ERP consulting companies: how to shortlist three and what to ask

A 30 to 100 person company in the US or Canada should shortlist three ERP consulting companies by firm type, then by the people who will do the work. Vendor-run services fit a smaller Odoo rollout, and a local official partner fits once headcount passes about 50. For Business Central on one or a few legal entities, the seat goes to named people who hold MB-800 or the Finance, Supply Chain, or architect credential that matches the apps. A larger firm fits several countries or enterprise finance and supply chain. As of October 2026, Business Central Essentials is USD 80 per user per month in the United States, paid yearly.

Flectic is the independent seat on this kind of shortlist. It implements both Odoo and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for companies of 20 to 100 people in the US and Canada, earns no vendor quota on either and holds no certification from either vendor. Its ERP selection starts with a free discovery call and ends in a written platform recommendation.

Name the three firms only after you can say why each type is on the list. How you then test a named lead, a phase plan, and references sits in how to choose an ERP implementation partner and in choosing an ERP consultant. This page stays on the shortlist the owner can compare line by line: type, named people, commercial terms, and what the first phase must hand back.

Which firm type belongs on a shortlist of three

Four types show up in a real buying process for a company this size. Each one is built for a different shape of work, and putting three of the same type on the list hides the choice.

• Vendor-employed services (Odoo Success Packs) (Put them on the list when: You are under about 50 employees, one country, and you can live inside official apps · Leave them off when: You need local project management, heavy development, or a partner who stays on as first-line support)
• Local official Odoo partner (Put them on the list when: You are above about 50 employees, or you want a firm that sets its own delivery plan and owns support · Leave them off when: You are a small, standard rollout that Odoo expects to run on a published hour pack)
• Business Central firm with named product people (Put them on the list when: You are buying Business Central for one or a few legal entities in the US or Canada · Leave them off when: Nobody named on the proposal holds MB-800 or the Finance, Supply Chain, or architect credential that matches the apps)
• Larger, multi-country firm (Put them on the list when: You operate in several countries, or the work is enterprise finance and supply chain · Leave them off when: You are a single entity and the work is core financials, sales, purchasing, and inventory)

Odoo states the split in employee count on its pricing page. Companies under 50 employees usually implement with Odoo using Success Packs. Companies above 50 employees usually work with a partner for local project management. Companies above 250 employees should contact Odoo directly. Those are Odoo's own breakpoints, as of October 2026, and they are the cleanest public rule a buyer has for who should deliver Odoo.

On the Microsoft side, SMB and Enterprise are labels on the partner's customer mix, not a revenue test your company has to pass. A partner is Enterprise in the Business Applications score when it has five or more unique workloads contributing more than USD 5,000 in revenue for each customer tenant in both the prior month and the month 13 months earlier. It is SMB when it has four or fewer such workloads. The two tracks use different point thresholds, on Microsoft's Business Applications partner page. The larger firm is the right call when you operate in several countries or the work is enterprise finance and supply chain. If you are a single entity, ask whether the named people spend their time on companies of this size.

Essentials is the lower Business Central list price. Choose Premium only after someone maps the features they will use to your orders. The license math is in a later section, beside the services quote.

Keep the shortlist to three names and two firm types you can tell apart. Hold the third seat for a firm that has done your industry at a similar user count. If you have already chosen Business Central, one seat is a firm whose named people implement that product for a single entity, and the second seat is a different firm type. On Odoo, two seats can be official partners whose average project size is near your user count, with a written Success Pack quote in the third seat when Odoo will still scope the work. Three global brands, or three resellers who only forward a vendor pack, tell the owner nothing.

Where Flectic fits

Flectic is the independent seat on a shortlist of three. It is a consultancy that implements both Odoo and Microsoft Dynamics 365, earns no vendor quota on either, and recommends one platform in writing after discovery. It serves companies of 20 to 100 people in the US and Canada. It holds no certification from Odoo or Microsoft, so it complements the vendor-run and badge-holding firm types above instead of replacing them.

Choose Flectic if

• You have not settled on Odoo or Business Central and want a written recommendation from a firm that earns no vendor quota.
• You want a named senior consultant from the first call to launch, with a fixed price for each phase.
• Your company has 20 to 100 people and operates in the US or Canada.

Look elsewhere if

• You need a firm that is an official Odoo partner or holds Microsoft's Solutions Partner designation.
• You operate in several countries or need enterprise finance and supply chain.
• You have chosen a platform and want the largest bench of specialists on it.

The ERP selection service shows how discovery ends in that written recommendation.

What a Microsoft Solutions Partner badge proves

Microsoft no longer offers Silver and gold memberships in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, and partners should stop using Silver and gold references for that program. A slide that still says Gold is using a retired label. The current check is the Solutions Partner designation, then a specialization, then the names of the people on your project. Microsoft's partner-program introduction is the page that retires those older membership names.

A Solutions Partner for Business Applications designation means the partner demonstrated capability to deliver solutions with Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Qualification requires at least 70 of 100 points and at least one point in each scored subcategory. The weights, from the same Business Applications page, are:

• Net customer adds: 15
• Intermediate certifications: 20
• Advanced certifications: 15
• Usage growth: 30
• Deployments: 20

Usage growth is the single largest slice. A firm can clear 70 points with a modest certified bench if customer adds, usage, and deployments are strong. That is a business result for Microsoft. It is a weak proxy for who will configure your posting groups.

The skilling math makes the bench explicit. An SMB-track partner reaches the 20-point intermediate maximum with 5 certified people (4 points each) and the 15-point advanced maximum with 2 certified people (7.5 points each). That bench of seven maxes the certification slice at 35 of 100 points. An Enterprise-track partner needs 20 intermediate people (1 point each) and 7 advanced people (about 2.14 points each), and those seven advanced people max only the 15-point advanced slice. Ask which of them are assigned to this project, and what happens if one rolls off.

The Business Applications pathway rolls up to the Solutions Partner for AI Business Solutions badge. Specializations sit on top of that designation. The ones that matter to an operations buyer include Small and Midsize Business Management, Finance, Sales, Service, Supply Chain, and Agentic Business Solutions. Each requires the aligned Solutions Partner designation. Business Applications specializations enroll automatically once qualification requirements are met, and a partner can receive product benefits for at most three of them. The Solutions Partner designation is one check on the firm after the people are named. Ask which specializations the firm holds for the apps being bought.

For Business Central itself, the credential to ask for by name is Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant Associate. Microsoft describes it as an intermediate credential. The role implements core setup for small and medium businesses: company creation, data migration, financials, sales, purchasing, inventory, and fixed assets, working with an implementation team. The certification renews every 12 months. The credential page was last updated on 30 June 2026, and exam MB-800 runs 100 minutes. Confirm the renewal date on each named consultant. A certificate from three renewals ago is a different fact from a current one. Details are on Microsoft's MB-800 credential page.

Name the people on the proposal before you lean on the designation. The proposal should show their hours, point at references of a similar size, split the work into phases, and state who owns the configuration and any code when the project ends.

When Odoo wants its own team or a local partner

Use the employee breakpoints above before you collect logos. Under 50 employees, start with a Success Pack quote and a clear list of official apps. Above 50, ask a partner to lead local project management, and keep Odoo's pack only if it still fits a defined slice of the work. Above 250 employees, Odoo asks you to contact Odoo directly, which is a different buying motion from a three-firm local shortlist.

Odoo does not take a percentage of partner services. Partners set their own service fees. An official partner is expected to be the client's first level of support. That expectation is the practical test after go-live: if the contract sends you back to a ticket queue the partner does not staff, the firm has stepped off the role Odoo describes on its partnership page. The same page lists a Learning partnership at USD 990 and Ready, Silver, and Gold partnerships at USD 3,950, with commission up to 20 percent. Those figures are partnership fees the firm pays Odoo. They are not your implementation price, and they do not tell you the day rate.

A grade on its own says little about your project. Ask each Odoo firm for three figures: reference clients in your industry, average project size in users, and the count of certified experts on staff. Set them against your own rollout before the first call. If your project is 40 users and a firm's average project runs at several times that, you will sit at the edge of their attention. If the certified-expert count is thin for the number of projects they advertise, ask who is reserved for you.

Then call a reference, including when the grade is Gold. If the three names are still hard to separate, our ERP implementation work can order the firm types before you brief the owner.

A Success Pack consultant, in Odoo's description, analyzes how the business runs, configures official apps, trains and coaches key users, and can assist with data import. Customization and development are included only on the higher packs. That list is the minimum bar for any first phase, including one led by a partner: how you operate, what will be configured, who will be trained, which data will be imported, and which custom work is in or out. If a proposal cannot produce those five artifacts, ask the firm to add them before the name goes to the owner.

Odoo states a 98 percent implementation success rate with a Success Pack versus 65 percent without one, and it labels the 65 percent figure as its own. Treat both numbers as the vendor's claim. They are not a substitute for references you can call.

What software costs and what the consultancy costs

List price and services price answer different questions. Microsoft tells buyers to contact a partner to purchase Business Central or to get an assessment, consulting, or additional pricing, and it warns that displayed prices may differ from checkout because of currency, country, and region. Odoo states that implementation services are excluded from the subscription. A per-user software total that ignores services will not survive contact with either vendor's own pages.

Business Central list prices as of 5 October 2026, paid yearly:

• Essentials (United States: USD 80 per user per month · Canada (plus applicable tax): CAD 108.50 per user per month)
• Premium (United States: USD 110 per user per month · Canada (plus applicable tax): CAD 149.20 per user per month)
• Team Members (United States: USD 8 per user per month · Canada (plus applicable tax): CAD 10.90 per user per month)

Sources: Business Central pricing, United States and Business Central pricing, Canada.

Assume 30 people need Essentials, paid yearly, at those October 2026 list prices, and that you have not yet added a partner's services. In the United States the software line is 30 times USD 80 times 12, which is USD 28,800 for the year. In Canada the same assumption is 30 times CAD 108.50 times 12, which is CAD 39,060 for the year, plus tax. Premium at the same 30 users is 30 times USD 110 times 12, or USD 39,600 in the United States, and 30 times CAD 149.20 times 12, or CAD 53,712 in Canada, plus tax. Team Members at USD 8 or CAD 10.90 change the invoice only for people who sit on that license. They do not price the consultants.

A partner still has to quote the work. Microsoft's pricing pages point assessment, consulting, and additional pricing to the partner. Budget a services line even when the license math looks modest. Our Business Central implementation work separates that services line from the licenses so the owner can see both.

Odoo Success Packs for new customers, as of 5 October 2026, are published hour bundles. The 15 percent new-customer discount applies to the first pack only. Returning-customer prices on the same table are higher.

• Starter (Hours: 4 · New customer: USD 493 · Returning customer: USD 580)
• Basic (Hours: 25 · New customer: USD 3,060 · Returning customer: USD 3,600)
• Standard (Hours: 50 · New customer: USD 5,950 · Returning customer: USD 7,000)
• Custom (Hours: 100 · New customer: USD 10,625 · Returning customer: USD 12,500)
• Pro (Hours: 200 · New customer: USD 21,250 · Returning customer: USD 25,000)

Those amounts are on Odoo's Success Packs page. Hours expire after one year. Travel time and expenses are billed separately. Extra monthly charges apply for maintenance of extra modules or lines of code. The page also says partners usually charge per day of consulting or development, and that Odoo itself charges developments per day of consulting. It does not print a public day rate. Do not back into one from the pack price. A pack hour and a partner day are different products.

The pricing configurator says Odoo recommends Success Packs under 50 users and a local partner above 50 users. The estimator says that above 50 users the buyer should contact Odoo for an in-depth analysis, and that 80 percent of projects within the estimator's scope go to production in 200 hours or less. That 80 percent figure applies only inside the estimator's scope, and the published range ends at the 200-hour Pro pack. If the work sits outside that scope, ask for a separate hour estimate.

Assume a new customer, 40 employees, one country, official apps only. Odoo would usually point you at a Success Pack. Standard is 50 hours and USD 5,950. Custom is 100 hours and USD 10,625. Pro, the pack that matches the estimator's 200-hour mark, is USD 21,250. If those hours are purchased and then sit unused past one year, the published price has already been spent. A Canadian company should ask for the services quote in Canadian dollars. The pack prices above are the US dollar amounts Odoo displayed. They are not a CAD list.

On the subscription side, with the yearly toggle selected, Odoo's US pricing page displayed Standard at two pairs (USD 24.90 and USD 31.10 per user per month, and also USD 31.10 and USD 38.90) and Custom at two pairs (USD 49.00 and USD 61.10, and also USD 61.00 and USD 76.20). A Light User is listed at USD 8.90. One App Free is USD 0 for one app and unlimited users on Odoo Online. The page says the discount is valid for 12 months for the initial users ordered. Because the page shows pairs, keep both figures in any software budget and have the order form show which figure you are buying. Implementation still sits outside that subscription. The figures are on Odoo's pricing page, seen October 2026.

What a first discovery phase should produce

There is no single public price for discovery that applies to every firm and both products. Ask each bidder to price discovery, data migration, and custom work as its own line. Then judge the line by the artifacts, using Odoo's pack scope as the minimum bar even when the product is Business Central.

A first phase worth paying for should hand you five things:

1. A short account of how the business runs today, written against the orders, receipts, and invoices your team processes.
2. The list of what will be configured in official apps or standard Business Central, including company setup, financials, sales, purchasing, inventory, and, where you use them, fixed assets.
3. The names of the key users who will be trained and coached, and the hours reserved for that coaching.
4. The data that will be imported, who extracts it, and who signs off that the opening balances and open documents are right.
5. The customizations and integrations that are inside the phase, and the ones that are outside it. On Odoo, customization and development belong to the higher packs or to a separate day-rate line, and extra monthly charges apply for maintenance of extra modules or lines of code. On Business Central, ask the bidder whether maintenance of custom code is its own line.

If the bidder is an Odoo partner, add a sixth item: a statement that the partner remains first-line support after go-live, which is the role Odoo expects of an official partner. If the bidder is a Microsoft firm, add the names of the MB-800 holders (or the Finance, Supply Chain, or architect credentials that match the apps you are buying) and the hours each one spends in the phase.

Our target for a first usable phase is 8 to 12 weeks. That planning target is for a bounded first slice, after the artifacts above are agreed. It moves when data, custom code, or a second country enters the scope. The way we structure that slice is on our ERP implementation page.

Hours that can expire belong in the same conversation. Odoo pack hours expire after one year. A discovery that starts in month eleven of a pack is a different commercial deal from a discovery that starts in month one. Put the expiry date next to the hour balance before you sign.

What to ask before you name the three firms

Use the same question list with every firm so the owner can compare answers. Send it before the call, and leave time for the firm to bring names and a draft phase plan.

1. Which product and which apps are you proposing, and which firm type are you in this deal: vendor pack, local partner, or multi-country practice?
2. Who are the named consultants, what share of their week is on this project, and which current credentials do they hold? For Business Central, ask for the MB-800 renewal date. For a Microsoft specialization, ask which of Small and Midsize Business Management, Finance, Sales, Service, or Supply Chain they hold, and accept that a firm receives product benefits for at most three Business Applications specializations.
3. What will phase one produce, in the five artifacts above, and what is the price of that phase as its own line?
4. Which references had a similar user count and a similar number of legal entities? Ask for average project size on an Odoo card, then ask the reference whether that size felt like your company.
5. What happens to unused hours after 12 months, what travel is billed outside the fee, and what monthly charge applies to custom modules or extra lines of code?
6. Who provides first-line support in month two after go-live, at what rate, and under what response expectation?
7. Who owns the configuration, the import files, and any custom code if we stop at the end of phase one?
8. For a price cap or a not-to-exceed, what baseline does it lock: which licenses, which hour bundle, which interfaces, and which data? Ask the bidder to attach that baseline to the cap in the same document.

Ask the software questions in the same meeting so services do not absorb a license surprise. For Business Central, confirm Essentials versus Premium and how many people are Team Members, using the USD or CAD list above as the starting point and the partner's quote as the payable price. For Odoo, confirm which of the displayed subscription pairs is on the order form, whether a Light User at USD 8.90 applies to anyone, and that the subscription quote excludes implementation.

You are allowed to walk away from a firm that will not answer in writing. A shortlist of three only works when all three answered the same list.

Which red flags remove a firm from the shortlist

These are commercial and staffing facts you can see on a proposal. Any one of them is enough to drop a name before it reaches the owner.

The proposal does not name the consultants. A full skilling score on the SMB track can sit on five intermediate and two advanced certified people and is still only 35 points. A proposal that names none of them cannot be judged.

The hours can expire unused. Odoo pack hours expire after one year. A large pack bought early becomes spent money if the project waits on data or on an internal owner who was never named.

Travel and expenses sit outside the pack. Odoo bills them separately. If the firm is not local, ask for a travel cap before you compare their fee with a firm in your city.

Custom-code maintenance is an extra monthly charge. Odoo applies extra monthly charges for maintenance of extra modules or lines of code. A cheap build with an open-ended maintenance line will pass a year-one comparison and fail in year two.

The partner will not commit to first-line support. Odoo expects an official partner to be the client's first level of support. A proposal that routes support somewhere else has changed the product you think you are buying.

The Microsoft badge has no one certified in the product you are buying. Business Applications points reward usage and deployments as well as exams. MB-800 is the intermediate credential aimed at small and medium business setup: company, migration, financials, sales, purchasing, inventory, and fixed assets. If the people on the proposal do not hold it, or a credential matched to the apps in scope, ask for those names before you keep the firm on the list.

The quote mixes software and services into one number. You will not be able to check it against USD 80 Essentials, CAD 108.50 Essentials, or a USD 5,950 Standard pack. Split the lines or do not shortlist the firm.

A retired Silver or gold label is doing the work of a current specialization. Microsoft has told partners to stop using those references. Ask for the Solutions Partner for Business Applications designation and the specialization that matches the work.

How to score the three proposals

Score the written answers on the same sheet for each firm. A yes or no on each test is enough for a phase-one decision.

Give each firm a yes or no on five tests:

1. Named people, with credentials that match the product, and hours you can see.
2. At least one reference at a similar user count, in a business that ships, bills, or manufactures the way you do.
3. A phase plan whose first slice produces the five artifacts, priced as its own line.
4. A commercial sheet that states hour expiry, travel, custom maintenance, and first-line support.
5. Code and configuration ownership if you stop after phase one, including the import files your team will need again.

A firm that fails two of the five is off the list even if the total fee is lower. Replace it with the next firm of the same type so the owner still sees a real comparison. If you are under 50 employees and the work fits official Odoo apps, one of the three columns can be a Success Pack instead of a partner, using the published hours and the new-customer price. If you are above 50 employees, Odoo's own guidance is a partner for local project management, so a pack-only column is the wrong comparison.

Hold the software quote beside the services quote. For a US Business Central case, the owner should see Essentials or Premium at the October 2026 list, times users, times 12, and then the partner's phase-one fee. For a Canadian case, use the CAD list and add tax. For Odoo, the owner should see the subscription pair you intend to order, the pack or the partner's day-based fee, travel, and any monthly maintenance. When a bidder offers a cap, the cap has to cite that same baseline. The useful time to negotiate the cap is when all three baselines are on one page, before anyone signs, because that is when a missing line is still easy to add.

Bring the owner a one-page brief: the three names, the type of each, the five yes or no marks, the phase-one price, and the software price. That is the shortlist. The conversation after it is which phase one to buy, which is a scope decision you can reopen with us on an Odoo rollout or on Business Central, using the same artifacts either way.

How Flectic can help

If your shortlist still has a seat you cannot fill, bring the three firm types and your headcount to a free 30-minute call with a senior consultant. You leave with a recommended first phase or a clear reason to wait.

For a company of 20 to 100 people choosing between Odoo and Business Central, the first step is an ERP selection engagement. The discovery call is free, and Flectic then sends a written proposal with a fixed price for each phase before work starts.

Flectic holds no certification from either vendor, so test us on what we put in writing: the platform recommendation, the scope and fixed price of phase one, and its deliverables.

Book a free discovery call

Sources

Introduction to the Solutions Partner Program, Microsoft, October 2026.

Solutions Partner for Business applications, Microsoft, October 2026.

Microsoft Certified: Dynamics 365 Business Central Functional Consultant Associate, Microsoft, June 2026.

Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing (United States), Microsoft, October 2026.

Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing (Canada), Microsoft, October 2026.

Odoo Pricing, Odoo, October 2026.

Odoo Success Packs, Odoo, October 2026.

Odoo Partnership, Odoo, October 2026.