Greetings,

Enterprise resource planning systems are crucial to organizational success, and choosing the right system can significantly boost productivity and avoid years of headaches. Managing and learning new ERP systems -- and migrating your business to a new system -- can be a considerable challenge, but fortunately, there are experts and firms that have successfully made the switch and are willing to share their experience to help guide yours.

Workday is a leader in the space, with its ERP being named a leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises for the fourth consecutive year. Focused on delivering the next generation of ERP for the AI era, Workday is able to understand your business, predict needs and help reimagine the way work gets done. The Workday ERP creates a single source of truth for finance and HR by seamlessly integrating with external systems, unlocking faster and more granular financial insights, and increasing operational efficiency by streamlining essential HR and finance functions.

Also in this edition:

• CFOs face challenge of maximizing ERP system value
• Consolidate ERP systems to streamline ops, boost efficiency
• How CFOs can approach ERP migration hurdles
• Agentic AI seen as driver of ERP transformation
• Workday's AI-driven ERP aims to "bring order to chaos"

Workday has been named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises for the fourth consecutive year. The recognition highlights Workday's continued excellence and leadership in providing enterprise resource planning solutions tailored to service-centric organizations, as well as its strong track record of customer satisfaction and innovation. "Service-centric businesses are under pressure to move faster, stay lean, and lead with insight," said Andrew Kershaw, a Workday group general manager in the office of the CFO. "That requires connecting people, money, and operations all in one system. We believe this recognition from Gartner reinforces the strength of our approach. With a unified data core and agentic AI capabilities, Workday is helping organizations unlock new revenue, optimize performance, and drive profitable growth."

Ready to speed up decision-making and free-up time for strategy? Read the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud ERP Finance report and see why Workday has been named a Leader: Read Report »

CFOs and finance teams face significant challenges during ERP implementation, primarily due to a disconnect between finance and IT. Broad, hard-to-measure goals and an overemphasis on meeting go-live deadlines often result in the system launch overshadowing the achievement of meaningful financial improvements. CFOs are encouraged to define clear and measurable transformation goals for ERP projects, with Deloitte research highlighting the importance of moving beyond vague ambitions and focusing on specific finance improvements to ensure ERP systems deliver the intended results.

Multinational food wholesaler Metro AG was struggling with delays and cost overruns in its ERP transformation until Florian Waldmann, former CFO of Metro Austria, took the lead. Waldmann implemented a comprehensive program handbook, established a proactive project management office and introduced key performance indicators to track progress. These actions reduced the program's duration by 30% and saved millions of euros. Waldmann emphasizes the importance of direct C-suite access, team buy-in and fact-based decision-making for successful ERP transformations.

Campbell's is bracing for increased costs and supply chain disruptions stemming from tariffs and reciprocal trade actions affecting its Rao's portfolio. Leadership acknowledges uncertainty regarding the scale of these tariffs for fiscal 2026, due to the rapidly changing trade environment. To counteract these headwinds, the company is implementing measures such as strategic inventory management, alternative sourcing, supplier partnerships and targeted pricing actions aimed at mitigating the direct impact of tariffs on its operations and portfolio.

ERP systems intended to democratize data often reinforce CFOs' control, limiting operational managers' access to real-time insights. This dynamic can delay decision-making and hinder innovation, as operational teams rely on manual processes outside the ERP system. Ghassan Kabbara, a former information chief and consultant with experience leading ERP transformations, suggests that a neutral leader, such as a CIO or technology chief, should oversee ERP implementations to strike a balance between financial oversight and operational agility.

Consolidating ERP systems offers organizations significant advantages, including reduced costs, streamlined data management and improved operational efficiency. By minimizing the number of ERP platforms, companies can decrease complexity, accelerate reporting and enhance decision-making. While situations may exist that justify multiple ERPs -- such as regional compliance or specialized business needs -- the general trend shows that fewer systems lead to better financial health and greater agility.

Migrating financial data to a cloud-based ERP system can be challenging but offers significant long-term benefits, writes Lee An Schommer, a chief product officer and general manager of FP&A at a N.C.-based software firm. Schommer offers key tips for a successful migration: thorough planning with robust data backup, strategic data assessment and ensuring data accessibility; selecting the right ERP software by considering business needs, integration capabilities and user interface; and empowering employees through early and comprehensive training.

Agentic AI has the potential to transform ERP systems into dynamic decision-making engines, but most companies are stuck in the pilot phase due to organizational and technical challenges, according to Bain & Company. Bain recommends that chief information officers prioritize high-value use cases, decide whether to build or buy solutions and leverage partnerships to scale agentic AI.

Workday is evolving its ERP platform by transitioning from a traditional application model to a dynamic, cloud-native system designed to handle not just people and money, but also internal operations, applications and data. Jannie Malan, Workday South Africa's solution consulting manager, emphasized that the firm's next-generation ERP architecture is open, governed, extensible and secure. This evolution empowers executives to build and manage intelligent, composable systems that enhance business efficiency and adaptability, positioning Workday as both a system of record and a system of action in the modern enterprise landscape.