10 Questions to Ask During Your ERP Demonstration

A rehearsed ERP demonstration can’t tell you how the system will perform under pressure. You’re managing reels and remnants, maintaining lot traceability, posting inventory transactions in real time, and handling compliance documentation. Your ERP software needs to prove it can handle these real-world complexities without workarounds.

In this article, you’ll learn how to look past surface-level features and put your operational challenges at the center of the demo.

Table of Contents

• What Is Inventory Visibility and Why Does It Matter?
• What Questions Should You Ask During an ERP Demonstration?
• How Should a Vendor Approach an ERP Demonstration?
• See How Rubicon ERP Works for Your Business
• Frequently Asked Questions

Why Are ERP Demonstrations Difficult for Wire Rope and Wire Cable Businesses?

ERP demonstrations often highlight a system’s strengths without showing how it handles the processes that matter to wire cable and rope operations. For example, you may be looking at a system with impressive inventory and production management tools, but can it measure exact lengths and remnants? Does it have lot traceability tools? Will it attach required compliance documents to the correct order? Asking questions like these will help you use the demonstration to see how the software naturally fits into your processes and if you’ll need any additional support.

What Questions Should You Ask During an ERP Demonstration?

Your ERP demonstration should help you determine how the software will perform on your best and most challenging days. Asking specific, workflow-based questions will help you uncover any potential limitations.

1. Can you show how the ERP handles one of our workflows?

Ask the vendor to walk through a workflow so you can see whether the software fits your real processes.

2. How does the ERP manage reels, cuts, and remnants?

Your inventory is more complicated than simple counts. You need to know whether the system can maintain accurate reel and length information as material is cut, allocated, moved, and used.

3. How does the ERP maintain lot traceability?

Traceability can affect quality, compliance, and your ability to respond quickly to requests for information. Ask how the system follows material from receipt through production and to the customer or finished assembly.

4. Does inventory update in real time?

Delayed transactions can leave your teams working with outdated information. Ask when inventory changes are recorded and whether shop-floor transactions are updated in the system immediately.

5. How does the ERP handle industry-specific production?

Your workflows may include cutting, fabrication, splicing, socketing, swaging, testing, or custom assemblies. This question reveals whether those processes can be managed within the ERP or if you need to create a workaround.

6. How does the system manage testing and compliance documentation?

Ask how required documents connect to the corresponding material or finished product, so you can evaluate how easily your team can maintain accurate records.

7. Can the ERP support our pricing and costing requirements?

Material prices, labor, machine costs, yield, scrap, and other variables affect your margins. If an ERP captures these costs, you’ll gain helpful visibility into profitability.

8. What happens when our workflow does not match the standard process?

Asking about unique configurations or customizations will help you choose an ERP that adapts to your business, rather than forcing you to adapt to it.

9. What will our different teams see and do in the system?

An ERP connects multiple areas of your business. Ask to see how information moves between departments so you can identify gaps, duplicate entry, or unnecessary handoffs.

10. What happens after we choose the ERP?

Every ERP has an implementation process. Ask about configuration, data migration, training, onboarding, and ongoing support so you understand what the transition looks like and what kind of help you’ll receive if something goes wrong months or years down the road.

How Should a Vendor Approach an ERP Demonstration?

An effective ERP demonstration begins with a consultation, not a software walkthrough. Your vendor first needs to understand how your business operates, what your current challenges are, and what you need the new system to accomplish. 

Rubicon takes a consultative approach to every ERP demonstration. Instead of giving every business the same presentation, we focus on the capabilities and workflows that matter to you. A dedicated advisor starts by learning about your business, needs, and pain points. From there, we tailor the demonstration to how the software would function in your real-world environment.

See How Rubicon ERP Works for Your Business

A successful ERP demonstration gives you the opportunity to ask detailed questions that will get to the bottom of how the system handles your real-world scenarios. At Rubicon, we take the time to understand your business first, and then we build a demonstration around what matters to you.

Built specifically for wire rope and wire cable businesses, Rubicon ERP addresses the specialized inventory, production, traceability, and compliance requirements that can make generic ERP systems difficult to fit to your operation.

Schedule your personalized ERP software demo to see how Rubicon works for your business.

Frequently Asked Questions