Businesses selecting ERP business software often focus on the cost and functionality of the software they’re evaluating. Although the functional fit of software to current business processes is important, the ability of the software to adapt to future business growth can be just as vital when you consider how much it would cost to upgrade or replace your ERP after only two or three years. Much of that future adaptability depends on the technology platform on which the business management software is built.

Today’s Reality

The widespread use of eCommerce and mobile apps has driven ERP and CRM vendors to add those capabilities to their applications. Unfortunately, legacy ERP platforms often can’t easily adapt to these new requirements. For some legacy providers, their solution is to offer cumbersome add-ons, sometimes with standalone databases. Others respond by taking old, legacy applications and adding additional software to the front end to make their outdated software appear to be a cloud platform.