Choosing an ERP for your Ethiopian business

Choosing an enterprise resource planning system is a decision about how your business works, not just which dashboard looks best. Before comparing products, document the work your team repeats and the problems you want to solve. This gives every supplier the same starting point and makes demonstrations easier to evaluate.

Start with one complete business workflow

Choose an example such as buying stock, receiving it into a warehouse, selling it and reviewing the resulting records. Ask each supplier to demonstrate that sequence with representative test data. Include exceptions: a partial delivery, a returned item, a price correction and an approval that must be rejected. Record where staff still need a spreadsheet or a manual workaround.

Write down the requirements that matter locally

• Which languages do staff and customers need?
• Which currencies, payment providers and reporting formats must be supported?
• How will the system behave on the devices and connections your staff actually use?
• Who must approve sensitive actions, and what audit history is required?
• Can the organisation export its records in a usable format?

Do not assume a provider logo proves a working integration. Ask for a demonstration of the exact payment or accounting workflow you need. Have the relevant finance and compliance specialists review requirements specific to your organisation.

Plan migration and ownership before signing

Identify the source of customer, supplier, product and opening-balance data. Agree who cleans it, who approves the imported result and how discrepancies will be resolved. Define the production administrator, support contact, backup responsibilities and recovery procedure. A short pilot with a clear acceptance checklist is more useful than a feature list with no operational test.

Compare the full operating commitment

Include implementation, training, integrations, hosting, support and future change requests in your comparison. Agree what happens if a service is unavailable and how your team receives updates. Document the scope and evidence required for acceptance rather than relying on promises of effortless migration or guaranteed business growth.

Explore Hive OS ERP and Techive software services, or discuss your ERP requirements with Techive.