Skip to content

Häufig gestellte Fragen

What does ERP system mean in simple terms?
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning and refers to integrated business software that plans, controls and analyses all essential company resources — such as finances, personnel, materials and equipment — on a shared data basis. The market research firm Gartner, which coined the term around 1990, defines ERP as an integrated suite of business applications sharing a common process and data model. In practice this means that departments such as accounting, warehousing, sales, purchasing and production are connected, and each piece of information is ideally recorded only once. How deep this integration goes in an individual case depends on industry, company size and the customising depth of the specific setup.
What is the difference between an ERP system and accounting software?
Pure accounting software essentially covers financial accounting with the general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable and year-end closing. An ERP system includes accounting as one module, but beyond that also integrates sales, purchasing, warehousing, production and HR on the same data basis. The decisive difference thus lies in the breadth and the end-to-end linking of processes rather than in individual, isolated specialist functions. A reliable vendor comparison is therefore best achieved with structured evaluation matrices that set functional coverage, total costs and implementation risk against each other.
When does a company need an ERP system instead of Excel or isolated point solutions?
An ERP system typically becomes relevant when the same data is maintained multiple times in different programs, figures from warehousing, accounting and sales diverge, or reporting takes a disproportionate amount of time. As long as a company is very small and covers only a few areas, Excel and individual specialist programs can suffice. With a growing headcount and several departments involved, however, the effort of duplicate data maintenance, the error rate and the coordination burden increase, making an integrated solution more economical. There is no universal employee threshold, because the right moment depends heavily on process complexity, industry and pace of growth.
What does an ERP system cost and how are the costs distributed?
The total costs of an ERP project are made up of several blocks, of which software licences or subscription fees are only one part. Industry sources frequently put the licence or subscription share at about 15 to 35 percent of total costs, while the larger share goes to implementation, consulting, customising, data migration, integration and training. As a rule of thumb, many vendors cite implementation costs of one to three times the first annual licence. Reliable figures can only be determined project-specifically, since company size, module scope and depth of customisation strongly influence costs.
How do cloud ERP and on-premise ERP differ?
With on-premise ERP, the software runs on the company's own servers and is classically acquired via a one-off licence, which counts as a capital investment (CapEx) on the balance sheet, usually supplemented by ongoing maintenance and support fees. Cloud ERP, by contrast, is operated by the vendor in a data centre, used via the browser and generally billed as a monthly or annual subscription, i.e. as an ongoing operating expense (OpEx). Cloud solutions typically reduce the initial investment and the burden on internal IT, because updates, maintenance and security sit with the vendor, while on-premise systems often offer more control and depth of customisation. Cloud ERP implementations frequently proceed faster, but which variant makes more economic sense depends on individual requirements around data sovereignty, IT resources and the period under consideration.
How long does it take to implement an ERP system?
The pure implementation time depends heavily on company size, module scope and depth of customisation and, according to industry sources, frequently lies between about 6 and 18 months in the mid-market. Cloud implementations with largely standardised processes can be considerably faster, while complex projects with multiple sites, legacy data migration and heavy customising reach the upper end of the range. Adding the selection phase and the stabilisation period after go-live, the total duration often spans roughly one to two years. The main driver of the duration is considered to be less the choice of system than the organisational preparation and the quality of the data basis.