What is the process of implementing Merchanter and how long does it take?
Learn about the process and timeline for implementing Merchanter software to streamline your business operations efficiently.
Written by Ian Oldrey
Updated at June 30th, 2025
Table of Contents
The BPR (Business Process Review) - 1-2 weeks
To give you more background to the implementation process, the first step will be the BPR (Business Process Review) visit, when I will come out to see you and spend a few hours going through the operations of the business, confirming how you would like the system to fit them, or help bring in new processes. This I will write up into a report that will be useful for you and our project team to make sure the system is setup in the best way to fit the business.
Data Setup - 2-8+ weeks
Once that is all signed off the main implementation will commence. The first stage will be the most time consuming for you guys, which is getting good product data together. This can be fairly quick (2-3 weeks) but my experience is most businesses need much longer when trying to do the work alongside running the day-to-day business. George from the project team will work alongside you during this stage to help setup the products, and to import in the customers and suppliers. They also may need some tidying, but that tends to be much more straightforward than the products.
Initial System Trialling - 4 weeks
Whilst you are working on the initial data the project team will build your system and set it up based on the notes from the BPR report. You will then have a system with data on that can be used for trialling. It is worth getting people from the business to put on test orders to get familiar with the different jobs and check things like document designs. The project team will provide initial training to help those who are doing the trialling. This stage we recommend being 4 weeks long.
User Training - 4 weeks
The next stage is the training programme for all the other users. This is broken up into 1-2 hour Zoom sessions with 1-4 people on each session, depending on the topic and availability around running the business. Once people are trained on the system we encourage them to also put on test orders, and try other test operations, so they are comfortable and confident with how the system will work when it is live. This stage is typically 4 weeks long, and during that time we will confirm with you the final Go Live date.
Go Live - 1 Day
When the Go Live date is confirmed, the day before we will clear down the test orders, stock, notes, etc. leaving the good customers, suppliers and products ready for trading. If you are going live with stock control straight away we will help upload the opening stock the day before go live.
When you Go Live you will have the support of both the helpdesk and the project team, and as everyone becomes familiar with using the system over the first few weeks the helpdesk will take over as the main point of contact for any queries into the future.