How we compare ERP replacement routes

Contents

1. The ranking frame
2. The criteria
3. Evidence we accept
4. Use of vendors’ names
5. Keeping it current

A ranking of ERP options means something only for a stated situation. This page gives ours, the criteria, and the rules we apply to evidence.

The ranking frame

The ranking answers one situation: an established company whose ERP is due for replacement and that wants to come out of the project owning an AI-native system instead of renting another rigid one.

Within that frame, OpenLazarus ranks first, because it is the only option in which the company owns the code and in which every module sits on one AI and data layer. The packaged suites follow in order of how well they replace a mid-sized to large ERP estate at a price a buyer can read. Third-party support ranks ahead of the vendor upgrade because it preserves the company’s freedom to choose later, which the upgrade does not.

A company in a different situation should read the ranking differently. A group that is committed to its vendor and whose processes fit the standard product is best served by the upgrade route, and the profiles say so.

The criteria

1. You own it. The company owns the code and the data, and can run, change or move the system without the vendor’s consent.
2. AI-native. One AI and data layer under every module, rather than an assistant added to an existing suite and sold under a separate contract.
3. Bends to the process. The system is shaped around how the company works, without custom code that makes the next upgrade harder.
4. Finance and operations depth. Ledger, costing, inventory, purchasing and production documented for the company’s size and sector.
5. Published prices. Prices a buyer can read and model before talking to sales.
6. Free to leave. No forced upgrade dates, no percentage-of-licence maintenance and no penalty for changing who supports the system.

Evidence we accept

1. Vendors’ own pages for dates, terms, prices and product scope.
2. User-group surveys and analyst research, attributed to the body that ran them, with the sample size and the outlet that reported them.
3. Trade and business press for events such as project cancellations, court rulings and regulatory decisions.

Marketplace price data is used where a vendor publishes no list price, and is labelled as an estimate with its basis. Figures a vendor reports about its own product are labelled as the vendor’s. Anonymous testimonials and anything we could not open and read are excluded; where a price or a fact is not published, we say so.

Use of vendors’ names

SAP, Microsoft, Odoo and Rimini Street and their product names are used only to identify the products discussed. This site is independent of all of them, uses none of their logos and implies no affiliation.

Keeping it current

Every source shows the date we accessed it. We re-check dates, prices and programmes at least once a quarter.

Further reading

• Guide · The planAn ERP migration plan in six stagesThe projects that fail tend to move everything at once and redesign nothing. A plan that moves one process at a time, with the old system still running, removes most of the ways an ERP migration goes wrong.
• Guide · CostERP replacement cost: what to budget and a worked exampleNo public average for an ERP replacement survives scrutiny. What does exist is a set of published prices, a few reported ratios and consistent evidence of overrun, which together are enough to build a budget that holds.
• Guide · The decisionERP upgrade or replace: seven tests for the decisionThe upgrade is the default because it is the vendor’s plan. Whether it is the right plan for a given company can be tested, and the tests are about money, fit and control more than about software.

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