Why the Next ERP Evaluation Will Be Led by Operations, Not IT
Twenty years ago, selecting an ERP system meant assembling a technical evaluation team. Your IT director led the process, assessed database architectures, evaluated server requirements, scrutinized integration frameworks, and made recommendations based primarily on technical criteria. Business users participated nominally, but the real decisions happened in IT’s domain because implementing and maintaining ERP was fundamentally a technical challenge.
That world is disappearing rapidly.
The next time you evaluate ERP—whether replacing a legacy system or implementing your first modern platform—the evaluation will be led by operations executives: your COO, VP of Operations, Director of Distribution, or Warehouse Operations Manager. IT will participate, certainly, but they won’t drive the decision. The people who actually run your business day-to-day will lead the evaluation, and they’ll focus on business outcomes rather than technical specifications.
This shift isn’t happening because IT has become less important. It’s happening because modern cloud ERP platforms have fundamentally changed what matters in the selection decision. When infrastructure is invisible, when updates are automatic, when integration uses standard APIs, and when implementation happens in weeks rather than years, technical considerations diminish dramatically in importance. What matters is whether the software actually helps your operations team run the business better.
This represents a profound change in how distribution companies approach ERP selection—one that many organizations haven’t fully recognized yet. Understanding this shift is essential for making better ERP decisions that deliver real business value rather than just technical capability.
Why IT Used to Lead ERP Evaluations
To understand the shift, you need to understand why IT leadership made sense historically and what’s changed.
Legacy ERP was infrastructure-intensive. On-premise ERP systems required substantial IT infrastructure—servers, storage, networking equipment, backup systems, disaster recovery facilities. Evaluating and managing this infrastructure required technical expertise. IT directors needed to assess whether proposed architectures would scale, whether they could maintain proposed platforms, and whether infrastructure costs fit budgets.
Implementation was technically complex. Installing ERP software meant configuring servers, installing databases, setting up network connectivity, implementing security architecture, and integrating with existing systems. These were primarily technical challenges requiring IT expertise. Business users couldn’t evaluate implementation complexity or risk—they lacked the technical background.
Customization required development expertise. Legacy ERP platforms required extensive customization through programming to match business requirements. IT needed to assess development environments, programming languages, and customization frameworks. They needed to evaluate whether they had or could acquire the technical skills needed to customize and maintain the platform.
Integration was technically complex. Connecting ERP to other systems—EDI providers, ecommerce platforms, warehouse management systems, shipping carriers—required custom integration development. IT evaluated integration architectures, middleware platforms, and whether their team could build and maintain necessary integrations.
Ongoing maintenance was IT-intensive. After implementation, IT managed upgrades, applied patches, maintained infrastructure, managed performance, handled disaster recovery, and provided technical support. The platform’s maintainability—how difficult upgrades were, how stable it was, how much IT staff time it consumed—was a critical evaluation criterion.
Vendor relationships were technical. When problems arose, IT engaged with vendor technical support. When enhancements were needed, IT discussed them with vendor engineering teams. When upgrades happened, IT managed the technical process. The vendor relationship was primarily technical rather than business-focused.
Given these realities, IT leadership of ERP evaluation made perfect sense. The people who would build, maintain, and support the system naturally led the selection process. Business users provided requirements, but IT determined feasibility and made recommendations.
What Changed: The Cloud Platform Revolution
Cloud ERP platforms—truly cloud-native platforms designed for SaaS delivery, not just on-premise software hosted in the cloud—have fundamentally changed the evaluation equation.
Infrastructure becomes invisible. You don’t evaluate server requirements, storage capacity, network architecture, or disaster recovery capabilities because the vendor handles all of this transparently. Infrastructure decisions aren’t part of the selection process because infrastructure isn’t your responsibility. You’re buying a service, not deploying software.
Updates happen automatically without disruption. The platform updates continuously—sometimes multiple times per week—without requiring planning, testing, or deployment from your IT team. Maintainability isn’t an evaluation criterion because maintenance isn’t something you do. The vendor handles it automatically as part of the service.
Implementation is business-focused, not technical. Modern cloud ERP implementations focus on configuring the system to match business processes, not on technical installation. The work is mapping workflows, defining business rules, migrating data, and training users. These are primarily business activities, not technical projects. Operations leaders understand these requirements better than IT.
Integration uses standard approaches. Modern platforms expose standard REST APIs and provide pre-built integrations with common systems. Connecting to EDI providers, shipping carriers, or ecommerce platforms doesn’t require custom development—it’s configuration. When custom integration is needed, it uses standard web technologies that any competent developer can handle, not proprietary frameworks requiring specialized expertise.
Configuration replaces customization. Sophisticated cloud platforms provide extensive configuration capabilities—defining custom fields, creating workflow rules, building reports, customizing screen layouts—all through business-user-accessible tools. Heavy custom coding is rarely needed. Business users can evaluate whether configuration capabilities meet their needs without requiring IT to assess development frameworks.
Usability becomes paramount. When your team will interact with the software daily through web browsers and mobile apps, usability matters enormously. Operations leaders who will actually use the system can evaluate usability far better than IT staff who won’t use it regularly. User experience becomes a primary evaluation criterion, not an afterthought.
Business outcomes become measurable. Cloud platforms provide real-time analytics and dashboards showing operational metrics. You can evaluate whether the software helps you run better—faster order processing, lower inventory carrying costs, improved customer service—not just whether it has certain technical features.
Vendor relationships become business-focused. Your primary vendor contacts are customer success managers, implementation consultants, and business analysts rather than technical support engineers. When you need help, you’re discussing business processes and outcomes, not debugging technical issues.
These changes don’t eliminate IT’s role—they shift it from leading evaluation to supporting evaluation. IT validates that technical fundamentals are sound, but operations leaders drive the selection based on business fit and outcomes.
The New Evaluation Team: Operations Takes the Lead
Modern ERP evaluations require different leadership and different participants than legacy evaluations.
Operations executives drive the process. Your VP of Operations, Director of Distribution, or COO should lead the evaluation. They understand business requirements intimately. They know which processes are broken and need fixing. They can evaluate whether proposed solutions will actually work in daily operations. They have budget responsibility for operational efficiency and can assess ROI realistically.
Functional leaders evaluate their domains. Your warehouse manager evaluates warehouse management capabilities. Your customer service manager assesses order entry and customer interaction workflows. Your purchasing manager reviews supplier management and procurement processes. Your controller examines financial controls and reporting. Each functional leader evaluates the system for their specific needs rather than IT evaluating everything centrally.
IT participates as a supporting expert. IT still has important roles: validating that security meets requirements, confirming that integration approaches are sound, ensuring the platform can connect with existing systems that must remain, and assessing vendor viability and platform stability. But IT supports the evaluation rather than leading it. They provide technical guidance to operations leaders making business decisions.
End users participate meaningfully. The CSRs who will enter orders, the warehouse staff who will receive and pick inventory, the sales reps who will check inventory availability—these end users participate in evaluations through hands-on demos using real workflows. Their input on usability and practicality carries weight because they’re the ones who will use the system daily.
Executive sponsors focus on business outcomes. The CEO or CFO who will ultimately approve the investment evaluates whether the platform enables strategic objectives—growth, efficiency, customer service improvement, market expansion. They’re asking “Will this help us execute our business strategy better?” not “Does this have the right technical architecture?”
Finance evaluates the business case. Beyond technical functionality, finance evaluates total cost of ownership, ROI projections, cash flow implications, and risk. Cloud platforms with subscription pricing create different financial considerations than capital-intensive on-premise deployments.
This team composition reflects that ERP selection is primarily a business decision with technical components, not a technical decision with business implications. The shift is subtle but profound.
What Operations Leaders Evaluate (and Why It Matters More)
When operations executives lead ERP evaluation, the focus shifts dramatically from technical specifications to business outcomes.
Does it solve our actual business problems? Operations leaders evaluate whether the system addresses specific pain points they experience daily. Can it handle our complex pricing structures? Will it reduce our inventory carrying costs? Can it improve our order fulfillment accuracy? These concrete business questions matter more than abstract technical capabilities.
Will our team actually use it? Operations leaders understand that the best software in the world delivers no value if users won’t or can’t adopt it. They evaluate intuitiveness, learnability, and whether the system matches how their team actually works. A powerful system that’s too complex to use effectively is worse than a simpler system that everyone uses confidently.
How quickly can we implement and see value? Operations executives are accountable for quarterly and annual results. They can’t afford 18-month implementations that disrupt operations with uncertain outcomes. They evaluate realistic implementation timelines, how much disruption is involved, and how quickly they’ll start seeing ROI. Speed to value matters immensely.
Does it support our specific industry needs? Operations leaders understand distribution nuances that IT might not. They know whether lot tracking, catch-weight handling, keg management, or multi-location inventory transfer capabilities matter for their specific business. They can evaluate whether platforms truly understand their industry or just claim to support it.
Can we adapt it as our business evolves? Businesses change—new product lines, new markets, new sales channels, changing workflows. Operations leaders evaluate whether platforms provide flexibility to adapt without requiring expensive consultants or custom development. They need systems that evolve with the business, not systems that freeze processes in place.
What’s the vendor’s understanding of our business? Operations leaders can assess whether vendors truly understand distribution operations or are just presenting generic features. Do vendor demonstrations show deep industry knowledge or superficial familiarity? Has the vendor worked with similar companies facing similar challenges? Industry expertise matters.
How will this improve specific operational metrics? Operations executives are measured on concrete KPIs—inventory turns, order cycle time, fulfillment accuracy, productivity per employee. They evaluate whether platforms will tangibly improve these metrics. Vague promises about “improved efficiency” aren’t sufficient—they want to understand specific improvement mechanisms.
What happens when we need support? Operations leaders want to know they’ll get responsive help when issues arise. They evaluate support responsiveness, knowledge base quality, customer community strength, and whether the vendor treats them as a partner or just a license customer. Long-term relationship quality matters.
Can we see it working with our data? Operations leaders want demonstrations using their actual product data, customer information, and transaction patterns—not generic demo databases. They want to see how the system handles their complexity, not idealized scenarios that don’t match reality.
These evaluation criteria focus on whether the ERP will actually help run the business better, not whether it has impressive technical specifications. This shift toward business outcomes produces better selection decisions.
The Questions IT Used to Ask (That Matter Much Less Now)
Understanding what’s becoming less important helps clarify the shift toward operations-led evaluation.
What database platform does it use? When you were deploying software on your servers, database selection mattered enormously—licensing costs, performance characteristics, your team’s expertise, backup and recovery approaches. With cloud platforms where the vendor manages the database, this becomes irrelevant to your decision. You don’t care whether they use PostgreSQL, Oracle, or SQL Server because you never interact with the database.
What programming languages are customizations written in? Legacy platforms required extensive customization through programming. Whether customizations used Java, .NET, or proprietary languages mattered because your team needed to maintain that code. Modern platforms minimize customization through extensive configuration capabilities. Programming language becomes a non-factor.
What’s the upgrade process? On-premise ERP required scheduled upgrades—often major projects consuming weeks of effort, significant risk, and careful planning. Evaluating upgrade complexity was critical. Cloud platforms update continuously without customer involvement. Upgrade process isn’t something you evaluate because you don’t manage upgrades.
What are the server hardware requirements? Capacity planning, server specifications, storage requirements, network bandwidth—all critical for on-premise deployment. Completely irrelevant for cloud platforms where the vendor handles infrastructure. You never think about hardware.
What’s the disaster recovery architecture? On-premise systems required you to implement disaster recovery—backup systems, off-site storage, recovery procedures, regular testing. Evaluating DR architecture was essential. Cloud vendors handle disaster recovery with SLAs guaranteeing uptime. You don’t implement DR—you verify the vendor’s capabilities and track their performance against SLAs.
Can we host it in our data center? Some organizations insisted on hosting everything internally for security or control reasons. Modern security best practices recognize that major cloud providers offer better security than most individual companies can achieve. Hosting location becomes less important than security capabilities and compliance certifications.
What middleware is required for integration? Legacy integration often required middleware platforms—enterprise service buses, integration servers, messaging queues. Evaluating middleware was complex and technical. Modern platforms use standard REST APIs. Integration typically doesn’t require specialized middleware, just standard web development skills.
What’s the technical architecture—monolithic or microservices? IT leaders cared deeply about architecture because it affected scalability, maintainability, and upgrade paths. For cloud platform evaluation, architecture matters primarily to the vendor, not to you. You care whether the system performs well and scales with your growth—not how the vendor achieves that technically.
These technical questions haven’t become unimportant in absolute terms—they still matter. But they matter to the vendor, not to you. Your job is verifying that the vendor has sound technical foundations (through due diligence on their company, platform stability, security certifications, and customer references), not evaluating technical architecture details that you don’t control anyway.
The New Questions That Actually Matter
Operations-led evaluations focus on different questions than traditional IT-led evaluations.
Can you show me how this handles our specific workflow? Not a generic demonstration—a walkthrough of how your actual process would work in this system. “Here’s how we handle customer returns when only part of a kit is being returned and we need to restock components separately. Show me how your system handles that exact scenario.”
What do your implementation timelines actually look like? Not theoretical best-case scenarios—actual experience with companies similar to yours. “What was your average implementation time for distributors in the $20-50M revenue range over the past year? What caused implementations that ran long? How do you ensure we stay on track?”
How do real users feel about daily interaction with the system? Talk to reference customers—not just about technical capabilities but about user satisfaction. “Do your warehouse staff find the receiving workflow intuitive? How long did new CSRs take to become productive? Do users enjoy working with the system or just tolerate it?”
What happens when our business changes? Describe how you’re planning to evolve your business and ask how the system accommodates that. “We’re planning to add a new product category with different fulfillment requirements next year. How easily can we adapt the system to handle that? What’s involved in configuring new workflows?”
What percentage of customers use the platform without heavy customization? If most customers require extensive custom development to make the platform work, that’s a red flag about product-market fit. “How many of your distribution customers are running largely on standard configuration versus heavily customized implementations?”
How quickly will our team become self-sufficient? You don’t want permanent dependence on vendors or consultants. “How long after go-live until our team can handle routine configuration changes, create new reports, and manage the system independently? What training and support enables self-sufficiency?”
What does support really look like? Beyond marketing promises, what’s the actual experience? “What’s your average response time for support requests? What percentage of issues are resolved on first contact? Can we talk to customers about their support experience?”
Can you demonstrate with our actual data? Offer to provide sample data and ask vendors to demonstrate using your products, customers, and transactions. This reveals how the system handles your complexity versus idealized demo scenarios.
How do you help customers continuously improve? Beyond initial implementation, how does the vendor support ongoing optimization? “Do you provide regular business reviews? Do you proactively recommend features we’re not using? How do you help customers get more value over time?”
What’s your product roadmap? While you can’t select platforms based solely on promised future capabilities, understanding the vendor’s direction matters. “Where are you investing development resources? How do customer needs influence your roadmap? How often do you release significant new capabilities?”
These questions focus on practical business concerns that operations leaders understand deeply and IT leaders often can’t answer definitively. They prioritize outcomes over specifications.
Common Mistakes in Operations-Led Evaluations (and How to Avoid Them)
While operations leadership of ERP evaluation produces better outcomes than pure IT leadership, operations teams can make characteristic mistakes if they’re not careful.
Overweighting current pain points. It’s natural to focus on whatever’s causing the most pain today, but ERP platforms need to serve your business for 5-10 years. Evaluate based on where your business is going, not just where it is today. That problem causing massive pain right now might be less relevant after you implement, but other capabilities will become important as you grow and evolve.
Underestimating implementation effort. Operations leaders sometimes assume implementation will be easier than it actually is because modern cloud platforms are easier to use. But data migration, process mapping, training, and change management still require substantial effort. Get realistic estimates and plan accordingly.
Focusing too narrowly on their functional area. The warehouse manager evaluates warehouse capabilities excellently but might not adequately consider how warehouse operations connect to order management, financial controls, and customer portals. Each functional leader needs to evaluate their domain but also understand how their area integrates with others.
Neglecting end-user input. Senior operations executives understand business requirements conceptually but may have forgotten practical daily workflow details. Including frontline staff who actually perform tasks in the evaluation ensures the system works for people doing the work, not just for people managing the work.
Being swayed by flashy demonstrations. Vendors are good at creating impressive demonstrations that don’t necessarily reflect real-world usage. Insist on seeing workflows that match your actual complexity, with realistic data and scenarios. Resist being dazzled by features you won’t actually use.
Ignoring financial implications. Operations leaders sometimes focus exclusively on operational capabilities while underweighting total cost of ownership, cash flow implications, and financial risk. Include finance in evaluation to ensure business case and cost structure are sound.
Assuming IT input is unnecessary. While operations should lead, IT still has valuable expertise—about security requirements, integration with systems that must remain, technical due diligence on vendor stability, and ensuring the platform meets compliance requirements. Don’t exclude IT—include them appropriately.
Making decisions too quickly. Modern cloud platforms can implement quickly, tempting companies to rush evaluation and selection. But you’ll live with your ERP choice for years. Take time to evaluate thoroughly, see multiple vendors, check references, and ensure you’re making an informed decision.
Not evaluating vendor relationship quality. You’re not just buying software—you’re entering a long-term relationship with a vendor who will be your partner through implementation, go-live, and ongoing operations. Evaluate whether you trust this vendor, whether they understand your business, and whether they treat customers as partners.
Overlooking change management needs. Technology is only part of ERP success—people and process changes matter as much. Operations leaders need to assess their organization’s readiness for change and ensure adequate change management planning. The best platform fails without proper change management.
Avoiding these mistakes requires discipline and often benefits from external guidance—implementation partners, consultants, or advisors who’ve supported many ERP selections and know common pitfalls.
How IT’s Role Evolves in Operations-Led Evaluations
IT’s diminished leadership role doesn’t mean IT becomes irrelevant—it means their role shifts from driver to enabler.
Technical validation and due diligence. IT validates that platforms meet basic technical requirements—security standards, compliance certifications, data protection capabilities, API availability. They perform due diligence on vendor financial stability, platform maturity, and technical roadmap. They confirm the technical foundation is sound even if they’re not evaluating detailed architecture.
Integration assessment. IT evaluates how well candidate platforms will integrate with systems that must remain—perhaps specialized warehouse automation equipment, custom ecommerce platforms, or legacy financial systems. They assess whether integration is straightforward or problematic and what resources integration will require.
Security and compliance verification. IT ensures platforms meet security requirements, comply with relevant regulations (SOC 2, GDPR, industry-specific requirements), and provide adequate controls for data protection. This technical assessment protects the business from security and compliance risks.
Data migration planning support. IT helps evaluate data migration complexity—what data exists in current systems, how complex extraction and transformation will be, and what technical resources migration requires. They help operations leaders understand migration risk and effort.
Infrastructure and connectivity considerations. While cloud platforms minimize infrastructure requirements, connectivity still matters—network bandwidth, Wi-Fi coverage in warehouses, mobile device management. IT assesses whether your infrastructure can support the proposed platform effectively.
Vendor contract review. IT reviews contract terms related to data ownership, security responsibilities, service level agreements, termination provisions, and data portability. They ensure contracts protect the company’s interests technically and commercially.
Implementation support. During implementation, IT supports data migration, integration development, security configuration, and technical troubleshooting. They’re essential implementation team members even if they didn’t lead selection.
Ongoing governance. After implementation, IT participates in ongoing governance—security monitoring, integration maintenance, system performance tracking, and vendor relationship management on technical matters.
IT remains important—their role shifts from central decision-maker to supporting expert who enables operations leaders to make informed business decisions. This creates better outcomes by ensuring technical soundness while prioritizing business fit.
What This Means for Vendors and Implementation Partners
The shift to operations-led evaluations changes what vendors and implementation partners need to emphasize.
Lead with business outcomes, not technical features. Operations leaders care about improved order accuracy, reduced inventory costs, faster fulfillment—not about database architecture or middleware capabilities. Vendors need to demonstrate business value first, with technical validation available for IT to review separately.
Show, don’t tell. Operations leaders want hands-on demonstrations using realistic scenarios, not slide presentations about capabilities. Vendors who let prospects interact with the system using their own data win evaluations more often than those who control demonstrations tightly.
Speak business language, not technical jargon. “This will reduce your picking errors by 30%” resonates more with operations leaders than “This uses barcode validation with real-time inventory synchronization.” Save technical details for IT conversations—lead with business impact.
Provide customer references operations leaders can relate to. References should be from similar companies facing similar challenges, speaking to operations peers about real experiences. Generic customer references from different industries or company sizes aren’t compelling.
Demonstrate industry expertise. Operations leaders value vendors who understand their industry deeply—distribution-specific challenges, terminology, workflows, and best practices. Generic software vendors who claim to support distribution but lack specific expertise don’t compete well.
Focus on implementation speed and safety. Operations leaders need confidence that implementations will be fast, minimally disruptive, and successful. Vendors who can demonstrate rapid, low-risk implementation approaches win evaluations.
Emphasize usability and adoption. Operations leaders know that unused software delivers no value. Vendors who demonstrate that users actually enjoy working with their systems and that adoption happens quickly overcome major concerns.
Support self-sufficiency. Operations leaders don’t want permanent vendor dependence. Vendors who demonstrate that customers quickly become self-sufficient in managing and optimizing the system address an important concern.
Provide clear, simple pricing. Cloud subscription pricing should be transparent and easy to understand. Complex pricing structures with many optional modules, per-user fees with confusing tiers, and unpredictable costs create evaluation friction.
Build relationships with operations leaders. Sales processes that engage deeply with operations executives who will actually use and benefit from the platform build stronger relationships than those focused primarily on IT or executive sponsorship.
Vendors and partners who adapt to operations-led evaluation dynamics will succeed in modern ERP markets. Those who cling to traditional IT-focused sales processes will struggle.
How Bizowie Embraces Operations-Led Evaluation
At Bizowie, we’ve built our entire approach around operations leadership because we believe this produces better outcomes for everyone.
Our platform is designed for operations professionals. Bizowie is intuitive enough that operations leaders can evaluate it without requiring technical translation. We use familiar patterns, clear terminology, and workflows that match how distribution actually operates. Operations executives can assess whether Bizowie fits their needs directly.
We lead demonstrations with business outcomes. Our demos start with business problems we solve—faster order processing, leaner inventory, improved customer service, better operational visibility. Technical capabilities come up as they’re relevant to support business outcomes, not as the primary story.
We demonstrate with your data. We actively encourage prospects to provide sample data so demonstrations show Bizowie working with their actual products, customers, and transactions. This makes evaluation concrete and reveals exactly how the system handles their specific complexity.
We connect you with operations peers. Our customer references are distribution operations professionals who can speak authentically about real experiences—implementation challenges, adoption success, operational improvements, ongoing relationship quality. Operations leaders evaluate better when they talk to peers.
We’re transparent about implementation. We provide realistic implementation timelines, explain exactly what’s involved, discuss common challenges honestly, and help prospects plan appropriately. Overselling implementation ease creates problems—we prefer setting realistic expectations.
Our pricing is straightforward. Subscription pricing based on users and order volume without hidden fees or complex module structures. Operations leaders can understand total cost of ownership clearly and make informed financial decisions.
Our team understands distribution. We’ve focused exclusively on distribution. Our implementation team, customer success managers, and support staff understand distribution operations deeply. Operations leaders recognize immediately that we speak their language and understand their challenges.
We support rapid value realization. Our implementation methodology delivers working functionality quickly so customers see value fast. Operations leaders appreciate that they’re not committing to 18-month projects with uncertain outcomes—they can implement in 8-12 weeks and start improving operations immediately.
We enable self-sufficiency. We train customers to manage Bizowie independently—creating reports, modifying workflows, configuring new capabilities. Operations leaders value not being permanently dependent on us for routine changes.
We’re partners, not vendors. Our customer success approach treats operations leaders as partners in continuous improvement, not license customers to extract maximum fees from. Long-term relationship quality matters to us because we succeed when customers succeed.
This operations-centric approach reflects our belief that ERP selection should be led by the people who will actually use the system to run the business, with appropriate technical validation from IT but without IT driving decisions about operational capabilities.
Making the Transition to Operations-Led Evaluation
If your organization has historically approached ERP evaluation through IT leadership, shifting to operations leadership requires deliberate change management.
Get executive sponsorship for the new approach. The CEO or CFO needs to explicitly endorse that operations will lead evaluation with IT supporting. Without clear executive direction, IT may assume they should lead as they historically have.
Define clear roles and responsibilities. Document who leads evaluation (operations), who participates in what capacity (functional leaders, IT, finance, end users), and what decision-making authority each role has. Clarity prevents confusion and territorial disputes.
Educate operations leaders about modern platforms. Operations executives who haven’t evaluated ERP recently may have outdated assumptions based on legacy platforms. Brief them on how cloud platforms differ and what that means for evaluation criteria.
Include IT appropriately, not minimally. IT should be engaged members of the evaluation team with clear responsibility for technical validation. They’re supporting experts, not sidelined observers. Make IT feel valued in their new role.
Focus on business requirements first. Start evaluation by documenting business requirements—problems to solve, processes to improve, capabilities needed. Technical requirements should flow from business needs, not vice versa.
Create evaluation criteria that prioritize business outcomes. Scoring frameworks should weight business fit, usability, implementation speed, and operational improvement potential heavily—with technical capabilities validated but not driving decisions.
Engage end users meaningfully. Include frontline staff in demonstrations and testing. Their practical input on usability and workflow fit provides valuable perspective that executives might miss.
Don’t rush the transition. The first operations-led evaluation might feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable. That’s normal—you’re changing long-established processes. Allow extra time for the team to adapt to new roles and evaluation approaches.
Learn from each evaluation cycle. After completing an evaluation, conduct a retrospective on what worked well and what could improve. Each cycle refines your operations-led approach and builds organizational capability.
The shift to operations-led evaluation isn’t just about ERP selection—it’s about fundamentally rethinking how your organization evaluates and adopts technology. Once established, this approach applies broadly to other technology decisions beyond ERP.
The Future: Business-Led Technology Decisions
The shift from IT-led to operations-led ERP evaluation reflects a broader trend: as software becomes more user-friendly and infrastructure becomes invisible, business leaders increasingly drive technology decisions across many domains.
Marketing leads marketing technology decisions. Marketing automation, CRM, analytics, content management—these decisions are increasingly led by CMOs and marketing VPs who evaluate based on business outcomes rather than by IT evaluating technical architectures.
HR leads human capital management decisions. HR technology selection—applicant tracking, performance management, learning management systems—is driven by HR professionals evaluating how well systems support their objectives, with IT validating technical soundness.
Operations leads operational technology decisions. Beyond ERP, warehouse management systems, transportation management, demand planning, and other operational technologies are selected by operations leaders based on business fit.
Finance leads financial technology decisions. FP&A tools, expense management, procurement platforms—finance leaders evaluate these based on whether they improve financial operations, not primarily on technical specifications.
This doesn’t mean IT becomes irrelevant—quite the opposite. As business leaders make more technology decisions, IT’s role evolves from gatekeeper to enabler. IT provides expertise, ensures security and integration, maintains governance, and protects the enterprise architecture—but they enable business-led decisions rather than controlling them.
For distributors specifically, this means your next ERP evaluation will likely be the first of many technology decisions where operations takes the lead. Building capability in business-led technology evaluation serves you well beyond just ERP selection.
Taking Action: Preparing for Your Next Evaluation
Whether you’re currently evaluating ERP or planning to in the coming years, preparing for operations-led evaluation increases your likelihood of success.
Assess your current operations leadership’s readiness. Do your operations executives have experience evaluating enterprise software? Do they understand modern cloud platforms? Do they have bandwidth to lead evaluation? Address capability and capacity gaps proactively.
Document operational requirements clearly. Start documenting specific problems your current system creates, processes that are broken, capabilities you lack, and outcomes you want to achieve. Clear requirements drive effective evaluation.
Build cross-functional evaluation capability. Ensure functional leaders—warehouse, customer service, purchasing, finance—understand they’ll participate in evaluation and have time allocated. Cross-functional participation produces better decisions.
Establish evaluation criteria focused on outcomes. Define what success looks like in business terms—improved metrics, faster processes, better customer experience. Create scoring frameworks that prioritize business outcomes.
Engage IT as partners, not gatekeepers. Have conversations with IT leadership about their evolving role—moving from decision-makers to enabling advisors. Ensure they understand and embrace the shift.
Learn from peer companies. Talk to other distributors who’ve recently evaluated and implemented ERP. Learn about their evaluation processes, what worked, what they’d do differently. Peer learning accelerates your capability building.
Consider engaging implementation partners early. Experienced implementation partners can guide evaluation processes, help define requirements, facilitate vendor selection, and provide expertise your team may lack. Their involvement from evaluation through implementation provides continuity.
Set realistic timelines. Modern cloud platforms implement faster than legacy systems, but evaluation still requires adequate time. Allow 3-6 months for thorough evaluation of multiple vendors, reference checks, and careful decision-making.
Preparation makes the difference between smooth, successful operations-led evaluations and chaotic processes that produce poor decisions.
Conclusion: Embracing the Shift
The shift from IT-led to operations-led ERP evaluation isn’t a temporary trend—it’s a permanent change driven by fundamental evolution in how enterprise software works and what matters in selecting it.
Operations leaders are better positioned to evaluate whether ERP platforms will actually help run the business better. They understand the problems, they know the workflows, they can assess usability, and they’re accountable for operational results. With modern cloud platforms eliminating infrastructure complexity and minimizing technical barriers, operations leadership produces better selection decisions.
IT remains important—validating technical soundness, ensuring security and integration, supporting implementation. But they enable operations-led decisions rather than driving them.
For distributors planning ERP evaluations, embracing this shift means assembling the right team, asking the right questions, and focusing on business outcomes over technical specifications. It means selecting platforms based on whether they’ll help your operations team execute better, not just on whether they have impressive technical architectures that IT can maintain.
The next generation of distribution leaders won’t distinguish between “business strategy” and “technology strategy”—they’ll see them as inseparable. Technology decisions like ERP selection will be business decisions made by business leaders with appropriate technical guidance. That future is arriving rapidly, and distributors who embrace it will make better technology decisions that drive better business outcomes.
Your next ERP evaluation will be led by operations. The question is whether you’re prepared to make it successful.
Ready for an ERP evaluation led by your operations team? Bizowie is designed specifically for operations professionals to evaluate and use—no technical translation required. Our intuitive platform, distribution-specific capabilities, and transparent approach make operations-led evaluation straightforward and successful. Let’s have a business conversation about your operational challenges and how Bizowie can help you execute better. Schedule a discussion with our team today.