what you want and tailor
the remainder to match the needs of your way of doing business.  All the
source code is available, so you can change anything you want.

IF you distribute the code for your changes to others, you are obligated to
make the source code to your changes freely available, but this applies
ONLY if you distribute your changes to others.  If you make changes only
for your internal purposes YOU AREN'T REQUIRED TO DISTRIBUTE THEM TO ANYONE.


Stan Klein





At 12:06 PM 1/2/2002 -0500, Peter Sullivan <address@hidden> wrote:

[all details snipped]

>
>1. I'm paying how much and I'm not allowed to know how it works?

>2. Am I too small for your package?
>
>3. What happens if my level of activity increases?
>
>4. What standards do you support, and how are they licensed?

>5. How does this work with the stuff I already have?

>6. What level of support will I get?

>7. What happens if I want to customise the package?

>8. What happens if you go bust?

>9. What happens if you get taken over? 
>
>10. What happens if we don't get on?

>11. How often must I upgrade?