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Answers · Readiness

How do we know if our agency is ready for a new ERP?

Short answer

You are ready when you have an executive sponsor with real authority, a team that can give the project meaningful hours, and agreement on why you are changing. You also need data you understand well enough to move.

I usually tell finance directors to look at people before they look at technology, because the project will need your best payroll, AP and budget people for a year or more and somebody has to backfill their day jobs while that happens. The second thing I look at is whether leadership agrees on what success looks like, since an ERP project with three different definitions of done (one from the manager, one from finance and one from IT) will drift no matter how good the software is. Data is the third piece, and that means knowing how many years of history you need to bring over, who owns the vendor and employee master files, and how clean your chart of accounts really is. None of this has to be perfect before you start, but if you can answer those questions honestly you are in a strong position, and the Start at Zero Navigator includes a readiness checklist you can work through with your team.

Written by Abhijit Verekar, Founder and CEO of Avero Advisors, an independent, vendor-neutral advisory firm that works only with the public sector. I write these answers myself and update them as the market changes. Updated . See all answers or write to us.