Buying ERP?

Planning a heavy duty ERP (SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft..) acquisition ? 

1. Why do you need ERP in the first place? What is the business problem you are trying to solve? Have you clearly defined it?
2. Have you considered other solutions to your business problem?
3. How will implementing ERP solve this problem? What competitive advantage are you going to gain and how will you measure it as a result?
4. Are you high-volume transaction based, geographically distributed business with a static business model, deep pockets and highly professional business and IT management teams? Or are you counting on consultants to solve your internal program management challenges?
5. Are you aware, how many years and how much money does it cost to implement a fully integrated ERP solution?
6. Who is the Business Champion of this decision. Has he/she signed up on the appropriate Business Case and how will he/she engage in the program management process? Have business operations people signed up on the program implementation plan and are they prepared to work in parallel on the ERP implementation and fulfill their daily jobs ?
7. Are you planning to use ERP as an accounting or business management instrument ? If accounting – why do you need ERP in general and are you aware of the potential consequences of a silo-based ERP implementation? If business management – are you prepared for a multi-year multi/mega million effort of an integrated business process blueprint definition exercise?
8. Do you expect your major product/services and your business process to remain unchanged throughout the process blueprint definition process? If not, then how are you planning to align your blueprint with the changing environment?
9. Are you prepared to undertake a dirty Data Management challenge and coordinate a company-wide trench-based effort of common/standard codes, data cleansing and marshalling/migration  into ERP databases from legacy sources? Why is this important?
10. How are you planning to staff your PMO and what roles will be assigned to Business and IT in the process? Why is this important?
11. Have you identified your major risks, their mitigation plan and are still determined to go forward?

If you are acquiring ERP because of a non-business related reason, you have wasted your time reading the above.