Weeks, not years. A typical management system takes around 10 weeks. But the useful answer is not a number: it is knowing what stretches a project, because it is almost never what people think.
What really sets the timeline
- How many processes it covers. A sales and inventory system does not take as long as one that also handles purchasing, dispatch, production and finance.
- What it connects to. E-invoicing, payment gateways, a carrier, a previous system: each integration has to be built and tested against a service we do not control.
- The data that has to come across. Migrating years of customers, products and transactions from spreadsheets takes time, and more the more scattered it is.
- How many departments use it. More departments mean more permissions and more people signing things off.
What delays it most, and it is not the code
In most projects that run long, development is not the bottleneck. Three things are:
- Decisions. A business rule nobody quite defines stops a whole module.
- Sign-offs. Every delivery needs someone on your team to review it. If that review takes two weeks, the project takes two weeks longer.
- Changes along the way. Asking for something new is not a problem; asking for it without moving the timeline is.
That is why it pays to have one person on your side with the authority to decide and time set aside to review.
Why an honest timeline is a range
A vendor who promises an exact date before knowing your operation is guessing. The serious version is a range and a schedule fixed before starting, with the milestones and what is delivered at each one. If a date matters to you, say so at the beginning: the plan is built around it instead of discovering it at the end.
How to have something working sooner
You do not have to wait for the whole system. Working by milestones means you receive deliveries you can already use: first the module that hurts most today, then the rest. Within a few weeks your team is working on something real, and what they learn there improves what comes next.
What to ask before signing
- Is the schedule in writing, with milestones and deliverables?
- What do you need from my team, and when?
- What happens to the timeline if I ask for a change?
If you want to know how long yours would take, that is what the diagnosis is for: 30 minutes, free of charge, and you leave with scope, timeline and investment in writing. You can see how we work or request your quote.