ERP and Security: 8 Questions to Ask Before Trusting a Platform With Your Data

Why security deserves its own checklist

Most ERP comparisons focus on features: available modules, usability, price. Security and data governance often come last, even though they determine what happens the day something goes wrong — a misconfigured access, a lost record, a dispute over who changed what.

These eight questions aren't meant to scare anyone. They're meant to give an SME owner, often without a dedicated technical team, a concrete way to assess any vendor on checkable criteria rather than generic promises.

The eight questions to ask

1. Who has access to your data?

Beyond your own team, who at the vendor can technically view your data, and under what conditions?

2. How are roles and permissions managed?

Are rights set user by user, or does everyone see everything by default? Can a read-only role actually edit or delete a record?

3. Are actions logged and auditable?

Does a change to sensitive data — an amount, a status, an access right — leave a checkable trail: who, when, what value before and after?

4. Is your data backed up, and how?

How often, for how long, and through what concrete process can you request a restore if you need one?

5. Where is your data hosted, and is it compliant?

The hosting country or region, and whether it fits the data-protection requirements that apply to your business.

6. What security guarantees are offered?

Encryption for communications and sensitive data at rest, strong authentication available to users, password handling that follows recognized practice.

7. How is legal compliance ensured?

Compliance often depends as much on your own configuration as on the platform itself — does the vendor clearly document what falls on each side?

8. How do you keep control of your own data?

Can you export the entirety of your data at any time, without depending on the vendor's goodwill if you decide to switch providers?

How to judge an answer

A good answer is specific and checkable: a named hosting country, a stated backup frequency, a concrete example of what a read-only role can't do. A vague answer — "our data is secure," "we follow industry standards" — with no detail behind it deserves a follow-up question before being accepted as is.

How VIA ERP answers these questions

We document our answers to all eight of these points publicly — hosting, encryption, authentication, backups, logging, roles and permissions, company-level separation — on our dedicated security page, rather than summarizing them in a marketing line here. That transparency isn't an absolute guarantee against every risk; it's the minimum baseline for an owner to evaluate the question themselves, rather than take it on faith.

A practical checklist

• Did you get a named answer (country, frequency, technology) for each of the eight questions?
• Can the vendor show you a concrete example, not just a claim?
• Do you know how to export all of your data if you had to switch tools?
• Is a read-only role on your team actually limited to reading?
• Is there a clear contact for reporting a vulnerability or an incident?

These five answers don't replace a formal security audit if your business requires one. At a minimum, they give you something to compare vendors on besides their feature list.