Seven questions to ask a vendor when choosing an ERP
Beyond the price and the feature list: seven questions to put to every vendor, and what a good answer sounds like.
Every ERP presentation sounds the same: tills, accounting, stock, reports. The difference is in the detail. Ask these seven questions in every meeting and compare the answers.
Will our old data come with us?
A good answer has numbers in it: how many tables and rows will move, and how balances will be reconciled. “Yes, it will” is not enough.
Is eBarimt issued automatically?
Ask whether it is issued with every sale without an extra step, and how a receipt is corrected when a sale is returned.
Which banks and payment systems does it connect to?
“Can connect” and “in use today” are different things. Find out which list your bank is on.
Whose data is it?
When the contract ends, can you take out all of your data? In what form, and for how long?
How long does it take, and who trains the staff?
Ask for a plan with a date on every step, and a user guide your staff can read in Mongolian.
What is the price made of?
Ask about the one-off fee, the monthly fee and extras separately. What changes as users and branches are added?
What does the AI do, and who approves it?
Does the AI prepare a proposal, or does it post entries by itself? Financial entries should be approved by a person.
How Meridian answers them
- Migration: every table and column is registered, and after the move row counts and account balances are reconciled. In one migration, 171,041 of 171,041 rows arrived.
- Banks and payments: in daily use are Golomt and Khan Bank statements and card readers, SocialPay, Storepay, Pocket and eBarimt. QPay, Tokipay and Trade and Development Bank statements are built and ready to switch on.
- Data: yours. The system is built on open-source Odoo 19, so you can take your data out whenever you like.
- Training: during rollout, staff are trained with a user guide in Mongolian.
- Price: a one-off implementation and a monthly programme. The quote follows the first meeting.
- AI: the assistant prepares a proposal, and it is posted only after an authorised person presses Approve. It is in pilot today.
