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Business Analysis
How can an ERP business analyst help a Manchester firm?
A business analyst on an ERP project turns the way a Manchester firm actually trades into written requirements a supplier can price and build against. Here that can mean size and color matrices and container costs for a fashion wholesaler, formulation and batch rules for a chemicals maker, or job tickets and schedule-of-rates codes for a housing repairs contractor. I run the workshops remotely and deliver process maps, a BRD and a fit-gap matrix.
Last reviewed by Vikas Saroj
A requirements document is only useful if it describes the business you actually run. In Manchester that business might be a wholesaler selling cartons of garments to market traders and independent shops, a coatings or chemicals plant making batches to a formulation, or a contractor sending operatives to repair homes for a housing provider.
I take on this analysis remotely for companies like these. I interview the people who do the work, map each process as it happens today, write the business requirements document and test shortlisted systems against it. The output is yours to take to any supplier, and it stays useful whichever platform you finally choose.
What I Do
These deliverables cover the points where generic ERP templates tend to miss how Manchester wholesalers, process plants and contractors operate.
I map each process end to end, from customer order or repair request through to cash received, showing who does what, which system or spreadsheet they use and where work waits or gets keyed twice.
For garment and footwear wholesalers, I define how styles, sizes, colors, pack ratios and cartons are held, priced and allocated, so the ERP can sell a mixed carton and still report stock by individual size.
For chemicals, coatings and adhesives makers, I capture formulations, scaling, batch numbering, quality release, shelf life and the documents that must travel with each consignment, as clear testable requirements.
For contractors serving housing providers, I specify how jobs arrive, how appointments and priorities are set, how schedule-of-rates codes are applied and how completed work is valued and invoiced to the client.
Every requirement is numbered, prioritized and traced to a process step. Shortlisted systems are then scored against it as standard, configurable, add-on or custom, so gaps are visible before a contract is signed.
I turn the requirements into user acceptance test scripts built from your real awkward cases, such as a short-shipped container, a failed batch or a recall visit, so testing proves the system handles them.
My Consulting Journey
Business first, technology second. You can hire me for one step - a BRD, a gap analysis, a vendor shortlist - or for the whole journey.
How I Work
Capture the current way of working
Interview each team separately
Walk processes over video
Collect real documents and reports
List every spreadsheet in use
Write requirements suppliers can price
Draw future-state process maps
Write and prioritize the BRD
Agree sign-off with each owner
Build scripted demo scenarios
Test the chosen system against needs
Score fit-gap per requirement
Write acceptance test scripts
Track defects to closure
Confirm readiness for go-live
Many ERP requirement templates assume a tidy business: products with one unit of measure, customers who order online and pay on account, and a single warehouse. Manchester has plenty of firms that look nothing like that. Wholesalers sell by the carton and the pack. Process plants make products by recipe rather than by assembly. Contractors deliver services to homes rather than goods to customers, and they are paid against rate codes rather than a price list.
When a business like this is measured against a template, the gaps only appear in testing or after go-live, which is the most expensive time to find them. A business analyst's job is to find them first, by starting with the documents, routines and exceptions that make your operation what it is.
The UK-wide requirements topics, such as VAT treatments, Making Tax Digital digital links and construction industry tax deductions, sit on my UK ERP business analyst page. This page looks at the kinds of Manchester operation where the specific requirements matter most. The general approach is set out on the ERP business analysis service page, and the wider ERP landscape of the city is on my ERP consultant in Manchester page.
The wholesale streets around Cheetham Hill and the northern edge of the city center have long been home to clothing, footwear and textile wholesalers, many of them family firms importing from overseas factories and selling to market traders, independent shops and online sellers across the country. Their trade has habits a standard ERP does not expect.
Goods are bought by style and color in size ratios, arrive in cartons from containers, and are sold either as full packs or broken down for smaller buyers. Some customers pay on account, others pay at collection, and prices can depend on volume, customer type and how long a line has been in stock. Requirements need to say how a style matrix is set up, how a pack ratio converts to individual units, how freight, duty and buying agent charges are spread across a shipment to reach a landed cost, and how slow lines are marked down.
I document these rules with the owners and the warehouse team, then turn them into demo scenarios: receive a container with a short-shipped carton, sell a mixed pack, take a return of half a pack, and value the remaining stock. Platforms that cannot handle those steps cleanly are easy to spot before anyone signs. The wholesale ERP page lists the wider requirement areas.
Greater Manchester still has a base of process manufacturers, including makers of chemicals, coatings, adhesives, cleaning products and personal care goods. These firms make products by formulation. A recipe is scaled to a batch size, raw materials are consumed by weight or volume, and every finished batch needs a number, a quality result and a shelf-life date before it can ship.
Requirements here go beyond stock and sales. I capture how formulations are versioned and approved, how substitute raw materials are handled, how a batch is placed on hold and released, and how a customer complaint traces back through the batch to supplier lots. I also record which documents must accompany a consignment, such as safety data sheets and transport paperwork for hazardous goods, and who is responsible for keeping them current.
I do not interpret chemical classification, transport or labeling rules; those decisions sit with your compliance lead or regulatory advisor. My role is to make sure the ERP requirements state clearly what data the system must hold and which documents it must produce, so the supplier cannot treat them as an afterthought. Costing also matters: yield losses, rework and cleaning between batches change real margins. The manufacturing ERP page covers the broader picture.
Greater Manchester has a large stock of social and affordable housing, and many contractors earn their living repairing and maintaining it under contracts with housing associations and councils. Their work arrives as a stream of jobs: emergency repairs, routine repairs, void properties being prepared for new tenants, and planned programs such as kitchens, bathrooms or heating upgrades.
Requirements for these firms start with the job lifecycle. How is a job received from the client's system, and how are priority and target times set? How are operatives scheduled and how do they record arrival, completion, materials used and photos on a phone? How is a completed job valued, often against schedule-of-rates codes, and how are variations approved? How are invoices and supporting evidence submitted to the client, and how are disputes tracked?
I also capture van stock, so materials used on site are replenished and costed, and the reporting each client expects on performance. The result tells you whether an ERP with field service features fits, or whether a specialist repairs system should handle jobs while a finance platform holds the ledger, with the ERP integration between them specified up front. The facility management page covers related ground.
The people who know these processes best are rarely at a desk. Warehouse staff work shifts, process operators follow plant schedules, and repairs operatives spend the day in vans. Requirement work has to fit around them rather than the other way round.
I plan short, focused video sessions at times set by your supervisors, including early slots that suit UK morning shifts, which fall inside my working day. A team leader or supervisor can walk me through the warehouse, the batch room or a sample job on a phone while I ask questions. Operatives can send voice notes or photos of the paperwork they fill in, and I fold those into the process maps.
Between sessions, drafts sit in a shared workspace where each process owner can comment. Sign-off happens section by section, so nobody is asked to approve a long document in one sitting. If a visit to a site in Manchester or nearby would add something, it can be arranged ahead of time. When requirements are complete and a system is chosen, the same material feeds testing and UAT. For the hiring side of the work, see freelance ERP consultant in Manchester.
Tell me about your business and current systems. I’ll suggest the most sensible first step.
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Share your business requirements with me and I will help you understand the right process, architecture and platform before implementation.
FAQ
Yes. I document how each style, color and size is held, how pack ratios convert to single units, when packs can be broken and how prices differ by customer type. Those rules then become demo scenarios, so you can see whether a platform handles mixed packs and part returns before you commit to it.
No. Classification, labeling and transport decisions belong to your compliance lead or a regulatory advisor. I capture the data and documents the ERP must hold and produce because of those rules, such as batch details and safety data sheets, so the system supports whatever your advisors decide.
Yes. I record how rate codes are selected for each job, how variations and extra work are approved, and how completed jobs are valued and invoiced with evidence. That lets suppliers show exactly how their system would handle your contracts rather than describing a generic job costing feature.
Through short video sessions timed around their shifts, phone walk-throughs led by a supervisor, and voice notes or photos of the paperwork they use. Drafts are shared for comment, and sign-off is done section by section, so operational staff shape the requirements without losing a full day to workshops.
Every business is different. Share where you are today and what you want to fix, and I’ll tell you honestly whether and how I can help.
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