Buying an ERP in India: what to check before you commit

What changes when you move from accounting software to ERP?

ERP means enterprise resource planning. It connects processes such as finance, purchasing, sales, inventory and manufacturing through integrated modules and shared data.

An accounts package may still be adequate even if it has been in place for years. ERP becomes worth considering when staff regularly re-enter transactions or reconcile separate records to find out what the business has sold, bought or holds in stock.

• Stay with your current setup if it handles the work reliably and a small process change would solve the problem.
• Consider ERP if stock, purchasing, orders and finance need a shared record, or group reporting has become a recurring manual job.
• Fix the underlying process too. New software will not decide who approves a purchase or which customer record is correct.

Read the NetSuite introduction if you want to understand that option before drawing up a shortlist.

Cloud, hosted and on-premises ERP: what is the difference?

Consider SaaS if you want to avoid running the application infrastructure yourself. Keep on-premises or private-cloud options on the shortlist when a regulatory, integration or operational requirement calls for them.

Write a short requirements brief before asking for demos

The people responsible for finance and operations should help write the brief, with IT covering the systems and connections involved. For each problem they identify, describe the task a supplier needs to demonstrate.

• Finance: period close, budgets, approvals, audit trail and management reporting.
• Operations: purchase orders, stock transfers, returns, batch or serial tracking and production steps.
• Group structure: legal entities, currencies, intercompany transactions and consolidated reporting.
• Connections: banks, ecommerce, payroll, CRM, warehouses and any specialist industry software.
• India requirements: have your accountant specify the GST, e-invoicing, e-way bill, TDS, TCS and reporting scenarios that apply to you.

Mark each requirement essential, useful or later. Put the user, input, expected result and acceptance test beside every essential item.

What to test in an ERP demonstration

Ask to see your awkward transactions in the demo. The tidy ones rarely cause the trouble. Give each shortlisted supplier the same anonymised examples and invite the people who do the work to attend.

• Enter an order, check stock, fulfil it, raise the invoice and show the accounting entries.
• Process a return or credit note. Include an exception, not only a clean transaction.
• Close a period and produce the report your finance director actually uses.
• Show the applicable Indian tax workflow, including the error-and-correction path.
• Identify every step that needs an extra module, partner app, manual export or custom development.

Compare the full five-year cost

Compare proposals over the same period and against the same requirements. A five-year budget should allow for changes in user numbers and renewal pricing, with the assumptions clearly shown.

NetSuite describes its annual licence as a combination of the core platform, optional modules and users, with an initial implementation fee. It is not a single all-inclusive price.

Microsoft separates Business Central Essentials, Premium and limited-access Team Members plans. Use the current plan details as an input to your quote, not as the total project budget.

Which ERP products belong on your shortlist?

Ask every supplier to demonstrate the same requirements. Record the gaps, the proposed workarounds and the cost of each one.

• NetSuite vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud: distinguish SAP Public Edition from Private Edition before comparing scope or migration options.
• NetSuite vs Dynamics 365 Business Central: compare group reporting, operational needs, Microsoft integration and the licensed edition.
• NetSuite vs Dynamics 365 Finance: for a broader enterprise shortlist, check Finance and Supply Chain Management together where required.

For multi-subsidiary NetSuite requirements, scope OneWorld explicitly: Oracle lists it as an add-on module.

Check the delivery partner as carefully as the software

Before signing, ask who will run the workshops, configure the system, migrate the data and support your users. Meet those people, not only the salesperson.

• Ask for relevant references and permission to speak to the client. Check which parts of the project the supplier delivered and whether that work is relevant to yours.
• Agree milestones, acceptance criteria, data ownership and who can approve extra work.
• Require a rehearsal migration, reconciled balances and user sign-off before switching systems.
• Set the training plan and go-live support hours before choosing the launch date.

If NetSuite makes your shortlist, you can work through these questions with a local delivery team. Invitra can assess the licences, configuration and migration work a NetSuite implementation would require.

Our Pune team also handles training, support and Indian tax and bank-integration requirements. A requirements discussion can take place by video or in person, with any workshop fees and travel agreed beforehand. Meet the team or request a consultation.

Your final pre-purchase check

• Can our team complete every essential workflow in the proposed configuration?
• Are all modules, partner apps and integrations named and priced?
• Are migration exclusions, historical-data access and reconciliation responsibilities clear?
• Do we know the renewal terms, internal workload and support arrangements?
• Have we met the delivery team and agreed what counts as a successful go-live?

If you cannot answer one of these, ask for clarification before signing. Already replacing an installed system? Read our ERP migration overview and bring your current contract to the first meeting.

Questions before you decide