Future-Ready ERP Design: The Hidden Cost of Customization

If you’ve been through an ERP upgrade, you probably remember the moment you realized it was going to be harder than expected.

The system worked.

The business had grown.

And suddenly every customization felt like a speed bump.

When leaders talk about a future-ready ERP, this is usually the experience lurking in the background.

I’ve seen organizations make smart customization decisions early on, only to discover years later that those choices quietly limited flexibility, increased costs, and made change feel riskier than it needed to be.

This post is about why that happens — and how to think differently about ERP design before history repeats itself.

It’s also the first in a short series where I’ll walk through how small design choices compound over time, and what it really takes to build a future-ready ERP that can evolve without constant rework.

Why does ERP customization increase costs over time, even if it solves immediate problems?

Most ERP customization decisions are made under pressure. A process doesn’t quite fit. A deadline is looming.

The business can’t stop.

Customization feels like the fastest path forward.

And in the moment, it often works.

The problem is that customization is rarely treated as a long-term decision. It’s framed as a tactical fix, not a strategic commitment.

But ERP customization costs rarely stop at implementation. Every customization introduces something that has to be maintained, tested, documented, and revisited during upgrades.

What starts as a one-time solution becomes:

• Ongoing maintenance work

• Extra testing during upgrades

• Increased dependency on specific people or partners

• More hesitation every time change comes up

Customization rarely shows up on the original budget the way it shows up on year three, four, or five (which is usually when someone asks why the “one-time fix” is still being paid for).

I’ve explored this trade-off in more detail in my post on Dynamics 365 Business Central customizations.

Over time, these ERP customization risks turn what should be routine system care into ongoing effort just to maintain the status quo.

How does ERP customization affect upgrades and long-term system stability?

ERP systems are designed to be upgraded. That’s how they stay secure, compliant, and relevant. Heavy customization changes that equation.

Every customized process has to be:

• Retested

• Revalidated

• Sometimes rebuilt

This is where many teams begin to experience real ERP upgrade challenges.

I’ve yet to meet a team that says, “The upgrade went smoothly because of all our customizations.”

Over time, upgrades stop feeling routine and start feeling risky. Teams delay them. Leaders avoid them. The ERP becomes stable only because no one wants to touch it.

That’s when stability quietly turns into stagnation.

At that point, many organizations find themselves stuck; not because the ERP failed, but because the system design made change harder than it needed to be.

Why “Good Enough for Now” ERP Decisions Last a Decade

ERP decisions have long tails. A customization added to solve today’s problem often becomes tomorrow’s constraint.

Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework makes a point that applies directly here: long-term technology success depends on making strategy-driven decisions before jumping into execution. Short-term fixes that aren’t anchored in long-term intent tend to lock organizations into patterns that are hard to undo later.

Five or ten years down the road, leaders are left dealing with long-term ERP costs that trace back to decisions that once felt small.

What does “future-ready ERP” actually mean in practical, non-technical terms?

“Future-ready ERP” gets thrown around a lot, so let’s define it without buzzwords.

A future-ready ERP:

• Keeps the core system stable and clean

• Supports change without redesigning everything

• Allows the business to grow without forcing ERP license growth

• Makes upgrades feel manageable, not disruptive

This approach aligns closely with what so many organizations are looking for: a clean core ERP, where core processes remain standardized, and flexibility happens as a result of design choices rather than permanent modification.

A future-ready ERP is less about what the system can do today and more about how easily it can adapt tomorrow.

ERP isn’t just a back-office recordkeeper anymore. In well-designed systems, it mirrors how the business truly operates and how it needs to change, a shift highlighted recently in Forbes Tech Council. 

Whether that works in practice depends far more on design choices than on any individual feature.

Is it better to customize Business Central or adapt processes around it?

This is where many leaders start weighing ERP flexibility vs customization.

Customization isn’t inherently bad.

But it should be deliberate, limited, and weighed against long-term impact.

Too often, customization becomes the default response instead of one option among many.

Customization feels like control — right up until the system starts controlling how willing you are to change it.

Adapting processes where it makes sense and solving edge needs outside the core system tends to support a more sustainable ERP modernization strategy.  

It also helps teams reduce ERP customization over time, which keeps the system closer to its standard upgrade path and reduces long-term cost and risk.

In many cases, that means moving custom requirements out of the ERP itself and into tools like Power Apps or other external applications.

With this approach, teams can capture custom workflows, improve user experience, and reduce overall license costs, without increasing the long-term complexity or upgrade risk inside Business Central.

The ERP stays focused on what it does best, while the surrounding tools handle interaction and variability.

With platforms like Business Central, the real question becomes whether customization is truly necessary, or whether it’s simply the most familiar option.

How do ERP design decisions today affect total cost of ownership five or ten years out?

Total cost of ownership isn’t just licenses and implementation fees. It also includes:

• Ongoing maintenance

• Upgrade effort

• Support complexity

• Training time

• Risk exposure

Customization quietly affects all of it.

A single customized process often pulls more people into the ERP than originally intended.

What starts with a small group expands to supervisors, reviewers, and approvers.

As more people need access to custom processes, license requirements expand, contributing to ERP license growth that wasn’t part of the original plan.

This is why ERP design decisions are also financial decisions — particularly for leaders focused on cost control and long-term planning.

The Shift from Customization to Connection

ERP systems were never meant to do everything. They excel at:

• Financial accuracy

• Process control

• Data integrity

They struggle when asked to serve every interaction or user type directly. When ERP is forced to stretch too far, complexity and cost increase.

A more sustainable approach is to reduce ERP customization by keeping ERP as the system of record and solving interaction challenges through connected tools. This preserves flexibility while protecting the core system.

Where This Series Is Going and Why It Matters Now

ERP design decisions are being made in a very different environment than they were even a few years ago.

Margins are tighter.

Software costs are rising. Businesses are expected to adapt faster, often with fewer resources and less tolerance for disruption.

That’s why flexibility has become more than a technical preference — it’s a financial and operational strategy.

The ERP systems that hold up best over time are usually the ones designed intentionally, with an eye toward change rather than short-term fixes.

Here, we’re laying the foundation for that mindset.

Coming up next, I’ll explore how connected experiences can replace traditional ERP customizations, improving usability while helping organizations control long-term costs.

Then the final blog in this series will bring those ideas together and show how future-ready ERP design comes to life through connection, without ripping and replacing core systems.

After this series, we’ll bring these ideas to life in a live webinar, “From Customization to Connection: Designing a Future-Ready ERP Without the Long-Term Cost”, with a practical walkthrough of how this approach works in real systems.

If you’d like more perspective on how these patterns show up in real organizations, feel free to reach out – I'd love to chat!

About Matt Keyes

Matt Keyes is a visionary leader, founder, and CTO of Key Partner Solutions. With over two decades of experience in Microsoft Dynamics, he is passionate about driving digital transformation for businesses through innovative technology solutions.

His deep technical expertise, combined with a strategic approach to solving business challenges, makes him a sought-after thought leader in the industry.

Today, Matt is focused on empowering companies to unlock new levels of growth and efficiency through cutting-edge software development and consulting.

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn.