How to ask for a quote

A product that gives its price on request is not hiding anything. ERP and enterprise payroll are priced by company size and scope, and no two businesses want the same thing. But a quote that arrives as a single number is not a comparison. Ask for these in writing.

Price on request (12): Acumatica, LabourNet, NetSuite, PaySoft, PaySpace, Personio, Sage 200 Evolution, Sage CRM, Sage Pastel Payroll, Sage X3, SAP Business One, SYSPRO.

Ask every vendor

• The price per month and per year, with the VAT basis stated.
• The total for twelve months in rand, with VAT shown on its own line.
• What is charged once only: implementation, data migration, training.
• Which SARS returns the product files directly into eFiling and e@syFile.
• Which banks it feeds from, and whether Capitec and TymeBank are included.
• What happens to your data, and in what format you can take it out, if you leave.

What an ERP quote contains

An ERP is bought in pieces, and a quote can hide most of its cost in the pieces you did not know to ask about. Expect these lines, and ask for each one separately.

• The licence or subscription: usually per user, with different prices for full users and light users.
• Modules: finance, stock, manufacturing, projects and the rest are often separate lines.
• Implementation: the partner's hours and rate, to set it up and bring your data across.
• Customisation: anything built for you, and who owns and maintains it.
• Training: for the team that will use it, and for the people who will run it.
• Support and updates after the first year, which is often a yearly percentage.
• Hosting, if the product runs on your own servers or with a hosting provider.

A message you can send

We are a business of [number] employees with [number] users, registered for VAT, banking with [bank]. Please quote in rand for twelve months, with VAT on its own line, and list separately anything charged once only. Please say which SARS returns the product prepares and which it submits, and how we take our data out if we leave.

Send the same message to every vendor on your shortlist. The quotes will differ, and the differences are the information you are after.

Compare like with like

What should worry you

• A quote that will not state a total in rand.
• A price that is the same for every business size, with no mention of scope.
• Pressure to sign before you have seen the product with your own data.
• No written answer on where your data lives and how you can leave. See POPIA and your software vendor.

The vendor, or the partner?

Many larger products are sold and implemented by local partners and not by the vendor directly. The partner sets its own implementation fee, knows the local rules, and is who you will phone when something breaks. Two partners selling the same product can quote very differently. Ask two, for the same scope, and compare the written proposals. Then ask each for a customer of your size and industry that you can phone.

Questions about the project

• Who does the implementation, how many hours are quoted and what is the rate?
• How long will it take from signing to the first real transaction, and what do you need from us?
• What happens if the project overruns, and who pays for it?
• Can we start with one module or one site and add the rest later?
• What is the notice period, and what do we pay if we stop?

Expect it to take time

A quote for an ERP can need a call, a scoping workshop and a written proposal. Allow a few weeks, and ask the vendor or its partner in South Africa for a reference customer of your size that you can phone.