The project <Evaluation of a new ERP system for an SME enterprise> was conducted as a undergraduate dissertation of the study course communicationsystems and informatics at the ZHW. It was realized in collaboration with Stemcup Medical Products AG (herein after referred to as Stemcup). After the merger of the production enterprise X.Kuoni AG with the marketing company Stemcup, the existing ERP solution as well as the contemporary work flows and the business management processes in sales, distribution and accounting did not correspond with the standards of a modern enterprise anymore. Therefore, Stemcup was looking for a new consistent ERP solution.

After detailed interviews with various involved persons and additional technical analys of the existing IT-infrastructure, a pre-evaluation determined the following providers of ERP systems:

• UB-Software GmbH/Majesty - Europa3000 AG/Europa3000 - Alpha-Solutions AG/Navision - Bewida AG/Abacus - SAP GmbH Stafa/SAP Techtr@de

On the basis of the interview results, a Request for Proposal (RFP) was elaborated and sent to the SW-partners, which were asked to file a tender within the requested timeframe.

Subsequently, four out of the five original providers were invited to give a presentation at Stemcup. Every provider got the opportunity to present his company and its products for one hour, after which the different approaches were discussed in details.

Finally, the presented tenders were evaluated and recalculated. By taking also the overall impressions of the enterprises into account, the products Abacus and Navision could be determined as <favourites>, Navision in the end being the best possible solution because of its international orientation.

The system will be implemented in the near future by the graduates in collaboration with the enterprise Alpha Solutions AG. The Going live is scheduled for the middle of February 2005.