An ERP (enterprise resource planning) system is the software that runs a company’s core work in one place: purchasing, stock, projects, billing, assets and people. You can buy one off the shelf and adapt your process to it, or have one built around the way your company already works.
Both routes work. Which one fits depends on how standard your process is and how much of your work happens away from a desk.
What an ERP System Does
An ERP replaces separate spreadsheets and tools with one system and one set of records. A typical ERP covers:
- Purchasing. Requests, quotations, approvals and purchase orders.
- Stock. What is in each store, what came in and what went out.
- Projects and billing. Quotations, jobs, deliveries, invoices and payments.
- Assets. What the company owns and how it is maintained.
- People. Who works where, and when.
- Finance. The accounts that everything above feeds into.
The value is in the links. A purchase order becomes a goods receipt, the receipt becomes stock, and the stock is issued to a project that is billed to a client, without anyone typing the same thing twice.
When an Off-the-Shelf ERP Fits
A packaged ERP is a good choice when:
- Your processes are close to standard: buy, stock, sell, invoice.
- Most of the people who use it sit at desks.
- You are willing to change how you work to match the product.
- You have a partner or an in-house team to configure it and keep it running.
For trading companies and retail, that is often the case, and an off-the-shelf ERP is quick to justify.
Where Off-the-Shelf ERP Struggles in Operations
Contractors, utilities and service companies are different. Much of their work happens on sites, in vehicles and at customers’ premises, and their approval chains are set by contracts and clients, not by a product’s defaults.
The common pattern looks like this:
- The process bends to the software. Approval stages, documents and reports are squeezed into the screens the product offers.
- The field stays on paper. Store issues, deliveries, job cards and site checks are written down and typed in later, if at all.
- Per-user fees limit who gets access. Storekeepers, drivers, technicians and supervisors are left out because each licence costs money.
- Changes need a project. Every new form or approval step goes through a partner.
The result is an expensive system of record, fed late and incompletely by the people who do the work. Our post on why ERP bolt-on modules can’t solve operational challenges goes further into this.
When an ERP Built for You Fits
An ERP built around your process makes more sense when:
- Your approval chains, documents and reports are specific to your contracts.
- A large part of the work is done in the field, often without signal.
- You want every storekeeper, driver and supervisor in the system, not just the office.
- You want to start with the module that hurts most and add the rest later.
Off-the-Shelf or Built for You: Side by Side
- Fit to your process. Off-the-shelf: you adapt to the product’s screens and steps. Built for you: the modules follow your forms, approval stages and roles.
- Who builds it. Off-the-shelf: your team or a partner configures it. Built for you: the vendor builds it, and your team doesn’t build anything.
- Field use. Off-the-shelf: mostly designed for desks. Built for you: a mobile app for the field that works offline, in the crew’s language.
- Pricing. Off-the-shelf: usually per user. Built for you, with Fieldmaster: no per-user fee, so everyone can use it.
- Time to go live. Off-the-shelf: depends on configuration and data migration. Built for you, with Fieldmaster: a typical module is live in 10 to 18 working days.
- Rollout. Off-the-shelf: often one large implementation. Built for you: one module at a time, on the same platform, with the same users.
Questions to Ask Any ERP Vendor
- What will we have to change in our process to fit the product?
- Who configures it, and who changes it when our process changes? Ask how long a new approval step takes.
- How do people in the field use it? Ask what happens with no signal.
- How is it priced as we add users? Count storekeepers, drivers and subcontractors, not only the office.
- How does it connect to our accounting system? And in which direction data flows.
- What goes live first, and when?
How Fieldmaster Approaches It
Fieldmaster builds the operational side of your ERP around your process, one module at a time, on one platform. The modules we build include:
- Procurement: material requests, quotations from vendors on a vendor portal, approval chains and purchase orders. See purchase and material management.
- Stores and inventory: stock in warehouses, vehicles and with people, serial-numbered items, receipts, issues and transfers. See stores and inventory.
- Projects and billing: quotations, job cards with a bill of quantities, signed delivery orders, supply and progress invoices, and payments.
- Assets and maintenance: an asset register, planned maintenance and technician tasks.
- HSE, fleet and attendance: safety reports, vehicle checks and clock-in with a face check.
- Contracts and petty cash: recurring invoices and payment tracking, and expenses captured from receipt photos.
Every module has approvals, dashboards, PDF documents and Excel exports, and a mobile app for the people in the field. Because they all run on one platform, each new module starts with your users, roles and approvals already in place.
We don’t replace your accounting package. We build a connector for your project that sends invoices, receipts and stock movements to it and brings back what the modules need, such as payment status. If you already run a large ERP, our ERP field service comparison explains how we add the field layer to the ERP you have.
See what the modules cover on our ERP software page, read how pricing works without per-user fees, or talk to us about the module you’d start with.
