Finance leaders are carrying more pressure than the systems around them were designed to support.
Close still takes too long. Reporting still depends on workarounds. Visibility still breaks down across departments. At the same time, leadership wants faster answers, better forecasting, and more confidence in the numbers behind important decisions.
That is the backdrop behind many ERP modernization conversations right now.
A new Total Economic Impact study from Forrester, commissioned by Microsoft, adds useful third-party validation to that discussion. For finance leaders evaluating modernization, the value of the study is not just in the ROI headline. It is in how clearly it reflects the cost of running a business on processes and systems that no longer scale cleanly.
Why finance leaders are paying attention
The study highlights:
- Over 200% ROI over three years
- Less than six months payback
- Significant time savings across finance operations
Those findings are useful, especially for leadership teams trying to build an internal business case.
They also land at a time when many finance organizations are already absorbing the cost of fragmented operations. Manual reconciliation is still consuming time. Spreadsheets are still bridging process gaps. Reporting cycles are still slower than leadership wants. The business keeps moving, but finance often has to work too hard to create clarity.
That is why studies like this matter. They help put structure around a problem many teams already feel every month.
What we see inside real evaluation cycles
Across the organizations we work with, the patterns are familiar:
- finance teams spending too much time preparing data instead of using it
- spreadsheets sitting in the middle of critical processes
- reporting delays that affect decision speed
- handoffs across departments creating rework
- manual effort increasing as the business grows
These issues usually build over time. Teams adapt. Workarounds become standard. Extra labor gets accepted as part of how the business runs.
Eventually, that operating model starts to put too much pressure on finance.
That is often the point where leadership starts asking harder questions:
- Are we carrying more complexity than we should?
- Is the current environment still supporting the business well?
- What is it costing us to keep operating this way?
Where the cost is really showing up
In many companies, the cost of complexity is spread across the business rather than isolated in one place.
It shows up in:
- extra time spent reconciling reports
- duplicated work between teams
- delays caused by disconnected systems
- slower decisions because the underlying data takes longer to trust
- added labor around broken or outdated processes
That last point matters.
Many businesses respond to operational friction by hiring around it. More people get added to support reporting, order flow, approvals, or data cleanup. The business keeps moving, but the cost structure gets heavier and the operating model gets harder to scale.
That is part of what makes modernization a finance issue, not just a systems issue.
What the Forrester study confirms
When read through an operating lens, the study reinforces three outcomes that matter to finance leadership.
Finance gets time back
Not in a vague productivity sense. In real hours recovered from repetitive processing, manual reconciliation, and work that should no longer require this much effort.
Visibility improves
Better system alignment supports stronger reporting, planning, and cross-functional decision-making.
The business case becomes easier to communicate
ROI and payback benchmarks give finance leaders a clearer way to frame investment discussions with the CEO, board, and leadership team.
That is what makes the study useful. It helps connect operational drag to business value in a way that is easier to communicate internally.
What the study does not answer
What the study cannot tell you is whether those results are achievable in your environment without understanding the conditions underneath them.
It does not answer:
- whether your workflows are well defined or built around years of workaround logic
- whether data ownership is clear across teams
- whether leadership is aligned on what needs to improve first
- whether your organization is ready to support change
- whether a new platform will actually simplify the business or just recreate the current state in a different system
These are some of the factors that shape whether modernization produces value on the timeline leadership expects.
What finance leaders should evaluate alongside ROI benchmarks
Before applying outside ROI benchmarks to your own business, it helps to get specific about a few operating realities.
Where is workflow friction coming from
Is the issue system limitation, process design, handoff complexity, or some combination of the three?
How much manual effort has become normal
What is the team compensating for every month that should no longer be part of the job?
What is the cost of delay
How is slower reporting, weaker visibility, or inconsistent information affecting the pace and quality of leadership decisions?
How ready is the business to operate differently
A stronger platform creates opportunity, but the value depends on adoption, ownership, and execution across the business.
These questions give context to benchmark data. Without them, even strong ROI figures stay theoretical.
Where Crestwood fits
The study offers market validation. Crestwood helps leadership teams apply that perspective to the reality of their own business.
Our role is to help companies understand where friction is coming from, what that friction is costing, and what leadership should evaluate before making a modernization decision. That includes separating process issues from system issues, surfacing risks that are easy to underestimate, and helping teams think through modernization as an operating decision that affects the whole business.
That matters because most ERP risk does not begin with the software. It begins earlier, in unclear workflows, disconnected ownership, and operational habits the business has simply learned to live with.
A more useful next step than another benchmark
For finance leaders in the middle of this evaluation, the next step is usually not more vendor content.
It is a clearer picture of the current environment.
That is the purpose of our Modernization Decision Framework Workshop.
The workshop is designed to help leadership teams evaluate:
- where workflows, handoffs, and reporting are creating friction
- whether the underlying issue is process, system, or both
- where operational drag is adding cost or risk
- what leadership needs to clarify before moving toward ERP modernization
The goal to make the decision clearer.
That is often what finance leaders need most at this stage: a practical way to connect operational reality, business impact, and the path forward.
The bottom line
The Forrester study is a useful input for finance leaders evaluating ERP modernization. It gives the market credible proof around payback, efficiency, and operational value.
The harder and more important question is how those findings apply to your business.
That starts with getting clear on where time is being lost, where complexity is adding cost, where visibility is limited, and what leadership needs from the next phase of the business.
Once those pieces are clear, the modernization conversation gets much more productive.
Explore the next step
If your leadership team is weighing ERP modernization, our Modernization Decision Framework Workshop can help you assess the operating realities behind the decision before you commit to the wrong path.
You will leave with a clearer view of:
- where friction is affecting performance
- what the business should evaluate next
- how to think about modernization with more confidence
Get Your Free ERP Assessment | Explore Our Services | Learn More About Crestwood
Connect With Us: X | LinkedIn | Contact Us
More Resources: Acumatica ERP | Business Central | Blog Home
© 2025 Crestwood Associates. All rights reserved.
