Cloud ERP for Manufacturing Companies: What to Plan First

What Is Cloud ERP and Why Are Manufacturers Moving to It?#

Cloud ERP is a business information system that runs on servers outside the company and is accessed over the internet, rather than being hosted on the company's own servers inside a production facility. For a manufacturer, this means that production, purchasing and finance managers can all work from the same data on orders, inventory and work orders, whether they are in the office, on the shop floor or traveling between sites. Moving to this kind of cloud software for manufacturing companies is therefore usually driven by growth, expansion to new locations or the need to unify scattered records.

The reasons manufacturers move are usually practical, not fashionable. An on-premise ERP tends to age: hardware needs replacing, security patches must be installed manually, and remote access requires separate VPN connections that have to be maintained on their own. Every time the company opens a new production line, warehouse or branch, the same questions resurface. Cloud software for manufacturing companies simplifies these steps because the provider manages the infrastructure, leaving the company free to focus on configuration that reflects its actual processes.

For manufacturing, it matters that inventory, work order and capacity data are visible in real time regardless of shift or location. When a production manager spots a bottleneck on one line, purchasing can immediately check whether it stems from missing materials, and finance can see whether it affects planned deliveries. Without a shared system, this information travels by email, spreadsheets and phone calls, which slows response times and raises the risk of coordination errors between departments.

The decision to move is therefore not just a technical matter for the IT department — it concerns management's responsibility for continuous production. An ERP outage during an active shift can halt material ordering, work order issuance and shipping documentation. Before choosing a provider, the company must therefore decide who owns the scope of the project, who carries the risk during migration, and how to verify that the new system actually covers everything the previous one did.

When Does It Pay Off for a Manufacturer to Move ERP to the Cloud?#

Migration pays off most once the existing system stops keeping up with the company's growth — as it expands to new sites, adds users, or when maintaining its own hardware becomes costlier than renting cloud infrastructure. The right moment isn't tied to a calendar year, but to whether the current system still reliably supports core processes.

The warning signs are usually visible well before the system actually fails. Reports for management take longer because data has to be assembled manually from several records. New hires are hard to train because the interface no longer matches how work actually happens on the floor. Individual plants or branches exchange data through spreadsheet exports instead of a shared system. Any one of these signs alone isn't a reason to migrate, but together they show the system no longer matches the scale of the business.

The right moment often coincides with a business event rather than a contract renewal date. Opening a new plant, acquiring another company or entering a new market are all occasions when it makes sense to set up data and processes in the cloud from the start, rather than bolting a new unit onto an old system afterward. The same applies when a company is preparing for an audit or entering public tenders, where buyers expect data traceability and clearly documented processes.

It's best to schedule migration outside peak production periods, so that adjustments made during testing don't affect delivery deadlines to customers. It's advisable to migrate one plant or one set of processes first, then expand to other locations based on what was learned. This phased approach reduces the risk that a configuration error spreads across the whole company, while giving management a chance to confirm the system actually supports their processes before all of production depends on it.

Which Data and Processes Must Be Sorted Out Before Migration#

Before migrating, the company first needs to map out what data actually exists, where it's stored and who enters and updates it. Cloud ERP can only be configured sensibly once it's clear which processes are documented in the existing system and which ones run on verbal agreements between staff or in separate spreadsheets the official system never sees.

Special attention goes to item masters, bills of materials, suppliers and customers, because errors in this foundational data are simply carried into the new system during migration rather than fixed. Duplicate records, obsolete items or inconsistent naming of the same product across sites mean reports after migration are no more reliable than before. Cleaning up master data isn't an administrative formality — it's a precondition for the new system to show an accurate picture of inventory and orders at all.

Before signing a contract with a provider, it's worth preparing a review that covers at least the following:

Separately, a test environment needs to be set up where configurations are verified before go-live. The test environment must not contain real personal data belonging to customers or employees — only sample records that allow functionality to be checked without putting privacy at risk. Only once the underlying data is cleaned and the test environment is ready can the actual migration of work orders, orders and financial records into the production system begin.

• an inventory of existing data sources (ERP, spreadsheets, paper records)
• a list of undocumented processes staff carry out routinely
• a review of bills of materials and item masters across each plant
• a list of external systems the new ERP must connect to via API
• a definition of user roles and access rights by department
• a decision on which data must stay accessible during the migration itself

Data Security and Compliance in Cloud ERP#

The security of a cloud ERP system depends mainly on how access control and the separation of development, test and production environments are set up — not on whether the system runs in the cloud or on a company's own server in a production facility. Cloud infrastructure is neither inherently more nor less secure than on-premise — what matters is how access rights are configured, how changes are logged and how quickly security patches are applied.

For manufacturers, what matters beyond general security is who has access to sensitive data such as recipes, cost calculations, supplier contracts and employee personal data. Access rights should be assigned by role rather than by individual, so that when an employee leaves there's no need to rebuild the entire permission structure from scratch. Change tracking should also be maintained separately, so that in the event of a dispute or audit it's possible to establish who changed which record and when.

For projects that require a higher level of reliability, Epix and its specialist partner network draw on standards established in the information security field and on certified specialists within the delivery structure. This means security architecture, access control and incident response procedures are planned according to proven practices rather than one developer's judgment. For a manufacturer, this lowers the risk that moving to the cloud opens a security gap that didn't exist before.

How Does Migrating an Existing ERP System to the Cloud Work?#

Migration happens in phases, from review to handover. First, the existing source code, architecture, infrastructure and data are reviewed, then it's decided which parts move into the new environment, which get rebuilt, and which processes get simplified along the way. Only after this review can the scope and sequence of migration be realistically assessed, rather than estimated from a superficial description of the current state.

In manufacturing, it's common for the existing system to have never been fully finished, or to have been upgraded over the years by several different providers. In such cases, it's possible to take over an existing or unfinished system, review it, and continue development rather than rebuilding everything from scratch. This matters especially when the company's current system already holds years of historical data on orders, inventory and suppliers that it doesn't want to lose.

For larger migrations, a project manager is appointed to coordinate between provider and client, team responsibilities are clearly defined, along with phase deadlines and a way of communicating and reporting on progress. The client knows at every point which phase the project is in, which data has already moved, and which processes are still waiting on testing. Without this framework, multi-month projects quickly lose track of what's actually been done.

Before go-live, test scenarios are prepared covering core processes: issuing a work order, receiving materials, inventory reconciliation and issuing shipping documents. Testing is both manual and automated, with an independent QA team, separate from development, brought in where needed so issues are caught before production users encounter them. Acceptance testing follows criteria agreed in advance, so it's clear exactly when the system is ready to go into production.

Impact on Employees and Changes to Work Processes#

The move to cloud ERP is felt most by the employees who use the system every day: line operators, warehouse staff, purchasing and accounting. Involving them from the preparation stage directly affects whether the rollout succeeds, since it's only in actual use that you see whether the new interface matches how people really record work orders, material receipts and scrap.

A system change also means a change in habits that have often become fixed over years on the shop floor. Employees used to paper work orders or spreadsheets won't adopt a new system just because it's technically better. Training tailored to each role is needed, along with a support period where employees can ask questions that only come up during actual work, not during a system demo.

When rolling out a new system, it's worth addressing the following employee-related aspects in advance:

Documentation, access and passwords are also part of the handover, and they must stay with the client, not just the provider. This lets employees who take on the role of internal system administrator manage users, access rights and basic settings on their own after the project ends, without depending on the external provider for every change. Clear documentation matters especially in manufacturing, where staff rotate between shifts and departments more often than in office-based roles.

• role-based training (production, warehouse, purchasing, finance)
• deciding who becomes the internal system administrator after rollout
• a parallel run period for critical processes in both old and new systems
• clear instructions for the most common work tasks, tailored to each shift
• a dedicated channel for reporting issues during go-live, separate from general support

Connecting ERP with Other Systems in Manufacturing#

Cloud ERP rarely stands alone — in a manufacturing company it needs to connect with customer relationship systems, document systems, management reporting and often equipment on the production line itself, so these connections need to be defined before choosing a solution, not after it's already in place.

Companies that are still planning a move to cloud ERP often already have one of the established systems — such as Pantheon, Business Central or SAP — in place for finance and core operations. The new ERP needs to be able to take over data from such a system, or run alongside it for a while, until all processes are confirmed to have transferred correctly. Connections between systems run through APIs, letting data flow automatically between systems without manual file exports and imports.

Before choosing an ERP system, a manufacturer needs to determine at minimum how it will connect to:

Every added connection expands the scope of the project, so it should be treated as its own workstream with its own testing, not a side configuration tacked onto the main rollout. It's also important to decide which system is the single source of truth for each piece of data after go-live — stock levels or item pricing, for instance — so the two systems don't accidentally contradict each other. A clear separation of data ownership prevents discrepancies between reports from different departments after migration.

• the customer relationship management (CRM) system
• the document system for contracts, delivery notes and quality certificates
• equipment on the production line, such as sensors and occupancy meters
• the business reporting tools management relies on
• the inventory control and warehouse management system

Maintenance, Support, and Response Times After Go-Live#

After a cloud ERP system goes live, the company needs to decide who takes over monitoring, troubleshooting, security updates and further development, because the project isn't finished at launch — the system gets used daily, across every shift, in production, and needs continuous upkeep and a clearly agreed way of handling issues, not just support for the first few weeks.

Issues and change requests are best prioritized so that whatever actually stops production gets handled first, not whatever was reported first. A full outage or a failure of a core function demands immediate top-priority attention, while a minor issue with no business impact can wait for the next regular release. Response times for each priority level are set in the support contract, matched to how critical the affected processes are for that specific company.

Prioritizing issues typically includes:

Every change, even a small one, goes through review and testing in a separate test environment before it reaches production. This prevents an unverified change from directly affecting live work orders or inventory. For a manufacturer, this means upgrades don't put ongoing production at risk, while the system can still evolve gradually alongside the business, without needing another major migration a few years down the line.

• outage – the system or a core part of it is down, handled with top priority
• disruption – the system runs, but a specific function doesn't
• minor issue – a small problem with no business impact, scheduled into the next release
• request – a change or enhancement, scoped and scheduled by agreement

How to Choose a Provider for Cloud Software for Manufacturing Companies#

Choosing a provider for cloud software for manufacturing companies comes down to checking whether it can cover the full scope of the project — from analyzing existing processes through development and integrations to post-launch support — or only a single technical piece that the company will later have to connect to the rest of the system on its own.

ERP migration projects in manufacturing typically call for a wide range of skills: solution architects who can design connections between systems, developers for customizations, data specialists for migrating historical records, and security specialists to configure access. Epix and its specialist partner network assemble teams based on each project's needs, rather than running every project through the same small group regardless of its scope.

When choosing a provider, it's worth checking at least the following:

It's also worth confirming the contract clearly states that source code and data belong to the client, and that documentation, access and passwords are part of the handover at project close. Without this, the company stays dependent on the provider even for the most basic changes once the engagement ends, which limits its long-term ability to manage its own cloud ERP system.

• whether the provider can take over an existing or unfinished system, not just build from scratch
• how development, test and production environments are kept separate
• who handles support after go-live and how issues get prioritized
• whether the source code and data remain the client's property
• how the provider approaches reviewing and cleaning existing data before migration
• whether it's possible to migrate one plant first and expand to others afterward

What Determines the Price of a Cloud ERP Project?#

The price of a cloud ERP project is only set after reviewing requirements, scope and technical complexity — there's no flat rate, since projects differ by the number of user roles, the number of systems that need connecting, and the security and availability requirements involved. A short analysis typically comes first, breaking the scope into workstreams that can each be estimated and delivered separately.

The price depends mainly on:

A short upfront analysis lets the scope be split into workstreams that can be run and evaluated separately — migrating financial data, connecting a document system, and rolling out mobile access for shift supervisors, for instance, as independent phases. This lets management make decisions incrementally, based on which workstreams matter most for the business, instead of having to approve an entire project without a clear view of its scope.

For a manufacturer, the final price is therefore the result of decisions made during the analysis phase, not a random estimate from a provider. A clearly defined scope, an agreed level of post-launch support and a known process for handling changes let project costs match management's expectations, while leaving enough room to adapt if, during delivery, a process turns out to need a different solution than originally planned.

• the scope of functionality and number of user roles
• how many existing systems need connecting and what their APIs look like
• whether it's a new build or a takeover and upgrade of an existing system
• the volume and condition of the data that needs migrating
• security, audit trail and compliance requirements
• the level of post-launch support and agreed response times