I'm a CFO looking to implement a new ERP system. How do I hire the best ERP implementation consultant?

As a CFO, you know an ERP implementation is a major capital investment and a structural pivot for the enterprise. Securing the right implementation consultant or partner is the single biggest risk mitigant against budget overruns, operational downtime, and scope creep.

Here is a structured framework to source, vet, and hire the ideal ERP implementation consultant, keeping financial control and ROI front and center.

1. Clarify Independent Advisor vs. Implementation Partner

Before taking market meetings, define what you actually need based on where you are in the lifecycle:

• Independent/Agnostic Consultant: Hire this type if you haven't selected the software yet. They help draft the master requirements, run the evaluation, and protect you from vendor over-licensing.
• System-Specific Implementation Partner: Hire this type if your software is already chosen. They provide the architects, developers, and change management leads certified in that exact platform (e.g., NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Workday). Do not hire a generalist firm if you need deep, native technical configurations.

2. Establish a Rigorous Evaluation & RFP Process

Treat the consulting engagement with the same financial discipline as a major M&A or asset purchase:

3. Key Vetting Questions for the Shortlist

When interviewing the engagement leads, protect your downside with these specific inquiries:

• Team Continuity: "Will the senior architects pitching this deal actually write the code and lead the floor, or will we be handed off to junior implementers post-signature?"
• Change Management Capability: "What is your structural framework for managing user adoption and business process re-engineering, not just system configuration?"
• Post-Go-Live Support Structure: "How is hypercare handled, and what are the SLA guarantees and cost escalations once we cross the go-live threshold?"

If you want to narrow down your strategy, tell me:

• Have you already selected the ERP software , or are you still in the selection/evaluation phase?
• What is the rough company revenue/headcount and industry?

I can tailor the exact RFP evaluation metrics or contract risk clauses you should use.

If you’re the CFO, I’d treat the ERP implementation consultant as a strategic delivery partner, not a vendor you select primarily on hourly rates. The implementation partner can materially affect scope, timeline, adoption, data quality, integrations, and ultimately whether the ERP delivers the business case.

The hiring approach I’d use

1. First decide what kind of consultant you actually need

There are three materially different roles:

• ERP selection advisor — helps you choose the platform and run the RFP.
• Implementation partner / systems integrator — configures, integrates, migrates, tests, trains, and deploys the ERP.
• Independent program advisor — represents your interests and governs the implementation, potentially managing the implementation partner.

If you haven't selected the ERP yet, I'd strongly consider separating selection advice from implementation delivery. Otherwise, a consultant who makes money implementing a particular platform has an inherent incentive to recommend that platform.

2. Define your selection criteria before meeting firms

I'd use a weighted scorecard roughly like this:

Don't let price become the dominant criterion. A low implementation quote can simply mean that important work—migration, testing, reporting, integrations, training, or post-go-live support—isn't included.

3. Shortlist 4–6 firms

Give every firm the same requirements document and RFP. That makes the proposals genuinely comparable rather than comparing five different interpretations of your project.

Your RFP should require:

• Proposed project organization and named individuals
• Percentage of each person's time committed
• Relevant implementations completed in the last 2–3 years
• Detailed methodology and project phases
• Deliverables by phase
• Project assumptions
• Data migration approach
• Integration approach
• Testing methodology
• Training/change-management approach
• Cutover plan
• Post-go-live support
• Pricing by phase/workstream
• Change-order mechanism
• Client responsibilities
• Escalation process
• Three comparable references

4. Interview the actual implementation team

This is one of the biggest traps.

Don't select the firm based on the impressive partner or sales executive who sells you the project. Meet the people who will actually configure, integrate, test, and manage your ERP. Current guidance specifically emphasizes validating the named delivery team, its capacity, and continuity.

I'd ask:

"If I sign this contract tomorrow, who exactly will be working on my project Monday morning?" Then ask:

• How many simultaneous projects are they staffed on?
• What percentage of their time is committed to us?
• Who replaces them if they leave?
• How long have they worked together?
• Who makes the difficult design decisions?
• Who owns the finance workstream?
• Who owns data migration?
• Who owns integrations?
• Who is accountable for go-live?

5. Give finalists a difficult business scenario

Don't just give them a presentation.

Give the finalists a real problem your company has and ask them to solve it.

For example:

"We have three entities, two currencies, a legacy GL, 14 major integrations, significant Excel-based reporting, and a 10-day month-end close. Show us how you would approach the first 90 days." Have them walk you through:

• Discovery
• Future-state process design
• Configuration philosophy
• Data conversion
• Integration architecture
• Testing
• User acceptance
• Training
• Cutover
• First 30 days after go-live

You'll learn far more from this than another polished ERP demo.

The five questions I'd use to separate the great consultants from the mediocre ones

"Tell me about an implementation that went badly."

This is probably my favorite question.

A strong consultant will describe a genuine failure, what caused it, what they did, and what they changed afterward.

A weak one will tell you that every implementation they've ever done was "challenging but successful."

"What will you refuse to customize?"

You want someone who will challenge the business rather than recreate your legacy system inside the new ERP.

"Show me where our project can go over budget."

This tests whether they understand implementation risk.

Listen for data quality, integrations, reporting, organizational change, scope creep, testing, and business-resource availability.

"What are we likely to underestimate?"

The best consultants will give you an uncomfortable answer.

"Give me a reference where something went wrong."

Then call that reference yourself.

Don't ask merely, "Were you happy?"

Ask:

• Did they go over budget?
• Did they hit the original go-live date?
• What did the consultant get wrong?
• What happened when you challenged them?
• Who was actually doing the work?
• How good was post-go-live support?
• Would you hire the same team again?

Candid references are much more valuable than polished case studies.

Pay particular attention to finance

As CFO, I'd make the consultant prove that they understand more than ERP functionality.

Have them demonstrate their approach to:

• Chart of accounts redesign
• Legal entities
• Intercompany
• Consolidation
• Revenue recognition
• AP/AR
• Fixed assets
• Cash management
• Budgeting/forecasting
• Management reporting
• Financial close
• Internal controls
• Audit trails
• Tax
• Segregation of duties
• Master-data governance

And ask a crucial question:

"What should our finance organization look like after implementation?" The best consultant will talk about process simplification and operating-model improvement, not simply configuring screens.

Change management deserves serious attention too: ERP implementations change how people actually work, and CFO-led transformation can fail when finance, IT, and end users aren't aligned.

Structure the contract to protect yourself

I'd want the contract/SOW to make these explicit:

Deliverables → acceptance criteria → responsible party → timeline → price.

Pay particular attention to:

• What is actually included in "implementation"
• Number of integrations
• Number of data objects/migrations
• Reports and dashboards
• Customizations
• Testing cycles
• Training
• Travel
• Third-party software
• Go-live support
• Warranty period
• Support SLAs
• Change orders
• Rate cards
• Key-person replacement
• Termination rights

The biggest commercial risk isn't necessarily choosing fixed-price versus time-and-materials. It's unclear scope and uncontrolled change orders.

My CFO-level recommendation

If this is a material ERP transformation, I'd seriously consider having two parties:

1. Independent ERP/program advisor — works for you

Owns requirements, partner selection, governance, architecture challenge, commercial oversight, and benefits realization.

2. Implementation partner — works for delivery

Owns configuration, integrations, migration, testing, training, and deployment.

That creates an important separation of duties: the organization advising you on whether the implementation is going well isn't the same organization billing you for doing the implementation.

And I'd make the business case and benefits register part of the project, not an afterthought. Define upfront what success means—e.g., month-end close from 10 to 5 days, 30% reduction in manual journal entries, improved working-capital visibility, elimination of specific legacy systems, etc. Then hold the implementation team and your own organization accountable for those outcomes.

A simple decision rule

I'd hire the consultant who can demonstrate:

Relevant experience + exceptional named team + disciplined methodology + willingness to challenge you + transparent economics + brutally honest references.

Not the consultant with the slickest demo or lowest bid.

If you tell me your company size/revenue, industry, number of entities/countries, current ERP, and which ERP you're considering (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Dynamics, Infor, etc.), I can turn this into a CFO-ready ERP consultant RFP and weighted evaluation scorecard, including the exact interview questions and reference-check script.

As a CFO, you should hire an ERP implementation consultant the same way you would select a major operating partner—not as a software vendor. The consultant will influence your chart of accounts, controls, close process, reporting model, integrations, data migration, user adoption, and long-term operating model. The implementation partner decision is often as important as the ERP platform decision itself.

A strong process looks like this:

1. Define what you need the consultant to accomplish

Before interviewing firms, create a one-page “ERP success profile”:

• Business objectives

• Faster month-end close?

• Better forecasting?

• Global consolidation?

• Cost accounting?

• Revenue recognition?

• Better controls and auditability?

• Operational visibility?

• Implementation scope

• Finance only?

• Supply chain?

• Manufacturing?

• CRM?

• HR/payroll?

• Business intelligence?

• Constraints

• Target go-live date

• Budget range

• Internal team capacity

• Regulatory requirements

• Integration complexity

A good consultant should challenge your assumptions and help define the right scope—not simply configure software.

2. Decide whether you need an advisor, an implementer, or both

There are three common models:

Independent ERP advisor

Best when:

• You have not selected the ERP yet
• You need vendor-neutral guidance
• You want help evaluating implementation partners

Watch for:

• Advisors who receive incentives from specific vendors

ERP implementation partner

Best when:

• You have selected your ERP
• You need configuration, migration, testing, training, and go-live support

Watch for:

• A strong sales team that hands the project to a junior delivery team

Independent program oversight (“owner’s rep”)

Best when:

• You have a large transformation
• Multiple vendors are involved
• You need someone protecting the company’s interests

Many CFOs benefit from separating software selection advice from implementation execution to reduce conflicts of interest.

3. Build a shortlist of 5–7 firms

Look for:

Relevant ERP experience

Do not accept “we implement ERP systems.” Ask:

• How many implementations of this ERP platform?
• How many in companies similar to ours?
• How many in our industry?
• How many at our revenue/complexity level?

A manufacturing company, multinational, nonprofit, and professional-services firm have very different ERP requirements.

Named delivery team

Require the actual people who will work on your project:

• Engagement partner
• Solution architect
• Finance lead
• Data migration lead
• Change-management lead
• Project manager

Ask:

“Who are the people we are buying, and what percentage of their time is committed to us?” The team presented during sales is not always the team assigned after contract signature.

4. Run a structured evaluation process

Score each consultant using a weighted model:

Do not let price dominate. A cheap implementation that creates rework, delays, or poor adoption is usually expensive.

5. Ask these interview questions

Experience

• “Show us three implementations similar to ours.”
• “What went wrong on those projects?”
• “What would you do differently?”

Methodology

• “Walk us through your implementation phases.”
• “How do you manage scope creep?”
• “How do you handle business-process redesign?”

Finance expertise

• “How would you redesign our chart of accounts?”
• “How do you approach financial close?”
• “How do you validate controls and audit requirements?”

Data migration

• “Who owns data cleansing?”
• “How many mock conversions do you recommend?”
• “How do you validate migrated balances?”

Change management

• “How do you get finance and operations users ready?”
• “What training approach do you use?”

Commercials

• “What assumptions are included in your estimate?”
• “What typically causes change orders?”
• “What happens if the timeline slips?”

6. Demand customer references you can call

Do not rely only on written case studies.

Ask for references with:

• Similar ERP
• Similar size
• Similar industry
• Similar implementation scope

Questions for references:

• Did the partner keep the promised team?
• Were estimates realistic?
• Did they identify risks early?
• Were there unexpected costs?
• Would you hire them again?

Reference checks are one of the strongest ways to separate marketing claims from delivery capability.

7. Evaluate their implementation approach

A mature partner should have a clear approach covering:

1. Discovery and process design
2. Solution architecture
3. Configuration
4. Data migration
5. Integration development
6. Testing cycles
7. Training
8. Cutover planning
9. Go-live support
10. Post-go-live optimization

Be cautious if the proposal jumps straight to configuration without discussing process redesign, data quality, governance, and adoption.

8. Red flags that should eliminate a candidate

Avoid consultants who:

• Promise a fixed price before understanding requirements
• Cannot provide named references
• Have little industry experience
• Put junior consultants on your project
• Minimize change management
• Say “we can customize anything”
• Cannot explain their testing and migration strategy
• Have no post-go-live support plan

9. Negotiate the contract like a CFO

Your contract should include:

• Named resources
• Resource replacement rules
• Milestones and acceptance criteria
• Clear scope assumptions
• Change-control process
• Knowledge transfer requirements
• Post-go-live support terms
• Escalation path

A practical CFO hiring timeline

Weeks 1–2

• Define objectives
• Create evaluation criteria
• Build shortlist

Weeks 3–5

• Conduct interviews
• Review proposals
• Check references

Weeks 6–7

• Run finalist workshops
• Negotiate contract

Week 8

• Select partner and mobilize

The best ERP consultant is usually not the firm with the biggest brand or lowest hourly rate. It is the team that has already solved problems like yours, can prove it with references, and has a disciplined approach to controlling scope, risk, and business change.

If you share your industry, company size/revenue, ERP platforms under consideration (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite, Workday, Infor, etc.), and whether you are pre-selection or already selected, I can suggest a more tailored consultant selection approach and interview scorecard.

As a CFO, your primary concern with an ERP implementation isn't just getting the software live—it’s controlling cost overruns, mitigating operational disruption, and ensuring ROI . Hiring the right ERP implementation consultant (or partner) requires a rigorous, finance-aligned vetting framework.

Here is a step-by-step blueprint to find and hire the best consultant for your organization:

- If you **haven’t selected an ERP software yet** , hire an *independent selection consultant* who has zero vendor affiliations and focuses purely on matching requirements to the right platform.
- If you **already chose your ERP** (e.g., NetSuite, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Epicor), you need a certified *implementation/value-added reseller (VAR) partner* specializing in that exact stack.[](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting) [[1]](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting)

- Do not let bidding consultants define your project scope from scratch; otherwise, you'll open the door to massive change orders later.
- Document current financial workflows (AP/AR, general ledger, tax compliance, payroll integrations) and must-have operational requirements before going to market.[](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting) [[1]](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting)[[2]](https://phoenixstrategy.group/blog/erp-implementation-checklist-cfos)

- **Industry Verticals Track Record:** Do they know your specific industry's regulatory, inventory, or revenue-recognition nuances?
- **Team Composition:** Demand to meet the *actual team* executing the implementation, not just the high-level sales architects. Ask: *Will my team have direct working experience in the software?* 
- **Change Management Capability:** A massive driver of ERP budget failure is low user adoption. Ensure they have a formal framework for training staff and managing cultural pushback.
- **Data Migration Strategy:** Dig into their process for data scrubbing, field mapping, and legacy system decommissioning.[](https://crowncfo.com/implementation-partner/) [[1]](https://crowncfo.com/implementation-partner/)[[2]](https://phoenixstrategy.group/blog/erp-implementation-checklist-cfos)[[3]](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting)

- Issue an identical Request for Proposal (RFP) to a shortlist of 3 to 5 firms so you can perform an apples-to-apples financial comparison.
- Scrutinize the commercial model: Is it **fixed-bid**, **time-and-materials (T&M)** , or a hybrid? As a CFO, push for milestone-based fixed pricing tied directly to functional go-live phases rather than open-ended hourly billing where scope risk falls entirely on you.[](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting) [[1]](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting)

- When checking references from similar-sized companies in your industry, don’t just ask if they liked the consultant. Ask specifically:
	- *Where did the project slip on the timeline and why?* 
	- *How were scope-change requests handled and billed?* 
	- *What broke post-go-live that you wish they had caught during testing?* [](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting) [[1]](https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/erp-consulting)

To help narrow down your search, could you share:

• Have you already selected the ERP platform , or are you still in the evaluation phase?
• What is your rough company size (revenue/headcount) and industry?

If I were advising you as a CFO, I’d treat the ERP implementation partner as a capital-allocation decision, not a procurement exercise. The wrong consultant can turn a good ERP into a multi-year, multi-million-dollar problem; the right one can materially improve close, controls, reporting, working capital, and operating discipline.

Current ERP-selection guidance consistently emphasizes that the implementation partner can matter as much as the software itself.

1. First decide what kind of consultant you actually need

There are three materially different roles:

• ERP selection advisor — vendor-neutral, helps define requirements and choose the platform.
• Implementation partner — configures, integrates, migrates data, tests, trains and goes live on a particular ERP.
• Independent program advisor / PMO — represents your interests during implementation and holds the software vendor and implementation partner accountable.

If you haven't selected the ERP yet, I'd strongly consider using an independent advisor for selection and then competitively selecting the implementation partner. A reseller that makes money from selling a particular ERP isn't truly independent.

For a significant finance transformation, I particularly like the third role: an experienced independent person sitting on your side of the table.

2. Define your "must-have" consultant profile

Don't start by asking, "Who are the biggest ERP consulting firms?"

Start with:

"Who has successfully implemented this ERP, in a company that looks like ours, with problems that look like ours?" I'd score candidates on roughly these dimensions:

The weighting is deliberate: don't let a 10% cheaper proposal beat a consultant with substantially better evidence of successful delivery.

Industry and company-size experience are particularly important; firms recommend evaluating how many implementations a partner has completed on your specific product, in your industry, and at your scale—not merely their total number of ERP projects.

3. Make them prove it

This is where I'd be unusually demanding.

For each finalist, ask:

"Give me three clients whose implementation is genuinely comparable to ours." Then ask to speak with the CFO, not just the IT director.

Ask the reference:

1. Did they go live when promised?
2. What was the original budget versus actual?
3. What functionality did they fail to deliver?
4. How much did change orders add?
5. Who were the best and worst people on the consulting team?
6. Did the senior people stay involved after the sale?
7. How good was the data migration?
8. How painful was month-end close immediately after go-live?
9. What happened when you disagreed with the consultant?
10. Knowing what you know now, would you hire them again?

That last question is particularly revealing.

Don't accept "we can't disclose the client." Require enough information to independently validate the reference.

4. Meet the actual implementation team

This is one of the biggest traps.

The sales team can be excellent while the people actually configuring your ERP are mediocre.

Before signing, require meetings with:

• Engagement partner
• Project/program manager
• Lead finance consultant
• Lead technical/integration architect
• Data migration lead
• Change-management/training lead
• At least 2–3 people who will actually do the work

Then put a contractual requirement around key personnel.

I'd want language along the lines of:

The named project leadership team cannot be replaced without CFO approval, except for unavoidable circumstances, and replacements must have equivalent or superior qualifications. Industry guidance specifically recommends meeting the named delivery lead rather than relying on the sales presentation.

5. Make them demonstrate their methodology

Don't accept:

"We have a proven methodology." Ask them to show you the artifacts.

For example:

• Project plan
• Governance structure
• RAID log
• Requirements traceability matrix
• Data migration plan
• Chart-of-accounts conversion approach
• Integration inventory
• Testing strategy
• Cutover plan
• Training plan
• Go-live readiness checklist
• Post-go-live support model

A mature partner should be able to show you examples—appropriately redacted—of what they actually produce. Clear methodology and defined deliverables are important indicators of implementation maturity.

6. Give them a difficult scenario

This is probably my favorite interview technique.

Don't just ask questions. Give each finalist the same hypothetical:

"We're 60 days from go-live. Data conversion is 3 weeks behind, AP automation isn't working, the business refuses to accept the standard purchasing workflow, and we're already 8% over budget. Walk us through exactly what you do Monday morning." Watch their response.

A strong consultant will immediately discuss:

• Governance
• Root-cause analysis
• Critical path
• Scope trade-offs
• Business ownership
• Risk escalation
• Testing
• Cutover criteria
• Budget implications

A weak one will tell you they'll "work harder" and "communicate proactively."

7. Be especially rigorous about finance

As CFO, I'd put disproportionate weight on whether the consultant understands finance transformation, rather than simply ERP configuration.

You want someone who can challenge your existing processes.

For example:

• Can we eliminate unnecessary entities or ledgers?
• Is the chart of accounts overly complex?
• Can we shorten the close?
• Can reconciliations be automated?
• Can approval controls be embedded in workflow?
• Can we eliminate spreadsheet-based allocations?
• Can revenue recognition be automated appropriately?
• Can intercompany be substantially automated?
• Can management reporting come directly from the ERP?
• What should remain outside the ERP?
• Which customizations should we refuse?

The goal shouldn't be "put our existing processes into the new system."

It should be:

"Design a better finance operating model and use the ERP to enforce it."

8. Don't let them hide risk inside a fixed-price quote

A $2.0M fixed-price proposal isn't necessarily cheaper than a $2.5M proposal.

Compare:

Price + assumptions + exclusions + change-order mechanism + staffing + deliverables

Fixed price provides predictability only when scope is genuinely well defined; T&M can work, but should have strong governance, burn-rate reporting and preferably a not-to-exceed ceiling.

I'd require the proposal to explicitly identify:

• What's included
• What's excluded
• Number of integrations
• Number/volume of data objects
• Number of legal entities
• Number of countries
• Number of reports
• Number of workflows
• Training hours
• Testing responsibilities
• Data cleansing responsibilities
• Post-go-live support
• Travel expenses
• Offshore/onshore mix
• Change-order rates

The assumptions schedule is as important as the price.

9. Use a competitive RFP—but make it relatively short

I'd shortlist 3–4 serious firms, rather than sending an RFP to 15 companies.

Give every firm exactly the same:

• Company profile
• ERP/product
• Business requirements
• Scope
• Entity count
• Geographic footprint
• Integration inventory
• Data volumes
• Target timeline
• Required deliverables
• Commercial response template

Then force them to respond in the same format.

That makes the proposals much more comparable and reveals how each firm thinks. Current guidance similarly recommends a structured RFP with the same scope and response template for shortlisted firms.

10. Put these questions in your RFP

I'd include these almost verbatim:

Experience

• How many implementations of our exact ERP have you completed?
• How many were for companies of our size?
• How many were in our industry?
• How many went live within the original approved budget?
• How many went live within the original schedule?
• Give us three comparable references.

People

• Who will actually perform the work?
• What percentage will be onshore?
• What percentage will be offshore?
• What other projects are the proposed team members working on?
• What happens if the proposed project manager leaves?

Methodology

• Describe your implementation methodology by phase.
• What are the exit criteria for each phase?
• Show us examples of your deliverables.
• How do you manage scope creep?
• How do you determine whether we're ready for go-live?

Finance

• Describe your approach to chart-of-accounts redesign.
• How do you approach financial close optimization?
• What is your methodology for data migration and reconciliation?
• How do you validate opening balances?
• How do you design controls and segregation of duties?
• How do you handle multi-entity and intercompany accounting?

Commercials

• What assumptions are embedded in your price?
• What triggers a change order?
• What are your hourly rates by role?
• What is your expected total spend including likely change orders?
• What costs are excluded?
• Can you provide a not-to-exceed amount?

References

• What went wrong on your last three comparable implementations?
• What did the client complain about?
• What would the client say you could have done better?

That last group separates polished sales organizations from genuinely good implementation firms.

My recommended hiring process

I'd run it in six stages:

1. Define the business case and implementation scope
2. Create a longlist of ~8–10 firms
3. Screen down to 3–4
4. Run a standardized RFP + scenario exercise
5. Conduct CFO-level reference calls
6. Negotiate the SOW and governance structure

I'd also score every firm before seeing its pricing. Then look at price afterward.

That prevents the classic mistake where a CFO says, "They're all pretty similar, but this one is $600K cheaper."

They usually aren't similar.

The red flags I'd walk away from

🚩 Sales executive dominates the process but you can't meet the delivery team.

🚩 They immediately start showing software demos before understanding your business.

🚩 They say, "We've done hundreds of implementations," but can't produce comparable references.

🚩 The proposal has an unusually low price but a huge assumptions/exclusions section.

🚩 They can't explain their methodology without PowerPoint buzzwords.

🚩 They recommend extensive customization because "that's how your business works."

🚩 Their senior people are promised during sales but disappear after contracting.

🚩 They won't commit named resources.

🚩 They blame the client whenever you ask about failed projects.

🚩 They can't tell you why one of their recent ERP projects went badly.

A partner who claims every implementation they've done was perfect is actually giving you a reason not to hire them.

One thing I'd do differently as CFO

I'd seriously consider hiring a small, vendor-neutral ERP program advisor to sit on your side of the project—even if you ultimately use a major systems integrator for implementation.

That person doesn't configure the ERP. Their job is to protect the company from:

• Scope creep
• Bad architecture decisions
• Excessive customization
• Vendor/consultant conflicts
• Unrealistic timelines
• Change orders
• Weak testing
• Premature go-live
• Inadequate knowledge transfer

The implementation firm should be accountable for delivery; your independent advisor should make sure "delivery" means what you think it means.

And I'd make go-live criteria explicit in the contract, rather than letting the implementation partner effectively decide when you're ready.

If you want the practical next step

I can build you a CFO-grade ERP implementation consultant RFP and scorecard—including a weighted 100-point evaluation matrix, 50+ interview/RFP questions, reference-check script, pricing comparison template, and recommended contract/SOW provisions. That is probably the most useful artifact to create before you start interviewing firms.

🚩 The proposal has an unusually low price but a huge assumptions/exclusions section.

🚩 They can't explain their methodology without PowerPoint buzzwords.

🚩 They recommend extensive customization because "that's how your business works."

🚩 Their senior people are promised during sales but disappear after contracting.

🚩 They won't commit named resources.

🚩 They blame the client whenever you ask about failed projects.

🚩 They can't tell you why one of their recent ERP projects went badly.

A partner who claims every implementation they've done was perfect is actually giving you a reason not to hire them.

One thing I'd do differently as CFO

I'd seriously consider hiring a small, vendor-neutral ERP program advisor to sit on your side of the project—even if you ultimately use a major systems integrator for implementation.

That person doesn't configure the ERP. Their job is to protect the company from:

• Scope creep
• Bad architecture decisions
• Excessive customization
• Vendor/consultant conflicts
• Unrealistic timelines
• Change orders
• Weak testing
• Premature go-live
• Inadequate knowledge transfer

The implementation firm should be accountable for delivery; your independent advisor should make sure "delivery" means what you think it means.

And I'd make go-live criteria explicit in the contract, rather than letting the implementation partner effectively decide when you're ready.

If you want the practical next step

I can build you a CFO-grade ERP implementation consultant RFP and scorecard—including a weighted 100-point evaluation matrix, 50+ interview/RFP questions, reference-check script, pricing comparison template, and recommended contract/SOW provisions. That is probably the most useful artifact to create before you start interviewing firms.

As a CFO, looking at an ERP implementation through the lens of risk mitigation, ROI, and operational continuity means treating your choice of consultant like an investment committee decision.

A structured approach ensures you hire the right implementation partner rather than just a roster of expensive bodies:

If you'd like to narrow this down, tell me:

• Have you already selected your ERP software , or are you still in the selection/evaluation phase?
• What is your estimated company size/revenue and industry?

I can share more tailored evaluation criteria or specific probing questions for your finalist interviews.

As a CFO, you know that an ERP implementation isn't just an IT project—it’s a massive operational and financial overhaul. Hiring the right implementation consultant or partner is the single most critical decision to protect your timeline, budget, and ROI.

A structured, risk-mitigated approach ensures you find a consultant who aligns with your financial and strategic goals:

1. Define Your Scope and Governance First

Before interviewing a single firm, lock down your internal readiness. Consultants will exploit a fuzzy scope through creeping change orders.

• Map critical financial workflows: Document requirements for general ledger, accounts payable/receivable, tax compliance, payroll integration, and reporting.
• Establish a realistic TCO (Total Cost of Ownership): Factor in software licensing, data migration, customization, internal resource drain, and post-go-live support.
• Appoint an internal project owner: The consultant works for you , but you need an internal champion (often a strong project manager or controller) to drive day-to-day decisions.

2. Vet for Industry and Platform Depth

Avoid generalists. You need a consultant who speaks your industry's operational language and has deep, hands-on mastery of your chosen software ecosystem (e.g., SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Workday).

• Ask for specific pedigree: Do they have direct, recent working experience rolling out this exact platform for companies of your size and revenue model?
• Examine their reference implementations: Request case studies from clients in your exact sector. Call those references and ask: Did they finish on budget? How did they handle scope creep?

3. Evaluate Their Methodology (Not Just Their Resume)

The best consultants sell a repeatable, disciplined framework—not just hours of labor.

• Change management integration: An ERP failure is rarely technical; it’s usually cultural and operational. Ensure their methodology includes robust user adoption, training paths, and change management.
• Data migration & testing strategy: Ask how they approach data cleansing, field mapping, and parallel testing . Poor data validation is where projects go to die.
• Milestone-driven accountability: Tie their compensation or milestone sign-offs to tangible deliverables (e.g., successful system integration tests) rather than a pure time-and-materials blank check.

4. Ask the Hard Financial and Operational Questions

During the interview process, lean into your CFO perspective and grill them on risk:

• How do you handle scope creep and change requests mid-stream? (Look for transparent governance, not an open wallet policy.)
• What does your post-go-live hypercare and support look like? (Ensure they don't vanish the day after launch.)
• How will your team collaborate with our internal finance/IT teams and other vendor partners?

You can consult frameworks like the ERP Implementation Checklist for CFOs by Phoenix Strategy Group to align your internal milestones before finalizing agreements.

If you'd like, tell me:

• What ERP platform are you leaning toward or currently using?
• What is your company's approximate revenue/headcount?

I can give you a more targeted list of red flags to look out for during the RFP process.

If I were advising you as a CFO, I’d treat the ERP implementation consultant as a major capital-allocation decision, not a procurement exercise. The software gets most of the attention, but the implementation partner will have enormous influence over scope, timeline, adoption, data quality, and ultimately whether the business case is realized. Recent ERP guidance makes the same point: partner selection should be evaluated on delivery method, governance, named personnel, references, and commercial assumptions—not simply rates.

1. First, decide what kind of consultant you actually need

There are three fundamentally different roles:

• Independent ERP advisor: helps define requirements, select the ERP, negotiate with vendors, and/or oversee the implementation. They should have no financial incentive for you to select a particular ERP.
• Implementation partner / SI / VAR: actually configures, integrates, migrates, tests, trains, and deploys the ERP.
• Internal program leadership: your CFO/finance team, CIO/IT, business-process owners, and PMO who own the business outcome.

For a significant ERP transformation, I'd strongly consider using an independent advisor for selection and implementation oversight, then a separate implementation partner for delivery. That separation gives you someone on your side who can challenge the integrator's estimates, scope changes, and recommendations.

If you've already selected the ERP, concentrate your search on the implementation partner.

2. Establish your "must-have" profile before interviewing firms

I'd weight the selection roughly like this:

The important point is comparable experience. "We've done 300 ERP implementations" is much less useful than "We've done six implementations with your entity complexity, transaction volume, regulatory environment and finance/operational processes."

Industry expertise and program-management capability are consistently identified as critical selection factors.

3. Demand named people—not a company logo

This is one of the biggest traps.

The proposal may show you an impressive partner, a senior executive and a dozen experts. Six months later, you're dealing primarily with junior consultants.

Put this requirement in the RFP:

No material replacement of named project personnel without CFO/project-steering-committee approval. Ask for:

• Engagement partner
• Program/project manager
• Lead finance functional consultant
• Supply-chain/operations lead, if applicable
• Data migration lead
• Integration/technical architect
• Change-management/training lead
• Testing/cutover lead

Then ask each person how much of their time is actually committed to your project.

The quality of the individual team matters more than the firm's marketing deck.

4. Make them prove their methodology

Don't accept "we use a proven methodology."

Ask to see redacted examples of actual deliverables:

• Requirements/process maps
• Solution design
• Fit-gap analysis
• Project plan
• RAID log
• Decision log
• Data migration plan
• Integration inventory
• Testing strategy
• Cutover plan
• Training/adoption plan
• Change-control process
• Executive steering dashboard

A strong methodology should explicitly address governance, scope control, testing, decision-making, and change requests.

One particularly good interview question

Ask:

"Tell me about an ERP implementation that was going badly six months in. What did you do, what did you tell the CFO, and what did you change?"

You want someone who can talk candidly about failure—not someone who claims every project was successful.

5. Run a serious reference process

Don't accept three hand-picked references and ask, "Were you happy?"

I'd request at least three references that resemble your project.

Then conduct the calls yourself.

Ask:

1. Did the project go live when promised?
2. Was it within the original budget?
3. What percentage of the original scope was delivered?
4. How much did the final cost exceed the original SOW?
5. How many change orders occurred?
6. How good was the data migration?
7. How effective was user training?
8. Who were the strongest and weakest consultants?
9. Did the partner raise bad news early?
10. What would you do differently?
11. Would you hire this exact team again?
12. What did the consultant not tell you during the sales process?

That last question can be remarkably revealing.

6. Put commercial discipline around the engagement

As CFO, I'd be especially aggressive here.

Don't compare proposals simply by total price.

Build a should-cost model for:

Implementation = configuration + integrations + data migration + testing + training + change management + project management + travel + post-go-live support

Require every bidder to identify:

• Fixed vs. variable fees
• Assumptions
• Hours by role
• Onshore/offshore mix
• Travel
• Third-party software
• Integration costs
• Data conversion
• Reporting/BI
• Testing
• Training
• Hypercare
• Post-go-live support
• Explicit exclusions

The most dangerous proposal isn't necessarily the most expensive one. It's the artificially cheap proposal with a huge amount of future "out of scope" work. Current implementation-partner guidance specifically recommends scrutinizing assumptions around migration, integrations, reporting, training and support.

7. Test their incentives and independence

Ask directly:

"What financial relationships do you have with the ERP vendor?" And:

"What percentage of your revenue comes from implementation work for this ERP?" If you're still selecting the ERP, I'd be particularly wary of having the same organization both recommend the ERP and profit from implementing it.

A genuinely independent advisor should be able to show examples where it recommended a platform other than the obvious market leader. Independence is a structural issue—not simply something a consultant claims in its marketing materials.

8. Give candidates a realistic case study

This is probably my favorite way to distinguish the great firms from the sales organizations.

Give all finalists the same hypothetical scenario based on your actual company:

"We have 12 legal entities, three countries, $X billion revenue, legacy financials, Salesforce, a manufacturing system, 25 integrations, significant intercompany activity and a four-month fiscal-close requirement. We need to go live in 14 months." Then ask:

"Walk us through how you would implement this."

Don't tell them what you think the answer is.

Watch what happens.

A weak consultant starts talking about software features.

A good consultant starts asking about processes, data, controls, organizational readiness, integrations, decision rights, testing, cutover and business ownership.

9. Score the finalists quantitatively

Don't let the loudest executive in the room pick the winner.

Have CFO, CIO/IT, controller, operations, HR/supply chain and key business owners independently score each finalist.

I'd use something like:

Final score = 40% demonstrated capability + 25% team + 15% methodology + 10% references + 10% economics

And make price a gating factor rather than the dominant criterion.

A $2M implementation that succeeds is vastly cheaper than a $1.4M implementation that turns into $2.5M plus a delayed go-live.

10. My CFO "red flag" list

I'd eliminate or heavily penalize a consultant if you see any of these:

• They won't name the actual delivery team.
• The sales team is dramatically more senior than the proposed implementation team.
• They can't show real project deliverables.
• Their references are all large, prestigious companies unlike yours.
• They promise an unusually short implementation without explaining the tradeoffs.
• They quote a suspiciously low fixed price.
• They have lots of "TBD" assumptions.
• They immediately recommend extensive customization.
• They can't clearly explain their data-migration methodology.
• They don't have a serious testing strategy.
• They treat change management as "training users."
• They can't explain how scope changes are governed.
• They tell you they've never had a troubled implementation.
• They won't disclose vendor relationships.

The hiring process I'd use

For a mid-market or enterprise ERP, I'd run:

Phase 1 — Define requirements: 1–2 weeks Create a short RFP describing your business, ERP scope, entities, integrations, approximate users/transactions, timeline and objectives.

Phase 2 — Longlist: 6–8 firms Include a mix of major SIs, strong ERP-specific partners and boutiques.

Phase 3 — Written proposal: 4–5 finalists Same information and response template for everyone.

Phase 4 — Deep-dive: 3 finalists Two-hour case study + meet the proposed delivery team.

Phase 5 — References: 2–3 finalists You conduct the calls, not the sales team.

Phase 6 — Commercial negotiation: 1–2 finalists Normalize assumptions and compare equivalent scopes.

Phase 7 — Final team interview: winner Meet the people who will actually run your project.

Phase 8 — Contract: Tie payments to deliverables and milestones, establish change-control rules, protect the named team, and define acceptance criteria.

The single biggest principle

Don't hire the firm with the best ERP credentials. Hire the team that has the strongest evidence that they can deliver your particular transformation.

And I'd separate "Can they implement this ERP?" from "Can they successfully transform our finance and operating processes?" The first is table stakes. The second is what you're actually paying for.

If you're at the beginning of the process, an independent ERP advisor can also be useful before you choose either the ERP or the implementation partner. Current guidance puts typical independent advisory engagements in the roughly $15K–$75K range for focused selection work, with substantially larger engagements for ongoing implementation oversight.

For a CFO, that relatively small upfront investment can be worthwhile if it prevents a poor ERP choice or gives you an independent party capable of challenging a $1M–$10M+ implementation program.

A good consultant starts asking about processes, data, controls, organizational readiness, integrations, decision rights, testing, cutover and business ownership.

9. Score the finalists quantitatively

Don't let the loudest executive in the room pick the winner.

Have CFO, CIO/IT, controller, operations, HR/supply chain and key business owners independently score each finalist.

I'd use something like:

Final score = 40% demonstrated capability + 25% team + 15% methodology + 10% references + 10% economics

And make price a gating factor rather than the dominant criterion.

A $2M implementation that succeeds is vastly cheaper than a $1.4M implementation that turns into $2.5M plus a delayed go-live.

10. My CFO "red flag" list

I'd eliminate or heavily penalize a consultant if you see any of these:

• They won't name the actual delivery team.
• The sales team is dramatically more senior than the proposed implementation team.
• They can't show real project deliverables.
• Their references are all large, prestigious companies unlike yours.
• They promise an unusually short implementation without explaining the tradeoffs.
• They quote a suspiciously low fixed price.
• They have lots of "TBD" assumptions.
• They immediately recommend extensive customization.
• They can't clearly explain their data-migration methodology.
• They don't have a serious testing strategy.
• They treat change management as "training users."
• They can't explain how scope changes are governed.
• They tell you they've never had a troubled implementation.
• They won't disclose vendor relationships.

The hiring process I'd use

For a mid-market or enterprise ERP, I'd run:

Phase 1 — Define requirements: 1–2 weeks Create a short RFP describing your business, ERP scope, entities, integrations, approximate users/transactions, timeline and objectives.

Phase 2 — Longlist: 6–8 firms Include a mix of major SIs, strong ERP-specific partners and boutiques.

Phase 3 — Written proposal: 4–5 finalists Same information and response template for everyone.

Phase 4 — Deep-dive: 3 finalists Two-hour case study + meet the proposed delivery team.

Phase 5 — References: 2–3 finalists You conduct the calls, not the sales team.

Phase 6 — Commercial negotiation: 1–2 finalists Normalize assumptions and compare equivalent scopes.

Phase 7 — Final team interview: winner Meet the people who will actually run your project.

Phase 8 — Contract: Tie payments to deliverables and milestones, establish change-control rules, protect the named team, and define acceptance criteria.

The single biggest principle

Don't hire the firm with the best ERP credentials. Hire the team that has the strongest evidence that they can deliver your particular transformation.

And I'd separate "Can they implement this ERP?" from "Can they successfully transform our finance and operating processes?" The first is table stakes. The second is what you're actually paying for.

If you're at the beginning of the process, an independent ERP advisor can also be useful before you choose either the ERP or the implementation partner. Current guidance puts typical independent advisory engagements in the roughly $15K–$75K range for focused selection work, with substantially larger engagements for ongoing implementation oversight.

As a CFO, you know that an ERP implementation isn't just an IT project—it's a massive financial and operational overhaul that impacts your balance sheet, cash flow, internal controls, and daily business continuity . Hiring the right implementation consultant requires looking past technical jargon and focusing on risk mitigation, change management, and ROI.

A structured roadmap can help you evaluate and hire the best ERP implementation consultant for your organization:

1. Demand Software Independence (Tech-Agnostic Approach)

• The Risk: Many implementation partners are heavily incentivized or partnered with specific software vendors (e.g., SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft). They may push a specific stack because it benefits their commission structure rather than your operational reality.
• What to look for: Independent, vendor-agnostic consultants or advisory firms who help you define your requirements first , evaluate the market objectively , and only then recommend a platform. If they sell software licenses directly, scrutinize their objectivity.

2. Scrutinize Industry-Specific Process Expertise

• The Risk: A consultant who has implemented 20 ERPs for retail companies will struggle if your business is discrete manufacturing, aerospace, or life sciences.
• What to look for: Ask for case studies matching your exact vertical and operational model (e.g., engineer-to-order vs. high-volume distribution). They should understand your specific compliance needs (like DCAA, FDA, or complex multi-entity tax structures) without you having to explain them.

3. Shift the Focus from "Go-Live" to "Post-Go-Live Stability"

• The Risk: Consultants love the finish line of the "go-live" date. However, operational risk post-go-live—such as the inability to close the books, ship products, or run payroll—can be multiples more costly than the implementation budget itself.
• What to look for: Review their hypercare and post-launch support framework. Look for a partner whose contract ties a portion of their milestone compensation to operational stabilization metrics (e.g., successful first monthly close under the new system) rather than just system deployment.

4. Evaluate Change Management and Cultural Fit

• The Risk: Budget overruns and failed ERPs are rarely technical failures; they are people and process failures (user resistance, lack of executive alignment, and scope creep).
• What to look for: Probe their methodology for organizational change management . Do they have dedicated change management practitioners, or do they expect your internal team to handle the friction? Interview the actual day-to-day project team—not just the senior partner who pitches the deal —to ensure cultural alignment and clear communication.

5. Structure the Contract for Accountability

• The Risk: Time-and-materials contracts give consultants a blank check while incentivizing scope creep.
• What to look for: Insist on milestone-based, fixed-fee deliverables for distinct phases (Discovery, Design, Testing, Deployment). Ensure the contract defines clear exit ramps and ownership of all custom configurations, data mapping logic, and process documentation.

If you'd like, tell me:

• What is your current ERP platform (and what is driving the replacement)?
• What is the estimated timeline and budget for the project?
• Is your organization single-entity or multi-entity/multinational?

I can help tailor a specific evaluation matrix or interview scorecard for your finalist consultants.

If I were advising you as CFO, I’d treat the ERP consultant selection as a business transformation hire, not an IT procurement. The best consultant will protect your economics, challenge your assumptions, and make sure the organization actually changes—not merely get the software live.

Recent ERP research reinforces this: implementation outcomes depend heavily on stakeholder engagement, training, change management, data quality, testing, and governance—not just technical configuration.

1. Decide what you actually need to hire

First distinguish among three roles:

• ERP implementation partner — configures the software, migrates data, integrates systems, tests and deploys.
• Independent ERP advisor — represents you, helps select the ERP/partner, challenges estimates and manages the vendor.
• Program management / transformation consultant — owns governance, process redesign, organizational change and benefits realization.

For a significant ERP investment, I would strongly consider having an independent advisor on your side, even if the software vendor recommends an implementation partner. You don't want the firm designing the solution, estimating the work, and then grading its own performance.

2. Hire for these seven capabilities

I'd score candidates on:

The last one is frequently underestimated. ERP implementations change processes and people's jobs; Prosci's current research reports that respondents' recommendations for improving ERP outcomes favored human factors over technical factors by roughly 6:1.

3. Don't believe the sales presentation—interview the actual team

This is probably the single most important hiring tactic.

Ask the consulting firm:

"Who exactly will be working on our implementation, and can we interview those people before signing?" Then interview:

• Engagement partner
• Program manager
• Finance lead
• Solution architect
• Data migration lead
• Integration lead
• Change-management lead
• Testing lead

Get their names into the contract.

A common mistake is buying the "A team" during the sales process and receiving the "B team" afterward.

4. Make them prove they can handle failure

Don't ask only:

"Tell me about successful implementations." Ask:

• "Tell me about an implementation that went badly."
• "What did your firm get wrong?"
• "What did the client get wrong?"
• "What would you do differently?"
• "Tell me about a project that went over budget."
• "Tell me about a go-live you recommended delaying."
• "Tell me about a client who rejected your recommendation."
• "When have you fired a client?"
• "What is the biggest ERP mistake CFOs make?"
• "What would make you tell us not to go live?"

You learn vastly more from these answers than from references provided by the salesperson.

5. Put economics under a microscope

Don't compare firms on their headline implementation fee.

Require each finalist to provide:

• Detailed work breakdown structure
• Hours by role
• Rates by role
• Onshore/offshore mix
• Travel assumptions
• Expenses
• Client-resource assumptions
• Third-party software costs
• Integration assumptions
• Data-migration assumptions
• Customization assumptions
• Testing responsibilities
• Training responsibilities
• Post-go-live support
• Change-order methodology

Then ask:

"What assumptions in this proposal, if wrong, will cause you to issue a change order?" That's a CFO question worth asking.

I'd also require the consultant to quantify their estimate confidence—for example, which portions are well understood versus based on assumptions.

6. Make "standardize vs. customize" a major evaluation criterion

A dangerous consultant says:

"Absolutely—we can customize the ERP to work exactly like your current processes." A better consultant says:

"Let's determine whether your process is strategically differentiating. If it isn't, change the process to fit the ERP." Excessive customization increases complexity and creates longer-term maintenance and upgrade risk.

You want someone who is willing to tell powerful internal stakeholders no.

7. Test their CFO orientation

Give each finalist a hypothetical problem:

"We're six months into implementation. We're $1.5M over budget, two integrations are behind schedule, the business wants seven additional customizations, and the controller says the new close process won't work. What do you do in the next 30 days?" A strong candidate should talk about:

1. Establishing facts.
2. Re-baselining scope, schedule and economics.
3. Separating critical issues from preferences.
4. Escalating decisions through governance.
5. Protecting the critical path.
6. Addressing data and process problems.
7. Making an explicit go/no-go recommendation.

You are testing judgment, not ERP vocabulary.

8. Check references yourself

Don't simply call the three references the consultant provides.

Ask for 5–6 former clients, preferably:

• One similar in size to you
• One in your industry
• One implementation that was difficult
• One completed 12–24 months ago

And ask the reference:

"If you were doing this implementation again, would you hire the same consultant?" Then pause.

Follow with:

"What would you negotiate differently?" And:

"Which person on their team was indispensable?" Those questions tend to produce much more useful intelligence.

9. Score them objectively

I'd create a weighted scorecard before seeing proposals:

I'd actually weight the named team more heavily than the firm's brand.

A famous consulting firm with mediocre people assigned to you is worse than a less-famous firm with an outstanding implementation leader.

Oracle similarly emphasizes selecting a committed cross-functional implementation team with project-management, budgeting, data migration, integration and change-management capabilities.

10. Structure the contract to protect you

I'd negotiate:

• Named key personnel
• Approval rights over substitutions
• Milestone-based payments
• Explicit deliverables and acceptance criteria
• Change-order controls
• Budget/scope variance reporting
• Required documentation
• Knowledge-transfer obligations
• Data ownership
• Security requirements
• Post-go-live support commitments
• Escalation procedures
• Termination rights for material performance failures

And establish a steering committee chaired by an executive sponsor, with Finance, Operations, IT and the implementation partner represented.

The red flags I'd worry about most

Walk carefully if the consultant:

• Talks almost exclusively about software features.
• Can't give you names of the actual delivery team.
• Has no examples of failed or troubled projects.
• Promises an unusually short implementation without understanding your business.
• Gives you a fixed price before understanding scope.
• Encourages extensive customization.
• Treats data migration as an IT task.
• Treats training as something that happens immediately before go-live.
• Has no meaningful post-go-live plan.
• Blames prior project failures entirely on the client.
• Can't explain how they measure business benefits.

Go-live should not be considered the finish line. Sustained adoption and realization of the business outcomes are what determine whether the ERP investment actually pays off.

My recommended hiring process

For a CFO-led selection, I'd run it like this:

Week 1–2: Define business outcomes, scope, governance and evaluation criteria.

Week 2–3: Shortlist 5–6 consultants.

Week 3–5: Issue an RFP with the same scenario and required deliverables to each.

Week 5–6: Conduct management/team interviews and a live case exercise.

Week 6–7: Conduct independent reference checks and commercial negotiations.

Week 7–8: Select the consultant, finalize governance and lock down the implementation team.

The key principle is: don't hire the firm that gives you the most impressive ERP presentation. Hire the team you trust to tell you when your own organization is making a bad decision.

If you tell me which ERP you're considering (SAP, Oracle, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, Workday, etc.), your approximate revenue/employee count, industry, and whether you're selecting the ERP or already selected it, I can give you a much more specific CFO-grade consultant selection scorecard and interview questions.