An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is the key to integrating different business functions across an organization. Rather than data living in silos, it’s integrated into a single digital space so business platforms such as supply chain, customer relationship and financial management are all accessed from one portal, and the combined data is a single source of truth enterprise wide. The extensive growth of ERP system adoption illustrates its importance to successful businesses.

Why have ERP systems gained such popularity? Because a shared database of information for employees and decision-makers is a direct path to peak levels of business performance.

60 Critical ERP Statistics to Know

The technology, market forces and implementation driving ERP software and its growth is shifting rapidly. Cloud-based tools are opening the platforms to more businesses. Here are some statistics to help you glean insight into trends of ERP software.

ERP Market Statistics

A core system for businesses, ERP tools are driven by market characteristics such as widespread digital adoption, thriving global trade and vast amounts of data that need to be tracked, maintained and analyzed. ERP market statistics show the move toward increased usage and global demand.

  1. The global ERP software market has grown dramatically in recent years, expanding to $48 billion in 2022.
  2. The ERP market is expected to continue to see rapid growth, with forecasts showing it will rise to $96 billion by 2032.
  3. The finance segment captured about 26% of revenue share in 2022. Meanwhile, the human resource segment is expected to grow significantly at a rate of 9% between 2023 and 2032.
  4. Manufacturing, information technology and healthcare are driving a significant portion of ERP market growth.
  5. Large enterprises account for 39% of ERP market share. Meanwhile, the market for small to midsize businesses is expected to grow at an annual rate of 7% through 2025.
  6. The ERP market size in North America is worth over $20 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach nearly $32 billion by 2029.
  7. The Asia-Pacific region is a rapidly growing market for ERP software and is expected to expand at the fastest rate by 2032.
  8. Global market growth is expected to increase at a CAGR of 7% between 2023 and 2032.
  9. In a 2023 survey of IT decision-makers, 62% say digital transformation is a high priority. Meanwhile, 76% say they have heard of composable ERP, and 84% of those respondents planned to invest in composable ERP.
  10. Fifty percent of companies are acquiring, upgrading or planning to update ERP systems soon.
  11. The top three reasons organizations cite for buying new ERP systems are to replace outdated legacy systems, consolidate disparate applications and update to more recent technologies.
  12. The global ERP software market is expected to reach $78.4 billion by 2026.

ERP Implementation Statistics

To execute a successful ERP implementation, companies must have a clear vision of new system requirements to create alignment throughout the organization. Choosing the right vendor and assigning an internal implementation team increases the chance of project success.

Although ERP implementations can be challenging, data and statistics show many companies exceeding and even surpassing implementation efficiency expectations.

  1. A 2023 survey of retailers, manufacturers and distributors found businesses that hired a software consultant to implement their new ERP or business system achieved a success rate of 85%.
  2. Among companies that completed an ERP implementation, 77% said the most critical success factor was institutional leadership support. In addition, 60% said the top skill needed for a successful implementation was effective communication with all stakeholders.
  3. Only about 21% of organizations used a “big bang” approach to implementation, which involved going live with all aspects of the system at the same time.
  4. More than 50% of organizations opted for a slower, more phased approach to implementation by following a set of predetermined steps when moving to a new system.
  5. Small and midsize businesses typically implement an ERP system within three to nine months. The timeline for large businesses is longer, ranging between six to 18 months.
  6. Nearly half of companies completed their projects within their expected timelines. Meanwhile, nearly 31% said the project took slightly longer than anticipated, about 12% said it was completed significantly later than expected and 8% reported it was completed earlier than anticipated.
  7. When projects took longer than expected, the most common reason was technical issues for nearly 43% of companies. For another 40%, an expansion of the initial project scope caused a timeline overrun.
  8. Generalizations about ERP budgets are difficult, but one rule of thumb is to plan for 1% of a company’s operating budget to cover implementation costs.
  9. The average cost per user of an ERP project is $9,000. Although the number of users varies depending on the size of the business, 26% of employees typically use the system on average.
  10. Among organizations that experienced budget overruns, 38% said the reason was because the original staffing for the project was underestimated, nearly 35% said the initial project scope was expanded, and about 34% cited technical issues.
  11. More than a quarter of organizations implemented their software without any customizations. However, nearly 45% opted for moderate customizations and about 21% chose to heavily customize the software to fit their processes.
  12. Nearly one-third of companies communicate about ERP implementation before selecting the product, 56% do it during the selection process and 13% share information right before going live.

ERP ROI Statistics

Organizations use ERP to become more efficient and cut costs. Statistics on ERP return on investment (ROI) highlight the benefits of the technology.

  1. Among organizations that had performed an ROI analysis prior to implementing their projects and had been live for more than a year, 83% said the projects met their ROI expectations.
  2. The most common benefit realized for nearly 91% of companies that had at least one phase of the project live for a year or longer was optimized inventory levels.
  3. Organizations reported additional benefits from their projects, with nearly 78% improving productivity, 77% removing silos, 76% boosting interactions with suppliers, 75% improving compliance and 70% enhancing the customer experience.
  4. A 2023 report found that 66% of organizations said their ERP systems have improved the efficiency of their operations.
  5. Sixty-two percent of survey respondents reported that their ERP systems reduced their costs, with many noting that ERP systems were particularly effective in lowering expenses in purchasing and inventory control.
  6. The top three benefits that businesses said they gained from an ERP system are reduced process time, increased collaboration and a centralized data system.
  7. For midsize companies — revenue under $1 billion — the cost of owning an ERP system is approximately 3% to 5% of annual revenue.
  8. For large companies — revenue over $1 billion — the cost of owning an ERP system is 2% to 3% of annual revenue.

ERP Usage Statistics

ERP adoption by industry varies, and organizations use ERP systems for different reasons. Recent ERP usage statistics provide some insight into current usage trends.

  1. Manufacturing companies are the No. 1 user of ERP software.
  2. Manufacturers represented the largest portion at 47% of companies looking to purchase ERP software.
  3. Following manufacturers, distributors (18%), services (12%) and construction (4%) are the other industries most likely to use ERP software.
  4. In a survey of companies looking to purchase ERP software, 89% identified accounting as the most critical ERP function. Other responses included inventory and distribution (67%), CRM and sales (33%) and technology (21%).
  5. Forty percent of companies identified better functionality as their primary reason for implementing an ERP system.
  6. The biggest influencers in purchasing ERP software were finance and accounting (23%) and IT department employees (23%).
  7. On average, 26% of workers use their company’s ERP software.

Cloud Technology Statistics

Adoption of cloud technology continues to increase worldwide as businesses move from on-premises technology to achieve business efficiencies, on-demand service, network elasticity and expanded network access. Statistics on the increase of cloud technology show the dramatic growth of cloud applications as they relate to the ERP market.

  1. Worldwide public cloud services revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 19%, with global revenues forecast to reach $1.3 trillion by 2027.
  2. The cloud ERP market size grew significantly in 2023 to nearly $50 billion.
  3. The cloud ERP market is expected to continue growing rapidly at a CAGR of nearly 16% to $140 billion by 2030.
  4. More than half (53%) of organizations with ERP software use cloud-based solutions rather than on-premises enterprise platforms.
  5. In a 2023 survey, 95% of companies interested in ERP software said they were open to a cloud deployment model. Meanwhile, more than 50% were also willing to consider on-premises ERP.
  6. A 2023 report shows that about 65% of companies chose cloud-based systems, while about 35% opted for on-premises solutions.
  7. The top reasons organizations didn’t choose ERP cloud solutions were risk of a security breach (32%), integration concerns (25%) and the risk of data loss (19%).

ERP Trends

As business needs become more complex, ERP software is advancing to meet the demand for more customizable features and broader integrations. Current ERP trends illustrate a shift towards greater cloud adoption and intelligent systems that streamline and automate processes.

  1. More than 65% of organizations believe AI is critical to their ERP systems.
  2. CIOs listed predictive analytics and deep learning as the most critical ERP technologies to gain a competitive advantage.
  3. Worldwide spending on IT is expected to reach about $5 trillion in 2024, an increase of nearly 7% over 2023.
  4. Forty percent of businesses surveyed said AI was an important consideration for their ERP application investment, and nearly 16% said embedded AI was a must-have for their ERP software.
  5. A recent survey found that adding AI to some business processes led to dramatic improvement of the organization’s ERP performance. For example, 33% of organizations said AI helped increase their project management metrics.
  6. A 2023 survey in the UK found that 43% of IT decision-makers said they will invest in customer experience software, and 26% planned to invest in ERP.
  7. Thirty-eight percent of organizations say ERP improves their ability to handle changing customer demands.

ERP Challenges

Poor project management, inability to manage implementation costs and duration, internal resistance to new systems, software integration issues and poor data quality are all common ERP challenges. These problems stem from unclear ERP implementation goals, choosing the wrong ERP vendor and purchasing software that's not right for your company.

An ERP system can supercharge your business, but you must choose the right platform and implementation team to avoid becoming another unfortunate ERP statistic.

  1. Data collected over the years on ERP implementations found that 50% fail the first time around.
  2. Most implementations cost three to four times what was initially budgeted.
  3. Implementation can take 30% longer than anticipated.
  4. Fifty-one percent of companies experience operational disruption when they go live.
  5. System modifications needed to improve usability cause overspending 65% of the time.
  6. The top three places ERP systems fall short for users is data accuracy, user experience and analytics.
  7. The two most commonly cited challenges during implementation are insufficient testing and not enough process reengineering.

Choosing the Right ERP Partner

The best ERP partners will offer a suite of services that cover enterprise basics like accounting and human resources — but they also offer applications spanning customer relationship management (CRM), human capital management (HCM), product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain management (SCM), warehouse management systems (WMS) and more.

Cloud-native ERP systems with advanced technologies suit forward-thinking organizations that want access to ERP benefits such as increased efficiencies, cost savings and quick deployment times. Cloud deployment has opened the door for fast-growing organizations of all sizes, making ERP software available for big and small companies.

Grow Your Business With NetSuite ERP

NetSuite is the No. 1 cloud ERP software solution serving small to midsize businesses across all industries. NetSuite is the choice of over 37,000 customers worldwide, offering a cloud-native ERP system with built-in flexibility, commerce-ready applications and data analytics.

Maturing organizations will need more than spreadsheets to track and organize important business information. ERP systems integrate business software from across the company — including CRM, HCM, SCM and more — into one digital ecosystem. The market for ERP continues to grow at a remarkable pace thanks, in part, to the potential ROI, as well as cloud application and integrated machine learning and automation features. While implementation of a new ERP system can be a daunting task, selecting the right ERP partner can cut down on deployment time and eventually return dividends. NetSuite is the top cloud-based ERP platform for small and midsize businesses across all industries.

#1 Cloud ERP
Software

Free Product Tour

FAQ

What is ERP in statistics?

ERP platforms are key for businesses to organize and integrate data from different areas of the company. Rather than existing in silos, data from sales, accounting, customer relationship, supply chain and more all reside in a single digital ecosystem. This enables greater statistical analysis than if you could only perform data dives on single topics. For example, you can explore how disruptions in supply chain impact revenue or examine how new hires affect the bottom line. There are many metrics you can track to monitor business performance using ERP platforms.

What percentage of companies use an ERP?

With the growth of cloud-based ERP platforms, more and more companies are implementing ERP solutions. However, the rate of adoption varies by industry. Manufacturers are the most likely to utilize ERP software. Generally, mid-size businesses that outgrow the limits of basic spreadsheets and entry-level accounting software are more likely to adopt ERP software.

What is ERP in data analytics?

ERP systems blend accounting and operational information beautifully. This opens analysis doors that otherwise would be closed. By combining this data into a single source, you’re able to examine past and present information to help predict future states. Simple-to-read dashboards can serve up visuals to improve understanding on performance and share that insight with executives. ERP platforms can help you clean, structure and mine your data for impactful insights.

What does ERP system mean?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are a suite of software platforms for your business. ERP platforms provide tools for things like accounting, human resources, supply chain, warehouse management and more. But rather than data from these disparate areas staying separate, it’s all integrated into one digital ecosystem. This allows you and your team to access all this information from a single sign on. It also allows you to see across departments and perform more robust data analysis. You can analyze how process improvements and other efficiency, sales or human resources efforts affect revenue and growth. Many of the largest and best-run businesses in the world use ERP tools. Thanks to cloud-based software and scale-as-you-grow accessibility, more small and mid-size businesses are taking advantage of ERP, as well.

The State of ERP

More and more companies are taking advantage of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. And more companies are leveraging its capabilities to find greater business success, improve processes and interact with customers. Its market size is expected to near $50 billion annually by 2025. Dive deeper to learn more about trends, market growth, implementation and challenges.

ERP Market

7%

Expected annual growth between 2023 and 2032

ERP Implementation

85%

of organizations report their ERP projects as successful when hiring a software consultant to assist with implementation

Return on Investment

95%

of companies saw process improvement from ERPs

Usage

No. 1

Manufacturing companies are the most likely adopters of ERP

Cloud Technology

53%

of enterprises with ERP use cloud-based solutions

ERP Trends

85%

of IT developers say AI and machine learning will replace business processes

Challenges

Top 2

challenges of implementation are insufficient testing and not enough process reengineering