Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation can test your business’s capabilities and even your leadership. But with the right focus and alignment, you can avoid being dragged along by software upgrades from external vendors and, instead, navigate unplanned challenges, delivering lasting value.
Every company navigates change, but the most significant challenges often stem from forces beyond your control. Increasingly, a growing list of software changes driven by AI disruption are forcing companies to rapidly adapt and make organization-defining decisions. From a technical perspective, those challenges include Microsoft ending support for Windows 10, as well as forced updates and ERP system migrations.
In case you missed it, SAP’s legacy ECC system is reaching its end of mainstream support after 2027, and the recommended upgrade path is to move to SAP S/4HANA.
With 40% of SAP Americas users yet to begin migrating to S/4HANA, users are struggling to justify major expenditure and disruption, The Register recently reported. from the Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG). “Change management remains one of the most underestimated challenges,” they reported.
While SAP’s specific upgrade may not impact your company, these changes raise some important questions:
- How often does your company leadership consider its overall system landscape?
- How often do you think about how software changes might impact your business?
- Have you considered what an ERP transformation could (or should) look like?
ERP transformations can be huge, complicated investments. When navigating the landscape of emerging technologies and ERP upgrades, organizations must choose beyond simply following vendor-driven updates, and instead, investigate all of their options.
From ERP transformation to business transformation
The drain on day-to-day operations for large systems transformation efforts can become immense, especially when the task is to execute ERP transformation work on top of the daily responsibilities. The more complex a system, the more significant the increase in time, budget, and overall workload across the organization.
For example, for one large window and door manufacturer that was running operations through an integrated, software-based ERP system with hundreds of custom, one-off applications, taking a step back to determine whether the ERP upgrade could handle current and customized functionality made all the difference. A pivotal step in their ERP transformation roadmap was identifying each of the one-off applications that was handling specific issues across manufacturing stations. Understanding the business requirements for each application was absolutely critical when determining the next steps for an ERP system upgrade.
By focusing on its business requirements and integrations, the manufacturer not only simplified their IT landscape but also drove internal cost savings.
How to evaluate your ERP transformation roadmap
When evaluating your ERP transformation roadmap, it is important to determine whether your ERP application and strategy still make sense based on where your business and market drivers currently are. Given rapid market changes, it’s worth ensuring your strategy still aligns with your reality.
Systems are often years, if not decades, old — selected at a time when the business had a significantly different market size and/or focus. Now, you’re aligning for another transformative upgrade. Instead of following the vendor’s upgrade path, you have the opportunity to consider and evaluate newer alternatives that may make more sense for your company.
The reality is, vendors push for specific upgrade paths that are designed to keep you in their ecosystem — but with the newer version of their product. The upgrade path is a full system change-out with a rewrite of all the separate code and modules added for your business and configured over time. And it’s essential to determine whether that new, upgraded system and functionality fit the way your company would like to run.
Finding value beyond an ERP upgrade
You’re being bombarded with AI-this and MCP-that at the same time as your software vendors are continuing to push sweeping software upgrades that can significantly transform how the company does business — for better or worse. So how do you evaluate your company’s three-to-five-year ERP transformation roadmap? Weighing the time and cost of an ERP upgrade against the potential impact it can have on your company can be tricky. But a thoughtfully executed ERP upgrade also has the power to truly transform your company and add significant value.
Looking for support evaluating your ERP transformation roadmap?
Reach out to a Brightly specialist to learn how we can help you align ERP choices with your company’s needs and identify a system implementer that fits your company’s market and ecosystem.