1,000+ Projects of Buyer Protection
The ERP industry has structural incentives misaligned with buyer interests.
Vendor-controlled cloud subscriptions shift unprecedented control to sellers.
Your mission-critical system, their self-serving terms.
Most consultants sell hours and bow to vendor tactics. We license proprietary AI-powered methodology that systematically protects clients' critical interests.
Experience earned across 1,000+ client projects. Now amplified by AI accelerators that enable client-specific customization at scale.
Not templated consulting. Proprietary IP that works at least 3x faster than traditional methods—with dramatically better results.
The ERP Buyer's Challenge
Your company is considering or committed to a major ERP upgrade or replacement—your most critical business system from vendors who:
Sell Nirvana - Sales culture that systematically avoids difficult topics and makes easy overstatements about their offering
Exploit pricing over time - Pricing models built to hide upsells and real impact of escalators
Control your IT infrastructure - When vendors host your ERP in their cloud with inadequate SLA protections, you depend on infrastructure you don't control
Set terms heavily in their favor - Contracts so one-sided clients are astonished when implications are laid out
Know you're trapped - Migration costs, risk, and disruption are overwhelming—and this status is exploited
This isn't inherently malicious. It's structural.
Vendor incentives naturally diverge from buyer interests. And when selling ERP access (near-zero marginal cost for next copy) to buyers who will soon be trapped, incentive divergence becomes extreme.
The Result: Buyers are often misled by the sales hype which can lead to a less favorable ERP choice, overpay initially (30-50% more than necessary), and face cost escalation over time through mechanisms that were unclear or veiled at signing.
The Solution: Advisors with experience across the full ERP landscape who recognize vendor tactics and use AI tools to systematically counter them at scale. For buyers, the better-suited ERP with life-cycle cost savings can be substantial compared to typical outcomes.
AI Transforms ERP Advisory Services
Traditional Consulting:
Sells hours
Generic "best practices"
Consultant opinions
Limited analysis capacity
Weeks of client workshop time
Our AI-Powered Approach:
AI accelerators for all aspects of our extremely experienced methods
Quantified, weighted scoring of all major decisions
Thousands of client details captured and organized for implementation use
Analysis depth that's impossible manually
Hours of focused client time vs. weeks of costly, disruptive workshops
The Difference: AI doesn't standardize our process—it enables client-specific configuration at scale. Every project is customized for your company size, industry, strategic priorities, and many other factors.
The Impact: Project work that took weeks now takes hours. Analysis that was effectively impossible is now systematic, needing only minor oversight. Significantly fewer hours required, competitive pricing, dramatically better outcomes. Transformational. - Approach details -
ERP Strategy Planning
Develop detailed enterprise business application strategy for clients that analyzes benefits, costs, and risk of replacing or improving ERP.
Key AI Accelerators — for Custom Client Results:
20% Critical Business Topics
Quantified opportunity and risk assessment
Weighted scoring of strategic options
Enterprise Discovery captured and organized for future use
SoftSelect® ERP Selection
Our trademarked selection approach. Find the right ERP, secure the right deal, and protect your long-term interests.
Key AI Accelerators — for Custom Client Results:
20% Critical Business Topics
ERP candidate list built on AI research — no seller contact
Comprehensive finalist evaluation: functionality, hosting, tools, support
Extensive commercial terms review and correction
ERP lifecycle cost control — 30-50% typical savings
Implementer search and scoring across 10 weighted factors
Enterprise Discovery builds forward for implementation
Implementation Readiness
Comprehensive preparation for implementation success—in which your company is in full control.
Key AI Accelerators — for Custom Client Results:
20% Critical Business Topics
Enterprise Discovery fully organized and implementation-ready
Implementer onboarding without redundant billable discovery—saving time, cost, and your team's capacity
For Independent ERP Consultants
Most consulting firms sell hours with limited proprietary IP. Well-designed AI techniques are rapidly obsoleting this long-standing model. Even the smartest, most experienced consultants cannot achieve this analysis depth and accuracy without refined AI methods—it's literally impossible, even with unlimited consultant time.
For years we've licensed our ERP advisory methodology and tools to independent consultants. With upgrades adding AI accelerators, what was valuable before is transformational now.
No upfront fees or financial risk
IP fee is embedded in your project pricing and shared with you — you only pay when you win work.
Win projects you couldn't before
Compete against large firms with AI-powered methodology that delivers faster, deeper results — at competitive pricing.
What was valuable is now transformational
AI accelerators cover the full ERP advisory lifecycle — strategy, selection, commercial terms, implementer search, and implementation readiness.
Why Engleman Associates?
Experience Earned Across 1,000+ Projects
Primarily manufacturing and distribution companies
$10M to $1B+ in revenue
Know the ERP offerings and culture very well
Every industry challenge you can name
Proprietary AI-Powered Methodology
Not AI-washing standard consulting
End-to-end AI acceleration of methods that protect buyers' interests
Client-specific configuration and results, not templates
Results produced at least 3x faster than consultants attempting similar quality
Buyer Advocacy, Not Vendor Accommodation
We challenge industry tactics that disadvantage buyers
Just-the-facts methods in screening ERP and implementers
Contract terms protecting your interests—completely reversing vendor-favorable defaults
Cost controls for ERP access - initially and over time
Proven Results
30-50% initial license cost savings over typical results—even more over time
Approximately 50 commercial terms objectives systematically addressed
Set foundation for your implementation that can seek true excellence
Client Successes
Talking to a few clients of a consulting firm is a key way to vet them and build confidence on a decision to engage.
EAI-SoftSelect has many reference depending on the advisory services you seek and your industry. More on client success are here.
