Start with the routine, not the software
What we look at before anyone talks about modules and licences.
ERP projects usually begin with a demonstration. Someone shows the modules, the dashboards, the integrations, and the company signs up for the software. Months later the system is live and the team is still running the business in spreadsheets next to it.
The software was rarely the problem. The routine was never designed.
What a routine is
By routine we mean the boring, repeating work that keeps a company honest: who records an order and when, who checks a supplier invoice, who reconciles the bank, who closes the month and by which date. In small companies most of this lives in the owner's head, which is why the owner becomes the bottleneck as the company grows.
What we do first
Before we configure anything, we write that routine down as it is, and then as it should be. Only then do we ask which parts the system should hold, which parts a person should do, and which parts an agent can take over. The configuration follows from that, not the other way round.
We also introduce it in small steps. Each step is live and used before the next one starts. A sales process that works is worth more than a complete system nobody trusts.
Why it lasts
A routine written down can be handed over, checked and improved. It survives a new employee, a new version of the software, or a new owner. That is what we mean when we say we want to leave behind a company that runs, not a report about how it could.