Executive Summary
Since the early 1960s, ERP systems have provided the central source of truth for functional departments in finance, HR, logistics, manufacturing, projects, and more. These systems revolutionized back-office departments and their processes with high-volume transactional integrity. Originally built on centralized mainframe and dumb terminal systems, with each new computing architecture these programs were rewritten to support advances in client-server, three-tier architecture, cloud, and microservice and serverless systems.
Yet with each new architectural advancement, users were forced into expensive upgrades only to regress in functionality, waiting patiently for new releases to address old problems. With technical debt mounting, these systems not only hindered business transformation but also retarded the pace of innovation. As a result, frustrated users and leaders relegated these mission-critical ERP systems to the list of legacy technologies slated for maintenance or replacement.
