Significant impacts – Not just technological ones
SUMMARY
This article outlines the main challenges encountered by finance professionals when adopting Microsoft Power BI.
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ERP Migration: The 4 major challenges for corporate Finance reams
Switching ERP systems is a strategic milestone in a company’s journey, but it brings major challenges for corporate finance teams. While attention is often focused on technical or functional aspects, the specific issues tied to reporting, financial processes, and continuity of analysis are frequently overlooked. The loss of seamless access to historical data, the abandonment or transformation of extra-accounting processes, the disruption of reports directly linked to old data tables, and the lack of flexibility in the early months of the new ERP can quickly create significant friction. These challenges are especially critical in mid-sized companies (100 to 2,000 employees), where Finance plays a central role but often lacks the resources to manage the complexity of the transition.
Challenge #1: Retaining historical financial data from the old ERP
When migrating to a new ERP, historical financial data is often not fully integrated or transferred only in aggregate form, making detailed analysis of past periods difficult. This lack of granularity is particularly problematic for budget comparisons, audits, and trend analyses. Without structured access to this data, finance teams often resort to manual workarounds or maintain parallel copies.
To address this, solutions exist to archive and structure data from the old ERP in a unified environment. By integrating this data into an independent financial analytics model, the same depth of analysis as before can be maintained while providing a solid foundation for combining new ERP data without disruption.
Challenge #2: Abandonment or modification of extra-accounting processes
Extra-accounting processes—such as allocations, commitment management, manual adjustments, or specific management control rules—are often highly customized in the old ERP and unique to each organization. During migration, these processes are sometimes overlooked, simplified, or abandoned because the new ERP doesn’t support them natively.
To minimize this impact, it is crucial to document and maintain these processes outside of the ERP using flexible solutions that can evolve independently of the core system. This approach not only preserves the organization’s business logic but also ensures continued control over month-end adjustments or off-balance-sheet operations.
Challenge #3: Reports connected to old ERP tables
In many organizations, critical financial reports (P&L, balance sheets, ad hoc analyses) were developed directly from SQL tables or views of the old ERP. When switching systems, these connections are broken, and reports must be rebuilt from scratch or delayed until the new ERP is fully operational.
Solutions are available to centralize data from both the old and new ERPs into a single data warehouse or financial model, while retaining reporting in familiar tools like Excel or Power BI. This enables a smoother transition without sacrificing report quality or availability.
Challenge #4:
Relearning an entirely new ERP
Adopting a new ERP can significantly change how financial processes are operated. What was done one way in the old ERP may be completely different in the new one. Previously documented procedures well-adopted by finance teams may no longer apply and must be relearned—often a time-consuming process that could even require hiring new personnel already familiar with the new ERP. This is a costly and risky consequence for a team that was previously well-oiled.
Some solutions allow financial processes to be managed independently of the ERP, preserving institutional knowledge and minimizing disruption to financial operations during the ERP transition.
Conclusion
Migrating to a new ERP isn’t just a technical shift—it profoundly transforms how Finance teams access, analyze, and work with information. To avoid pitfalls like loss of historical data, abandonment of extra-accounting processes, disruption of critical reports, and the rigidity of a new system, it is essential to decouple transactional systems from the reporting model. The SwiftFinance FP&A solution does exactly this by offering a centralized financial analytics model that brings together both historical data from the old ERP and new data from the current system. With a unified data warehouse, common business rules, and native compatibility with Excel and Power BI, SwiftFinance ensures continuity of financial processes and delivers a consistent, stable, and unified view of performance—even during a system transition.
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ERP migration and its impact on Finance teams