5 Modules That Don't Belong in Your ERP: Why Suite Thinking Ruins Your Procurement

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 18:15:00 +0100

Five departments sit at the table. Each one has a wish list. HR wants skill management. Sales needs lead scoring. Administration demands compliant document archiving. The project manager insists on Kanban boards. The quality manager wants audit management with CAPA tracking. All five wishes end up in the same document: the ERP requirements catalogue. All classified as knockout criteria.

The result is something I see in tender after tender: a catalogue with 177 criteria, 131 of them classified as A-criteria — mandatory knockout requirements. That’s 74 percent, far above any reasonable benchmark. What starts as structured procurement ends as a wish concert that no single system can serve.

ERP Frustration in Mid-Sized Companies: Why a New System Won't Fix the Old Problem

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0100

“Our ERP is the problem.” I hear this sentence in almost every initial meeting. Too slow. Too complicated. Can’t do this. Does that wrong. The solution seems obvious: a new system. More modern, more powerful, better.

In 8 out of 10 cases, the truth is different – and this aligns with findings from the Standish Group, which has analyzed IT project failures for decades: The ERP isn’t the problem. The processes are. And a new system with the same processes delivers exactly the same result — just at a higher cost. This is a core focus of my ERP consulting for SMEs.

Process Optimization on Pfisterer Consulting

5 Modules That Don't Belong in Your ERP: Why Suite Thinking Ruins Your Procurement

ERP Frustration in Mid-Sized Companies: Why a New System Won't Fix the Old Problem