Last week, Boardroom Insight caught up with executives from consulting giant RSM and software vendor Unit4 to get a pulse check on the ERP market. We learned about the types of ERP platforms that enterprises can choose from in 2025. We also found out why companies often customize those platforms with additions such as role-specific dashboards.

This week, we’re taking a closer look at the technical and business details with UST Chief Solutions Officer Kailash Attal. California-based UST is a technology services company with more than 29,000 employees worldwide. The firm counts SAP, Oracle and other major ERP software vendors among its partners. Attal gave us an inside look at the role that consultancies play in large-scale ERP implementation projects. He also explained why enterprises increasingly opt to buy rather than build ERP products, even when they have the coding know-how to develop their own software.

Boardroom Insight: Do companies hire a consultancy before or after they decide which ERP product to buy?

Kailash Attal: In most cases, companies do hire an advisory firm before they decide on the specific ERP product. This gives the companies an unbiased view of the products and helps in building a business case for an ERP product, implementation as well as ongoing maintenance. 

In some cases, we have seen ERP vendors support internal IT teams to perform these activities. Once an ERP product is selected and funding is secured, companies engage a specific service provider to deploy the product. In some cases, the external advisory firm can also support the service provider selection process.

Boardroom Insight: How does a client organization interact with the consultancy while the latter firm carries out the technical work involved in the ERP implementation?

Kailash Attal: Generally, the ERP implementation is carried out with a three-in-a-box concept, with the client’s business and IT teams and the ERP service provider acting as partners. While the service provider acts as a guide and leads the transformation, specific roles and responsibilities are determined at the front end, with the majority of the requirements coming from the customer’s business and IT teams. The service provider is accountable for implementation and alignment to best practices by owning the entire life cycle activities. 

User acceptance testing and organizational change management are again a collaborative effort, with the business and IT teams taking a lead.

Boardroom Insight: Companies make extensive customizations to their ERP software. What exactly are those customizations?

Kailash Attal: The majority of the configurations and customizations in ERP/SaaS products are centered around business differentiators and specific processes like special product configurations, pricing strategies, supply chain, logistics, financial flows et cetera. Also, localizations that are not included in the ERP package for country/region-specific rollouts. These are then supplemented with third-party integrations – which happen to be very specific to every client and engagement.

Boardroom Insight: Given the steep costs involved, why is investing in an ERP preferred to building a set of custom employee-facing data management apps?

Kailash Attal: ERP packages (and business SaaS platforms) have evolved over several decades to embed most of the industry’s standard flows. They have also embedded best practices and the latest cloud technologies through their multibillion-dollar investments in R&D. These platforms are uniquely positioned to provide faster time-to-value than custom-built software. Developing a brand-new ERP package on open-source software would require multiple business and IT subject matter experts, which is usually time-consuming and requires significant upfront investments. 

There are examples of large enterprises that have matured their in-house ERP packages over years, but these are exceptions rather than the norm. We are also seeing a trend where these custom-built apps are being replaced with ERP/SaaS products.

Boardroom Insight: When a company rolls out its newly implemented ERP system to employees, how do those employees learn the new software? How long does it take?

Kailash Attal: The learning process depends on the scale and size of the company, the complexity of the processes and system being implemented and the company’s prior exposure to ERP technology. As a part of organization change management initiatives, the planning and development of training materials goes hand in hand with ERP implementation activities. The rollout process, which includes these training activities, spans anywhere from two to eight weeks. This time line tends to decrease over subsequent roll-outs and project phases.

text

text