What does an ERP consultant cost per day?

Daily rates for ERP consulting in the German mid-market range roughly between 900 and 1,800 euros depending on role and experience, with senior steering and architecture above that. That range only helps to a limited extent, because project cost is rate times days. A higher rate with fewer days is regularly cheaper than a lower rate with ramp-up time, rework and rounds of coordination.

How to make offers comparable despite different rates: comparing ERP offers

What seniority changes in practice: Who really leads your implementation?

What a daily rate is made of

A daily rate reflects three things: the experience of the person, the availability of that experience in the market, and the risk the provider carries. A specialist configuring a module sits lower than someone steering a programme across several countries, and that is factually right, because the responsibility differs.

In German mid-market business the range is, in our market experience, roughly between 900 and 1,800 euros per day. Below that you mostly find nearshore capacity or entry-level profiles, above it specialist roles and senior programme steering. These figures are orientation, not a price list, and they move with utilisation and demand.

What is striking is how little the rates say about the outcome. We regularly see projects in which low daily rates were more expensive in total, because the clarification work was missing and decisions were taken several times over.

The calculation that really counts

The relevant measure is not the rate but the price per achieved result. An example from daily work: the concept for one area can be ready in four days with an experienced person or in ten with a less experienced one, and in the second case rounds of coordination are added because the result needs sharpening. At 1,500 against 1,000 euros per day, that is 6,000 euros against 10,000 euros, and that is before the internal time your team spends in the additional rounds.

That internal time is the invisible part of the calculation. Every external day binds people at your site, in workshops, coordination and testing. Doubling the consulting days roughly doubles that binding too, only it appears in no offer.

The most honest yardstick is therefore the calculated total effort for a clearly described scope, not the rate. Ask for days per phase and per role, and the difference between two offers becomes visible.

Where low rates make sense and where they do not

There are tasks where a low rate is the right decision. Data preparation, bulk maintenance, recurring tests and documentation are well delimited and need care and capacity rather than senior experience. Here you save real money without taking on risk.

There are other tasks where a low rate becomes expensive. These include process design, the decision between standard and customisation, the architecture of data migration, and steering when things get difficult. At these points, commitments are made that carry or burden the project for years.

The sensible structure is therefore mixed: seniority where decisions are taken, cheaper capacity where implementation happens. An offer quoting a single rate throughout either hides a blended calculation or a structure that does not fit one of the two ends.

What to check in the offer

Check three things. First the role distribution: how many days are planned for which role, and who exactly is that role? The difference between the name in the offer and the person in the project is one of the most common points of conflict.

Second travel costs and the question of how much happens on site. Over a twelve-month project the difference between two and four on-site days a month is a noticeable amount, and it can be decided on the merits, because some formats work equally well remotely and others do not.

Third the terms for additional effort. A daily rate without an agreed change process is an open invoice. An offer describing from when and by whom additional effort is approved is the more calculable one, even at a higher rate.