ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

ERP is management software that integrates a company's core processes — orders, inventory, finance, production — into a single system, replacing work that's otherwise scattered across multiple tools.

Picture a 30-person trading company still running purchases, sales, and client reconciliation on Excel: as order volume grows, version chaos, slow reconciliation, and numbers that don't match across departments start piling up — the classic signal that it's time to evaluate an ERP. Taiwanese SMEs adopting ERP roughly have three paths: a packaged solution using the vendor's existing modules, configured rather than built, costs about NT$300k-800k and takes 2-4 months, suited to companies whose processes already resemble industry standard; a custom path that substantially reshapes process logic on top of a package stretches to about 4-8 months; and if it also needs to connect e-commerce platforms, POS, or existing finance systems, that's system-integration territory, potentially running NT$1.5M-6M+ and 6-12 months. A common misconception is assuming ERP adoption means replacing every system — the more common and more prudent approach is integrating the one or two most painful data gaps first, running the ERP alongside existing systems, validating, then expanding scope. If a company has fewer than 10 people and processes simple enough for a single spreadsheet, ERP's ROI is usually low — that budget is often better spent on a more urgent problem, like order intake or inventory staffing, and better matched to the company's actual scale.