Reducing ERP customization for faster growth
- Christiano Gherardini
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
If you’ve been in ERP long enough, customization used to feel like a badge of honor. “Look at all the creative things we can make it do!”
But over the years, I’ve watched many organizations learn the hard way that reducing ERP customization is often the real path to efficiency.
Custom code that once looked clever now creates delays, upgrade challenges, and unexpected errors, especially when the person who built it left the company five years ago to start a winery in Oregon.
I see this pattern all the time, especially as leaders take inventory of their systems at the end of the year. They start asking the same questions:
Why is everything taking longer?
Why are upgrades so painful?
Why does every small change trigger a chain reaction?
And almost always, the root issue isn’t the ERP itself… it’s the accumulated weight of years of customizations.
That’s why reducing ERP customization has become one of the most impactful modernization moves heading into 2026. It’s not about limiting what your system can do.
It’s about removing the friction that slows your business down.
When companies shift from code-heavy architectures to adaptable, extensible, cloud-based environments, everything changes: agility increases, innovation accelerates, and long-term costs finally stabilize.
Customization had its moment. But adaptability is what wins now — and the organizations recognizing that shift will be the ones entering 2026 with systems designed to scale, not systems held together by workarounds and tribal knowledge.
Why customization slows you down
What once felt like the quickest way to tailor your ERP often becomes the very thing that slows your business down. Over time, custom code creates a structure so rigid that even small changes become a major disruption.
Legacy ERP systems encouraged customization because it seemed like the fastest route to solving a business problem:
Need a new field? Write code.
Need a new approval route? Write code.
Need to match an outdated process no one uses anymore? Definitely write code.
The problem is that every one of those custom solutions introduces friction... friction that compounds quietly until it becomes impossible to ignore.
Finance teams often feel it first. Month-end closes take longer because reports rely on custom logic that breaks when data structures change. Operations teams feel it in workflows that are so tightly scripted that a single exception requires IT intervention. IT feels it everywhere — in the late-night fixes, the brittle integrations, and the fear of what will happen during the next update.
Forbes highlighted this exact issue in its 2025 analysis of ERP modernization challenges, noting that “cluttered customizations” are one of the top reasons organizations hesitate to migrate or upgrade:
Manufacturers often encounter this when a single customization written years earlier prevents an entire module from upgrading cleanly:
Distributors face the same challenge when pricing logic becomes so entangled with custom code that IT can’t adjust it quickly without ripple effects.
Service organizations see it when ticketing, billing, and scheduling have been tied together in ways no one can now unwind.
Year-end is when these issues surface most visibly.
As teams prepare budgets, forecasts, and strategic plans, they suddenly realize how much their ERP is slowing them down; not because the software is outdated, but because the layers of customization sitting beneath it have hardened like cement.
Why do ERP customizations cause so many problems?
Although customizations are meant to solve pain points, they often create even bigger challenges behind the scenes.
The more a system deviates from its core design, the less agile it becomes, especially when upgrades rely on the ERP behaving a certain way.
Customizations often bypass the ERP vendor’s intended architecture.
They rewrite processes the system was never designed to support, overriding core logic and altering data flows.
This works… until the vendor changes the underlying structure.
A minor Microsoft update can turn a small customization into a major outage.
A second issue is dependency risk.
Most organizations can point to at least one customization built by someone who is no longer there.
With no documentation, no context, and no one who fully understands the logic, these customizations become “untouchable.” IT teams tiptoe around them because modifying or removing them could break the system.
Customizations also multiply ERP technical debt.
Each one adds a maintenance burden that grows over time. Even if the code still works, it becomes harder to support, harder to update, and harder to integrate with modern applications.
When dozens or hundreds of customizations accumulate, the ERP becomes brittle, and the risk grows exponentially.
This is exactly why reducing ERP customization is such a powerful modernization lever.
It creates a cleaner architecture with fewer failure points, fewer upgrade conflicts, and fewer surprises during critical business cycles.
Is it better to customize or configure an ERP system?
Modern ERP strategy requires a shift in mindset. Instead of rewriting the system to match legacy processes, organizations gain more value by configuring the system and extending it in modular, non-disruptive ways.
Configuration uses supported ERP tools — workflows, permissions, notifications, data structures, posting rules — to tailor processes without altering the core.
These configurations are stable, predictable, and most importantly, upgrade-friendly.
Customization rewrites or replaces the ERP’s logic. It introduces risks and long-term constraints that most organizations don’t anticipate until they try to change something.
And just to be clear, reducing customization does not take away your industry-specific capabilities.
You can still fine-tune Business Central to match your unique processes by using supported configuration and extensions that keep the system stable and upgrade-ready.
But businesses still need industry fit; sometimes deeply:
Manufacturers need production nuances.
Distributors need specialized pricing and logistics rules.
Service providers need scheduling logic.
Nonprofits need donor, fund, and grant tracking.
This is where Business Central excels.
Organizations can achieve industry-specific capabilities using extensions, which plug into the ERP without modifying its core. Extensions function like apps layered on top of Business Central, giving organizations the flexibility they need without the constraints associated with traditional ERP customization.
This gives companies the confidence that they can fine-tune processes, meet regulatory requirements, and adjust their systems to match industry best practices, all while keeping their ERP safe, upgradeable, and ready for what’s next.
How Business Central balances control and agility
Business Central makes it possible to innovate without destabilizing your ERP environment. Instead of modifying the core system, organizations use extensions built in AL to add functionality on top of the application.
These extensions maintain a clean separation between what Microsoft supports and what the organization needs to tailor, providing:
Upgrade protection: The base application remains untouched, making updates significantly easier.
Industry alignment: Organizations still maintain the specialized workflows they need to operate competitively.
Future adaptability: As processes evolve, extensions can evolve with them, without jeopardizing system stability.
This model is supported directly by Microsoft, which outlines recommended extension patterns and scenarios here.
As a result, companies maintain both control and agility. They get an ERP that supports their uniqueness without the pitfalls of customization-heavy architectures.
From custom code to connected cloud
Moving to the cloud doesn’t just shift where your ERP is hosted — it transforms how you enhance and extend it.
The Power Platform allows organizations to develop apps, workflows, and dashboards without writing traditional custom code. You can replace legacy screens with Power Apps, automate multi-step business processes with Power Automate, and build advanced analytics dashboards with Power BI.
These tools expand what the ERP can do while keeping the core system clean and stable.
They also significantly reduce dependency on niche developers so teams can innovate more quickly with tools they can actually manage.
Cloud connectors make integrations cleaner and more secure. Instead of relying on custom integration code that breaks during updates, modern APIs create reliable, durable connections between systems.
This modernization also positions companies to take advantage of AI-driven capabilities. As highlighted in my Copilot overview, AI thrives in environments with unified, upgradeable, and low-complexity architectures.
All of this becomes dramatically easier when organizations begin reducing ERP customization and replacing it with cloud extensibility.
How can I reduce ERP technical debt before moving to the cloud?
Addressing technical debt upfront is one of the smartest moves an organization can make before a modernization or migration. Every outdated customization removed today is one less obstacle tomorrow.
This begins with a customization audit:
What exists?
Why was it built?
Is it still needed?
Does Business Central offer this natively today?
Can this be rebuilt as an extension?
Should it be retired entirely?
Many organizations are surprised to learn that substantial portions of their legacy customizations already exist in Business Central as standard features.
Others discover that Power Apps or third-party extensions offer a much cleaner way to solve the same problem.
This is why reducing ERP customization is one of the fastest and most effective ways to eliminate technical debt.
It clears the path for a smoother cloud migration and sets companies up for continuous improvement rather than continuous repair.
How reducing ERP customization shapes modern ERP in 2026
Looking ahead, successful organizations are embracing architectural simplicity and modular extensibility.
The old approach of “customize everything” is rapidly giving way to a more sustainable model built on configuration, extensions, cloud services, and low-code tools.
This shift is about agility. Businesses need ERPs that evolve with them, not systems that require major redevelopment every time the market shifts.
Business Central supports this approach with:
Cloud-first architecture
Seamless, predictable updates
Built-in intelligence and AI readiness
Extension-friendly design
Deep integration with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform
And for organizations with unique industry requirements, Business Central’s extensibility model makes it possible to tailor processes and capabilities without compromising upgradeability. You still get the ERP you need; just built the right way.
Companies entering 2026 with adaptable, low-friction ERPs will outpace competitors stuck maintaining complex, heavily customized legacy systems.
Why this matters to business leaders right now
Modernization isn’t just a technology initiative — it’s a strategic lever for competitiveness. When ERPs become cleaner and more adaptable, organizations gain speed and resilience.
The benefits are significant:
Faster decision-making
Clean, real-time data
Lower IT burden
Fewer system failures
Better alignment between systems and strategy
Ability to embrace AI and automation
A clear path for scaling operations
The reality is simple: reducing ERP customization reduces cost, risk, and rigidity.
Organizations that begin this work now will enter 2026 with momentum, not maintenance.
What’s next
Modernization doesn’t mean starting over. It means moving forward with an ERP strategy built on adaptability, not complexity.
If you're ready to rethink how your ERP supports growth — and how reducing ERP customization can set your business up for a stronger 2026 — I’m here to help.
About the Author
Christiano Gherardini, CEO of Turnkey Technologies, applies cutting-edge technology to help B2B mid-sized enterprises optimize their data and processes to achieve more in less time with less expense.
A thought leader in the Microsoft space for nearly 30 years, Chris and his team have enabled hundreds of businesses to achieve their goals and attract sustainable growth.