The amount of value that can be extracted from a tool that one’s competitors could also be using is limited compared to the extraordinary value that results from incorporating a firm’s unique competitive advantages into their ERP system. Build that intelligence into the system, and put your core team in charge of it, and you not only minimize your training costs, you minimize the brain drain when your more productive employees are recruited by your competitors.

The consultant’s role in all of this is to become a key part of that core team, an advisor and mentor that fills a role as important as the company lawyer or CPA. The value that the consultant adds is to translate the higher level business requirements expressed by management into functional technical requirements in such a way that the goals are accomplished as efficiently and effectively as possible.

The software vendor’s role is to provide tools to support the consultant’s efforts. This is what most of them don’t get. They think they’re selling solutions instead of tools. Rather than empowering the consultant, they attempt to empower the end user, and unless they offer a comprehensive service that includes the role of the consultant (eg, the IBM model), they are shooting arrows in the dark.

Make it easy for me to deliver a customized solution to my client, and to change or grow all or part of it as needed, and both of our markets will grow.

The maintenance renewal invoice always seems to show up more often than an upgrade that is a must-have (other than for security/patch reasons…).

Most customers don’t realize until too late that every add-in and customization moves them closer to creating their own little FrankenERP. This, in turn, significantly increases their real upgrade or replacement costs. Many do not have the money, time, nor energy to go through the hassle of another conversion.

That was many years ago – before the PC revolution. That company has grown from a regional sales organization to global power, never once failing to show an increase in new revenue.

Wayne, if PC applications software would have adhered to the simple principal above they would still be profitable today. Instead it became a “forget developing products for the long term – our only driving force is the amount of money can we make today, this quarter, this year.”