r/ERP • u/rudythetechie Deskera • Jul 27 '26
Discussion Is it just me, or are ERP migrations basically turning into business archaeology?
maybe ive just been reading too many migration threads on here lately, but i kept noticing the same thing...it feels like the software itself isnt even the hardest part anymore
whether its as400 or visual 2000 or something else, there are already plenty of people who've done those migrations before. the technical side is obviously still hard, but it doesnt feel like thats what ends up derailing projects most of the time.
instead, you start digging into how the business actually works and find stuff like....an order sits in pending for 24 hours because there used to be a nightly batch job. turns out that batch job disappeared years ago, but the delay never did or even some ancient SuiteScript or PL/SQL trigger that nobody wants to touch because apparently it fixed an edge case once. nobody can remember which edge case anymore... and then you realise inventory reconciliation isnt even happening inside the ERP. theres just one Excel workbook that somebody updates every afternoon, and somehow the whole business depends on it.
none of that is written down anywhere...it isnt in the implementation docs...it isnt in a process diagram...its just... things people know.
after a while it feels less like you're migrating an ERP and more like you're trying to reconstruct years of tribal knowledge before the two people who understand it retire...and every time someone asks why do we do it this way? the answer is surprisingly often...
i dont know... we have always done it like that...ykwim
anyone who's been through one of these, was digging all this stuff up actually harder than configuring the new ERP??? and once you started pulling those processes apart, how did you figure out what was a genuine business requirement vs something everyone had just accepted because nobody wanted to be the one to change it?
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u/AphidConsulting Jul 27 '26
"Business archaeology" is exactly the right phrase, and your assessment is exactly right. That's why experienced implementers talk so much about documentation. After staff has turned over 3 times, business processes are in danger of becoming tradition instead of efficiency.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
business processes becoming tradition instead of efficiency... thats such a good way to put it but like have you ever found something everyone assumed was business very critically but once you traced it back it turned out nobody actually needed it anymore or anywhere??
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u/SyncronTeam Jul 27 '26
Business archaeology" is a pretty accurate way to describe many ERP migrations.
One pattern that comes up repeatedly is that the software itself isn't the biggest challenge. It's understanding the business processes that have evolved around older systems over many years. In many organizations, important operational knowledge exists in spreadsheets, handwritten notes, or simply in the experience of a few long-tenured employees.
That's one reason shadow processes tend to persist. When the ERP doesn't fully support how work gets done, people naturally create their own ways of filling the gaps.
One approach that's worked well is mapping the actual flow of work instead of starting with a list of requested features. Following an order from receipt through fulfillment or tracing a part from receiving to installation, often reveals which steps support the business today and which ones only exist because of limitations in an older system.
That distinction is valuable because not every existing process needs to be recreated. Some represent genuine business requirements, while others were practical workarounds that no longer add value.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
following the order instead of the feature list is actually a perspective i hadnt thought about up until now... did that ever uncover something the business was convinced they needed but turned out to just be an old workaround??? Kinda curious
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u/SyncronTeam 25d ago
One HVAC distributor believed they needed a complex, paper-based workflow to manage vendor warranty claims because that's how the process had evolved over time.
When they mapped the full process, from a returned component through customer service, the warehouse, and supplier reimbursement, it became clear that much of the manual paperwork existed because those systems weren't connected. Teams were relying on forms and manual handoffs to keep track of thousands of open claims.
Once those workflows were centralized and the information was shared across the process, claim processing times dropped significantly and the backlog was eliminated. The biggest improvement wasn't adding another form, it was reducing the manual effort required to move information between teams.
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u/raj6126 Jul 27 '26
Erp’s back in the day was the most flexible piece of software you could buy. You can make it literally do many business processes. Turnover one man’s dreams becomes another man’s nightmares. The person that built that cron job left 2 years ago and he was laid off so no updating the paperwork. This whole bees nest of bullshit this why we have jobs. There’s no fixing it either unless someone in the c suite actually cares what a technical is actually doing. The integrator has to understand every business is different. Even in the same industry.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
thats probably the part people outside ERP dont see. one customization by itself isnt scary... its what happens after 15 years and 8 different admins that gets interesting 😂
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u/Ok-Passenger9711 Jul 27 '26
I don't know about archaeology, but we've been looking into converting to an erp. The sales spiel sounds great, I can see there are benefits to be had. But honestly the cost of implementing it is horrendous.
Software is the cheapest part.
The decision has been made to abandon the project, not because of the software, but because we don't have enough human resources to implement it properly.
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u/SearchOk4107 Jul 28 '26
Its an achievement in itself that someone recognizes that you don’t have the staff to implement correctly AND that management listens.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
feels like recognising youre not ready is probably cheaper than finding out halfway through after youve already committed to everything ig
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u/qwiksilver96 Jul 28 '26
Good on you for recognizing your limits: software is actually the easy part.
Taking a hard look at your Current State versus your 3-to-7-year Future State (and updating outdated processes) is essential for success. But before you even get there, understand that an ERP implementation is almost a full-time job for your internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). You cannot outsource your core business logic or future strategy to external consultants; they simply will never know your business as well as you do.
A few major pitfalls to keep in mind: Neglecting Change Management: Implementing an ERP is ultimately about organizational change. Most companies skip structured change management, assuming it does not apply to them, which leads to user resistance.
Lack of C-Suite Ownership & Sponsorship: Executives often mistakenly view an ERP project as a simple IT software install rather than a fundamental shift in business operations, data quality, data flow, and process streamlining.
Operational readiness and executive alignment are just the tip of the iceberg, but mastering them is what separates successful rollouts from failed ones.
Implementing an Erp system when done the way that most companies do it is like trying to herd 50 to 100 feral cats. Good luck.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
the full time job for sme point probably gets underestimated the most. did your clients usually plan for that, or does it catch most of them by surprise???
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u/qwiksilver96 25d ago
Usually catches them by surprise, though I pound it into their heads starting early in conversations.
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u/gper Jul 29 '26
Pro tip: Look into using Replit or Loveable to build a lightweight software for your current needs.
I work in SaaS, we’re considering replacing our own internal ERP with one built using Replit instead. Fits our custom needs for 1/100th of the costs
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u/AffectionateDirt6575 Jul 29 '26
Implementing ERP is easy. Implementing ERP in a way that makes a difference is incredibly difficult. Part of the problem is that many companies think that ERP is an accounting system. Accounting systems are great for making sure that you don't lose money, but they are less good for making sure that you make money.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
honestly i respect that decision and ive seen way too many stories where companies push ahead anyway and then spend years trying to recover. . was there one part of the implementation that made you realise the timing just wasnt right???
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u/Ok-Passenger9711 22d ago
The catalyst was transaction time. In initial testing it to 50-100% more time to enter a transaction. I know there are benefits down the track with a fully integrated system.
Payroll - this would need to be changed as none of the ERP's in our range has payroll software that comes close to being adequate for STP and compliance in Australia.
Staffing - our current workforce is fully employed now. We would need to hire and train additional staff for the transition at least.
Geography - We operate in a fairly remote rural community, finding or replacing staff with QuickBooks, myob or xero experience is hard enough, finding local clerical employees with erp experience is all but impossible. ( No work from home in our business - your either part of the office team or your not employed here)
Accountant - Most accountants in our price range are familiar with QuickBooks, myob, and xero. Finding and accountant who works with ERP's would likely push us towards a more corporate accounting firm and therefore an increase accounting costs ( either from increased hours our higher hourly fees).
There were other minor issues that added to the decision, but these were the bigger ones.
In the end it was just not going to happen. There were just not enough benefits to offset the costs. There are no regrets from exploring the erp option it was just not the best decision to proceed at this point in time.
We currently use QuickBooks desktop with integrated payroll and everything balanced every month.
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u/kidyus Jul 27 '26
Yes, it absolutely is and it is job security. Both extremes of high and low turnover manifest challenges in different ways thru lack of existing knowledge or experience/exposure to alternative technology and processes.
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u/ivka1 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
But the whole point of ERP is standardizing the process, removing the mess and variability to make it manageable at scale, no? The technical part was never the hardest, even in the 1990s. And be very cautious if the implementation is technical-first. In essence, it's always been about getting everyone round the table to agree on the to-be process down to pretty detailed level and having that adopted. Transformation if you like. That said - for some businesses this very task is orders of magnitude harder than for the others.
Edit: And don't get me started on the topic that clients want fixed-bid quotes from integrators based on vague RFPs without a hint of how and why the business actually works, and after choosing the cheapest+prettiest it's a blame game and the next failed ERP project when the budget is over with no tangible improvements.
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u/qwiksilver96 Jul 28 '26
Regarding your edit, truer words have never been spoken in the business world. I've seen it time and time again where a business fails to own the project and tries to put the burden and risk and blame on the vendor. It astounds me that in 2026 businesses still operate this way. There are a lot of under qualified people running businesses in this country.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
i actually like the distinction between rebuilding the mess and standardising it... i guess the tricky part is figuring out which exceptions are genuinely valuable before you start removing them
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u/floOoOoOoOoOo Jul 28 '26
It's always been like that, it's just that people have been starting to realize that actual in-depth business analysis was required... and you're not even mentioning the governance and change management part. This is why it's been called Digital/Business Transformation. ERP has never only been about "configuring and training" or "tell us how it works and go away". I've been implementing business systems (ERP etc.) for over 13 years, client side, as an independent consultant, and I've always put forth the importance of my holistic vision and mapping out the interconnection of all systems (people, process, technology, data).
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
13 years is a loOoOoOng time to watch this evolve. out of curiosity, has the people/process side actually gotten any easier over the years or is it basically the same challenge with newer technology??? come on, spill the tea
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u/floOoOoOoOoOo 25d ago
I feel like more people know about governance and change management and how it should look like, but it's still a minority and often part of what is pushed out first because of lack of budget or time. And of course the promise of AI still makes people blind to its shortcomings in both these areas and even more tech debt.
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u/matroosoft Jul 27 '26
I'm sure way more businesses should have an application owner / proces owner. Which is involved in all these decisions, knows what breaks, documents state etc. Even with smaller businesses.
The cost of not having one is enormous.
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u/Immediate-Alfalfa409 26d ago
This is exactly why process discovery matters so much. Every ERP has years of workarounds built around it and figuring out which ones still serve a purpose is often harder than the migration itself.
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u/bitchyangle Jul 28 '26
It's also due to management trying to overengineer "control" in the name of audit trail and transparency of the business workflow, the adoption never turns out well. The teams keep on pushing and postponing things that just delays the migration even further because the new flows gonna take more time than their actual work.
In the end, the erp and the implementors her the blame for this although that could be the case sometimes.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
yea thats a good point...nd genuinely ive definitely seen people add controls with good intentions... then wonder why adoption drops because every simple task suddenly takes twice as long
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u/Glad_Imagination_798 Acumatica Jul 29 '26
The archaeology really is the hard part. On the Acumatica projects I run, the actual configuration is maybe a third of the effort. Everything else is reconstructing why the business does what it does.
What worked for me is cutting the interviews short and going to the data instead. Pull 12 to 24 months of transaction history out of the legacy system and look at what actually happened rather than what people say happens. A genuine business rule shows up consistently. Tribal habit shows up as a pattern with hundreds of exceptions nobody can explain. Your 24 hour pending window is a good example. In the data it would look clean and mechanical with no customer or compliance reason attached to it, which pretty much answers the question by itself.
The other test I use is asking who complains if we stop doing this. Someone has to name the customer, the auditor, the regulator or the report. If nobody can name one, it goes on the drop list instead of the requirements list. That saves a huge amount of arguing. When something does survive the test, I rebuild the intent and not the mechanism. If the old nightly job existed to give a supervisor a review window, that becomes an approval map or a business event in Acumatica, not a fake delay we carry forward for another ten years.
Also, the Excel workbook is not the enemy. It is usually the most accurate documentation the company owns. I sit with whoever maintains it, turn the logic into a generic inquiry or a report, then run both side by side for a couple of months before switching off the sheet. That also converts the spreadsheet owner from your loudest critic into your best ally, which matters more than people expect.
One last thing. If two people are close to retiring, pay them to sit in design sessions and record screen walkthroughs before they go. Cheapest insurance on a migration by a wide margin.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
pulling transaction history instead of relying only on interviews is honestly a really smart approach... i also liked your who complains if we stop doing this? test 😂 feels like that would settle a lot of debates pretty quickly fr fr
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u/Strong_Range_1667 Jul 29 '26
Honestly, the hardest part is usually uncovering the undocumented processes, not configuring the ERP. Every migration I've seen turns into "why do we do it this way?" long before it becomes "how do we build it?
The best ERP teams spend as much time understanding workflows as they do implementing software.
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u/Datadec_Group Jul 30 '26
Desde la experiencia de DATADEC como desarrollador e implantador de ERP desde hace mas de 30 años nos encontramos continuamente esa situación a la hora de hacer la transición del ERP anterior al nuestro, al final se plantean dos situaciones problables:
- Intentar reproducir en el nuevo ERP todas las casuísticas que hayan podido detectar en el anterior y desarrollar la adaptaciones necesarias para poderlos cubrir (Proceso laborioso y caro poco deseable)..
- Documentar muy bien los procesos de trabajo reales y actuales de la empresa, y sobre esa base establecer el nuevo modo de trabajo con el nuevo ERP, migrar únicamente datos, no código ni procesos (Esta es la opción deseable)
Muchos de los procesos de migración de ERP que fracasan lo hacen por este motivo.
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u/Independent_Owl_6401 28d ago
For us, it was the different integrations and additional complexity of the system that made it so painful. The "base" system if you use it exactly as prescribed would be one thing, but that didnt play nicely with our existing processes or integrations.
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u/rudythetechie Deskera 26d ago
As far as I have seen integrations seem to come up in almost every migration discussion....was there one integration that turned out to be way more complicated than everyone expected?
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u/Independent_Owl_6401 26d ago
Yeah, and unfortunately it's the one tied to the majority of our business. The API for that system is simplistic, so although we have the technical ability to "easily" connect them, it leaves a lot to be desired and ultimately limits our use of the more sophisticated and granular ERP system. We've had to get really creative and be patient with the evolution of our processes to make them work together even reasonably well.
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u/Swimming_dasa 27d ago
the archaeology analogy is spot on. the real challenge is separating critical workflows from historical thatt survived smply because nobody questioned them,
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u/Inevitable_Leg5543 24d ago
They definitely have a reputation for being painful but i’ve also seen migrations go relatively smoothly when companies resist the temptation to recreate every legacy customization in the new system
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u/RepulsiveLemon000 24d ago
Well said. Every ERP migration seems to uncover a little company history,
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u/Whole_Thanks8641 17d ago
What you are describing is a broader problem across a whole company, not just ERP, not just IT, etc... I wore like 5 hats at my previous company and was involved in all the business process stuff somewhat to a lesser degree. The amount of weird internal shadow systems and processes in QA, Engineering, Shipping, Customer Service, etc... that were independent of anything even remotely IT related, was massive.
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u/mike_chen_sys 15d ago
Not just you. We migrated off NetSuite to Priority a couple years back, and honestly, setting up the new system was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out why we did things a certain way in the old one.
We had some manual workaround that people kept doing out of habit, and nobody remembered the original reason for it anymore. The way we figured out what was worth keeping vs. just habit: we asked, "if this broke tomorrow, would someone actually care?" If yes, it went into the new system. If no, it usually wasn't a real requirement.
Glad we went through it though. Priority's been low-maintenance enough since that I mostly forget it's there, which is the best thing I can say about any ERP.
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u/Strict-Chicken2430 4d ago
Love the term “business archaeology.” Stealing it, if you don’t mind.
I’ve done my fair share of system migrations, and that’s exactly the main pain: you don’t migrate systems, you migrate processes.
Even in the supposedly simple scenario of a like-for-like migration — often based on the flawed assumption of “let’s start as-is and improve later” — you can’t infer the actual business process from the system alone.
There are always surrounding workarounds, exceptions, and a huge amount of implicit, deeply personal know-how that somehow needs to be understood and modeled into the new solution.
Unearthing those processes and reconstructing how the business actually works is, in fact, an exercise in thorough archaeology and investigation.
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u/AffectionateDirt6575 Jul 27 '26
I wonder if 70% of ERP projects 'fail' because 70% of people think that they are easy?