About this guide
A decision guide for the finance, operations and IT leads of established companies whose ERP is due for replacement, written from published evidence.
Most of what is published about replacing an ERP is written by someone selling the replacement. This guide starts from the decision instead: whether to upgrade, switch suites, build a system the company owns or defer, and what the published evidence says about each.
Who it is for
Chief executives, CFOs, COOs and IT directors of established companies, in wholesale, retail, manufacturing, construction, professional services and healthcare, that run an ERP they did not choose recently and are being asked to decide its future. We assume readers know their own processes and custom code better than any vendor does.
What it covers
The four routes and one or two options for each, compared on six criteria; what a replacement costs; how to stage a migration; and what an old ERP can and cannot do with AI. SAP is the most frequent example because it has the largest installed base and a dated end of maintenance, and the guide applies to other systems too.
Independence and vendors’ names
This guide is independent of SAP SE, Microsoft, Odoo, Rimini Street and every other vendor it names. Product names such as SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA and Dynamics 365 are used only to identify the products discussed. We use no vendor logos, and nothing here implies endorsement by or affiliation with any of them.
How it is made
Dates and terms come from the vendors’ own pages. Prices come from vendors’ pricing pages where they exist and are labelled as estimates where they come from a marketplace. Survey findings are attributed to the body that ran the survey, with the sample. Every fact carries a numbered source and the date we read it. The criteria and the ranking frame are on the methodology page.
We re-check the guide at least once a quarter and whenever a vendor changes a date, a price or a programme. Each page shows its last update and keeps a change log.
Corrections
If a fact is wrong or out of date, tell us. Verified errors are corrected promptly and recorded on the page.