What leaders see
The project looks like a software or configuration issue.
Vendors, modules, timelines, and budgets dominate the conversation while the business outcome, AI fit, and operating record remain unresolved.
Services
Business Systems · ERP
Build an ERP around the way your business needs to work.
ERP should make orders, inventory, finance, fulfillment, service, and reporting easier to manage. We start by documenting the real operating flow and the outcome the business needs, then select and implement the system around that evidence.
01
The Business Problem
The ERP decision starts before the software.
ERP-connected data problems usually begin before AI or workflow delivery. The organization chooses software or modules before it has settled workflow fit, data ownership, integration boundaries, and launch decision rights.
What is actually happening
The operating record is not agreed on.
Processes, master data, exceptions, reports, and handoffs do not yet agree on what the ERP must own and what it should not.
What gets worse
Workarounds become permanent architecture.
Customizations pile up, launch risk rises, reporting trust drops, and the ERP becomes harder to connect to AI after launch.
02
What Changes
What this work should improve.
ERP should make orders, inventory, finance, fulfillment, service, and reporting easier to manage. We start by documenting the real operating flow and the outcome the business needs, then select and implement the system around that evidence.
01
What fit analysis should cover
Before evaluating any vendor, map your own workflows: order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, make-to-stock, make-to-order. Know which processes are standard and which are genuinely unique. That clarity is what separates a successful implementation from a 12-month customization project.
02
How to evaluate vendor demos honestly
A demo shows what the system can do with clean data and ideal workflows. Ask vendors to demo your actual edge cases: multi-site inventory, complex pricing tiers, lot traceability, or whatever makes your operation non-standard. If they can't demo it, it probably doesn't work out of the box.
03
Data migration is where implementations die
Most operators underestimate how bad their master data is until they try to migrate it. Items with no units of measure, customer records with duplicate entries, BOMs that don't match what's actually being built. A data audit before any vendor selection is not optional — it defines your real implementation scope.
04
Integration architecture questions to ask
What does the ERP connect to natively vs. what requires custom integration work? WMS, CRM, EDI, shipping carriers, and e-commerce channels all need data contracts. Ask how the vendor handles real-time sync vs. batch, and who owns the integration layer after go-live.
05
Go-live governance and rollback planning
A cutover plan isn't a calendar. It's a decision tree: if X breaks, we do Y. If parallel validation fails at threshold Z, we roll back. Vendors who can't articulate their cutover governance in detail have not done enough implementations to know what goes wrong.
06
Post-launch: the first 90 days
The first 90 days post-go-live surface every edge case the testing didn't catch. Hypercare support needs to be scoped explicitly in the contract — not assumed. Define what response times look like, who owns issue resolution, and when the project formally closes.
03
How It Fits Your Operations
Where this work touches your business.
ERP-connected operating recordWhich records AI can trust, which workflows should change, and which ERP connections truly need custom work.
Governance dependencyThe operating record has to fit the real workflow before integrations, reports, workflow automation, or AI get built on top.
Records that must line up
customers
products
BOMs
inventory
vendors and financial records
What Launchpad captures before Metrotechs scopes delivery
- Which system owns the record of truth.
- Where manual work or reconciliation enters the workflow.
- Which integrations, rules, or data cleanup have to come first.
Bring the problem into Launchpad
Build the Roadmap before you build the solution.
Launchpad documents what is wrong, captures what your team knows, and connects this service to the business outcome it needs to improve.
Built around the people, processes, records, and decisions that make the business work.
Measured by what becomes easier, clearer, safer, or more reliable after launch.
04
Delivery sequence
How the work moves from problem to measurable change.
ERP should make orders, inventory, finance, fulfillment, service, and reporting easier to manage. We start by documenting the real operating flow and the outcome the business.
01
Before vendor selection
Map your current-state workflows and data landscape. Know your integration requirements. Audit your master data. Define the must-have vs. nice-to-have capabilities. This work belongs to you, not to a vendor.
02
Vendor evaluation
Issue a structured RFP based on your documented requirements. Score vendors against your workflows, not their marketing. Run demos on your edge cases. Check implementation references from companies your size and complexity.
03
Scope and contract
Lock the implementation scope — modules, customizations, integrations, data migration, training — before signing. Change orders after contract signing are where budget overruns originate.
04
Implementation governance
Assign an internal project owner with real authority. Run stage-gated milestones with go/no-go decisions at each. Test with real transaction data, not synthetic scenarios.
05
Go-live and post-launch
Execute a documented cutover with rollback thresholds. Plan 90 days of hypercare. Define what success looks like at 30, 60, and 90 days post-launch before the project starts.
05
FAQ
Questions that usually decide the scope.
Straight answers to what operators ask before committing budget to this work.
Start with the outcomes, workflows, records, controls, integrations, and change capacity the business requires. Use those requirements to create a shortlist and test each option against real scenarios. The right ERP is the one that can support the operating model with acceptable cost, risk, ownership, and long-term flexibility.