High commitment
45-minute independent strategy call
The full first conversation, with Dr. Harald Dreher or the senior consultant who leads the engagement. The aim is to clarify the decision — not to recommend a system.
Book the callAbout · How We Work
How We Work — Independent Advice with Measurable Results
We work backwards from what you need to measure.
Most ERP and digitalisation projects land roughly on time and on budget — and still fail to produce a measurable business outcome. Fewer than a third of users get usable KPIs out of their system, and only 13% of German firms have the instrumentation to know either way.
Sources: Trovarit AG, ERP in der Praxis 2024/2025, n=1,717 · Eurostat / Destatis, ICT usage in enterprises, 2025
- Since 1992
- Founded in Böblingen
- 100% vendor-independent
- No commissions, no reseller margins
- Böblingen · DACH
- Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Definition
The problem is not failure. It is that nobody can tell.
Most ERP and digitalisation projects in the Mittelstand finish close to the plan. The plan is the problem. A brief that promises an implemented system by a date, at a price, says nothing about throughput, error rates or working capital — so a project can succeed on every term it was set and change nothing the business can feel.
The deeper issue is instrumentation. A company that never established what an ERP project should be measured against cannot say afterwards whether it delivered. Most run without the reporting layer that would answer the question: the baseline was never measured, so the outcome cannot be either. The two figures opposite describe how common that condition is.
That is why measurement is our first deliverable, not our last. Before any system decision, we establish the figures the work has to move — the same discipline that runs through our process optimisation practice, where every engagement opens with a measured baseline and closes against it.
The shape of the work
The steps look similar. What each one has to produce does not.
The same ground, covered two ways. One sequence ends in a question nobody can answer. Ours ends with a benefit assessed after implementation, not celebrated at go-live.
The rigid model
Sequence set by the system, not by the outcome
01 Workshop Produces notes
02 Requirements Produces a specification document
03 Vendor selection Produces a shortlist
04 Implementation Produces a go-live date
? After go-live Did it work? No baseline, no assessment — nobody can say.
The Dreher order
Four questions, each closing on a result someone can be held to
01 Decision Architecture Assessment Result: a management document
02 SCOReX® Result: a decision dossier
03 Decision Due Diligence Index Result: a documented decision basis
04 Independent delivery oversight Result: benefit assurance
→ After go-live Did it work? Assessed against the target scenario agreed in phase 01.
Each phase closes on a result someone can be held to — a management document, a decision dossier, a documented decision basis, an assessed benefit.
The rigid model closes on none of them.
The method stack
What each instrument is, and when we use it
Every page on this site names these instruments. This page defines them.
Phase 01
Decision Architecture Assessment (DAA)
We clarify the target picture, the need for action, decision rights and the conditions for a sensibly set-up project — and the limit: what a system or an agent must not decide on its own later. The result is a management document the executive team can decide on.
Phase 02
SCOReX®
The AI-supported selection diagnostic. It translates your context — processes, constraints, non-negotiables — into a scored, decision-ready ERP shortlist, with the reasoning open to inspection rather than presented as a verdict. The requirement structures behind it come from more than 1,200 DACH projects.
Phase 03
Decision Due Diligence Index (DDI)
The vendor test. Software, vendor, team and rollout approach are examined against your requirements — proof of concept on your real processes, scrutiny of the implementation model, open points and risks made visible. Nothing is signed until the decision holds up before management and the advisory board.
Phase 04
Independent delivery oversight
Once implementation begins, the decision has to stay with you. Independent reviews, decision papers, deviations and risks — through to beyond go-live — with oversight that stays independent of whoever implements. Applied in ERP implementation.
After go-live
Hypercare Assurance
The stabilisation window run as a defined phase, not as a grace period. It closes when the operation runs without us — not on a date agreed in advance.
Agreed support levelsFixed before go-live, not negotiated during it.
Named escalation ownershipA person, not a mailbox.
Measured system healthReported against the target scenario, not by impression.
The four run in order. Each one closes on a result the next one depends on.
What we publish
Two results, measured on the client’s systems
We publish measured outcomes. Both are listed with their sources in the evidence table below. These two figures carry this page — measured in client projects you can read.
measured
73%
reduction in master-data error rate
45,000 items · ten branches
Source: Dreher Consulting client project — see the Hagos reference
Read the master-data reference →measured
85%
reduction in Excel-based work processes
Environmental technology · multi-site
Source: Dreher Consulting client project — see the environmental technology reference
Read the process optimisation reference →non-negotiables
Four things we will not trade away.
Four constraints we accept on our own behaviour. Each one costs us something — which is the only reason it is worth publishing.We turn work down
If the target scenario is not achievable, we say so before the project starts — not in month six.
We sell no software
No licences, no vendor commissions, no reseller agreements. Ask us for that in writing — and ask everyone else on your list.
Senior consultants from day one
The people in the first workshop are the people on the project. No handover to a junior team once the contract is signed.
The decision stays with you
We produce the basis for it — the document, the dossier, the assessment. We never take the decision itself.
Evidence base
The sources behind every number here
A consultancy that argues for measurement should show its own sources. These are ours — publisher, sample and year for every figure this page carries.
Every figure on this page, and where it comes from
Publisher, sample size and year for every figure on this page.
| Figure | What it measures | Source | Year / basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13.2% | German enterprises with 10+ employees using business intelligence software | Eurostat / Destatis, ICT usage in enterprises | 2025 |
| 31.1% | DACH ERP users who say their system delivers meaningful KPIs | Trovarit AG, ERP in der Praxis, n=1,717 | 2024/2025 |
| 1,200+ | DACH projects behind the SCOReX® requirement structures | Dreher Consulting project record | Cumulative to date |
| 73% | Reduction in master-data error rate — 45,000 items, ten branches | Dreher client project (measured) — the Hagos reference | Client project, measured |
| 85% | Reduction in Excel-based reporting | Dreher client project (measured) — the Environmental Construction reference | Client project, measured |
Third-party figures are published research, cited to publisher and sample. The client-project figures are measured on the client’s own systems, not modelled.
Where a publication year does not apply, the column states the basis instead.
Start the conversation
Three ways to start. No wrong door.
Medium commitment
15-minute orientation call
To check whether an engagement makes sense. If we're not the right people for the job, we'll say so.
Book a short call →Low commitment
Prefer to email?
Tell us where you stand. We'll reply with a clear next step — not a sales pitch.
Email us →