Looking for a Sikich Alternative? A Manufacturing Partner Evaluation Guide
Before you sign a manufacturing ERP proposal, you need to know how the partner will handle the orders your team struggles with today. What happens when engineering changes a component after purchasing has ordered it? Who updates the delivery promise when production falls behind? Can finance explain why an order shipped on time but missed its margin?
If you're looking for a Sikich alternative for your manufacturing firm, compare how each partner answers those questions. Then decide whether you need a new implementation, an assessment of the system you have, or a second opinion on the proposed scope.
Alliason is one option for U.S. small and mid-market manufacturers evaluating Business Central, Dynamics 365, and Power Platform. Its approach starts with the business problem, application fit, scope, and investment decision. The appropriate recommendation may be to implement, repair, retain existing systems, or delay the investment.
Are you comparing partners or replacing your ERP?
Sikich is a consulting and technology provider. Its ERP portfolio includes Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Oracle NetSuite, and its manufacturing practice includes discrete manufacturing and engineer-to-order solutions.
A Sikich alternative could therefore mean another partner for the same application. It could also mean a different approach to evaluating the investment, overseeing delivery, or supporting an existing system.
Start by identifying the decision in front of you:
Your situation | What to evaluate |
|---|---|
You're comparing implementation proposals. | Application fit, manufacturing scope, delivery team, assumptions, and total cost. |
You have a live system that people avoid using. | Configuration, data, process gaps, integrations, and user preparation before approving a replacement |
An implementation is underway, but leadership cannot judge its progress. | Requirements, design decisions, completed testing, unresolved risks, and remaining investment. |
You want to change support providers | Access, documentation, extensions, support responsibilities, and continuity during the handover. |
Changing the partner and changing the application are separate decisions. Establish what needs to change before requesting another implementation proposal.
What should a manufacturing firm ask a potential partner?
Ask each candidate to examine the same manufacturing scenarios. A demonstration using your order types, exceptions, and sample data gives you a better basis for comparison than separate presentations of each firm's preferred features.
1. Can the proposed system handle your production model?
Tell the partner how you manufacture: make-to-stock, make-to-order, assemble-to-order, engineer-to-order, or a combination. Explain where the process varies by product, customer, or facility.
Then ask the partner to demonstrate a representative order from demand through purchasing, production, shipment, and financial posting. Include an exception your team encounters, such as a component shortage, subcontracted operation, or revision after an order is released.
For each requirement, ask whether the answer depends on standard application capabilities, configuration, an additional app, custom development, or a process change. Record any requirement the proposed solution cannot meet.
2. Which systems stay, and who owns the shared information?
Your manufacturing execution system, quality application, engineering tools, and maintenance system may still have a purpose after an ERP implementation.
Ask the partner to document where each important record belongs and what information must move between applications. For example:
Which system maintains the approved bill of materials and revision?
Where are actual production quantities, labor, and scrap recorded?
How does a quality hold affect available inventory and shipping?
Who receives an alert when an integration fails, and who corrects it?
Request a written description of each integration's direction, timing, error handling, and support owner. An available connector still needs to be evaluated against the records and business rules you need it to carry.
3. Can finance trace the production cost?
Ask for a costing demonstration using a sample order. Include material consumption, labor, overhead, scrap, and subcontracting where those apply to your operation.
Have finance confirm how the transactions reach inventory valuation and financial reporting, when costs are adjusted, and how exceptions are investigated. If customer projects also need separate accounting, have the partner show that process explicitly.
4. Who will deliver the engagement?
Ask who will lead the manufacturing design, financial setup, integrations, data conversion, and testing. Meet the people responsible for the decisions that carry the most risk.
Request references for the same application and a comparable production model. Ask those customers what changed after signing, how the partner handled unresolved requirements, and whether the handover left their team able to support the system.
5. What is included in the price?
Have each candidate identify software subscriptions, additional apps, implementation services, integrations, data conversion, testing, training, and ongoing support. Confirm what is excluded and which assumptions could change the estimate.
A lower services estimate may exclude tasks that another proposal includes. Compare the full scope and the responsibilities assigned to your employees before comparing totals.
The Dynamics 365 Implementation Planner can provide an early implementation range for Business Central. It is a planning estimate, not a quote or confirmation that a particular manufacturing requirement is covered.
Is Business Central the right application for your manufacturer?
Microsoft documents Business Central manufacturing capabilities for production bills of materials, routings, work and machine centers, production orders, consumption, output, scrap, and production costs. The documented manufacturing features require the Premium experience.
Those capabilities give you a starting point for evaluation. Your partner still needs to demonstrate the requirements that could determine fit, such as engineering revisions, lot traceability, quality approvals, scheduling constraints, or shop-floor data capture.
Ask for a written fit assessment showing:
What the proposed application supports as demonstrated.
What needs an additional app or custom development.
What should remain in an existing system.
What requires a change to the way your team operates.
Which unresolved requirements could prevent you from proceeding.
A recommendation for Business Central should explain why it fits your operation and what the business would give up by choosing it. Using Microsoft 365 elsewhere in the company does not settle those questions.
When Alliason belongs on your shortlist
Alliason is a Microsoft Partner focused on Business Applications. It helps manufacturers examine problems across finance, production, customer commitments, sales, service, and the systems that connect them.
Consider Alliason when leadership needs to establish what should change before committing more money or needs help understanding why an existing Microsoft application is falling short.
The engagement should match the decision:
Decision you need to make | Relevant Alliason engagement |
|---|---|
Does Business Central fit, and what would the investment need to cover? | A Business Central Confidence Roadmap examines fit, scope, risks, dependencies, investment implications, and the recommended path. |
Why is the current application causing problems? | An Assessment examines the existing application and recommends changes. |
Can leadership judge a proposal or delivery led by another partner? | Client-Side Advocacy provides independent review and client-side oversight. |
Are fit and requirements clear enough to proceed? | An Implementation puts the agreed application, data, controls, and processes in place. |
Confidence Roadmaps start at $9,500 and typically take two to three weeks. Assessments start at $4,000 and typically take two weeks. Both are separate from implementation; their purpose is to establish the recommendation before committing to delivery.
Look for proof that matches the problem
In one completed wire and cable manufacturer customer story, Alliason replaced paper production entries with a Power Apps process and corrected overall equipment effectiveness reporting. That example concerns shop-floor data capture and reporting.
For a Business Central production implementation, ask candidates for Business Central manufacturing references. For an integration or application recovery engagement, ask for evidence that addresses those tasks. A customer story is useful when the application, problem, and delivered result are relevant to the engagement you're considering.
Can you change Business Central partners without replacing the system?
Business Central online supports relationships with multiple partners. Microsoft distinguishes the reseller relationship from delegated administration, so license purchasing and administrative access should be reviewed separately during a partner change.
Before the handover, confirm:
Your company's access to its tenant and Business Central environments.
License renewal dates, billing arrangements, and support contract terms.
Installed apps, custom extensions, vendor contacts, and maintenance responsibilities.
Access to source code and deployment instructions where your agreements provide for it.
Integration credentials, monitoring, scheduled tasks, and unresolved errors.
Open support cases, known defects, test scripts, and process documentation.
Who handles urgent production or financial issues during the transition.
Microsoft also documents environment-level partner access controls. Coordinate access changes with the handover so the incoming team can support the environment when responsibility transfers.
Ask the incoming partner to review the existing setup before proposing a rebuild. A support transition, configuration repair, and ERP replacement each require different preparation and carry different costs.
Questions manufacturers ask when comparing Sikich alternatives
Is Alliason a replacement for every service Sikich offers?
Alliason's relevant services cover Microsoft business application decisions, assessments, implementations, recovery, client-side advocacy, and ongoing support. If your proposal also includes accounting, tax, cybersecurity, or other services, compare those requirements separately with the providers you are considering.
Will another partner be less expensive?
You need comparable proposals to answer that. Compare included services, subscriptions, additional apps, responsibilities, and support terms. Then examine the assumptions that could add cost after signing.
How long will changing partners take?
Ask for a transition estimate after the incoming partner has reviewed access, documentation, customizations, integrations, and open issues. A change of support provider and a replacement ERP implementation should have separate estimates.
Do we need to replace our ERP to fix manufacturing reporting?
Begin by tracing the missing or inaccurate information to its source. The issue may involve data capture, transaction timing, configuration, or an integration. That diagnosis should determine whether the current application can be corrected or a replacement is justified.
Bring the proposal and the manufacturing problem to the same conversation
Before selecting a Sikich alternative, identify the requirements the next partner must demonstrate, the systems that should remain, and the decisions leadership still needs to make. Ask for a recommendation that explains what should change, what can be retained, and what the next investment is expected to accomplish.
Bring your current proposal, application concerns, or manufacturing process gaps to Alliason.
