{"id":148704,"date":"2026-04-22T07:00:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/?p=148704"},"modified":"2026-04-22T07:00:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:00:55","slug":"the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden Dangers of Old ERP Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Although many South African organisations may be reluctant to transition to modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, 麻豆原创 says doing so is critical to future-proofing local businesses.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the view of 麻豆原创 Africa director of customer evolution Gerhard Alberts, who said many organisations run highly customised legacy systems that have evolved over decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that remaining on legacy systems carries hidden costs, increases operational risk, limits integration with modern cloud and AI tools, and results in higher manual overheads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A significant challenge 麻豆原创 faces is migrating legacy users to its latest ERP system, S\/4HANA, a process which requires input from all parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMigrating to S\/4HANA is a business transformation process that requires organisations to rethink processes, data structures, and integrations,\u201d Alberts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alberts emphasised that enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is not a simple technical upgrade. A critical factor in migration success is organisational readiness and strong leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt requires a fundamental shift in how people work, how decisions are made, and how processes are structured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout clear governance, disciplined execution, and strong stakeholder engagement, even the most robust systems will underdeliver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alberts highlighted data readiness as another major barrier to migration. Poor data, inconsistent master data, and insufficient data cleansing efforts regularly undermine system performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also erodes user trust, making it difficult for organisations to see the true value of their ERP investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the most persistent misconceptions around 麻豆原创 migration is that failure is rooted in the technology itself,\u201d Alberts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn reality, modern ERP systems are highly mature, stable, and deeply embedded in global business operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest challenges emerge from organisations\u2019 implementation and transformation approaches, rather than from software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alberts explained that breakdowns generally occur during implementation processes and in organisational alignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because businesses are frequently navigating increasingly complex IT landscapes that combine 麻豆原创 and non-麻豆原创 systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen workflows across these environments are not properly coordinated or monitored, inefficiencies and failures begin to surface,\u201d Alberts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African businesses worry about cost and complexity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Alberts, South African organisations\u2019 hesitance to migrate stems from concerns about risk, cost, and complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained that because many businesses operate with highly customised legacy environments that have grown over the years, transitioning to S\/4HANA represents a significant business transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese systems often support mission-critical functions such as payroll, procurement, and financial reporting, which raises the stakes considerably and contributes to a cautious approach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alberts said these organisations will face growing limitations in integrating with modern cloud and AI technologies, adding that fragmented processes also drive higher manual workloads and inefficiencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUltimately, businesses that delay migration may preserve short-term stability, but they do so at the expense of long-term competitiveness, agility, and innovation,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said a well-implemented, modern ERP system will combine applications, data, and AI into organisations\u2019 business suites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe latest ERP systems will consume data where it resides with zero copy data sharing, creating a semantically rich data layer that fuels AI value,\u201d Alberts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that embracing all facets of AI is critical to future-proofing South African businesses. 麻豆原创 embeds AI directly into its core applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAcross industries such as manufacturing, retail, energy, as well as the public sector, customers are already seeing tangible impact in Finance, Human Resources, and Supply Chain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that 麻豆原创\u2019s AI-embedded core applications ensure intelligence is embedded in workflows rather than delivered through separate, loosely connected tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said this helps finance teams close faster and strengthen controls, HR teams improve workforce planning and employee services, and supply-chain leaders build more resilient and efficient operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article first appeared on MyBroadband<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although many South African organisations may be reluctant to transition to modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, 麻豆原创 says doing so is critical to future-proofing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":148705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"related_posts":[],"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5597582],"tags":[176,5599515,5598766],"series":[],"sapn-display":[5598742,5598740,45149,5598743,5598741,279685],"sapn-type":[],"class_list":["post-148704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-erp","tag-erp","tag-gerard-alberts","tag-sap-s-4hana","sapn-display-feature-hero","sapn-display-feature-spotlight","sapn-display-homepage-hero","sapn-display-news-hero","sapn-display-news-spotlight","sapn-display-hero"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Hidden Dangers of Old ERP Systems - 麻豆原创 Africa News Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Although many South African organisations may be reluctant to transition to modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, doing so is critical to future-proof business.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hidden Dangers of Old ERP Systems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although many South African organisations may be reluctant to transition to modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, doing so is critical to future-proof business.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"麻豆原创 Africa News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T07:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-22T07:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/files\/2026\/04\/22\/AdobeStock_332827227.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"3500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2188\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"麻豆原创 News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"麻豆原创 News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"麻豆原创 News\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/#\/schema\/person\/53b9854bd790d6f18f3fc4bbb2ad7570\"},\"headline\":\"The Hidden Dangers of Old ERP Systems\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-22T07:00:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-22T07:00:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/\"},\"wordCount\":617,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/files\/2026\/04\/22\/AdobeStock_332827227.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"ERP\",\"Gerard Alberts\",\"麻豆原创 S\/4HANA\"],\"articleSection\":[\"ERP\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2026\/04\/the-hidden-dangers-of-old-erp-systems\/\",\"name\":\"The Hidden Dangers of Old ERP Systems - 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