Ten Critical Questions to Ask a Manufacturing ERP Vendor OR What do you look when you are looking for a new Software Fisrt is obviously to understand the business requiremnt what sort of solution is end user looking and whether nay of the present sotware meets that requirement partially .A. Business Model Fit1. How does the proposed solution support the style ofmanufacturing?(Challenge in acpaturing data at Shopfloor level; how to make life of data enty user simpler; today people want systems which makes there life simpler, rather than a system which makes them to do do data entry; so how to capture automatic info system which captures maximum data and mimimizes data entry. i will give u my own example as a user of social media applications for expense calculations; i was mostly using applictaions which requied me to enter my expenses based upon categories this took almost 4 to 5 minutes of mine ; hence iswitched to an application which took all the data from my banks, credit cards, online transactions and give me an instant analysis rather than me entering thae data.)When evaluating ERP, ask the vendor if plant floor workers can attend systemdemonstrations or reference visits. If the system is difficult to use, it will becomeshelf-ware and the ROI will be completely compromised. If workers wont use thesoftware, the company will not get the accurate, timely data it requires to streamlineoperations and improve quality.2. 2. Can a non-programmer develop a new business processin the system? Billion-dollar industries have been created in the follow-on market, where consultantsand programmers charge hundreds of dollars per hour to program hard-to-uselegacy systems.A new alternative is available, however: software supporting new business processestailored to needs. Through point-and-click and drag-and-drop interfaces, advancedusers should be able to create new screens or reports without writing any code3. Licencing partHow is the software licensed?The enterprise software industry often plays games with software licensing, offeringvariable feature sets on a per user basis.For example, software vendors convince their customers that only 20% of theirworkforce should be licensed. This keeps the initial price low and acceptable. Once thesoftware is deployed throughout the enterprise, it becomes clear that to get full valuefrom the software, many more people need to use it and they all need full licenses,as opposed to the restricted functionality licenses often sold in initial implementations.Manufacturers, especially, are not accustomed to having so many people use thesoftware and will underestimate the number of users necessary.The plant floor is where the most important data in a company is created, and anysystem utilized in manufacturing must treat plant floor workers as knowledge workers,capturing and validating this important data at the point of origin. This means thatplant floor workers need access to the software as well.A more flexible, open licensing model allows complete deployment throughout theenterprise. Everyone adds value to the products and services, so the most effectivesystem will capture important facts about everything going on as it happens.B Architecture & Development Approach.5. How many ways of accessing the system are there? Isthe user interface consistent throughout the applicationHow many ways of accessing the system are there? Isthe user interface consistent throughout the application?ERP vendors might offer different client applications they have developed one forWindows XP, one for Mac, one for Linux, two or three for various mobile devices, etc.This is not an optimal situation. Each software package must be tested and deployed