ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems are essential for the management of resources in enterprises functioning on the local as well as the global market. Yet, their implementation consumes considerable resources and frequently ends in failure. The goal of this article is to present an empirical assessment of the critical success factors for ERP implementation as defined in the literature, which was undertaken by experienced implementation consultants from multiple countries. A ranking of the importance of these factors will also be presented. First, a literature review around the critical success factors for ERP implementation was conducted. Next, using a survey, research was conducted among respondents working for an IT consulting company delivering ERP implementation services with subsidiaries in nine countries. The empirical study confirmed the significance of the critical success factors for ERP implementation as defined in the literature. It also pointed out differences in the perception of the importance of these factors between the employees of the companies where the system had been implemented and the experienced implementation consultants. It was found that the critical success factors as defined in the literature brought value to the industry practice, in the opinion of the respondents, thereby confirming that these should be taken into account when working on ERP system implementation. It was also demonstrated that in certain cases, the opinions of the consultants differed from the opinions of the employees of the organizations where an ERP system had been implemented