Yes.

A key part of our evaluation process is understanding how your business actually operates today and how you want it to operate in the future. We typically spend 3–4 days onsite conducting facilitated process-mapping sessions with a well-prepared agenda and attendee schedule.

We understand that your team still has a business to run, so not everyone needs to participate all day. We work to minimize disruption while ensuring we capture the information needed to make informed recommendations.

For an ERP evaluation, we focus on the business processes that flow through the system—typically those tied to operational and financial transactions. These generally fall into three major process areas: Order-to-Cash, Procure-to-Pay, and Record-to-Report.

Many clients find that these sessions provide value beyond the software evaluation itself by creating alignment, uncovering improvement opportunities, and helping teams better understand how work flows throughout the organization.

We work to minimize disruption. Most participants attend only the sessions relevant to their roles. Our goal is to gather the information needed to make informed recommendations while allowing your team to continue running the business.

A typical ERP evaluation includes stakeholder alignment, process mapping, future-state process design, requirements gathering, vendor research, scripted demonstrations, vendor scoring, contract review support, executive decision-making, and a final recommendation.

Common indicators include excessive spreadsheet workarounds, lack of visibility into operations, reporting challenges, integration limitations, scalability concerns, and growing frustration among users.

Some of our customers are still in DOS based systems using Function keys (F3/F4/F5) to navigate through screens. Others may be on a system whose support is sunsetting soon, like Microsoft Great Plains. Still others have a “newer” software, but due to poor implementation, their team is still experiencing problems.

There are tons of reasons to consider a change, and if you don’t really need one, the first month with us that includes current and future state mapping will help you identify what can be done to improve even if you don’t continue with a new system.

If you don’t really need a new system, the first month with us includes current and future state mapping. This process ALONE will help you identify what can be done to improve even if you don’t continue with a new system.

Maybe you had a poor implementation before, and you need to adjust rather than switch.

Maybe your IT team is great at developing and you just need to understand and prioritize your own systematic improvements.

Maybe your team was not trained well on using the new system or processes, and the challenges are human rather than technical.

Maybe you can use AI to develop agents to overlay your current data lake and custom create improvements a la carte instead of making a carte blanche change.

Honestly, we want YOU to be successful; we don’t take financial kick-backs from vendors or developers, so our ONLY concern is your success.

If you are still skeptical, please read our Case Studies and contact us, we would be honored to prove that we are sincere in our intent.

Most modern ERP systems are licensed through annual or multi-year subscriptions rather than purchased outright.

Costs are typically driven by the number of users, user types, required modules, storage needs, and integrations. We help clients understand both implementation costs and long-term ownership costs before making a decision.

Item descriImplementation costs vary based on complexity, integrations, data quality, customization requirements, and organizational readiness. For many mid-market organizations, implementation costs are measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars.ption

We begin with your business processes, pain points, growth plans, and future-state objectives. The goal is to define what the business needs to achieve before evaluating technology.

Yes. Future-state process design helps ensure you select software that supports where the business is going rather than simply automating current inefficiencies.

We use scripted demonstrations based on your requirements and ask vendors to prove functionality using realistic business scenarios instead of generic sales presentations.

Software vendors are naturally focused on selling their solution. An independent advisor helps ensure decisions are based on business needs rather than sales objectives.

Yes. Poor data quality is one of the most common causes of reporting issues, adoption challenges, and implementation delays.

The good news is that we can help with that; and there are lots of advances in AI that will make this process much less time consuming and costly than it used to be.

AI can accelerate analysis and cleanup efforts, but it cannot replace business decisions about data ownership, standards, and governance.

Also, if your current data is stored in a hard-to-access location, it will still require some manual effort before it is in a format that even AI can help improve.

We do have resources internally at AJC that can help with this, and once the data is available, there are many AI tools that will help make the data clean less time consuming and less expensive than it used to be.

Integrations often become one of the largest drivers of cost, complexity, and project risk. We evaluate them early in the selection process.

If you can get a new system that has most of what you really need “off the shelf” - this will save time and money in implementation.

Some companies don’t want to adjust their internal processes or policies to fit a new system, but typically software companies develop workflows to accommodate “best practices.”

It may be worth considering the true WHY for your specific processes or policies to determine if the ROI is there to custom develop around them. What are all the financial considerations of change?

No.

We do not accept software commissions or vendor kickbacks. Our recommendations are based solely on what is best for the client.

Of course it is financially tempting, but our values are not to extract unearned financial rewards. We want our team and our customers to feel the process was fair and unifying. Going through a shared challenge like ERP Selection and Implementation can be rewarding to the team - they all feel like they matter to the company and each other.

We feel this way too!

This is an intrinsic motivation that surpasses financial wealth, and thankfully we are a privately held (not PE backed) business that can make decisions based on human connection and value rather than profit for the sake of profit.