Key Points at a Glance
Whether an ERP system is a good fit depends on a few specific points in your processes that aren’t covered in any demo. “Vendor-neutral” means that these points are the deciding factors—not the portfolio of the consultant.
Why Every Provider Says “Yes”
“Can you trace batches?” Every vendor answers this question with “Yes,” and they’re usually right. Every serious system includes some form of traceability. The question that really matters is a different one: how?
Out of the box, with a few customizations, via a certified industry solution, or only through in-house development. These are four very different answers to the same question, and they differ in both price and risk. What runs out of the box is updated with every release. What is developed in-house must be tested with every update and often reworked.
The same applies to nearly every requirement that truly shapes your business. A demo shows the standard workflow: enter an order, deliver it, and invoice it. Things get interesting with partial deliveries to two addresses on a single invoice, with returned goods and credit memos spanning the turn of the year, and with customers who order through a purchasing cooperative but pick up the goods themselves and file their own complaints. These scenarios determine your choice, and they’re not listed in any brochure.
What Determines Suitability
In every selection project, there are a manageable number of points where the systems really diverge. Finding them is the real work; everything else can be compared without learning much. Experience shows that these points tend to be in the same areas.
Variations in Your Processes
Every system can handle standard operations. Whether it's the right fit becomes clear when you look at the special cases that occur daily in your business but never in others.
Your industry
Batch traceability, variant manufacturing, and purchasing budget planning in retail: Industry-specific functions differentiate the market faster than anything else because they are difficult to replicate.
Your other systems
An ERP system never stands alone. How well it integrates with CRM, the online store, warehouse management, and production control determines the ongoing costs—costs that aren't included in any licensing offer.
Its Structure
Having multiple companies, locations, or countries fundamentally changes the requirements for consolidation, intercompany eliminations, and access permissions. Growth plans need to be put on the table here.
These sections form the basis of the criteria catalog: each requirement is assigned a priority and a weight, and each evaluation specifies how a system addresses it. Two factors are excluded from the scoring. A predefined elimination criterion that a system fails to meet disqualifies it, even if it ranks highest overall. And costs are calculated separately as a 5-year TCO to ensure that a low-cost bid does not mask a technical shortcoming.
Whose interests are at stake in the recommendation?
There are four paths to making an ERP decision, and any one of them can work. They differ in terms of who selects the candidates and how that person is compensated. A system integrator knows its product inside and out and often implements it exceptionally well; however, its recommendations are limited to its own portfolio. ICB GmbH does not sell licenses and does not receive commissions from ERP vendors; we have been in the market since 2000.
| Dimension | ICB · SPARK® 2.0 | IT Services Company | Major Consulting Firm | Internal Project |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interest | Fees based on time spent; no commissions; no licensing business | Margin on licenses and implementation of our own system | Daily rates, large teams, broad scope of work | No external costs, but internal capacity |
| Market Outlook | Entire relevant market segment, researched using AI | Our Product Portfolio | Broad; often less detailed in small and medium-sized businesses | Limited to well-known providers |
| Result | Decision-making document, including TCO, phase plan, and risk register | Proposal for a System | Strategy document; implementation is usually handled by third parties | Vendor comparison in Excel, rarely weighted |
| Duration | 6 to 8 weeks | Quote in days, without our own analysis | 3 to 6 months | Often over a period of 6 months, alongside day-to-day operations |
How AI Can Help You
Scanning the market, reviewing manufacturer documentation, and sorting through requirements takes a lot of time and requires little judgment. AI agents handle this work in 6 of the 7 steps of the preliminary project.
For you, this mainly changes the amount of work involved: Your departments describe their processes during a facilitated session, and everything else falls into place alongside that. And the shortlist reflects the status as of the day you make your decision, not the status at the start of the project.
Evaluation and decision-making remain human processes; every shortlist is reviewed by a consultant before it is presented to you. The data is processed in the EU in compliance with the GDPR, under a confidentiality agreement, and without using your data for model training.
SPARK® 2.0: Selection and Planning in a Preliminary Design Phase
The question of suitability cannot be answered in passing, nor does it end with the selection of a system. Once you know which ERP system is the right fit, the next step is to develop an architecture, a phased plan, and a figure that will stand up to scrutiny by the advisory board. That is exactly what SPARK® 2.0 is designed for: ICB GmbH’s ERP pre-project, in which market analysis, system selection, and project planning are integrated into a single process rather than being handled as three separate engagements.
Three overlapping phases
Analysis, selection, and planning are interlinked. The weightings determined during the analysis are carried over into the selection process, and the budget is based on the same list of requirements. Nothing is assessed twice.
Six to eight weeks until a decision is made
This is made possible by the overlap and by the fact that AI agents handle the research. A process that takes half a year ultimately evaluates release statuses that are no longer current.
Two to three hours per department
The preliminary project won't take up any extra time for your staff. Just one facilitated meeting per department—the rest is handled by the consultants. Your key personnel can continue with their day-to-day work.
Our fee is not tied to the system
We do not sell licenses and do not receive commissions from ERP providers. We bill based on the work involved. The system you ultimately choose does not affect this.
What ends up on the table
- List of criteria with weightings and market analysis with a long list and a short list
- Process map for each department and evaluation matrix with a "fit-to-standard" analysis for the top candidate
- Overall IT architecture, phase plan with milestones, and budget with a 5-year TCO
- Risk Register and Justified Decision Proposal for Management and the Advisory Board
All of this will become your property. You can use it to issue a request for proposals, negotiate, and justify your decision—even without us. Whether we assist with the implementation afterward is a separate matter and not part of this work.
The free online ERP analysis provides an initial, vendor-neutral shortlist of 2 to 4 systems after you complete an 8- to 10-minute questionnaire—via email and without requiring registration.
The cover image was generated by AI. The evaluation matrix and timeline are original illustrations by ICB GmbH.
