When searching for a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, there is the right way and the wrong way. If you were to follow all the presumably right things to do, you can still make some awful mistakes. One of the most dreadful things that you can do is to choose the software and then choose the implementation partner.
Lets illustrate a typical scenario. A company is looking for new business software. They decide that they will do the best practice way of selecting software. They define their requirements, they then send out these requirements to the VAR (Value Added Reseller) of the ERP solutions. For the sake of argument, they choose four software providers and send the RFI (Request for Information) to four different VARs, one from each of the software solutions. They get back the RFIs and then start to eliminate the candidates. They drive it to two solutions.
The next step is for them to have the VARs provide demos. If they do it correctly, they have the VARs demonstrate the software according to their business process with their actual data. The demonstrations go well and they now have the decision of which software to go with. They choose X. Then...