contributors
Brett Wells
Vice President, Business Technology Leader
December 7, 2025 • 3 Min Read
Organizations are under constant pressure to make the “right” ERP decisions—decisions that will streamline operations, connect data, and support growth. But here’s the catch: too many companies end up locked into monolithic ERP platforms that seemed like a safe bet—until the business changes, and the system can’t keep up.
As your business grows, merges, spins off units, or enters new markets, you don’t want your tech stack to hold you back. A program-agnostic approach allows you to shift direction, adopt new capabilities, and evolve your architecture without blowing up your foundation.
In the context of ERP, being program agnostic means designing your architecture so it can work across platforms—SAP, Oracle, Workday, Microsoft Dynamics, or whatever the future brings. You still need strong governance, consistent data definitions, and clear operating models. But those foundations should be ERP-neutral and built to span systems.
Why This Matters
By being program agnostic, you are designing with the future in mind, making decisions today that don’t box you in tomorrow. You’re not placing all your bets on a single system. Instead, you’re choosing tools and processes that prioritize flexibility, interoperability, and long-term agility.
It requires a new level of discipline. You need to think through your integration architecture, agree on common data models, and build governance that transcends individual systems. Done right, this creates a foundation that can flex with your business instead of breaking under pressure.
There’s also the question of value. Program-agnostic strategies can reduce the total cost of ownership by avoiding massive re-platforming efforts and enabling phased upgrades. You get more life out of your existing systems while preparing for whatever’s next.
Where Companies Get Stuck
Despite good intentions, we see organizations hit the same roadblocks again and again. Three patterns show up the most:
If your business processes depend on handoffs between teams, manual data entry, and constant exception handling, it doesn’t matter how great your ERP system is—you’re leaking time and efficiency. The result? Long cycle times, low touchless processing rates, and growing backlogs.
Everyone Works Their Own Way
When departments or regions run ERP migrations independently, alignment breaks down. Without standardized processes and clear decision rights, progress stalls—only 32% of cloud projects meet all objectives. The result? Higher costs—data silos can inflate operations by up to 30%—and weak governance, with 80% of initiatives expected to fail by 2027.
And, when your organization can’t rely on a single source of truth, people default to Excel. The result is fragmented metrics, inconsistent definitions, and reporting that can’t be trusted. Without a unified KPI model and clear data standards, your dashboards are just noise.
By staying program agnostic, you stay in control. You keep your options open. And you give your transformation a real shot at success.
When it’s time to move, move ready.
We’ve seen these ERP roadblocks time and time again, and at RGP, we focus on the full picture, not just one ERP technology. We don’t sell software; we don’t push a single vendor. Instead, we act as your independent control tower and value office.
That’s why we’ve created RGP Streamline 360™, an assessment that reviews ERP readiness beyond a single ERP platform. It reviews your people, processes, and technology so when you’re ready to make your next ERP move, we make sure you move ready.