PLANAT FEPA

PLANAT FEPA is the manufacturing ERP from PLANAT GmbH, a Stuttgart-based German vendor that has been developing the product continuously since 1981. The customer base concentrates on industrial Mid-Market manufacturers — the broad German mid-market SMB segment — with 50 to 1,000 employees, often so-called Hidden Champions: highly specialised, often globally active companies with a strong market position in a niche. PLANAT's reputation in independent industry studies, particularly the Trovarit "ERP in der Praxis" user-satisfaction survey, is consistently strong, which makes it one of the better-reputed German Mid-Market manufacturing ERPs even though its brand recognition is below proAlpha or abas ERP.

Modular suite architecture

FEPA is built as a modular ERP suite on a three-component concept: a flexibly adaptable base system, vertical industry objects and functional add-ons. The core covers sales and order processing, purchasing and procurement, materials management, warehouse, light to deep production planning and control (depending on the modules selected), service management and financial accounting. The strength is in the production block: variant-rich BOMs, sequenced production planning, capacity scheduling, shop-floor control and post-calculation are the central capabilities that the Hidden-Champion customer base relies on.

Target audience

The typical FEPA customer is a Mid-Market industrial business with 50 to 1,000 employees — often a Hidden Champion in machinery, plant engineering, precision parts, electronics, automotive supply, metal-working or sheet-metal production. The product fit is strongest where the customer produces to order or in variant-rich batches and the production-planning depth is the differentiator versus horizontal mid-market ERPs.

Architecture and deployment

FEPA is built on a modern, scalable architecture with a relational database and a client-capable user interface, with web and mobile components extended in recent years. The software is delivered on-premise, in a managed cloud or hosted by PLANAT in a German data centre. The flexibility on the deployment side matters because the Hidden-Champion customer base includes both technology-conservative customers with strong on-premise preferences and modernising customers who want to move out of self-operating an ERP stack.

DACH localisation and DATEV

FEPA's German localisation is mature. DATEV integration — DATEV is the cooperative of German tax advisors whose data format is the SME finance-exchange standard — is supported through standard exporters so the customer's external accountant can continue working in DATEV. GoBD compliance — the German principles for proper digital bookkeeping — is part of the standard audit-trail and archiving features. ZUGFeRD and XRechnung e-invoicing are covered in line with the phased German B2B e-invoicing mandate. Multilingual and multi-currency support handles international subsidiaries for the typical Hidden-Champion exporter profile.

Competition and selection

FEPA competes with other production-oriented Mid-Market ERPs — abas ERP, ams.erp, proAlpha, oxaion and PSIpenta. A structured selection should compare the candidates on BOM and variant depth, production-planning flexibility, MES integration and German localisation. PLANAT does not publish list prices; licensing is project-specific and depends on user count, module selection, deployment model and customisation scope. Both perpetual-licence with maintenance and subscription/cloud models are available. The high Trovarit user-satisfaction scores are a meaningful selection signal.

Strengths and limitations at a glance

Long-running independent German vendor (since 1981) with a continuous Stuttgart engineering base.
Manufacturing-focused product depth for variant-rich discrete industries — hidden champions in machinery, metal and electrical engineering.
Strong rankings in independent DACH user-satisfaction surveys.

Considerations:

Smaller install base and partner network than the largest manufacturing ERPs.
Cloud deployment is available but most installations remain on-premise.
Outside manufacturing the product is not the typical fit.

Best-fit profile and comparable vendors

Best-fit customers are DACH Mid-Market discrete manufacturers of 30 to 300 users in machinery, metal, electrical and electronic engineering. Comparable vendors include abas ERP, proAlpha and ams.erp at the higher end. The ERP for machinery notes are a natural starting point.

Vendor homepage of PLANAT FEPA

Current view of the website https://www.planat.de/

Screenshot of the homepage of PLANAT FEPA

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Häufig gestellte Fragen

How long does it take to implement PLANAT FEPA?

Depending on complexity, an ERP implementation takes 3 to 18 months. Cloud solutions are often live within 4–12 weeks, while classic mid-market ERPs need 6–12 months for requirements analysis, customising, data migration and training. More at ERP implementation.

How secure is PLANAT FEPA when it comes to data protection?

For cloud ERPs, the server location (ideally EU/Germany), a data processing agreement (AVV) and BSI C5 or ISO 27001 certifications are key criteria. GDPR compliance should be explicitly documented by the provider. The exact details depend on the industry, size category and customising depth of the specific ERP setup.

How is PLANAT FEPA being further developed?

Cloud ERPs typically receive monthly to quarterly releases automatically. On-premise ERPs have annual major releases with active patch maintenance. Release notes and the roadmap can be viewed at the vendor.

What happens to my data if I cancel PLANAT FEPA?

With cloud ERPs, a good provider guarantees data export in an open format (CSV, JSON, SQL dump). The contract should explicitly regulate the data return obligation, deletion period and format. The exact details depend on the industry, size category and customising depth of the specific ERP setup.

Which support SLAs does PLANAT FEPA offer?

Standard support usually covers weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a response time of around 4 hours. Premium/24x7 SLAs come at an extra charge. With cloud providers, availability SLAs (e.g. 99.9%) are important — check the contract!