ERP “almost fits”? What to do when the company adapts to the software

Where workarounds come from

An off-the-shelf ERP is designed for thousands of companies at once. So it handles what they have in common: invoices, warehouse, HR. Yet every company has non-standard processes: how it carries out orders, handles approvals and quotes, or organizes field crews. When the software does not account for them, people start working around it.

How to recognize the problem

• key information lives in spreadsheets and only reaches the ERP at the end of the process,
• data is entered twice: once “for myself” and once “for the system”,
• ERP modifications take a long time or are not possible at all,
• the team calls the ERP “the invoicing program” rather than a work tool.

Three possible paths

1. Extending the ERP

This makes sense when the missing features are small and the vendor or implementation partner can add them without making future updates harder.

2. Replacing the ERP

This is rarely a good idea if the core features work. A replacement is a heavy organizational burden and carries the risk that the new software will also only “almost” fit.

3. A custom system alongside the ERP

Often the most sensible path: the ERP stays for finance and the warehouse, while non-standard processes are handled by a system built for the company. Both programs exchange data automatically, so nobody retypes anything.

What to watch out for when integrating with an ERP

• decide which system is the source of truth for specific data,
• check what integration options the ERP offers,
• plan what happens when data exchange is temporarily down,
• make sure change history is kept on both sides.

Start with a list of workarounds

The simplest first step: ask your team to list all the spreadsheets and notes they keep alongside the ERP. That list shows exactly what the company is missing. If you would like to analyze it together, book a consultation.