ERP for Philippine SMBs: a practical buyer's guide

Buying ERP is less about features and more about fit. Here are the questions we walk every Philippine SMB through before anything is scoped.

1. Which processes actually hurt?

Don't buy everything at once. Start with the one workflow costing you the most time or money — inventory, payroll, collections — and make sure the rest can slot in later on the same database.

2. Cloud or on-premise?

Both work. Cloud means less hardware and easier branches; on-premise suits teams with strict data or connectivity constraints. What matters is that migration, hosting, and backups are handled either way.

3. Will it survive your growth?

A system that fits today but can't add a branch, a module, or a user next year is a false saving. One connected core beats a stack of apps that don't talk to each other.

4. Who owns your data?

You should — exportable, anytime. Ask before you sign.

5. Who's there after go-live?

The software is the easy part. Training, a parallel run, and local support are what make it stick. Pick a partner, not a vendor.

Not sure where you land? A short session and a working prototype will tell you more than any feature list.