Don’t turn 5% into 15%
Output Management: The important 5% of an ERP project
ERP providers can save time and deliver better ERP solutions with lower total costs for their clients – simply by understanding the difference between basic document generation and full Output Management, and by taking customer-facing documents seriously from the start of the project.
Despite being business-critical, Output Management rarely makes it to the top of the agenda. Areas like CRM and Business Intelligence often steal the spotlight, while Output Management flies under the radar—even though it is just as vital to business success.
At the same time, this often underestimated area can end up costing three times as much if it’s not taken seriously from the beginning but instead postponed until just before go-live — which happens in 8 out of 10 ERP projects.
What’s seen as a “boring” area is in fact a highly complex discipline that plays a central role in the entire business. It involves generating and managing essential business documents such as invoices, shipping notes, labels, customs papers, and more — documents that the ERP system is meant to produce, integrate, and distribute.
And if it doesn’t work? Neither does the ERP system—or the business. Imagine the consequences if your company suddenly couldn’t send invoices or print the documents needed to deliver goods to customers.
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“Output Management should take up no more than 5% of the ERP budget. But that number can easily triple if the area isn’t taken seriously early on”
Tim Janum, Partner Account Manager, Tabellae
Avoid Unnecessary Extra Costs
As a rule of thumb, Output Management should take up no more than 5% of the ERP budget. But that number can easily triple if the area isn’t taken seriously early on—or if an ERP vendor recommends a basic template solution that fails to support complex requirements like customs, government portals, customer demands, and cross-border compliance.
Unfortunately, this happens far too often. Here are two real-life examples: A large electronics company chose a simple solution that couldn’t meet their global requirements.
The result? Six months of wasted work and several hundred thousand euros in additional costs.
A mid-sized construction firm prioritized low hourly rates over experience.
The result? A misconfigured solution that never went live, more than a year’s delay, and an extra bill of 130,000 Euros.
These are just two out of many cases where companies ended up with large, avoidable expenses—simply because the right Output Management solution wasn’t chosen from the beginning.
When Customers Get Locked In
Going down the wrong path is expensive—and rolling everything back is worse. There are double license costs, unnecessary implementation hours, and stalled progress while employees wait, repri oritize, or lose efficiency. On top of that comes the long-term burden of maintaining and manually updating business documents.
ERP vendors have a responsibility to guide their customers in this critical area. It’s their job to make sure Output Management gets the attention it deserves and that the right solution is selected.
Otherwise, it’s always the customer who ends up with an ERP system that doesn’t fully work—and that almost certainly won’t be sustainable in the long run. Especially in sales and export, new legal requirements and partner demands often arise with little notice. If you’re stuck with a hardcoded or too-simple Output Management setup, you won’t be able to keep up
Three Practical Tips for ERP Vendors
Output Management should be part of the scoping phase in every ERP project.
Ask questions early on: What documents are needed? In which formats? For which recipients and through which channels? When these needs are mapped from the start, you choose the right solution and avoid costly changes later.
Requirements change, especially for global businesses.
If your Output Management system can’t adapt to new laws, customer demands, or growth strategies, it will quickly fall short—and require expensive upgrades.
It’s easy to see why areas like CRM and Business Intelligence get more attention in ERP projects. They’re visible and often tied to prestige. But remember this: the customer experience often starts with a document—the invoice, the delivery note, the shipping papers. If those documents don’t work, the whole ERP experience breaks down—and the ERP vendor’s reputation along with it.
Template-based solutions may be quick to implement, but they’re rarely scalable or flexible enough to handle complex business needs.
A proper Output Management solution supports the full document lifecycle—from design and distribution to archiving—while ensuring compliance with local and international regulations.
