ERP Cost Control

At Engleman Associates, Inc. (EAI) we are committed to providing IT professionals and business executives with clear, experience-based insights into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. In our latest educational video, “What if the Cloud ERP Vendor Fails,” Mark Engleman addresses a critical yet often overlooked risk of cloud-based ERP systems: the potential failure of the vendor. This article and video are based on expertise gained in over 25 years and 1,000 ERP projects at EAI.

Cloud ERP is frequently marketed as a seamless, service-oriented solution. However, its accessibility hinges entirely on the vendor’s operational stability. No company is immune to failure, and cloud ERP vendors are no exception. When internal mismanagement or external pressures overwhelm a vendor, the result can be sudden insolvency—often with minimal warning. This leaves users without access to a mission-critical system that can take a year or more to replace, potentially disrupting operations and supply chains on a broad scale.

In this concise video, we explore the mechanics of such failures, the absence of advance notice, and the severe implications for businesses left without a failover plan. We also highlight why relying solely on a vendor-controlled system without a robust recovery strategy is a risky proposition.