BARRA POINTADVISORY

Services / ERP Selection & Procurement

ERP Selection & Procurement

ERP selection and procurement that keeps you out of recovery

Around 80% of the ERP recoveries I lead trace back to the point of purchase: the wrong system, the wrong integrator, or both. I help you establish what you are buying before you buy it, and run a tender that proves it will work.

Start a conversation →

Five steps before you go to market

  1. Scope: the processes affected and the capabilities that genuinely differentiate you.
  2. Requirements: signed off and split into regulatory, competitive advantage, and how you happen to work today.
  3. Data: where it lives, its state, and what you will migrate.
  4. Integration: point-to-point or platform, and how many interfaces the SI must build.
  5. Commercial strategy: how you engage suppliers and create real competitive tension.

Putting the contract in the RFP

Issue a fixed-price contract with your RFP, with payment milestones and acceptance criteria that commit the SI to implementation best practice. Bidders mark up the terms they disagree with during the tender, when your leverage is highest, which also shortens contract negotiation by around two months.

Vendor-agnostic experience

Oracle Fusion vs SAP S/4HANA selection for a £50M+, 400-entity programme at SITA. A £20M+ sector-wide Oracle cloud procurement across 20 New Zealand health boards. System and services procurements for Quadient, Brambles and Fidelity Life.

Case studies

Where I've done this

£50M+ERP and CRM replacement, 400 entities
SITA · Air transport technology

Establishing a £50M+, 400-entity ERP replacement and running the Oracle vs SAP selection

Read the case study
5%savings on c.£500M a year of medical device spend
New Zealand Health Sector · Public sector

A £20M+ sector-wide Oracle Fusion procurement across 20 health boards

Read the case study

Questions

Frequently asked

Are you independent of ERP vendors?

Yes. I am not a reseller or partner of any vendor or systems integrator. I have run selections across Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and NetSuite, and the recommendation follows the evidence.

Fixed price or time and materials for the SI?

Fixed price, with milestones and acceptance criteria in the contract issued with the RFP. Poorly defined scope is the real risk, and no contract structure fixes that; the five steps before you go to market do.

How do we give the board an early cost figure?

As a range built from your own historic data and comparable implementations, benchmarks first, sponsor briefed privately, with the levers that reduce cost stated, and a clear point where the range narrows.

Further reading

Related insights

ERP procurement

Five simple steps before you go to market for an ERP

Nearly every ERP recovery has the same root cause: a procurement that never established what was being bought. Five steps to avoid it.

3 November 2026 ERP procurement

Most ERP programmes don't fail in delivery. They fail at the point of purchase.

Around 80% of ERP recoveries trace back to the wrong system, the wrong integrator, or both. Three golden rules before you buy.

3 October 2026

Is a programme keeping you up at night?

A short, confidential conversation is usually enough to tell whether it needs recovery, assurance or simply a second opinion.

Start a conversation →