How to Extend the Life of Your ERP and Still Put Finance in Control in 2025

In 2025, companies are taking a cautious approach toward technology investments. That’s not surprising, given the uncertainty of the current global economic climate. For finance teams hoping to upgrade their systems this year, delayed ERP projects might sound like bad news, but if replacing your current system is not in the cards for 2025, there are still ways to enhance the overall value of your ERP software right now.

ERP systems typically have a useful life of software between five and 15 years. Although ERP systems remain stable, supported, and trustworthy, organizations often make the decision to upgrade based on several factors.

Rapidly growing companies, for example, often need systems that can perform at scale and handle higher transaction volumes or more sophisticated business processes. Companies that expand into new lines of business often require new functionality that was unnecessary at the time that they implemented their ERP system. Businesses seeking acquisition often step up to a new system to meet the expectations of prospective buyers.

For many, though, the decision to move to a new ERP system is primarily about modernization and efficiency. Older technology often fails to perform the same tasks with the same efficiency as newer software can. Newer software offers more integration options, and the underlying technology enables improved performance. This is especially true now that cloud technology has become easily accessible and affordable. Furthermore, technology has been evolving at a blinding pace in recent years. Organizations eager to keep up look toward forward-thinking ERP systems and supporting technology to stay competitive.

Legacy software often lacks the many small but significant improvements made possible by tighter integration with desktop tools, mobile apps, and browser-based interfaces. A recent study with insightsoftware and Hanover Research reveals over half of organizations allocate at least 30 hours monthly to manual reporting tasks and ERP system enhancements could dramatically reduce that number. For every small improvement that saves a worker 15 minutes a day, the organization gains over 60 hours of productivity annually. Multiply that by the number of users accessing your information, and all of those small improvements can add up to substantial improvements in productivity.

So how can your organization extend ERP life and achieve some of those productivity gains right now without making a big-ticket investment in an entirely new system? Here’s how to get started.

First, Define the ERP Enhancements You Need

The first step is to establish a list of the areas that need improvement. What are your organization’s pain points? What are the inefficiencies?

• Do you delay business decisions because the flow of information moves too slowly?

• Do you rekey information manually from one system to another?

• Do errors occur in the process, resulting in downstream mistakes?

• Do tedious manual tasks consume staff time on a routine basis?

• Do you call in subject matter experts to “put out fires” that you might have otherwise avoided?

For most organizations, the answer to most of these questions will be “yes,” or at the very least, “yes, to some extent.” While it’s easy to imagine that a new ERP system will resolve many of those problems, a number of other options are available that can ease some of that pain and dramatically improve efficiency and effectiveness throughout your organization.

The process begins with identifying specific problems, prioritizing them, and outlining potential solutions. For example:

Building that kind of list can take significant time with an opportunity for multiple stakeholders to provide input. In other cases, when you define the overall scope more narrowly, the process can move faster.

If the focus is on meeting the needs of the finance and accounting department specifically, for example, then it should be relatively easy to arrive at a well-defined list of areas that need improvement. Once that task is complete, it’s time to explore potential solutions in further detail. Here are some of the options you may want to consider.

1. Explore Third-Party Enhancements

Most of the ERP software released within the last two decades offers some kind of development tool or application programming interface that makes it possible to develop functional add-ons to extend the software’s out-of-the-box capabilities. That has spurred an entire industry of innovative software companies that provide extended capabilities ranging from credit card processing and electronic data interchange to complex add-on products that provide sophisticated capabilities for specific industries.

If you are looking to address a specific need such as e-commerce or executive dashboards, these kinds of third-party enhancements can provide significant value. As digital transformation accelerates and customer expectations evolve, many businesses are expanding their capabilities to stay competitive—whether by adding new sales channels or improving real-time visibility into operations. In many cases, the fastest and most cost-effective approach to that problem is to seek out independent software vendors that have pre-built integrations to your existing ERP software.

Executive dashboards, likewise, have become increasingly popular at a time when business leaders are hungry for accurate, up-to-the-minute information. Market volatility is high right now as countries around the world react to tariffs and rapidly changing trade relationships. Most ERP systems have out-of-the-box reporting tools that can answer questions for a typical month-end close, but struggle with the types of custom questions that naturally come up when navigating market uncertainty. This can be a fruitful area for investment, especially from the perspective of the finance and accounting team, which relies on data to steer the business forward.

2. Review Existing Processes and Capabilities

It's worthwhile to periodically review existing business processes and practices to determine whether or not there are better ways of getting the job done. The month-end close process, for example, can be agonizing for finance and accounting teams, who often resign themselves to working late into the evening when it's time to close the books.

This process is even more challenging when the workforce operates remotely. Operating with a virtual workforce presents some unique issues, and for many finance teams, it means changing some of the fundamental ways in which they get the job done.

The Remote CFO’s Guide to Closing the Books from Home

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Sometimes you can address evolving needs by leveraging some of the existing capabilities in your legacy ERP software. If your current system supports the addition of user-defined fields, for example, that may be helpful in storing and tracking data points that are not otherwise available within your ERP.

By reassessing existing processes, looking for areas that can be improved, and exploring some of the tools that can help achieve efficiencies, business leaders have the potential to deliver high value for the organization with the right tactical investments. In our example of the month-end close process, that could take the form of self-service reporting that empowers frontline finance users to develop and modify reports without outside help from IT experts. Or it could be eliminating wasteful manual processes that require exporting data from the ERP system or other software, importing them to Excel, and reformatting them to suit a specific purpose.

Communication and collaboration are also key areas to explore, especially with teams that work remotely. We have all become familiar with online meetings, but group communication tools like Slack and online project management aids like Asana and Monday are likewise easing the burdens of operating as a virtual team. In the case of reporting tools, report distribution capabilities are extraordinarily helpful, provided that their design includes good security measures.

3. Free Up the Flow of Information

Perhaps the single most effective means of increasing the value of your current ERP system and extending its useful life is to upgrade your reporting capabilities. In an unpredictable business environment, timely access to information has become critically important. Not only does it help business leaders spot problems as soon as they appear, but it also supports better, more informed decisions.

You can’t overstate the value of real-time data. During these uncertain times, access to up-to-the-minute information continues to be essential for business agility and resilience. When new tariffs are proposed, for example, finance teams need to be able to quickly run new what-if scenarios and create new forecasts based on the most accurate, up-to-date information. At a time when active trade negotiations can have daily impacts on product pricing models, the ability to get information quickly makes a huge difference.

For finance teams, the ability to create reports with real-time information is critical. In a recent study, insightsoftware and Hanover Research found a staggering 95% of organizations generate either all or mostly static reports. With a static PDF, you cannot transform and analyze information on the fly, and custom reports typically require support from IT experts to generate.

Spreadsheet Server from insightsoftware makes it possible to build sophisticated reports and analyses directly inside Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheet Server connects to more than 140 unique ERP systems, adding specialized functions to Excel that make it possible to access ERP data in real time – including the ability to drill down to transaction-level data – without a detailed understanding of the underlying data structures within the ERP system. Because Spreadsheet Server uses the native security mechanisms built into your ERP software, you can be confident that access to critical business information is secure.

Spreadsheet Server also includes mechanisms that support report distribution, including scheduled reports, on-demand (push) report distribution, read-only or read/write access for specific users, and more.

Finance and accounting personnel intuitively understand Excel and prefer it as the tool of choice for building reports and worksheets. With Spreadsheet Server from insightsoftware, users in finance and accounting have the kind of full control that they are accustomed to when working with Excel, but with the added benefit of linking directly to their ERP data.

It’s a common refrain that we hear over and over again from business managers: “We know that we have a lot of data in our software systems, but we have trouble getting access to them in a meaningful way.” Very often, new ERP implementations aim to facilitate the free flow of meaningful information throughout the organization. If a new ERP system is not in the cards for your business at this time, you can significantly enhance the value you get from your current system with an upgrade to your reporting tools.

Not only can purpose-built reporting tools provide the ERP system enhancements you’re looking for, but they can also set the stage for a smoother migration when you are ready to move to a new system.

Because Spreadsheet Server integrates with a multitude of different software packages, you can also more easily and smoothly transition to a new ERP system in the future. Instead of completely rewriting your entire library of reports using a new (and unfamiliar) reporting tool, you can transition your current reports with relative ease.

At insightsoftware, we’re committed to helping finance teams overcome the challenges today’s market presents with solutions to elevate your team’s capabilities, improve efficiency, and drive better business outcomes. If you're looking for ways to extend the life of your current ERP system and achieve greater agility and resilience in your business, request a free demo of Spreadsheet Server today.