Häufig gestellte Fragen
What are the best alternatives to Abas ERP?
In the manufacturing midmarket, the serious alternatives to Abas ERP are above all proALPHA, Infor LN or the Infor CloudSuite Industrial, IFS Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and SAP Business One. For machinery and plant engineering companies with make-to-order and variant manufacturing, proALPHA, Infor LN and IFS come closest to Abas's manufacturing depth, while Business Central and SAP Business One tend to address the broader midmarket with standard processes. Which solution fits best depends heavily on the manufacturing type, the cloud strategy and the existing IT ecosystem. A direct feature comparison along a weighted requirements specification is therefore preferable to looking at plain vendor lists.
Do Abas and proALPHA now belong to the same vendor?
No, Abas and proALPHA belong to different corporate groups, even though the two compete closely in DACH manufacturing ERP. Abas (today operating under the Forterro umbrella) was acquired in 2019 by the European ERP group Forterro, which in turn has been majority-owned by the investment company Partners Group since 2022. proALPHA, by contrast, is not part of the Forterro group but an independent ERP group with its own investment history and its own portfolio of acquired brands. Anyone looking to switch vendors for strategic reasons should examine the respective ownership and group structures and, for greater independence, also include alternatives from outside these groups, such as Infor, IFS, Microsoft or SAP, in the comparison.
Which Abas alternative suits machinery and plant engineering?
For classic machinery manufacturing with a high share of variants, proALPHA is the closest DACH competitor with a comparable manufacturing and production planning (PPS) focus. Infor LN specifically supports complex discrete manufacturing with make-to-order, project-based and assembly manufacturing and is used in the machinery, plant engineering and automotive sectors, among others. IFS Cloud plays to its strengths particularly in project- and service-oriented plant engineering, for instance where maintenance, spare parts and after-sales are tightly interlinked with production via integrated Enterprise Asset Management and Field Service Management. Which of these options fits should be decided based on the specific manufacturing type, the project complexity and the service functions required.
Is there a genuine cloud alternative to Abas?
Yes, IFS Cloud, the Infor CloudSuite Industrial and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central are available as cloud ERPs with manufacturing functionality and are thus alternatives to Abas, which itself increasingly offers cloud-based operating models. It is important to distinguish between genuine multi-tenant SaaS and hosted operation of the existing on-premises software, since both variants are marketed under the cloud label. In practice, many manufacturing ERPs still run on-premises, because deep customisation and the protection of design and product data argue against a hasty migration. Comparing the actual manufacturing depth of the respective cloud edition is therefore crucial, as not every cloud variant offers the same scope of functionality as the on-premises version.
How do you choose the right Abas alternative?
Selection starts with a requirements specification that maps and weights the core manufacturing-related requirements such as variant and make-to-order manufacturing, project business, bill-of-materials and routing logic, and CAD and PLM integration. In addition, the cloud or operating strategy, integration into existing Microsoft or SAP landscapes and the availability of experienced implementation partners in the DACH region need to be assessed. Since licence costs usually account for only around a quarter to a third of total costs in ERP projects, the effort for implementation, customising, training and data migration should be budgeted from the outset. A structured shortlist with vendor demos based on your own sample processes tends to deliver more reliable results than a pure feature-list comparison.
How much effort is involved in switching from Abas to another ERP?
An ERP switch is a project lasting several months, which in complex manufacturing environments can take more than a year depending on scope and depth of customisation. The most critical part is usually the data migration of master data, bills of materials, routings and history, which is frequently responsible for budget and schedule overruns. On top of that, deeply customised Abas installations, for instance those using the proprietary 4GL logic of the FO language, have to be redesigned when moving to a standard system. Realistically, companies should therefore allow sufficient time for design, testing and training, and weigh the switch against the costs and risks of staying with Abas.