2. Look at total cost of ownership (TCO). “My best advice to a cost-conscious [organization] deciding on an ERP system is to really look at total cost of ownership,” says David Valade, vice president of operations at Alta Vista Technology. “Yes, the software itself costs money, but as you compare costs for different solutions don't forget about hardware, consulting dollars to implement, internal resources to maintain the software and future upgrade costs that come with it. I know a company that doubled the size of its IT department to maintain an ERP solution that initially looked like a bargain.”