11ERP selection guide
Judge an ERP by your own questions, not the sales pitch
Compare your ERP candidates against 11 criteria, with the question to ask each vendor and where IWB stands on each one. The guide names no products, so you can put the same questions to every candidate.
01
Which criteria should you compare ERPs on?
Before comparing feature lists, check whether your modules share a database, who can see what, how regulatory changes are tracked, and where your data is stored. Each row gives the criterion, why it matters, the question to ask the vendor, and how IWB handles it.
| Criterion | Why it matters | What to ask | In IWB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deployment options | If the cloud and on-premises editions are separate products, their features, update schedules, and support drift apart. Changing how you deploy later turns into a new migration project. | Are the cloud and on-premises editions the same product? Which features exist in only one? | The same IWB runs in the cloud or on your own server, with the same modules and permission model. The workspace address, your own domain, and sign-in page branding are cloud-only settings.IWB in the cloudOn your own server |
| Module coverage and a single database | When modules run on separate databases, data has to be transferred, matched, or re-entered. Errors often appear at those handoffs. | Which modules share the same database, and which are separate products or add-ons? | More than 25 modules share the same database: a quote becomes an order, an order becomes an invoice, and an invoice becomes a journal entry. You can turn on modules later. Payroll calculation is out of scope.All modules |
| e-Invoicing | If your business must issue e-documents in Turkey, your ability to keep invoicing depends on this. Know up front who generates the documents and which document type each integrator licensed by the Turkish Revenue Administration (GİB) can send. | Which integrators do you work with, and which document types can each one send? | IWB generates e-Invoice, e-Archive, and e-Waybill documents in the format GİB sets. You can send e-Invoices and e-Archive invoices through EDM, BirFatura, TürkKEP, or Veriban, and e-Waybills through Veriban only.e-Invoicing |
| Keeping regulatory parameters current | Thresholds and rates change from year to year. If the new year's values aren't entered, documents issued or periods closed can be calculated incorrectly. | Where are year-specific thresholds and rates kept? Does the system warn you if the new year's value is missing? | In Accounting, year-specific thresholds and rates are kept in one catalog. If the current year's value is missing, IWB uses the previous year's and shows a warning. A value specific to your organization is entered with a written reason.Accounting |
| Record- and field-level permissions | Permissions that only switch modules on and off aren't enough. Rules like "sales reps see only their own customers" or "the warehouse doesn't see prices" are set at the record and field level. | Can I hide a field from a role? Does a hidden field stay hidden in exports and printouts? | You decide who sees which records with roles, scope (owner, branch, company), and record rules. Each field can be Hidden, Masked, Read-only, or Edits. A hidden field also stays out of exports, printouts, and IWB AI answers, except for statutory outputs such as the general journal.Security |
| Reporting and management dashboards | If management's summary lives outside the ERP, data moves to another tool every period and the figures lose their link to the source. | Which modules have built-in reports and dashboards? Can I drill down from a chart to the records and export the result to Excel? | IWB has 40 built-in reports in 7 groups: Contacts, CRM, Inventory, Field Service, Sales, Tasks, and Laboratory. You can download them as Excel or CSV files and drill down from a chart to the records. In other modules, you work with module dashboards and saved list views.Shared tools |
| AI and approvals | If an assistant can create and change records, find out whose permissions it uses, what it can do without approval, and where your data goes. | Can the assistant write records without approval? Can it read data the user can't see? Where is the data sent? | IWB AI works with your permissions. Before it creates, changes, or deletes a record, it always shows what it will do on an approval card and waits for your approval. Your question and the results it reads are sent to the AI provider, but fields hidden or masked from you are removed first.IWB AI |
| Update policy | Regulatory changes and security fixes need to arrive on time. You should also know the backup, maintenance window, and downtime rules for updates in advance. | Who runs updates, and in which maintenance window? Is a backup taken first? Where can we follow downtime? | In the cloud, we handle updates and the status page is public. On your own server, if you turn on automatic updates, a database backup is taken before each update. We agree on the update method and maintenance window for your installation together.Cloud updatesUpdates on your own server |
| Data ownership and export | If you switch systems or your contract ends, you should still be able to get your data in a usable format and know where it's stored. | In what formats can I export my data? Where are the database and files stored? | You can export built-in reports and lists such as contacts, products, projects, and e-documents; what's included depends on the list. On your own server, the database and files stay on your server. For the cloud, we share hosting details in writing in the contract.On your own server |
| Migration and data transfer | If you don't know up front what moves over, what gets set up again, and how the migration will be verified, the gaps surface after go-live. | Which records move over and which don't? Which report measures whether the migration is accurate? | Our team runs migrations from IWB Classic: a trial run, the live migration, and a handover report that compares record counts and amounts. You can also import contacts, products, and opening balances yourself from a file, with a preview.Migrate from IWB Classic |
| Pricing model | The license fee is only part of the total cost. More users, new modules, add-on packs, and your deployment choice all change the quote. | What drives the price? What changes when we add users or modules, or use AI? | We prepare a written quote based on your number of users, the modules you turn on, how you deploy, and add-on packs (your own domain, AI capacity). You can turn on more modules later.Pricing |
The IWB column reflects the product as of . This guide doesn't include prices or assessments of other products.
02
Questions to ask in a demo
A demo should show your workflow more than the vendor's prepared script. Send these questions before the meeting and ask to see the answers on screen.
- 01Can you walk us through an example from our own workflow, start to finish?Pick the process yourself, such as quote to cash or request to service, and see it on live screens rather than in a prepared presentation.
- 02From an invoice, can we go back to the order and forward to the payment and the journal entry?The links between documents should be visible inside the record, rather than hunted down in a separate report.
- 03Can you set it up right now so a sales rep sees only their own customers and not the cost field?This should be done in admin settings, without code. Check that the hidden field stays hidden in exports too.
- 04Who changed which field on this record, and when?Look for old and new values field by field, and check that role and permission changes are kept in a separate log.
- 05What happens when an e-Invoice is rejected or gets stuck at the integrator?Ask to see on screen where the problem document is listed, who gets notified, and what the next step is.
- 06Where do we see the summary a manager checks every morning?There should be a ready-made dashboard or report. You should be able to drill down from a chart to the records and export the result to Excel.
- 07Can we add our own fields to records?Check that a field added without code can be used as a list column and a filter.
- 08How does approval work when the AI assistant creates a record?Try it on screen: the assistant shouldn't write without approval or reach data the user can't see.
- 09Which data moves over from our current system, and what gets set up again?Ask for a written list of what doesn't move over, and for the report that measures migration accuracy.
- 10How do updates arrive, and where do we follow maintenance and downtime?Ask whether you can see which version you're on, and whether there are maintenance notices and a status page.
- 11Which screens work on phones and tablets?Also ask what field teams can do when the connection drops.
- 12What does the quote cover?Ask for users, modules, deployment, training, and add-on packs as separate line items, in writing.
03
Put the criteria to the test in an IWB demo
Bring an example from your own workflow along with these questions, and we'll show you the answers on IWB's screens in the same meeting. We send pricing as a written quote based on your number of users, your modules, and how you deploy.