The CFO’s “Ace Up the Sleeve” and the Roadmap to Smart ERP Selection

CFOs carry the responsibility of their organization’s financial practices. Businesses growing quickly or that haven’t had resources to invest in financial tech can tread water just keeping up with their day-to-day financial responsibilities. For businesses like these, the time and resources necessary to upgrade their financial capabilities may not be readily available.

But overlooking financial inefficiency is risky. Poor practices can quickly become entrenched. And, just one simple improvement can enable more seamless adoption of new technology, easier scaling, and a higher return on your investments, all while optimizing the flow of financial functions.

If your finance team isn’t firing on all cylinders, check the engine behind your business’ financial performance, its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

Assessing ERPs

The benefits of an ERP are immense: enabling automation, increasing efficiency, and providing real-time insights into every aspect of your business’ financial performance. They represent an incredible opportunity to refine financial functions and can be the “ace up the sleeve” of CFOs willing to make the investment necessary to revolutionize their company’s financial capabilities.

But an ERP is not simply the sum of its parts. In a competitive market, an exhaustive list of shiny features can be as eye-catching as the high prices that often come with them. Still, upgrading your ERP doesn’t have to be a huge expense and you can control costs by focusing narrowly on a few key aspects of an ERP. Your top priorities when considering an ERP’s suitability for your business are:  

• Ensuring the ERP supports long-term business goals, growth plans, and evolving industry demands.
• Focusing on how the system will support critical workflows, not just on the number of available features.
• Choosing a solution that delivers accurate, timely insights for data-driven decision-making.
• Ensuring the ERP connects seamlessly with existing tools to streamline processes and eliminate redundancy.
• Prioritizing ERP solutions that offer robust data security features, support regulatory compliance specific to your industry, and provide strong governance controls to protect sensitive financial and operational data.

What to Watch Out For

With a better understanding of what to look for, let’s touch briefly on risks to avoid. Without thoroughly vetting your ERP you may run into integration issues, limit the usability of your system, or incur unexpected costs. Be wary of:

• Choosing a system based on an overly narrow criteria (for example, considering the needs of an accounting department but neglecting stakeholders in financial planning and analysis, operations, and other key departments).
• Overlooking the need for a deep technical analysis to ensure your new ERP will integrate with the other key systems your business relies on.
• Underestimating the costs associated with ERP implementation, training, and maintenance.
• Failing to plan sufficiently for change management and user adoption, which can result in low system utilization.
• Associating the ERPs suitability with a brand name or feature-sets that may not reflect your business’ most pressing needs.

The Roadmap for ERP Success

With an appreciation for what your ultimate destination looks like, and the pitfalls to avoid along the way, let’s look more closely at the path towards successful ERP selection and integration.

The 5 key milestones on your ERP integration journey are:

• Defining and documenting organizational needs and future goals before engaging vendors.
• Mapping out your workflows to identify pain points and opportunities for automation.
• Engaging cross-functional stakeholders early to ensure their buy-in across your organization.
• Requesting tailored demos that show how the ERP handles real business scenarios.
• Evaluating the total cost of ownership—including licenses, implementation, support, and training—rather than just the upfront price.
• Partnering with experienced advisors to guide the selection, due diligence, and post implementation support process.

Conclusion & Next Steps

Selecting an ERP isn’t just about technology. It’s a strategic investment that will shape your business’ ability to grow, adapt, and compete. CFOs play a key role in designing the processes and goals that ERPs support, so the importance of their leadership in the process of selecting and implementing ERPs can’t be overstated.

If you’re ready to explore a new or updated ERP, the CBIZ team can help you move forward with confidence and find alignment between your technology needs and business vision. Contact a member of our team today.