ERP satisfaction analyses. What's behind it?

Every year, the ERP vendors who are positioned accordingly are delighted with what is essentially free advertising. Even the media pounce on the Consulting- and analyst firms conducted ERP satisfaction analyses.

Numerous, varied reports in trade magazines with comments from the providers of the award-winning ERP are the result. Of course, the award-winning ERP providers have specialised in topics such as mobility, Cloud capabilityBusiness Intelligence or Big Data also have to qualify first. Nevertheless, the ERP satisfaction analyses are actually carried out for customers, aren't they? But how great is the benefit for selecting your own ERP solution?

Are ERP systems really comparable?

First of all, the question arises: Which ERP systems can you make a meaningful comparison in a multitude? Is it even possible? If, for example, some systems are widely used on the market while others are hardly used at all, it is difficult to use this as a basis for a good evaluation of the system landscape. In order to carry out a reliable comparison, a sufficient number of "equal" systems must be available.
A distinction is again made between global and non-global ERP providers. However, the "global" as a basis for comparison should be treated with caution. Because "global" can mean that it is actually distributed globally by the provider, the ERP system alone has this distribution or is available globally through so-called local packages.

Who is asked in ERP satisfaction analyses?

In addition to the ERP providers as a basis for comparison, the evaluating companies in the ERP satisfaction analyses are also interesting. How are these companies selected, contacted and surveyed? By the direct operator of the satisfaction analyses or via the ERP provider? It is also unclear which people are being assessed, i.e. which position or function they fulfil in the company. Or are companies even surveyed twice over the years? Did the survey differentiate between specialised users and operators? Can the assessor really assess every area of the ERP system in a technically recognisable way? All of these questions are not adequately documented, but have an influence on the result of the satisfaction analysis.

Staff or user?

What is included in the analysis is the size of the companies surveyed. The size of a company refers to the number of employees. However, it does not refer to the number of ERP system users. For example, a manufacturing company with 100 employees has far fewer users than a service provider. It is also not clear how the company sizes are distributed across the ERP systems to be assessed.

Don't compare apples with pears

Whether the results from the surveys of these companies are sufficient to adequately assess an ERP system?
So is an ERP satisfaction analysis even an option when selecting your own ERP system?
In these analyses, small industry-specific ERP solutions, with a handful of users, compared with the large standard systems. The satisfaction of the retail group is compared with that of the service specialist. It also appears that ERP providers with three ratings are placed on an equal footing with others with 80 responses. In addition, the unbiased reader often interprets terms that the "ERP world" does not yet clearly define very "independently. Depending on the user's point of view, the "cloud capability" of an ERP system is very different. All in all: not a very useful basis for selecting an ERP system. They can be helpful to orientate oneself on the general offerings on the market, but are no substitute for an independent search and comparison of a suitable ERP system.

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