The two-week ERP discovery
Most transformations are decided in the weeks before anyone signs anything. A disciplined discovery produces four decisions in two weeks; an undisciplined one produces two months of slideware and a proposal you cannot judge.
What discovery is for
ERP discovery — the assessment weeks before a transformation is committed — exists to convert open questions into ownable decisions. In the Public Cloud era it has a standard toolkit: a structured pre-sales assessment of scope and fit, data-driven process discovery where legacy data is accessible, and technical readiness analysis for conversion paths. The tools matter less than the contract you impose on them: two weeks, four decisions, then a proposal — commercials come after the decisions, never during.
The four decisions a real Phase 0 produces
The deployment model
Public or Private Cloud, RISE or GROW — decided on suitability and evidence, not on preference or partner incentive.
The scope hypothesis
Which processes fit the standard, where the genuine deviations are, and whether a packaged offer could carry the scope.
Business case, version one
A five-line case with measured baselines and a named owner per benefit line — built to survive an investor’s reading.
The governance setup
Steering structure, decision rights and a quality-gate calendar that exist before the first workshop, not after the first escalation.
The five questions that open the real conversation
Each question has a decision guide behind it — ask them in the first executive session and you will know more than most steering committees learn in a quarter.
- Deadline reality: Which EHP level are you on — and do you know your real maintenance end-date? Read the guide →
- Custom-code debt: What share of your custom code is actually executed — and who pays its upgrade tax today? Read the guide →
- Licensing readiness: Could anyone in the room explain what one FUE is, or map your roles to the new user types? Read the guide →
- Data & AI ambition: Which AI use case would survive the three filters — reliable data, a weekly task removed, wrong answers noticed? Read the guide →
- Benefit ownership: Who owned the benefits of your last ERP investment — by name, in their targets? Read the guide →
Why two weeks is enough — and two months is too long
Discovery expands to fill the time given to it, and every extra week is spent producing material nobody will reread. Two weeks forces the only sequencing that works: assessment and first workshop in week one; scope and model hypothesis in week two; then the fit decision — packaged or tailored — the version-one business case, and the governance draft. If a partner cannot structure discovery this tightly, that is itself discovery: you have learned how they run projects.
Next step
Work through the one-page discovery checklist with your own team first. If you want an independent read of the answers — before any partner's proposal frames them — the Executive Clarity advisory track exists for exactly that conversation.
Editorial standard: facts, inference and point of view kept separate; tool categories are described neutrally and no implementation partner is named. Published 2026-08-05 · By Andreas BORN.