The two vendors join a crowded top-right quadrant alongside familiar names such as SAP, IFS, Infor, and Epicor, underscoring a year defined by innovation and acceleration in AI-driven automation.

No vendors were added or dropped from this year’s report, but the positions have shifted dramatically, with this year’s report featuring no Challengers or Visionaries – just Leaders and Niche Players.

Arguably, this is a sign of a market reaching a critical inflection point, as ERP systems evolve from transactional engines to intelligent orchestration platforms.

The Definition of an ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises

A cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) for product-centric enterprises supports and automates operational activities across manufacturing, distribution, and supply chain sectors.

These systems serve as the backbone of modern product-driven organizations, connecting HR, manufacturing, logistics, and finance, while enabling the scalability and agility that global operations demand.

Vendors in this market deliver not only the infrastructure and core ERP applications but also continuous updates, platform extensions, and the AI-driven intelligence increasingly expected by enterprises.

Gartner Magic Quadrant Leaders

As the name suggests, Magic Quadrant Leaders are the top-performing vendors that demonstrate the strongest vision for how cloud technology and AI can enhance ERP systems, paired with the ability to execute at scale.

This year’s leaders are:

• Oracle (Fusion Cloud ERP)
• Microsoft
• SAP (Cloud ERP)
• IFS
• Oracle (NetSuite)
• Epicor
• Infor

Oracle (Fusion Cloud ERP)

Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP maintains its place at the top of the Leader tree for 2025.

The platform was praised for its breadth of capabilities and its AI Agent Studio, which allows customers to design and orchestrate custom AI agents.

Oracle’s strong presence across manufacturing, finance, supply chain, and HCM is underpinned by a unified data model and enhanced Redwood user experience.

Gartner highlights the company’s complex corporate capability coverage and agentic AI innovation as key differentiators, while noting that support quality and pricing complexity remain areas for continued improvement.

Microsoft

Microsoft remains a dominant leader through its Dynamics 365 platform, leveraging the power of Copilot-driven AI agents for process automation and supplier communications.

Gartner highlighted Microsoft’s integrated cloud stack – uniting Azure, Power BI, and Copilot Studio – as a defining strength. With its global reach and multi-language support, the platform continues to scale effectively across industries.

However, Gartner advised enterprises to carefully assess customization complexity and industry coverage, particularly for manufacturing-heavy deployments that depend on ISV extensions.

SAP (Cloud ERP)

Formerly known as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, SAP Cloud ERP continues to stand tall among Leaders.

In particular, Gartner spotlighted its Joule AI framework, which expands conversational and agentic AI across the suite.

SAP’s broad functionality – from PLM and supply chain to sustainability management – remains a core strength.

Yet, Gartner warned of adoption challenges among large enterprises and portfolio complexity that can make navigating SAP’s ERP lineup difficult.

IFS

IFS’ strong industry depth and an accelerating AI strategy helped the vendor move from Visionary to Leader in 2025.

Its flagship IFS Cloud solution combines enterprise asset management, field service, and manufacturing execution capabilities under a composable, unified platform.

Gartner highlighted IFS’s composability and automation capabilities as standout features, but cautions that ongoing ownership changes and partner support consistency require close evaluation.

Oracle (NetSuite)

Oracle NetSuite moved from Challenger to Leader in 2025, reflecting its continued expansion and ecosystem strength.

Gartner praised NetSuite’s ability to support rapidly scaling midmarket organizations and its analytics-led approach, which is powered by Oracle EPM and analytics warehouse integration.

The vendor’s SuiteSuccess vertical expansion and increasing use of the Redwood design system enhance usability and industry depth. Still, Gartner noted that NetSuite’s manufacturing depth and agentic AI maturity lag behind larger enterprise offerings.

Epicor

Epicor retained its position as a Leader with its Epicor Industry ERP Cloud, including Kinetic and Prophet 21.

Gartner praised Epicor’s robust AI roadmap, highlighting its Prism AI Agent, which enables natural language interactions and agentic automation designed specifically for midsize enterprises.

However, the analyst noted that Epicor’s focused approach may limit its appeal for very large or cross-industry enterprises.

Infor

Infor impressed with its industry-specific CloudSuites, offering preconfigured process templates and deep vertical coverage.

The report emphasized the vendor’s Infor Velocity Suite, which packages GenAI, process mining, and RPA tools to drive faster customer value realization.

However, despite these strengths, the vendor has had a noticeable slide down the Leader quadrant since 2024. Arguably, this is due to its portfolio complexity and reliance on diverse partners, which can make solution mapping more challenging for multinational organizations.

Gartner Magic Quadrant Niche Players

This year’s Niche Players remain consistent, each carving out success in targeted markets:

• Plex, by Rockwell Automation
• Priority Software
• SAP Business ByDesign

Plex, by Rockwell Automation

Having been named a Niche Player last year, Plex continued to serve as a trusted choice for midsize manufacturers in 2025, blending its Smart Manufacturing Platform with integrated MES and QMS capabilities.

However, Gartner cautioned that global coverage and non-manufacturing functionality remain limited, and some users cite support responsiveness as an area for improvement.

Priority Software

Priority remains a go-to ERP option for cost-conscious small and midsize manufacturers, particularly in EMEA. Gartner commends its fast implementation timelines and strong integration capabilities via open APIs and low-code tools.

Its conversational AI features and automatic delivery-planning functions demonstrate a commitment to innovation, even if its AI maturity trails market leaders. Gartner also noted its regional focus and partner reliance may constrain expansion beyond core markets.

SAP Business ByDesign

Like Oracle, SAP also boasted two appearances in the 2025 report. Unfortunately, SAP Business ByDesign could not break out of the Niche Players quadrant.

Gartner believes that the platform remains a stable, midmarket-focused ERP suite known for its reliability and integration with SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).

However, SAP’s decision to delist the product for new customers in 2026 raises concerns over its long-term roadmap.

A Final Takeaway from the 2025 Cloud ERP Magic Quadrant

The 2025 Magic Quadrant confirms what many in the ERP space have long anticipated: AI has officially taken center stage.

Across leaders and niche players alike, Gartner highlights agentic AI as the next major leap, with vendors embedding AI agents to automate supplier management, demand planning, and financial reconciliation.

As Gartner noted in the report:

“By 2027, 60 percent of customers replacing ERP applications will select software for the platform and business process orchestration capabilities as critical requirements, along with transactional capabilities, in order to deliver more-tailored outcomes.”

That orchestration capability, powered by AI and composability, will define the next generation of ERP modernization.

See how the latest report compares to last year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises 2024.

For more Gartner Magic Quadrant coverage, check out the following articles:

• Gartner Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) 2025
• Gartner Magic Quadrant for Conversational AI Platforms 2025
• Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation Platforms (SFA) 2025

In addition to the annual SAP Sapphire, it has rebranded and expanded its SuccessConnect event, so practitioners, partners, and execs can keep their finger on the pulse.

At this year’s event, that pulse raced, with many massive announcements including AI agent advancements, a new engagement platform, and much more.

Celebrating the event’s many headlines, Muhammad Alam, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, SAP Product & Engineering, said:

Our announcements today demonstrate the power of SAP Business Suite, where AI, data, and applications come together in an experience to propel smarter decisions, faster execution, and scalable transformation.

That suite envelops the enterprise, yet its customer experience portfolio is a key cornerstone.

Given that, here’s a rundown of the event’s biggest news, with extra emphasis on CX.

1. SAP Introduces “Role-Aware” AI Assistants

SAP has announced the next step in its Joule and AI agent journey: role-aware AI assistants.

These assistants partner with a person in a specific business role to support them in fulfilling tasks across the SAP Business Suite.

In doing so, they spot tasks the employee needs to accomplish and tap AI agents to get the job done, configuring, orchestrating, and managing them.

SAP also unveiled an array of new Joule Agents to support these Assistants in getting those role-specific tasks done.

For instance, it gave the example of a People Manager Assistant, which may evoke a People Intelligence Agent to isolate and solve compensation anomalies and similar issues.

Critically, the assistants complete tasks that cross various SAP systems, breaking down silos.

The company’s next move is likely to have them operate across SAP and third-party systems that customers often integrate with.

In the future, the Assistants in Joule may even perform new tasks based on specific brand goals and engage in self-reflection. After all, that’s the future for AI agent technology.

2. SAP Launches Business Data Cloud Connect

The SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) Connect is the next big launch from the event. It links with third-party, partner platforms to “enable a bidirectional flow of business-ready data products”.

In other words, the tech giant will work with adjacent tech providers to build bridges from their platforms to the SAP Business Data Cloud, enabling better data sharing and cross-platform AI agent applications.

With zero-copy sharing, SAO ensures data stays securely in its systems, yet is accessible from other tech solutions, to preserve business context with copies.

Databricks and Google Cloud are the first big-name brands to partner on SAP BDC Connect. However, the tech giant promises that more will soon follow.

3. SAP Engagement Cloud Is the Big Customer Experience News

The big customer experience news from SAP Connect 2025 is the debut of the SAP Engagement Cloud, which the company describes as a “unified system of engagement”.

Aligned with the SAP Business Data Cloud, it aims to unify data from customer-facing departments and orchestrate communications that cross marketing, sales, and service.

While it’s likely to sit in the marketing department, who may use it to run cross-channel campaigns, service teams may – for example – use it to trigger proactive messages based on data signals that indicate the customer has an issue. They may even employ the platform’s native Joule Agents to turn these insights into such actions.

In this sense, SAP aims to unify departments with the SAP Engagement Cloud, helping them share technologies, align CX initiatives, and think further beyond their functional domain.

Brands can now register to participate in a limited beta and get early access to the solution, which will become generally available in 2026.

4. SAP Customer Loyalty Management Expands Its CX Portfolio

SAP Customer Loyalty Management is another significant addition to the SAP CX portfolio, targeting retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies.

Teased in June, the solution centers on a “loyalty profile”, which empowers end-customers with a place to track rewards, view entitlements, and redeem personalized offers.

Businesses may run analytics initiatives across these profiles, with embedded metrics that allow them to track the performance of loyalty promotions, programs, and activities.

They may also create new loyalty initiatives on the platform, share gifts with customers across channels, and develop shared loyalty programs with partners.

Now, SAP does already offer a loyalty management solution: Emarsys Loyalty. Yet, by spinning up a new solution, SAP makes its capabilities more accessible to brands that don’t want all the bells and whistles of a full-scale customer experience platform.

The solution is set to reach general availability next month.

5. Another New Solution: SAP Supply Chain Orchestration

Before getting into the other major CX announcements, SAP notably announced yet another solution: SAP Supply Chain Orchestration.

With embedded Joule agents, working with a live knowledge graph, it detects real-time risks to supply chains and orchestrates an appropriate, coordinated response, with prioritized actions.

The solution takes data from SAP Business Network and the SAP Business Data Cloud to monitor “every tier of the supply chain”.

Indeed, it links closely to SAP Business Network to contextualize detected risks and notify the relevant parties – across planning, procurement, logistics, and manufacturing – which may be impacted.

Interestingly, Supply Chain Orchestration may also boost customer experience, helping increase visibility into stock and when goods may become available.

SAP expects the solution to become generally available in the first half of next year.

6. New Joule Agents for Service, Sales, and Commerce Teams

SAP has unleashed many new Joule agents across its portfolio. However, three of the most notable impact service and sales teams.

First is the Digital Service Agent. It offers conversational customer service across digital channels, business portals, and e-commerce platforms. It interacts by leveraging customer conversation context, history, and knowledge base data without needing to pre-configure intents.

Interestingly, it integrates with SAP workflows, which stretch beyond the front-office and into back- and middle-office SAP systems for more expansive resolution flows. That’s its differentiation.

For sales, a new Quote Creation Agent transforms email quote requests into “ready-to-send” quotes and orders, which sales and order management teams can review, edit, and pass on.

Finally, a Catalog Optimization Agent updates and optimizes product data to enhance the “accuracy and agility” of merchandising.

Other new Joule agents span finance, spend management, and HR.

7. SAP Unveils a Customer Self-Service Agent for Utilities

Alongside the Digital Service Agent, SAP has announced a Utilities Customer Self-Service Agent.

The solution integrates directly with SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions, so it utilizes data not only in a CRM or CDP, but broader customer context. That may include contract, tariff, product details, consumption data, etc.

Moreover, the Utilities Customer Self-Service Agent, which comes part-and-parcel with SAP for Utilities solutions, hopes to address specific industry pain points, including market regulations, prosumers, and beyond.

The Agent acts like a Joule agent – so can shift between systems – will reach general availability later this quarter.

8. SAP Integrates Its CX Portfolio with WalkMe

SAP proved ahead of the observability trend when it acquired WalkMe for $1.5MN last year.

The solution overlays an enterprise’s tech stack and offers visibility into how applications are performing and the workflows that run between them.

In doing so, it surfaces inefficiencies, suggests fixes, and recommends where businesses can build better workflows. On this last point, it may also spotlight opportunities for AI agent deployments.

Since the acquisition, SAP has integrated WalkMe with its broad suite. Its latest move is integrating it with SAP CX, allowing customer-facing teams to leverage the solution without IT involvement and disrupting current business flows.

Ultimately, SAP hopes to provide its CX customers with more guidance on using its solutions more effectively and automating new processes.

As such, they may recognize new opportunities to better automate support requests, accelerate onboarding, boost data accuracy, and more.

The integration will be generally available this quarter, and businesses can leverage an embedded version for free. However, a full, customizable WalkMe Premium solution will come at a cost.

9. SAP Jumps on the Revenue Intelligence Bandwagon

Many analytics platforms, like Gong, have shifted to become revenue intelligence solutions, emphasizing their capability to help decipher what drives a business’s revenue.

SAP has embraced this shift, announcing a Revenue Intelligence application in SAP Business Data Cloud, so that sales teams can better understand their sales pipeline and customer health. That comes not only in the form of static insight but also recommendations that help manage deal risk, accelerate the deal cycle, and uncover new opportunities.

This underscores a much more significant shift in business reporting. Analytics tools no longer surfacing insight; they’re prescribing actions on the back of those data points.

10. Meet the New-Look SAP Ariba

To finish, let’s step back from CX and consider SAP Ariba. It has a long history, dating back to the 1990s, yet SAP is rolling out the next generation of Ariba solutions for source-to-pay.

These solutions include many new capabilities, such as a simplified user interface with a central SAP Ariba launchpad that provides clear navigation, surfaces to-do items, and spotlights insight.

There are also new AI tools to assist users with tasks like reviewing contracts, analyzing bids, and generating supplier summaries.

Additionally, SAP Ariba now includes automated sourcing, enhanced 360-degree supplier profiles, and a new central intake management feature.

However, perhaps the most significant move is that SAP Ariba now sits on the SAP Business Technology Platform, enabling simpler integrations with SAP apps and third-party ERP systems.

What Else Did SAP Announce?

Onlookers outside the customer experience space may have added several other announcements to their top ten list.

For instance, there is a new skills-based hiring feature for SAP Fieldglass and a SAP Signavio Process Transformation Manager. That’s alongside all the other Joule agents and capabilities shared in the new SAP Cloud ERP Private release.

To learn more about all these, head over to the SAP website. However, for more on SAP’s CX journey and ambitions, check out our article: SAP Is Building a “Modern and Composable” Customer Experience Suite

Its Online Services portfolio includes Microsoft 365, Azure, Dynamics 365, Power, and other specialized solutions, such as Microsoft Defender and GitHub.

Currently, businesses can secure volume licenses for many of these online services at various price points, across Price Levels A–D. These levels vary by region and customer category.

However, the move means that every Online Service – sold under an Enterprise Agreement (EA) or a Products and Services Agreement (MPSA) – has one consistent price across each tier. That price will be available on Microsoft’s website.

As such, Microsoft limits some customers, renewing after October 31, 2025, from securing the same discounts as in their previous contracts.

That said, the standardized price could be lower than what some customers currently pay.

Moreover, while Microsoft customers may not be able to secure license cost discounts, they could still seek concessions on multi-year terms and value-added services.

Alongside EA and MPSA agreements, the move will extend to include the Online Services Premium Agreement (OSPA) for China.

However, Microsoft stressed that there will be no change to on-premise software costs, and that U.S. Government and worldwide Education price lists won’t be affected.

The tech giant announced this on its website. It wrote:

This update builds on the consistent pricing model already in place for services like Azure and reflects our ongoing commitment to greater transparency and alignment across all purchasing channels.

That transparency and alignment has several advantages. It reduces regional price swings, makes costs more predictable for multinational customers, and simplifies partner selling.

Additionally, it builds on the pricing model already established for services like Azure.

However, the possibility of price hikes for many global businesses seems likely.

As such, all customers with volume licensing should contact their account manager to discuss the potential for a significant skew in pricing. Microsoft itself suggests this, noting:

Microsoft recommends scheduling time with your account team or your partner of record to review these changes and assess any upcoming renewals or new Online Services purchases.

If the move does result in widespread price rises, Microsoft does, however, risk this being interpreted as a move to recover operating costs on its AI services and increased cloud expenditure.

Interestingly, Salesforce attributed its recent price rises to “increasing integrations with AI”, as many enterprise software vendors start to feel the pinch.

The Hot Take: Microsoft’s Enterprise Customers May Scramble to Renew

Tim Banting, Head of Research & Business Intelligence at Techtelligence, is one industry analyst who believes this is likely a move to protect margins as AI infrastructure costs increase after years of higher R&D and restructuring.

That seems critical with Microsoft Cloud gross margins falling to 69 percent in FY25, explicitly “driven by the impact of scaling our AI infrastructure.”

Yet, the main customer impact is on the bargaining chips they hold. Noting this, Banting stated:

Big companies will likely bring purchases forward before 1 November 2025, then focus on longer terms, smarter bundles, and phased rollouts.

The analyst also suggested that finance teams will want clear proof that Copilot merits any potential increase in their pricing.

He continued: “Some enterprises will lose out because the Level B to D price advantage goes away; adding services mid-contract after that date will start from a higher list price.

“Multi-year Copilot-led bundles will be favoured to lift ARPU, and with AI capacity tight. Microsoft will (also) prioritize customers who commit more, which makes negotiations tougher.”

Those commitments may include longer contracts and enterprise-wide Copilot adoption plans.

However, the threat of having to make these commitments could lead to significant pushback from enterprise customers, according to Adam Mansfield, Microsoft, Salesforce, & ServiceNow Practice Lead at UpperEdge.

Mansfield told CX Today that pushback may be particularly strong from larger enterprises with pricing based on Level D+, as they typically include additional negotiated discounting.

“If Microsoft presents them uplifted pricing at renewal that moves that pricing all the way down to list Level A (retail pricing), it is not going to land well,” he said.

I could see, assuming Microsoft doesn’t accommodate, the CIOs…etc. of these companies pulling the plug on considering anything new (i.e., M365 Copilot) and/or making an upgrade (move users to M365 E5), along with decisions being made to seek out Azure alternatives (GCP, AWS).

“I also see this as Microsoft’s way to push more large customers to the MCA-E ( Microsoft Customer Agreement – Enteprise), which they have been trying to do, but not as successfully as they had hoped.”

While MCA-E simplifies purchasing, it against lowers the room for negotiation and may negatively impact costs. As such, that transition, as Mansfield mentioned, has proven a slow burn.

The CFO shared the news in response to an analyst question during SAP’s latest earnings call.

The analyst pressed Asam on SAP’s plans to increase its spending in late 2025 and how fast it plans to hire.

In response, Asam stated:

I don’t want to be precise now on how many headcount exactly, but we are talking about several thousands of headcount we would still embark.

However, while SAP accelerates its hiring, the company warned of a “reskilling component”.

As such, some of those “hires” will likely be attributed to moving existing employees from one job to another.

SAP did something similar last year, with only 3,000 employees reportedly leaving the company, despite the tech giant eliminating 10,000 roles.

However, Asam stated that the scale of the 2024 restructure was a “one-off”, mitigating concerns of similar workforce reductions and indicating that many of the new roles will be open to external applicants.

Already, these external candidates may apply for any of the 1,822 openings SAP has on its website (at the time of writing).

Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, highlighted the types of roles that the company is recruiting for. He said:

[We are] hiring in job profiles that define the future of our company, such as data and Business AI.

“We also need, on the consulting side, very dedicated people who can help us drive change management with the customers and implement all of these [AI] agents at the businesses of our customers,” he added.

SAP is infusing its AI agents into Joule, the AI copilot that is about to undergo a massive transformation, as teased during the earnings call.

SAP Joule Is About to Become Ubiquitous

Alongside all the workforce chatter, Klein shared some exciting news regarding SAP Joule. He stated:

Joule will be available everywhere across SAP and non-SAP systems starting in Q3, thanks to the integration with WalkMe. And it will also be giving answers to everything starting in Q4, powered by our partnership with Perplexity.

The WalkMe integration will help provide visibility across those first- and third-party systems, enabling Joule to not only be present across each but also automate workflows between them.

Meanwhile, SAP’s Perplexity partnership will combine internal business data with real-world insights, so that Joule can offer not just “answers to everything” but more intelligent answers, too.

Alongside these announcements, Klein discussed how SAP has already released 14 AI agents this year, with several notable examples in its CX Toolkit.

On the CX front, SAP touted a big win last quarter: nearly 100 customers, including BMW, jumped onto its Emarsys engagement platform.

Yet, the tech giant’s ambitions in the space extend far beyond Emarsys. As Balaji Balasubramanian, President and Chief Product Officer of SAP CX, recently told CX Today, the company is currently building a “modern and composable” customer experience suite.

More Highlights from SAP’s Q2, 2025 Earnings

SAP announced its total revenue growth reached 12 percent year-over-year (YoY) last quarter, surpassing analyst estimates.

The company’s cloud revenue spiked 28 percent YoY, led by the SAP Cloud ERP Suite, which rose 34 percent.

Ahead of Q3, Klein referenced concerns over uncertainty in global markets. However, he promised an “excellent pipeline” for the back-end of the year in “almost all markets and regions.”

Typically, they are close-knit, but there are significant distinctions between the technologies. In most cases, the CRM is the chief front-office platform, helping brands build and maintain great customer relationships. Alternatively, the ERP system is the foremost back-office platform, streamlining internal operations. Think: finance, supply chains, and inventory management.

Both play a crucial part in ensuring organizations can function like well-oiled machines.

But, with prominent enterprise tech providers like Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP converging the technologies, the lines are blurring.

Plus, the ecosystem is evolving, with new features in both categories, AI-driven forecasting, embedded analytics, low-code extensibility, and more. That makes the CRM vs ERP decision less about “which one,” and more about how they work together.

CRM vs ERP: What’s the Difference?

Consider the definitions for CRM and ERP solutions closely. A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform stores current and predicted customer data.

The tech also helps automate processes that support customer journeys. Plus, CRM solutions help teams manage and improve customer interactions, aiming to boost sales, enhance customer satisfaction, and increase retention rates.

Alternatively, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms make business processes more efficient by unifying data and automating processes across finance, inventory management, HR, procurement, and other organizational functions.

Often, there’s significant overlap between these tools.

For instance, CRM and ERP systems both centralize data to streamline operations and ensure data flows seamlessly across departments.

However, they differ in terms of:

• Core users: Sales, marketing, and customer service teams rely mostly on CRM systems, while finance, operations, HR, and executive leadership departments use ERPs.
• Functionality: CRM systems offer advanced features for managing customer relationships (lead tracking, sales forecasting, communication tools, etc). ERP systems include comprehensive tools for managing internal operations (budget management, inventory control, and procurement pipelines).
• Benefits: CRM solutions focus on enhancing customer relationships through personalized communications, increasing sales, and identifying opportunities. ERP systems help automate routine tasks to improve operational efficiency, reporting processes, inventory, and resource management.

CRM vs ERP: Understanding Both Platforms

The CRM vs ERP debate can be complex because, sometimes, these tools share a lot in common. Both integrate with a wide range of business tools to centralize data and include various AI & automation features, like workflow builders virtual assistants.

Increasingly, ERP and CRM systems are even offered by the same vendors, like Microsoft, SAP, and ServiceNow. However, these platforms have specific capabilities tailored to their core focus (customer relationships for CRMs, and resource management for ERPs).

CRM vs ERP: What is a CRM?

A CRM system keeps track of everything that happens between a business and its customers. Calls, quotes, deals, questions, issues, and even sentiment – tagged, and ready when it’s needed.

The platform itself can look different depending on the company. Some start with contact records and calendars. Others layer in full sales pipelines, support case tracking, or marketing campaign dashboards. But at its core, a Customer Relationship Management platform exists to help teams handle the moving parts of a customer relationship.

For enterprises, CRM software tends to sit at the center of the revenue stack. It’s what sales leaders check before the pipeline review. It’s where marketing pulls lists and performance metrics. For support teams, it often links directly to service tickets or product feedback.

The best systems now come with built-in automation and AI. These tools can send reminders when a follow-up is overdue, create email templates that adapt based on prospect behavior and enable Forecasting that pulls from both historical trends and current team activity.

CRMs also tend to play well with others. Data can flow in from a marketing platform, out to a business intelligence tool, and sync with an ERP system to reflect real-world activity like shipments or billing. The goal is alignment, not just automation.

Popular CRM providers include:

• Salesforce
• Microsoft (Dynamics 365)
• Oracle
• HubSpot
• Zoho

Crucial CRM Features

At the baseline, every CRM offers contact management, deal tracking, and calendar sync. That’s table stakes. What separates enterprise-grade systems is what happens around the edges: automation, visibility, and integration.

• Contact Management: CRMs create a central repository for detailed customer information. They store contact details, communication histories, purchase records, and even notes about prior interactions or issues customers might have faced.
• Salesforce Automation: Salesforce automation tools allow companies to streamline sales tasks, like identifying leads, authenticating opportunities, following up with customers, and more. This helps sales teams manage pipelines more effectively.
• Marketing Automation: CRMs assist in segmenting contacts into groups and automating marketing campaigns, allowing for targeted messaging and improved lead nurturing. This leads to more effective marketing strategies and higher conversion rates.
• Customer Service Management: With tools for tracking customer inquiries, support tickets, and service history, CRMs ensure that customer service teams can address issues efficiently, leading to increased customer satisfaction.
• Analytics and Reporting: Both CRM and ERP tools offer analytics features, but CRMs focus mainly on insights into sales performance, customer behavior, and campaign effectiveness. These insights inform strategic decisions and identify areas for improvement.

The Benefits of CRM Systems

In large organizations, information often slips through the cracks. A conversation held in marketing never reaches the account manager. A support ticket sits unresolved just as a renewal’s approaching. CRM software helps close those gaps, not by adding more systems, but by making the ones already in place easier to use, easier to trust, and easier to act on.

One of the biggest shifts seen in recent years is how CRM tools have evolved from passive databases into active decision engines. They don’t just track activity — they help teams know where to look next.

• Customer history in one place: Account notes. Order details. Email threads from three quarters ago. It’s all there. So when someone new picks up the conversation, the context is already waiting.
• Fewer delays, fewer surprises: Many enterprise CRMs now flag quiet accounts, missed follow-ups, or late-stage deals going dark. That’s not just helpful for sales. It matters to finance, customer success, and anyone tied to forecasting.
• Cleaner handoffs between teams: When support, marketing, and sales all work from the same data, the handoffs don’t break. A sales-qualified lead gets the right onboarding. A frustrated customer doesn’t get a tone-deaf upsell. The entire experience feels more coordinated.
• Less manual work, more time with customers: Follow-ups get triggered automatically. Notes are logged without effort. Some platforms even write summaries after meetings. That extra lift means reps spend less time entering data and more time on the phone, in the room, or solving problems.

Used well, a CRM system becomes less of a tool and more of a lens. It lets the business see what’s happening across teams, across time zones, across conversations without relying on memory alone.

ERP vs CRM: What is ERP?

There’s a point in every growing company where disconnected systems start causing problems. Finance can’t close the books because procurement data is two weeks behind. A shipment’s late, but no one can tell if it’s a supply chain issue or a demand planning miss. Teams know what’s happening inside their silo, but outside of it, the picture is incomplete.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software was built to fix that.

At a basic level, an ERP system connects core business functions: accounting, inventory, HR, supply chain, compliance, in one place. It lets different teams work off the same data set. When something shifts in one part of the business, the rest can respond fast.

ERP systems didn’t always look the way they do now. Early versions were rigid, expensive, and slow to implement. Today’s platforms are modular, often cloud-based, and easier to scale. Some focus heavily on finance and procurement. Others are built around manufacturing or global logistics. The best can adapt to whatever structure the business actually needs, rather than forcing one.

In industries with complex supply chains, like automotive or electronics, ERP sits at the center. In service-led firms, it may be there mostly for financial operations, procurement, and compliance.

Some platforms now layer in machine learning to suggest reorders, highlight cash flow risks, or flag anomalies in real time. When done right, the result is fewer delays, cleaner books, and fewer “How did we not catch this sooner?” moments.

Popular ERP vendors include:

• Oracle
• Microsoft
• SAP
• Pegasystems
• ServiceNow

Essential ERP Features

No two ERP systems look exactly the same. That’s partly the point. A food distributor has different needs than a law firm. A global manufacturer won’t set up the same workflows as a regional construction business. But there are some features most enterprise buyers expect as standard.

• Financial Management: ERPs handle accounting functions such as general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, budgeting, and financial reporting. This helps companies track accurate financial data and stay compliant with regulatory standards.
• Supply Chain and Inventory Management: These features provide real-time visibility into the supply chain, managing procurement, inventory levels, order processing, and logistics. Basically, this helps reduce inefficiencies and improve cost savings.
• Human Resources Management: ERPs can manage HR functions, including payroll, recruitment, performance evaluations, and employee records. They’re great for HR processes and improving employee management.
• Manufacturing and Production Management: ERPs offer tools to manage production planning, scheduling, quality control, and maintenance, ensuring efficient production workflows for manufacturing businesses.
• Project Management: ERP systems assist in planning, executing, and monitoring projects, including resource allocation, budgeting, and timeline management, ensuring projects are completed on time and within budget.
• Compliance and Risk Management: ERPs help organizations adhere to industry regulations by providing tools for monitoring compliance and managing risk through standardized processes and comprehensive reporting.

Benefits of ERP Systems

ERP tech doesn’t usually get the spotlight. But when it works, everything else moves faster, cleaner close processes, fewer supply chain headaches, better margin control, less fire-fighting on the back end. The real benefits are similar to those companies get from CRM tools with a few caveats.

• One source of operational truth: Multiple departments. Multiple systems. One late update throws off reporting for days. ERP brings everything together: finance, procurement, HR, logistics into a shared, real-time system.
• Stronger cash flow visibility: When procurement, invoicing, and inventory speak the same language, it’s easier to see where cash is tied up. Whether it’s slow-moving stock or overdue payments, ERP flags the issue before it gets buried under spreadsheets.
• Fewer manual errors: Most late reports, incorrect invoices, and compliance gaps start with human error. ERP systems automate repetitive processes like PO matching, approval routing, or reconciliation. The mistakes that used to slip through get caught early.
• Better decisions, backed by real numbers: Executives can’t wait weeks for answers. With the right setup, ERP dashboards surface the metrics that matter: profit margins by product line, supplier performance, actuals versus forecast, all in one place.
• Global readiness, built in: Currency conversion, tax rules, regulatory audits. Scaling across borders without a modern ERP is like running payroll on Post-its. It’s possible, technically. Just not for long.

Done right, ERP makes the company harder to break. Not because it prevents mistakes, but because it makes them easier to see and easier to fix.

CRM vs ERP: The Evolving Merger

Plenty of businesses try to figure out which to buy first: CRM or ERP. But that question assumes they do the same kind of work. They don’t. They solve different problems for different teams. And both tend to show their value at different points in a company’s growth.

CRM software helps a business understand and manage its customers: who they are, what they want, when they’re likely to convert, and how they’ve engaged in the past. That’s why sales, marketing, and service teams use it every day. Conversations. Pipelines. Retention. That’s the domain of CRM.

ERP systems handle internal operations: finance, procurement, compliance, logistics, HR. They keep products shipping, payroll running, and accounts reconciled. If CRM tells you who’s buying, ERP tells you what it costs to deliver.

They’re built to answer different questions.

• CRM: Who’s in the funnel? What stage are they at? Who talked to them last?
• ERP: What’s on order? What’s left in inventory? Are we over budget?

That said, the two systems are becoming less isolated than they used to be. Some ERPs now include basic CRM modules, enough to track quotes, orders, or customer records. Some CRMs pull in ERP data to show fulfillment or billing history. It’s not unusual to see a support agent check a customer’s last shipment status directly from the CRM, even if that data lives in the ERP.

At the enterprise level, the overlap isn’t a bad thing. It’s a sign that both systems are pulling closer together, especially as AI, BI, and CPaaS platforms make it easier to share data across tools.

CRM vs ERP: Why They’re Better Together

The question shouldn’t really be: “CRM vs ERP: do I need both?” The reality is that both CRM and ERP solutions are crucial for modern enterprises.

They’re complementary technologies that work together to help companies achieve various goals.

By merging both platforms, organizations can create a unified environment where data flows seamlessly between back-office operations and customer-facing teams.

Merging CRM and ERP solutions leads to:

Fewer Data Silos

Integrating CRM and ERP systems ensures that information is accessible across departments, fostering a cohesive environment for critical knowledge sharing. Everyone can access the same up-to-date information to help them in their goals. For instance, a sales team could pull real-time inventory data from an ERP system so they can provide accurate insights into delivery timelines to customers.

Enhanced Collaboration

With integrated systems, sales forecasts, inventory data, and customer insights are connected, meaning everyone can work together on a customer-first strategy. Marketing teams can use ERP insights to create campaigns based on inventory options. HR teams can develop scheduling strategies and training initiatives based on CRM insights.

Seamless Automation

Integrating CRM and ERP systems allows companies to take advantage of both solutions’ AI and automation capabilities. For instance, customer payment statuses in an ERP system can automatically be applied to customer accounts in a CRM, minimizing the need for repetitive admin work for business teams.

Improved Customer Satisfaction

CRM systems might be hyper-focused on improving customer experiences, but ERP solutions can help boost customer satisfaction, too. With insights from ERP systems into workflows, inventory, and more, customer-facing teams can deliver better experiences. Customer service teams can even use supply chain tracking data to provide customers with more accurate updates on order delays.

New Revenue Opportunities

By analyzing integrated data, businesses can identify trends and opportunities for cross-selling or upselling. For instance, if an ERP system shows high levels of an available product, a sales team could suggest this product as a “complementary product” for a customer. This strategic insight helps deliver personalized offers, thereby maximizing revenue potential.

Tips for a Successful CRM–ERP Integration

Getting CRM and ERP to work together isn’t just a technical project. It’s an operational change. Done well, the payoff is less duplicated work, cleaner data, faster handoffs between teams. Done poorly, it creates more silos than it solves.

Here’s what separates smooth integrations from the ones that stall.

• Start with the process, not the platform: Before syncing two systems, map out where the connection points need to be. Are sales reps missing fulfillment data? Is finance getting hit with manual invoice requests? Integration shouldn’t be a wishlist, it should solve specific friction.
• Pick a data source of truth: If both systems manage customer data, one needs to take priority, especially when records don’t match. Most teams assign CRM as the source for relationship details, and ERP for transaction and fulfillment data. Without that clarity, reconciliations get messy fast.
• Clean the data before the sync: Integrating bad data just spreads the problem around. If a contact exists in three places under different spellings, or an account has missing fields, fix it before the systems are tied together. Garbage in, garbage everywhere.
• Use middleware where it makes sense: Not every integration needs custom code. Tools like Mulesoft, Boomi, or Workato can connect systems out of the box. For enterprise IT teams, that means faster implementation and less risk if one system updates or changes API behavior down the line.
• Document everything: Field mappings. Transformation rules. Logic for when data moves and why. Without documentation, every future update turns into a guessing game, especially when admins change or systems evolve.
• Test with real workflows: A dry run with sample data doesn’t cut it. Use real records, real teams, real scenarios. That’s where edge cases show up, and that’s where most integrations break.

The goal isn’t to sync everything. It’s to sync the right things, in the right way, so teams don’t waste time chasing answers across tools that were supposed to make life easier.

CRM vs ERP: The Power of Integration

In the CRM vs ERP debate, it’s clear that these systems serve distinct yet complementary roles. While CRM focuses on enhancing customer relationships, ERP is designed to streamline internal operations.

Realistically, large companies need both of these solutions to keep operations running smoothly.

Combining CRM and ERP solutions helps break down data silos, improve collaboration, and open the door for new automation opportunities.

Together, the two platforms can boost efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and increase revenue. For companies ready to find the right tech, CX Today has the solutions:

• Join the Community: Visit the CX Community for insider tips on successful integration strategies, and help from thought leaders.
• Visit the Marketplace: Head to the CX Marketplace for a rundown of all the top vendors in the CX space.
• Get involved: Head to upcoming events for a chance to test the latest solutions for both categories hands-on.

Alternatively, learn how to align every aspect of a modern CX strategy in the ultimate CX Guide.

That ecosystem comprises AI tools integrated into the user experience, so they work in the background without the user even knowing it’s AI.

Yet, there are also default Zia Agents that cross Zoho’s products. Businesses can deploy these agents – often at no extra cost – to automate simple tasks or as “digital employees” within a system.

Zoho has built and hosted much of this AI on its own infrastructure, enabling the business to better manage costs and its roadmap.

Now, it has made several significant steps along this roadmap. Here are five of the highlights.

1. Zoho Launches Zia LLM

Zia LLM is a set of three large language models that Zoho has built in-house.

These models come with different parameter sizes:

• 1.3 billion parameters
• 2.6 billion parameters
• 7 billion parameters

Each model was trained separately, meaning that the two smaller models are not distilled versions of the larger seven billion model.

Zoho has promised that more models will be released in the future, too.

Why? To provide right-sized models that appropriately balance accuracy and cost.

Celebrating the launch, Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho, noted:

Our AI assistant (Zia) is already performing well with the new LLM. We like the progress we’re seeing.

Indeed, according to Vegesna, Zia LLM already performs better than LLama 2. However, the Zoho man admitted that it’s “not quite at the level” of LLama 3, yet!

Critically, Zoho customers won’t be limited to using only Zia LLM. The CRM giant also supports various third-party LLMs, including those from OpenAI, Google, and others.

If customers prefer to use those models, they can do so through the vendor’s AI Bridge.

Zia LLM will be one option within the AI Bridge, and businesses can choose what works best for them. In some cases, it may be a combination of these models used in sequence, depending on specific needs.

2. Zoho Builds an Agent Marketplace, Adds 25+ Agents

Zoho depicts a future where it develops and makes “hundreds” of contextually integrated agents available across its product lines.

These agents will complete tasks relevant to real-life organizational roles, including customer service, sales, and account management.

Now, Zoho has integrated 25+ new Zia Agents across its portfolio. Amongst these is a Customer Service Agent.

The agent takes inbound customer contacts, extracts the intent, and then either triages to a relevant rep on Zoho Desk or resolves them directly.

Yet, this is only one example. Many others are available via the new Zoho Marketplace, a dedicated place for its customers to implement first- and third-party AI agents across the Zoho ecosystem.

Already, the Marketplace includes AI agents to spot upsell and cross-sell opportunities, analyze deals, screen candidates, and more.

The vendor’s ecosystem comprises partners and independent software vendors (ISVs), which may post agents on the Marketplace alongside individual developers, who can build agents via the new-look Zoho AI Agent Studio…

3. Zoho Makes It Simpler for Businesses to Design Their Own Agents

Announced in February 2025, the Zia Agent Studio offers a hub for brands to build, test, and optimize their own Zia Agents. Now, it has simplified the process.

How? By including access to 700+ oven-ready actions that function across Zoho’s products.

In leveraging these, brands can build AI agents of varying complexities to meet unique needs. For example, they may create sales agents that qualify leads, assign tasks, take notes, and send emails.

After building such an agent, businesses can harness knowledge, either from within Zoho or external sources, and define the tools that the agent will use.

The agent can then be deployed in many ways. For instance, the business can deploy it as a digital employee in Zoho CRM, where it integrates into the system’s permission structure.

From there, it’s possible to manage roles and profiles, ensuring the agent has the necessary permissions to perform tasks.

Interestingly, Zoho also allows brands to deploy the agent as an individual user with a name, email address, and role, creating a personalized digital employee.

4. Zoho Expands the Capabilities of Ask Zia

Zoho has expanded the capabilities of Ask Zia, the integrated AI assistant that works across all its applications.

The tech giant also updates the solutions just three months ago, enabling Ask Zia to help create workflows, customize orchestrations, and even convert screenshots into canvas designs.

Now, Zoho is expanding the assistant’s skillset in two main areas: data engineering and data analytics.

Starting with engineering, Zia may now take instructions like “import sales order data from Zoho CRM” or a third-party source. Once the data is imported, Zia can then combine datasets, group them, and push the transformed data into Zoho Analytics as a new table.

Once the data is in Zoho Analytics, businesses can analyze it further.

For instance, it might generate insights like monthly sales contributions by channel and even provide reasoning for sales drops, spikes, and other trends, and – in some cases – even suggest ways to improve results.

5. A New MCP Server Expands the Scope of Agent Deployments

An MCP (Multi-Client Protocol) Server is a tool that allows users to expose their data quickly and easily to AI applications.

MCP is a standard defined by Anthropic and is now part of Zoho. As such, its customers can expose data not just from Zoho to third-party tools, but also vice versa.

Zoho has already connected with 200+ third-party applications, alongside its own Zoho apps, allowing businesses to automate cross-system workflows.

As an example of how this works, consider exposing data from Zoho CRM. Users may choose the data they want to make available through the MCP server and then analyze it in a third-party model like ChatGPT, enabling a data analytics flow.

The Hot Take: Zoho Will Differentiate Via Its Price-to-Performance Ratio

AI models are becoming commoditized. Zoho’s approach to building its own and hosting them on its own architecture will help it deliver a better price-to-performance ratio as this trend continues.

Additionally, the vendor continues to innovate outside of large language models and agentic AI, also launching a new automatic speech recognition (ASR) model, which is not covered above.

In doing so, Zoho continues to march to the beat of its own drum, delivering innovations that serve how customers leverage its platform, not just whatever the next big industry trend might be.

These systems are strengthening efficiency, tackling risk and compliance, and enabling scale, all in one platform. Cloud native is now standard, but increasingly, so is built-in AI, real-time controls, automated audits, and integrations that stretch far beyond finance and supply chain. From frontline service to executive dashboards, ERP is pulling everything into one view.

The challenge? Not every ERP system vendor offers the same toolkit. Some are doubling down on industry-specific depth. Others are racing ahead on platform consolidation. A few are reinventing what ERP even means.

This guide breaks down the top ERP vendors in from the CX marketplace. Who’s innovating, who’s evolving, and who might just be the right fit for enterprise leaders.

The Top ERP Vendors

• • Oracle
  • Microsoft
  • SAP
  • Sage Intacct
  • Acumatica
  • Odoo
  • Epicor
  • IFS
  • Unit4
  • Aptean
  • Access
  • QAD
  • Plex / Rockwell
  • Priority
  • ECI
  • ServiceNow
  • Pegasystems
  • BMC
  • RealPage

The Top ERP Vendors Shaping the Future of Enterprise

The ERP market isn’t short on options. But not every vendor can handle the complexity, scale, and compliance demands facing enterprise teams right now.

Some are built for heavy industry, with deep manufacturing and supply chain roots. Others shine in services and financial operations, offering flexibility across multi-entity, multinational rollouts. A few are exploring smarter risk tooling, embedded AI, and seamless connections into CX, CRM, or even contact center environments.

This isn’t a ranking, and there’s no one-size-fits-all. It’s a curated look at the ERP vendors making an impact in 2025 and why they might be the right fit for specific companies.

Oracle 

Cloud and technology solutions provider Oracle produces a host of tools for business leaders, ranging from AI and machine learning platforms to data lakes, compliance systems and networking tools.

Their ERP software suite, Oracle Cloud ERP (also known as Fusion Applications), includes a standalone module called Oracle Fusion Cloud Risk Management and Compliance to enforce internal controls, monitor SoD, and keep audit-ready workflows running 24/7.

In 2025, Oracle rolled out enhancements that make user roles more granular, streamline audits of access privileges, and integrate AI for early detection of anomalous activity. At the same time, Oracle continues to push patch updates, covering CVEs in database components like GoldenGate, XML DB, and more.

There are also built-in solutions for supply chain and manufacturing insights and enterprise performance management, with profitability and cost reports, account reconciliation, and cloud data management.

Microsoft 

Microsoft is one of the most influential ERP vendors in enterprise environments. The latest “Release Wave 1” (April–September) brought a stack of updates built around real-world pain points: compliance, licensing oversight, and smarter finance workflows

Take compliance in manufacturing. The Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management update released in June adds richer quality control features. Teams can experiment with digital batch records, electronic signatures, and tie‑ins to corrective/preventive action (CAPA) management.

Meanwhile Dynamics 365 Finance now includes a real-time account reconciliation agent, and a revamped journal framework built for high-volume, multicompany environments.

What makes Microsoft stand out among ERP software vendors this year? It’s the balance between ambition and pragmatism. Copilot-powered agents help automate bank reconciliation, tax compliance and demand forecasting. Security and governance are baked into the core. Because everything lives in Azure, enterprises get global scale without compromise.

SAP 

Software innovators, SAP specialize in delivering a range of ERP solutions targeted at companies from different industries and sectors. The flagship solution from the company is the SAP Cloud ERP, a fully modular cloud solution powered by AI and analytics. The technology includes a host of capabilities for accounting and financial processes, sales, sourcing, and procurement.

In 2025, SAP doubled down on compliance-first initiatives, releasing security updates almost monthly and responding quickly to high-severity CVEs.  SAP also rolled out tailored compliance tooling in its Trust Center, designed specifically to help customers align with EU’s DORA and NIS2 legislation.

Whether teams are running S/4HANA Cloud or managing on-prem edition lifecycles, SAP delivers deep modularity across finance, SCM, manufacturing, and service, with integrated audit trails and traceability included. It’s one of the few top ERP vendors that still excels at global scale, vertical depth, and regulated industry governance.

Sage Intacct 

With numerous products covering the financial, accounting, and industry management landscape, Sage Intacct supports businesses all over the world. The company’s ERP software systems are customized to suit the requirements of different companies, allowing brands from each industry to leverage specialist services based on their needs.

Its “Dimensions” engine lets teams slice P&L and balance sheet data across unlimited tags: projects, locations, departments, and clients, without bloating the general ledger. That means better insight, faster closes, and easier consolidation across entities.

Sage has added more automation around revenue recognition, multi-entity consolidations, and audit-ready dashboards built into the financial view, helping finance teams keep pace with internal and external compliance needs. PwC Control Insights, built into the platform, runs continuously to monitor anomalies, flag exceptions, and support internal control requirements.

Acumatica 

Focused heavily on the Enterprise Resource Planning space, Acumatica delivers solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, often based in the cloud. Accumatica offers access to a flexible, customizable platform which can integrate with the systems and tools companies already use. Users can also personalize their instances using a low-code or no-code environment.

The Acumatica ERP service features end-to-end analytics and reporting features, with real-time insights and dashboards available for all kinds of employees. The modular system can also be billed per-use, so companies only pay for the functionality and data they use. There’s also support for AI-powered automation built into the platform.

But it’s not just about ease of use or flexibility that stands out. Behind the scenes, Acumatica embeds process-level compliance checks, barcode-tracked quality workflows, and documentation controls that serve regulated environments.

Odoo 

Odoo is unique among ERP vendors for its modular, open-source approach. Users can build their own custom platform with tools for project management, inventory management, invoicing, accounting and more. There are also tools available for marketing, development, and sales.

The 2025 launch of Odoo 18 brought a bunch of upgrades without the complexity like AI‑powered workflows, redesigned mobile UX, and stronger compliance tools built into the architecture.

Under the hood, Odoo includes role‑based access control (RBAC), OAuth and JWT authentication, end‑to‑end encryption, and audit trail logging, features critical to meeting GDPR, CCPA, or financial reporting regulations.

At ETL scale, Odoo remains lighter than some top ERP vendors, but that’s the point. It’s scalable, modular, and purpose‑built for teams that want ERP power with finance‑grade compliance, flexibility, and a clean interface.

Epicor 

Epicor’s Kinetic platform is firmly aimed at manufacturing, distribution, and field‑service organizations. It’s 2025 roadmap shows clear movement toward compliance-first ERP design. Epicor Prism, the AI layer, now accelerates insight mining across supply chain, finance, and quality control workflows, with corrective suggestions built right into the system UX.

On the GRC front, Kinetic ships with built‑in governance and compliance modules: role-based controls, audit logging, internal-control documentation workflows, and carbon tracking for sustainability reporting, all aligned with ISO and industry standards.

Epicor also relies on Microsoft Azure encryption and update frameworks to secure data at rest and in motion.  For regulated sectors, Epicor has built in ITAR compliance support and consultants to tailor workflows around DoD, DCAA, or DCMA requirements using Azure Government and custom controls.

IFS 

Multinational software company IFS AB provides access to numerous cloud-based tools and services for business process management. With a number of ERP solutions to offer within the IFS Cloud, the company addresses the unique needs of specific industries related to finance, project management, Human Resources, and procurement.

Recent moves include launching Nexus Black, a customer‑centric AI initiative for predictive maintenance, scheduling optimization, and autonomous decision-making. It’s built on industrial use cases rather than generic chatbots. IFS also offers dedicated compliance engines for tasks like CIS reporting, automatic HMRC verification, and audit traceability for UK and European project contractors.

The multi-tiered solution can be adjusted to the specific financial and compliance needs of service industries, manufacturing companies, construction, and energy brands. Users can also take advantage of integrations with existing software platforms and tools.

Unit4 

Unit4 produces FP&A, HCM, S2C, and ERP tools for companies from a variety of industries worldwide. The organization’s Enterprise Resource Planning software combines tools for financial management, project management, procurement, HR, payroll, and reporting into one package.

Its 2025 roadmap focused heavily on user experience and vertical enhancements. Key additions include low-code extensibility via the App Studio, more flexible project billing models, and role-based dashboards tailored for finance leads, project managers, and HR admins.

Like many ERP vendors, Unit4delivers native GDPR features, audit logs, and financial governance modules that align to public sector procurement frameworks and non-profit reporting obligations. It also maintains strong regional compliance support in the UK, Nordics, and across the EU, something not all ERP software vendors can say.

Aptean 

Aptean is one of those ERP vendors that thrives by going deep, not wide. The company offers industry-specific ERP solutions for food & beverage, manufacturing, distribution, and pharmaceuticals. All include compliance and traceability built in from the start.

What makes Aptean unique is that it doesn’t offer a single monolithic ERP. Instead, its suite includes purpose-built platforms tailored for different sub-sectors. For example, Aptean Food & Beverage ERP offers pre-configured workflows for FDA, FSMA, and EU food compliance. Aptean Industrial Manufacturing ERP comes with built-in ISO and ITAR tracking features.

In 2025, Aptean launched several AI-enhanced tools for production scheduling, digital quality checks, and demand forecasting, helping customers reduce waste and stay ahead of regulatory bottlenecks. Its cloud-based solutions now run on Azure and offer full data encryption, audit readiness, and regulatory sandboxing for sensitive operations.

Access 

Access is one of the UK’s best-known mid-market ERP vendors, and it’s grown into a serious contender for organizations looking to modernize without the sprawl. Its ERP solutions cover finance, HR, supply chain, and compliance, with strong traction across healthcare, construction, and professional services sectors.

In 2025, Access expanded its cloud-native Access Workspace suite, adding more embedded reporting tools, smarter role-based access control, and secure mobile workflows that help organizations maintain compliance on the go.

For financial operations, Access ERP includes automated invoice matching, regulatory e-invoicing support, and HMRC MTD compliance. The platform also integrates directly with Access Financials, HR, and CRM modules, giving teams a single view of operations with audit-ready visibility across every touchpoint.

QAD 

Focusing heavily on manufacturing and supply chain companies, QAD provides flexible, cloud-based solutions for the ERP and MRP space. Its Adaptive ERP platform is designed specifically to handle today’s fast-evolving supply chain and regulatory pressures for industries like food & beverage, life sciences, and automotive.

In recent months, QAD introduced Champion AI, a new intelligent assistant embedded into workflows to flag production or inventory issues before they cascade into compliance headaches. The company also rolled out a “Proof of Capability” service. This lets enterprises test-drive QAD Process Intelligence using their own data, and see inefficiencies and ROI in real time.

Finance teams will also appreciate built-in multi-entity reporting and audit traceability, plus continuous alignment with global financial controls. For manufacturers with global spread, QAD delivers both domain depth and governance clarity without sacrificing agility.

Priority 

With mobile and cloud-based ERP systems on offer, Priority promises companies a flexible selection of tools. The cloud-based ERP solutions from Priority can be implemented quickly in any environment and include access to their own mobile apps. Additionally, the ecosystem is made up of flexible modules which can adapt to each user’s need.

From a compliance standpoint, Priority’s ERP includes global tax localization, audit controls, and reporting modules aligned with international standards for financial clarity and regulatory readiness.

Priority is another of the top ERP vendors experimenting with AI, too. Its Automation Hub offers RPA-style workflows, NLP chatbots, and behavior-based task suggestions built directly into daily operations, no expensive customization required.

Companies can leverage time and attendance tools for remote and hybrid teams, financial tracking, manufacturing and logistics modules, and business intelligence services. There are also options to integrate project management tools and CRM platforms into the environment.

Plex / Rockwell Automation 

Plex, now part of Rockwell Automation, continues to make a strong case for ERP that’s built for the factory floor. With Rockwell’s add-on technologies for the Plex ecosystem, companies can take advantage of connected supply chain workflows, automated to suit their specific needs.

The Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform covers everything from production and quality control to inventory, supply chain, and finance, with tight MES integration and native IoT capabilities. In 2025, Plex enhanced its AI-driven anomaly detection engine, adding predictive quality analytics and inline compliance dashboards tailored to food, automotive, and electronics sectors.

Security-wise, Plex runs on a multitenant SaaS model hosted on AWS, with end-to-end encryption, frequent penetration testing, and full SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 compliance. It’s especially strong in industries focused on traceability, with lot-level tracking, real-time audit trails, and automatic compliance logging baked in.

ECI 

Prioritizing the development of custom-made software solutions, ECI delivers flexible ERP platforms built to suit the needs of different industries. The cloud-based portfolio of tools offered by ECI covers everything from workflow management to automated workflows and analytics.

Companies can work with the ECI team to build their ERP environment step-by-step and leverage useful add-ons. ERP add-on technologies include solutions for sales intelligence and customer relationship management. Companies can also access proof of delivery systems and end-to-end analytics.

Recent releases have expanded native support for automated document management, contract traceability, and supplier compliance certifications. That means less reliance on add-ons or manual workarounds in regulated industries. ECI continues enhancing its financial audit dashboards and regional localization support across North America and the UK.

ServiceNow 

Specializing in a host of tools for sales and service teams, ServiceNow offers a variety of software solutions. Unlike many other ERP vendors, ServiceNow focuses on providing companies with the tools they need to build their own custom platforms from scratch.

The low-code app development and automation platform ServiceNow App Engine allows companies to select the tools they need for resource management.

The platform’s Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) suite is now a core part of ServiceNow’s unified architecture. That means risk, control, policy, and audit management can live alongside workflow and operations logic on the same platform.

In early 2025, ServiceNow shipped its Yokohama release with new AI-powered policy automation, continuous risk assessment dashboards, and dynamic controls designed for evolving regulations like DORA, ESG reporting, and GDPR. The system now automatically identifies out-of-date policies, pushes remediation tasks, and supports third-party risk tracking.

Pegasystems 

Pegasystems isn’t frequently mentioned in ERP vendor round-ups, but it’s redefining how process-heavy operations get built, governed, and optimized. Its low-code Pega Platform is increasingly used by enterprises that want flexible workflows with embedded compliance.

In 2025, at PegaWorld, the company unveiled GenAI enhancements across its Blueprint and Knowledge Buddy tools. These are ideal for automating the design and documentation of critical workflows, including compliance and risk processes. Enterprises are using Pega Blueprint to modernize legacy systems with AI-guided architecture mapping, and auto-generated governance logic tailored to regulatory standards.

Although not a classic ERP system, it’s being adopted as one, especially by firms that want compliant operations without rigid legacy platforms. Behind the scenes, collaboration with partners like Cognizant expands its footprint in modernization projects geared for regulatory-heavy environments.

BMC

At first glance, BMC might not seem like an obvious ERP vendor. But its enterprise-grade automation and emerging AI tooling make it a compelling player for operations-heavy back-office environments.

In early 2025, BMC formally split into two separate companies, focusing on Automation & Digital Business (BMC) and Service/Operations Management under BMC Helix, enabling sharper innovation and scaling across workflows and IT automation frameworks.

Its BMC Helix Service Management 25.2 release introduced HelixGPT agents, conversational AI tools designed for custom workflows, service integration, and post-incident analysis. These agents help enterprises automate tasks like dashboard creation, incident response and reporting.

Meanwhile, the BMC AMI suite added Cloud Data Sets (CDS). There’s also AI-guided root cause analysis for mainframe and legacy systems. The company is enabling hybrid operations, auditing, and governance without sacrificing performance or security.

RealPage 

Focusing on the Real Estate market, RealPage delivers a host of solutions for companies. That includes digital content services, contact center tools, payment processing capabilities, and accounting software. The company’s flexible approach to ERP solutions allows organizations to mix and match the services they need for documents, facilities, property, and revenue management, among other things.

RealPage’s Lumina AI platform powers predictive revenue optimization, lease automation, and operational forecasting. Data integration now connects property management, facilities maintenance, spending, and resident-facing compliance documentation in automated workflows, ideal for asset-heavy operations with regulatory oversight

For enterprises in real-estate operations that require audit-grade financial controls, document traceability, sustainability reporting, and data-driven scaling, RealPage sits firmly in the mix of modern ERP vendors, even if its focus is specialized.

Ready to Take Your CX and ERP Strategy to the Next Level?

The best ERP vendors today aren’t selling software in a vacuum. They’re building ecosystems: platforms that integrate with customer experience systems, support operational agility, and embed compliance deep into every workflow.

Some platforms on this list are known names, trusted for their enterprise muscle. Others are newer, more focused, or vertically specialized. But all are worth watching.

As ERP systems continue to converge with finance, HR, operations, and even contact center tools, the lines between traditional back-office and front-line technology are fading. Leaders across IT, procurement, and operations now have to align on platform investments that will define the next five to ten years, and there’s no margin for error.

For enterprises wondering where to go next, CX Today has resources to offer:

• Download our research: Explore exclusive reports covering vendor performance, industry trends, and the technologies reshaping ERP and CX.
• Join the CX Community: Connect with IT leaders, CFOs, operations pros, and CX strategists navigating the same decisions in the CX community.
• Meet vendors in person: Check out upcoming events for front-row access to live demos, keynotes, and real-world conversations.
• Master the buying journey: From procurement checklists to implementation tips, the Ultimate CX Guide walks buyers through every step.

Enterprise software is evolving. The expectations are higher, the stakes are bigger, and the smartest leaders know this moment isn’t just about investing in a tool, it’s about investing in what comes next.

Combining CRM and ERP offerings with various specialized tools, the aim of the Dynamics 365 suite is to help departments run smarter, faster, and more collaboratively.

The whole ecosystem is modular and natively connected with the broader Microsoft portfolio, which includes Microsoft 365 (formerly Office), Power, and HoloLens.

Plus, the suite benefits from Microsoft’s latest investments in AI and automation, alongside its close OpenAI partnership.

For years, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has been recognized in major industry reports, like the Gartner Magic Quadrants, across numerous CRM and ERP categories.

Yet, it’s not just for large enterprises. Many mid-sized businesses leverage Dynamics 365 applications, too, often citing their familiar UI and overall usability.

All the Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Applications

Microsoft Dynamics 365 features CRM solutions for customer service, sales, marketing, commerce, and field service teams.

Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service is a solution that supports service experiences by managing customer cases, orchestrating workflows, and enabling customer communications across many channels.

Additionally, there are dozens of embedded tools for tracking customer issues, routing support tickets, reporting, forecasting, scheduling, assisting teams, and more.

In regard to assisting agents, Microsoft Copilot is playing a significant role, aiding supervisors and reps, especially the latter. For instance, it summarizes conversations, drafts responses based on conversation context, and suggests next-best actions.

There are also various AI agents available for Dynamics 365 Customer Service customers. For instance, the Case Management agent can help reps create and run follow-ups.

There’s a free trial of this app for beginners. Basic plans start at $50 per month, with scaling tiers for those who require extra AI capabilities and automation options.

Dynamics 365 Sales

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales is an app that offers many features to automate sales admin, tasks, and processes, or assist sales teams in performing them manually.

Cornerstone features include communications channels, guided selling, forecast and pipeline management, alongside sales intelligence tools.

Again, Copilot is available on the platform, pulling lead details, drafting follow-up emails, recapping meetings from Teams, and even suggesting next steps based on live pipeline signals.

In 2025, Microsoft also updated the system with features like “Sales Acceleration with Smart Sequences”, in addition to new AI agents that research leads, perform customer outreach,  highlight at-risk deals, and more.

Prices range from $65 to $150 per month per user, depending on the customer’s desired features.

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights (Formerly Dynamics 365 Marketing)

In September 2023, Microsoft rebranded its marketing CRM to become Dynamics 365 Customer Insights.

Still, the offering is the same at its core, supporting demand generation initiatives, with tools to help build brand awareness, develop leads, and compose cross-channel engagements.

Additionally, the app supports re-engagement activities to increase customer value and bolster retention, with customer account scoring, next best action recommendations, and similar AI capabilities.

Microsoft has quickly built upon its AI capabilities, riding the GenAI wave with auto-generated content recommendations, customer segments, and even multi-touch campaigns.

While there is a free trial, pricing starts at around $1,700 per tenant, per month, and scales depending on data volume and usage patterns.

Dynamics 365 Commerce

Dynamics 365 Commerce provides the core tech that enables online consumers to purchase products and services via self-service.

Its core features include point of sale (POS) solutions, journey orchestration capabilities, and interactive components, such as a digital storefront, catalog navigation, digital product pages, etc.

The product also enables a single customer view, integrating with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. That supports numerous personalization capabilities, such as personalized recommendations, promotions, and website experience.

Additionally, it enables headless commerce, decoupling the front-end customer journey from back-end processes to accelerate innovation.

In 2025, Microsoft introduced multifaceted pricing, new payment options, improved offline device management, and advanced headless support.

There’s a free trial of this app available, while pricing starts at $210 per month per user, building to $4,000 per month per user, with added ecommerce capabilities.

Dynamics 365 Field Service

Dynamics 365 Field Service is a solution for technicians, engineers, and specialists who troubleshoot on-site.

At its heart, the offering offers scheduling capabilities (so field workers can have a real-time view of their appointments), the ability to update customer cases, and survey tools so employees can gain feedback on site.

Beyond that, there is a specialist Copilot for Dispatchers, which recommends optimal schedules, assigns resources, and alerts users to conflicts before they turn into no-shows. There’s also an automated inspection tool for supervisors.

Plus, companies can use Copilot to streamline work order management in Outlook, design end-to-end performance reports, and quickly scour product manuals.

Pricing starts at $50 per user per month for contractors, or $105 per user per month for the complete app.

All the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP Applications

ERP implementations are notoriously tricky to get right. Yet, Microsoft has many ERP applications within its Dynamics 365 portfolio to help businesses select the best-placed solution.

Dynamics 365 Finance

Dynamics 365 Finance centralizes business performance data, equipping brands with the tools to reimagine their financial models, project cash flow, streamline budget proposals, create financial reports, and automate operations.

Additionally, there are tools for business performance management (with Copilot-assisted insights), financial planning, tax management, and quote-to-cash.

The rise of new AI capabilities within Microsoft’s stack also introduces AI agents that can manage bank reconciliation or handle regulatory compliance configurations.

Finally, let’s not forget analytics! Dynamics 365 Finance integrates tightly with Power BI, giving CFOs real-time dashboards on cash flow, profitability, and spend forecasting.

Pricing starts at $210 per month per user for the standard platform. The premium edition costs $300 per month per user.

Dynamics 365 Human Resources

Dynamics 365 Human Resources is a people management solution that helps brands proactively motivate employees to bolster their careers by proactively serving up training modules and recommending additional development resources.

Employees can then create universal profiles that showcase their skills. At the same time, HR leaders have a workspace to view skills data across the organization, set broader objectives for individuals, and create performance review templates.

Additionally, HR leads may create learning courses, track certifications, and build bots to help answer common employee questions around benefits, paid time off (PTO), and more.

There’s also an analytics model to spot how employees perform across those courses, considering success on a company-wide, team, and individual basis. The app also ties with the capabilities of Dynamics 365 Customer Voice (more on this later), so businesses can monitor employee sentiment.

Pricing starts at $4 per user per month for the self-service solution, or $135 per month per user for the full plan.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is an app that gives logistical teams more visibility of the supply chain, so they can enhance planning, improve procurement, and optimize fulfillment. It also provides the tools to do all that.

Indeed, the offering comprises solutions to bolster demand planning, ensure product availability, prevent stockouts, collaborate, and handle vendor management.

There are also tools for asset, order, pricing, and warehouse management, alongside those for collaborating with manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.

Copilot can also perform numerous tasks across Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, taking data to explain forecasts, handle inventory rebalancing, and make procurement suggestions. Supply chain managers may also get predictive alerts from Copilot before shortages or excess stock become a problem.

In 2025, Microsoft introduced contract lifecycle management, planning optimization for lean teams, vendor rebate management, and more.

Pricing starts at $210 per user per month, with a premium option ($300) for advanced planning and manufacturing tools.

Dynamics 365 Project Operations

With Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Microsoft strives to take teams away from disconnected spreadsheets, whiteboards, and email threads.

Designed for project-centric businesses, the app offers an operational center point for project planning, time tracking, resource allocation, collaboration, and billing.

Indeed, teams can kickstart, create, and manage projects from the platform, with real-time visibility into tasks, costs, and milestones.

The integration with Microsoft Teams means that employees can update projects without even entering the solution. Meanwhile, Power BI provides dashboards that track profitability and forecast margins.

Once again, Microsoft has introduced new AI features here, like smart resource suggestions based on availability, skills, and past project outcomes. There’s also a calendar-based time entry tool that keeps teams on track.

The Dynamics 365 Project Operations’ what-if analysis tools are another notable tool, allowing businesses to test different staffing and scheduling scenarios. Also, when it’s time to bill, the integration with Dynamics 365 Finance ensures that timesheets, expenses, and invoices stay in sync.

Businesses can purchase the app for $135 per month, per user.

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central serves small and midsize businesses juggling sales, purchasing, service, inventory, and finance, all while trying to grow. Indeed, it pulls everything into one system, with a native Copilot.

More specifically, the all-in-one ERP system connects solutions for business operation management, compliance, security, financial planning, sales, and customer service. There are also modules for supply chain and warehouse management.

Meanwhile, the Copilot in Dynamics 365 Business Central can answer questions, summarize complex information, and automate tasks across different functions. There’s also a Microsoft Teams integration, so teams can collaborate on everything from service cases to building financial reports.

Plus, there are AI agents available for Business Central too, like the new Sales Order agent, which manages order intake from entry to confirmation.

This is one of the few Microsoft Dynamics 365 options with a free tier, and premium plans start from $70 per month, per user. There’s also an option to add team members for $8 per month.

All the Other Microsoft Dynamics 365 Applications

Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers more than CRM and ERP apps. There are also a handful of notable other solutions designed to serve the enterprise.

Dynamics 365 Contact Center

Introduced in 2024, the Dynamics 365 Contact Center is a CCaaS platform that wraps around Dynamics 365 Customer Service and competitive customer support CRM applications.

In doing so, it overlays a voice channel, a routing engine, virtual agents, IVR, knowledge management, quality assurance (QA), and various other tools for contact centers.

Microsoft released the solution as a “Copilot-first” offering, with the AI supporting contact center agents by automating their post-contact wrap-ups and drafting customer responses across digital channels. It can also help supervisors monitor team performance.

In 2025, Microsoft added new AI agents to the Dynamics 365 Contact Center solution, with one monitoring how agents successfully resolve particular customer intents and another utilizing this intelligence to auto-generate knowledge articles.

There’s also a new Teams Phone extensibility option that allows companies to instantly align the CCaaS platform with Microsoft Teams, so the communications platforms share the same underlying voice platform.

Pricing starts at $110 per month per user for the basic package, or $195 per month per user for the premium option.

Dynamics 365 Customer Voice

Dynamics 365 Customer Voice is a feedback management app that Microsoft can attach to other Dynamics 365 solutions to collect feedback via surveys at different points in the customer journey.

The application then funnels those insights into customer records and Power BI dashboards to help businesses learn more about their customers and gauge their health.

To gather customer feedback, in the first instance, Dynamics 365 Customer Voice lets teams create branded surveys and send them out via email, SMS, social media, or directly inside apps like Teams or Dynamics 365 Sales.

Yet, the real value comes after the responses roll in. Once it’s in those dashboards, brands can run sentiment analysis, flag patterns, and identify problem areas. As such, leadership gains a clear view of what customers and employees are really thinking.

Pricing starts at $100 per 1,000 survey responses per month.

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management

Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is a module that integrates with ERP applications, like those listed previously.

In attaching to these solutions, it helps manage, improve, and automate order fulfillment processes.

As it does so, it orchestrates orders across multiple systems, including ERP and CRM solutions, and amongst third-party partners, distributors, and logistics providers, ensuring everything flows smoothly.

Meanwhile, Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management tracks orders in real time and allocates inventory automatically, based on availability, proximity, and priority.

The app also plugs directly into Power Automate, so businesses can build their own workflow automations.

Pricing for the Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management solution starts at $315 per month, per user.

Dynamics 365 Remote Assist

Dynamics 365 Remote Assist empowers field service personnel wearing a  HoloLens mixed reality headset to collaborate with other technicians working remotely.

Via this app and HoloLens, remote employees can see the technician’s view and support them in running maintenance tasks and making repairs.

Alternatively, remote technicians can guide on-site workers to conduct remote inspections, who can then document that process, creating photos and videos to share with the organization for training.

As such, the solution helps accelerate on-site troubleshooting, scale specialist knowledge, and communicate tricky instructions not just verbally, but visually.

Unfortunately, Microsoft deprecated the mobile version of Dynamics 365 Remote Assist in March 2025. However, the desktop edition is still alive and kicking, and is available for free to businesses that have already deployed Dynamics 365 Field Service. That’s also the case for Dynamics 365 Guides…

Dynamics 365 Guides

Dynamics 365 Guides is a mixed reality app for HoloLens, offering hands-on instructions in the form of holograms.

Indeed, field technicians may follow interactive, step-by-step visuals right in their line of sight. These may include 3D models, images, voice guidance, and videos, all embedded directly into the workspace.

With this solution, Microsoft aims to support field service personnel in limiting guesswork, making fewer errors, and onboarding much faster.

Guides also integrates with Dynamics 365 Field Service and Remote Assist to streamline team collaboration.

As with Dynamics 365 Guides, the product is included in the Dynamics 365 Field Service subscription price.

Should I Invest in Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is more than a collection of business apps; it’s an interconnected platform designed to align departments. The biggest selling point is the integration with Microsoft’s entire ecosystem.

Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Excel, Power BI, and Copilot are all connected, alongside many Dynamics 365 apps. That supports companies in breaking down silos, easing hand-offs, and improving efficiency at scale.

Plus, Dynamics 365 runs on Azure, which bolsters its security, scalability, and compliance.

All that, combined with embedded Copilots and emerging forms of AI, makes Microsoft Dynamics an attractive option for organizations seeking an intuitive way to upgrade every process, app by app.

The most widely-implemented app in the package is Zoho CRM, which many customer experience professionals will be familiar with.

However, the suite includes 46+ applications.

These cross several categories, including CX, HR, finance, supply chain, etc.

As such, getting to grips with Zoho One may seem a little overwhelming at first.

However, Zoho has a reputation for cutting through complexity. That’s evident in its two distinct pricing packages for Zoho One.

Zoho One Pricing: The Two Distinct Packages

The Zoho One pricing plans are “All Employee Pricing” and “Flexible User Pricing”.

The difference between them isn’t in the functionality that companies get.

Indeed, both plans include:

• The Zoho Directory for document and application management, groups, security policies, Zoho Publish, and the BluePencil extension.
• Sales tools are available from Zoho CRM to Zoho Sites, Bookings, and Bigin for data management.
• Marketing features include SalesIQ, Zoho Campaigns, social media connectors, Surveys, Forms, PageSense, BackStage, Thrive, and a Landing Page creator.
• Support tools like Zoho Desk, Assist, and Lens
• Productivity features like Cliq, Mail, Projects, Sprints, Connect, Learn, TeamInbox, WorkDrive, Sign, Vault, and Notebook.
• Finance tools for bookkeeping, invoicing, expense and inventory management, billing, checkout customization, and more.
• HR tools for people and recruitment management.
• Legal tools like Zoho Contracts, and Business Process automation systems like Creator, Analytics, DataPrep, and Zoho Flow.
• Log360 cloud storage, security, and IT management features.

However, the monthly cost per user changes depending on whether everyone in the business gets a license or not.

All Employee Pricing

Zoho One’s “All Employee” plan costs $37 to $45 per user, per month, depending on whether customers pay monthly or annually.

This plan option is intended for organizations that want to provide comprehensive access to Zoho tools to every staff member.

As such, companies don’t have to worry about determining which team members should be able to use each tool. Everyone can access the full Zoho One suite.

The downside is that because every employee in the organization gets a license, purchasing the suite can be more expensive, particularly for companies with team members who don’t need access to every app.

That’s why Zoho also offers “flexible” user pricing.

Flexible User Pricing

The Flexible user pricing package includes the same enterprise-level features as the “All Employee” plans, but it costs a lot more.

Prices range from $90 (paid annually) to $105 (paid monthly) per user, per month.

The main difference here is that there’s no minimum number of licenses required.

Instead, companies can purchase licenses exclusively for the team members who need to access specific apps.

While organizations will pay more per license up front, they won’t have to buy licenses for every employee in the business, which can reduce overhead costs.

Many companies start with flexible pricing when testing out Zoho One and then upgrade to an All Employee plan when onboarding more team members.

Zoho One Pricing: Extra Fees to Consider

The Zoho One pricing model is refreshingly straightforward. Companies simply decide whether they only need a handful of licenses or want to offer access to every employee.

However, there may be a few “additional” fees to consider.

For instance, when utilizing Zoho One, businesses will receive a standard support package, which offers email, chat, and phone support channels eight hours a day, five days a week.

Organizations that need faster response times or more comprehensive assistance will need to upgrade to a “Premium” support plan.

The Premium package costs 20 percent of the price paid for Zoho One and has a maximum response time of three hours.

There’s also an Enterprise support plan, which costs 25 percent of the subscription fee, with one-hour response times.

Beyond that, there may be additional costs for upgraded storage limits, additional external integrations, implementation, or consultation fees.

A 30-Day Free Trial

Companies unsure of which plan best suits their needs can first trial Zoho’s 3o-day free plan. This may also help them figure out how many licenses they’d like to buy.

Anyone can sign up for this on the Zoho website, and they’ll gain full access to the 45+ apps included in Zoho One.

There are no limitations here. Administrators can set up CRM pipelines, HR modules, marketing workflows, and projects.

Moreover, they can integrate Zoho with other apps and experiment with all features, without restrictions.

Critically, business leaders don’t have to enter credit card details to access the trial.

Also, once they pick a plan, they can maintain all of their data and workflows without starting again from scratch.

There’s even a Concierge team available to offer personalized recommendations on plan options based on each company’s usage and goals.

Does Zoho Drive Value for Money?

Plenty of modern cloud-based platforms promise to consolidate business tools in one place.

However, Zoho One stands out because it delivers many integrated apps in one architecture for a monthly/annual fee.

Companies can save time and cash by consolidating apps with one vendor, maintaining a consistent user experience, and extending into new applications, without extra IT costs.

No company offers the same range of applications to experiment with across sales, marketing, finance, recruitment, and HR at such a low price. Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP are the only other companies that can do so at all.

The big challenge for many is figuring out which plan to choose.

For companies that want to ensure all of their team members can access the Zoho ecosystem, the All Employees plan makes sense.

Meanwhile, for those who only wish to limit access to particular employees, the Flexible plan is likely the better choice.

Some may wish to deploy Zoho exclusively across the front office. These businesses may refer to the Zoho CRM Plus plan instead.

That’s according to Balaji Balasubramanian, President and Chief Product Officer of SAP CX.

In an exclusive interview with CX Today, he pinpointed how SAP has laid the foundations, first with SAP Business Data Cloud.

SAP Business Data Cloud unifies data from SAP systems and third-party sources into a single source of truth. 

As part of that, it pulls in customer signals from sales, inventory, service, marketing, loyalty, and even third-party logistics in near-real time.

In doing so, it gives businesses context and insight into “every” customer journey touchpoint.

SAP Business Data Cloud pairs with the SAP CX AI Toolkit, a no-code solution businesses can use to apply AI, including AI agents, across sales and service operations. 

Referencing the two solutions, Balasubramanian said:

Our most recent innovations are more than just product updates. They’re the building blocks for something broader: a truly native AI-powered, modern, and composable customer experience suite.

“These foundational capabilities are designed to help businesses eliminate complexity, unlock intelligence, and transform how they engage with their customers across every channel.”

As such, SAP seems set to start packaging these solutions together as part of one CX suite, primed for particular verticals.

In doing so, the suite will bolster industry-specific editions of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public.

“This strategy reflects the future of SAP CX, as we move away from siloed tools and toward a unified, intelligent platform that understands, anticipates, and acts,” continued Balasubramanian.

“It’s how we’re creating systems that don’t just report data, they use it to drive business outcomes in the moment.”

Every Vision Needs a Roadmap: SAP Delivers 500 CX Innovations Per Year

As it builds out its customer experience suite, SAP has a roadmap that delivers over 500 CX innovations per calendar year. 

AI agents will prove a core part of that roadmap, with SAP launching pre-configured agents for sales and service earlier this year. These are now part of the SAP CX AI Toolkit.

Yet, as Balasubramanian stressed, “We’re not only embedding AI and agents in areas where it drives value to our customers, but also reimagining processes for an AI-first world.

AI agents will complete many of these processes by leveraging unified and harmonized data in SAP Business Data Cloud. That will enable them to reason, adapt, and act.

As such, data will also continue to be a key focus, alongside composability. Balasubramanian continued:

We’re not only integrating applications, data, and processes across CX and within the broader SAP application portfolio, but also making sure that all our products look, feel, and operate as one, while giving our customers the choice and freedom to adopt based on their needs.

Later this month, Balasubramanian will share more on the tech giant’s roadmap at the SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference.

 Differentiation Is Difficult, Balasubramanian Believes it Comes From Connected Data

SAP won’t be the first – or last – vendor to release an AI-powered customer experience suite that promises to move the needle.

Yet, differentiation – beyond flashy front-office features – has proven tricky, and many similar offerings have blurred into one.

SAP believes it has a compelling differentiator, however, in connecting CX teams with data, applications, and processes that typically lie outside their remit. 

But, there’s more to it. As Balasubramanian stressed, “SAP CX’s differentiation goes beyond ‘simply’ connecting data and processes by activating said data across the entire value chain.

We’re designing systems that empower practitioners to act proactively, in real time, and with intelligence and context – regardless of whether they’re using SAP or non-SAP products.

Consider retail, where SAP has already brought much of this together.

Beyond a connected CRM, ERP, and CDP – as part of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition – it has announced a loyalty management solution, order management, omnichannel sales transfer, and audit capabilities, and more. This solution will be released in H2 of 2025.

In weaving all this together, SAP pledges to help businesses move beyond legacy, siloed CX systems and instead think of CX as part of a cohesive enterprise ecosystem.