Time for a change?

Many organisations outgrow their early systems - whether it’s Sage, BAAN or something else. It is inevitable. As you scale, inefficiencies emerge and requirements change. These are the growing pains that indicate it’s time to consider something different.

Recognising the Signs

Perspectives from across the business

As organisations grow and mature, requirements change as scale becomes more important. Running parallel to this, organisations have a tendency to evolve - they do not necessarily take controlled jumps in maturity. What starts as a handful of workarounds in Excel, soon becomes a cottage industry to 'keep alive.' This is not unique to you, it is part of the growth journey - one that the biggest companies in the world have all had to go through. 

So the question is: -

"How do you know when the time it right to expect more?"

Technology Leadership

The innovation roadblock

“We spend more time maintaining than modernising.”

  • Siloed Systems: Disparate applications that don’t talk create blind spots and require manual workarounds and integrations.
  • Legacy Complexity: Upgrades are slow, painful, and often break things. Architecture isn’t scalable or cloud-ready.
  • IT becomes Reactive: Instead of driving innovation, IT becomes a service desk - responding to issues and limitations.
  • Talent Drain: Skilled IT professionals become demotivated managing outdated tech, not improving them.
  • Modernisation: The is limited potential for automation or AI.
  • Cybersecurity Gaps: Legacy systems often lack modern security frameworks, increasing exposure and risk.

Financial Viewpoint - The Confidence Gap

“We can't model the future if we don’t trust the numbers.”

  • Delayed Month-End: Closing books takes too long. The reconciliation process is complex and highly manual.
  • Limited Forecasting: Finance can’t easily run scenario planning or pivot quickly in response to market shifts.
  • Audit & Compliance Pain: Data consistency, integrity and traceability are harder to prove when financial processes are fragmented. What is the right number?
  • Margin Blindness: True profitability by product, customer, or market is hard to see without integrated cost-to-serve data.
  • Capex Drain: High ongoing spend on bolt-ons and support contracts delivers diminishing returns with little transformation.
From the COO

Operational Drag

“The business is running, but it’s not running well.”

  • Inefficient Processes: Manual steps between systems cause delays, errors, and rework - especially in procurement, fulfilment, and production.
  • Inflexibility: When customer needs change or issues arise, the system can’t adapt quickly enough.
  • Scaleability: It is hard to scale supply chain or production processes
  • Data Discrepancies: Reporting across departments is inconsistent. Operations struggle to agree on a single version of the truth.
  • Poor Visibility: Real-time monitoring of inventory, capacity, or delivery status is either missing or unreliable.
  • Workarounds Everywhere: Teams rely on spreadsheets and shadow systems just to keep up, creating risk and overhead.

So what is the answer?

If you are starting to see these signs in your business, you probably need to consider shifting to the next iteration of your infrastructure. There are lots of options out there and you should evaluate them all. The most common is likely to be some form of ERP - probably Microsoft, Oracle or SAP.

Recent cloud developments mean the cost of these solutions has dropped and they are now more affordable to smaller companies. However, you still need to evaluate them fully and understand what you are getting into.

From an SAP perspective, we would recommend looking at SAP GROW. Designed as a SAAS (a shift from it's predecessors), it provides an enterprise grade solution fit for organisations of any size.   

Not Sure If It’s Time to Upgrade? Let’s Find Out Together.

We offer a no-pressure readiness review to help you assess whether your current technology can support your future goals. It’s fast, practical, and board-friendly.

Book a Review   Arrange a meeting

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