February 18, 2025

Time for an Upgrade? Five Signs You Need a New ERP

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools offer multiple benefits for organizations. These include enhanced operational efficiency, increased data visibility, and improved customer service.  

As noted by research firm Deloitte, however, 69% of business leaders have a negative or neutral sentiment about ERP investments. Data from Gartner helps explain why: Over 70% of current ERP initiatives are unlikely to meet original business case goals, and 25% will fail catastrophically.

The result is a curious market condition. While ERP tools are necessary to streamline operations and ERP adoption is widespread, available options typically underwhelm both leaders and front-line users. In part, this problem stems from rapid technology development — staff often have access to features and functions on personal devices that aren’t available (or possible) with current ERP deployments.

The good news? ERP providers are taking notice, and are designing next-generation tools that both empower collaboration and reduce complexity. The not-so-good news? Your current system may not be up to the challenge.

Here are five signs your ERP needs an upgrade.

Sign #1: Frequent or Significant Downtime

Downtime is disruptive and costly. On average, enterprises lose $9,000 for every minute their systems are down. That’s $90,000 every 10 minutes and more than $500,000 per hour.

Here’s the catch: Every system has downtime. Even the most reliable solutions still list their uptime availability as a series of “9s”. Consider an ERP system with an average uptime of 99.99% — just one-hundredth of a percent away from perfect. If the system runs 24/7/365, it’s running for 525,600 minutes every year. Multiplying this number by 0.01 gives 5,250 minutes, meaning that even 0.01% of downtime amounts to more than 87 hours every year. 

This downtime not only impacts ERP systems directly but all solutions that depend on data from these solutions. For example, customer relationship management (CRM) tools often pull data from ERPs. If planning tools are down, CRM outputs are also negatively impacted. 

If you have an ERP system that once delivered 99.99% uptime but is now experiencing more frequent downtime over longer periods, it may be worth considering an upgrade to a more advanced ERP. These modern solutions leverage cloud-based servers for increased availability and redundant resource access, and many include automatic system updates and real-time performance monitoring to help detect small problems before they become big issues. ls, providing a faster return on investment and reducing the overall implementation time and cost.

Sign #2: Limited Capacity for Integration

Integration is critical for ERP success. While companies can operate multiple siloed solutions across departments and functions, this is both time-consuming and error-prone.

Consider a marketing team using ERP to help inform new campaign efforts. If they have to manually source this data from disconnected systems, they lose time that could be spent on key tasks such as audience research or outreach. And if data is incorrectly copied from ERP sources, it could lead to inaccurate outputs which negatively impact campaign efficacy.

Expanding these integration issues across multiple functions such as inventory, sales, operations, and maintenance, means that eturn on investment (ROI) in ERP systems quickly falls — research suggests that siloed data can cost companies up to 30% of potential yearly revenue.  

Address these issues with a modern ERP that provides seamless integration with third-party tools. For example, leading ERP solutions for heavy equipment dealers include more than 700 predefined processes and robust partner ecosystems.

Sign #3: Lack of Real-Time Data and Analytics

Changing industry trends don’t wait for businesses to catch up. If companies can’t access data on-demand — and carry out in-depth analytics on this data — they can lose valuable market opportunities. 

Traditional ERP systems use a batch-processing approach to data. While this makes it possible for tools to handle large datasets, it’s also slow and cumbersome. By the time batch processes are completed, outputs may be outdated.

Modern systems offer an alternative: On-demand data collection and analysis made accessible through real-time dashboards. In addition, these data outputs are designed for immediate use. Data is presented in simple, visually engaging formats that make it easy for staff to pinpoint key trends. 

Sign #4: Challenges with Scalability

Legacy ERP tools may also come with scalability challenges. 

This is because many proprietary or in-house tools were never designed to work with the always-on connections of cloud services and edge devices. While scaling these systems may be possible in specific environments — for example across local offices or production floors — they’re not capable of keeping up with rapid business growth, especially if this growth happens in geographically diverse locations. 

Consider a heavy equipment dealer launching a new mobile portal for customers to rent machinery, view transaction histories, and connect with customer service. ERP data plays a key role in ensuring this application meets expectations — as a result, ERP systems must be capable of scaling to meet users how and where they prefer to interact with these solutions. 

Traditional systems often struggle because they are designed for on-site users. Modern alternatives, meanwhile, make it possible for sales teams to connect with clients and provide custom rental quotes on demand. 

Sign #5: User Complaints and Ongoing Adoption Issues

ERP systems won’t deliver ROI if employees refuse to use them.

If tools have clunky, unintuitive user interfaces, staff will either lodge continual complaints or avoid using these tools at all costs, instead finding workarounds for common practices that are more time-consuming but less frustrating. By adopting modern ERP systems that are user-friendly and mobile-enabled, enterprises can enhance user engagement and drive increased adoption.

Best bet? Before implementing systems at scale, give staff the chance to experiment with new features and functions. Once the upgrade is confirmed, schedule training sessions to help get staff up to speed.

Making the Move: From Mediocre to Modern

For many businesses, current ERP systems are “good enough” — so long as nothing changes. 

If, however, you notice the presence and persistence of any of the signs listed above, it may be time to consider an upgrade. For example, the NAXT ERP platform offers seamless integration of more than 700 dealer-specific processes that cover 95% of core dealership process needs. With NAXT, companies can easily benchmark department performance, monitor profitability, and keep pace with market growth. 

From improved uptime and data analysis to enhanced integration and scalability — coupled with better usability across the board — making the move to modern ERP is the first step in the next chapter of operational efficiency and business growth.

Discover how modern ERP solutions can enhance business operations. Schedule an NAXT demo today.