Selecting an ERP for a Government with Zero Margin for Error

An ERP replacement is the highest-stakes software decision a government makes. The system touches every department, every payment, and every report the Town produces, and once it goes live there is no easy way back. Pick the wrong vendor, the wrong scope, or the wrong contract terms, and the Town lives with the mistake for years. As Assistant Procurement and Contracts Manager at the Town of Palm Beach, Duke is responsible for running the ERP solicitation so the decision holds up: to the selection committee, to the Town Council that must approve every contract over $100,000, and to the departments that will depend on the system every day.

1. 1
   Requirements documented across every affected department before the solicitation is drafted, so the Town defines what it needs before any vendor gets a say
2. 2
   Market surveys plus price and cost analyses to establish what a fair deal looks like before proposals arrive
3. 3
   Weighted evaluation criteria written into the RFP and locked in before any vendor is in the room
4. 4
   Selection committee meetings facilitated through structured evaluation, the same discipline Duke applies across 30+ RFPs and RFQs every year
5. 5
   Negotiation planned as a standing phase from the start; in Duke's experience, nearly every RFP and RFQ ends at the negotiation table
6. 6
   The Council award package (resolution, agenda item, and memo) prepared so the recommendation clears the $100K public-approval threshold
7. 7
   Contract terms drafted in-house; Duke writes contracts for goods, services, and construction rather than signing vendor paper

The Town's ERP selection follows this playbook, and the playbook is proven. In the same role, Duke has run the selections for the Town's safety and permitting platforms, software decisions that carried the same every-department stakes. He also prepared the solicitation packages for the Town's largest capital projects.