ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a business information system that connects a company's key processes within a single environment. It enables different areas of the business – such as manufacturing, warehousing, purchasing, sales, finance and CRM – to work with shared data. This eliminates the need to manage individual business areas using separate systems and spreadsheets.
An ERP system makes the most sense for companies whose processes can no longer be managed efficiently using several separate applications or spreadsheets. These are typically medium-sized and larger companies with multiple departments, users, locations or more complex processes in manufacturing, logistics, sales or finance.
ERP can also be suitable for groups of companies that need to share some or all of their data.
Typical signs include duplicate data entry, a large number of Excel spreadsheets, difficulty accessing up-to-date information, manual data transfers between systems, or existing software that can no longer keep up with the company's growth. Other reasons may include the need to automate or digitalise processes or to integrate manufacturing, warehousing, finance and sales.
The cost of an ERP system depends on the scope of the solution, the number of users, required modules, integrations, customisations and the complexity of the implementation. For enterprise ERP systems, there is therefore usually no single universal price. The total cost includes not only licences or system operation, but also implementation, data migration, integrations, training and ongoing support.
At K2, we first discuss the required scope of the solution with you, propose suitable implementation options in K2 and provide you with the complete price of the K2 ERP solution.
The duration of an ERP implementation depends on the size of the company, the scope of the project and the complexity of its processes. Simpler projects may take several months, while complex implementations in manufacturing or logistics companies can take longer. An ERP implementation typically includes process analysis, system configuration, integrations, data migration, testing, user training and go-live.
Based on our completed projects, we know that for a company with approximately 50 users, the project phase of a K2 ERP implementation typically takes 3 to 5 months, followed by an implementation phase of 4 to 10 months. For a company with 100 users, the project phase usually takes approximately 5 to 8 months and implementation 6 to 12 months. Larger projects are rolled out in stages, so the overall ERP implementation time also depends on the number of phases and how they follow on from one another.
Before implementing an ERP system, it is important to map key business processes, define the project objectives and identify the requirements of individual departments. The company should also establish an internal project team, assign responsibilities, prepare data for migration and ensure that key employees have sufficient capacity for analysis, testing and training.
An important part of the preparation is also reviewing and cleansing the data that will be migrated to the new ERP system. This includes, for example, customer and supplier data, product records and inventory data.
A company does not need to have its entire future solution designed in detail before the project begins. An experienced ERP provider such as K2 should help identify weaknesses in existing processes during the analysis phase and recommend which processes should be retained, changed or automated.
Preparing users for the change is equally important. The change often involves not only a new ERP system but also changes to business processes, whether due to automation or the need to record data for performance indicators that were not previously tracked but become relevant after K2 is implemented.
In addition to finance and warehouse management, an ERP system for a manufacturing company should support production engineering, bills of materials (BOMs), routings, capacity planning, production order management, production reporting and cost evaluation. Manufacturing should also be integrated with warehousing, purchasing and sales so that the system works with up-to-date data across the entire company.
K2 ERP supports make-to-order, serial, repetitive, discrete and small-batch manufacturing, including sample production. It enables capacity planning across the entire production process as well as planning based on bottlenecks and capacity groups. When production is reported, K2 also records the consumption of materials and semi-finished products, providing the company with accurate inventory data and making it easier to calculate work in progress (WIP).
ERP manages business processes across the company, while a WMS specialises in warehouse operations. A WMS manages processes such as goods receipt and put-away, storage locations, picking, stock replenishment and warehouse workforce activities. When a WMS is part of or directly integrated with an ERP system, warehouse operations use the same data as purchasing, sales, manufacturing and finance.
K2 ERP includes its own WMS as part of the enterprise system, which means warehouse management works directly with the same data as other business processes.
Yes. An ERP system can be integrated with other applications and technologies used by a company – for example, e-commerce platforms, banking systems, CRM, attendance systems, carriers, manufacturing technologies or data analytics tools. Integration enables automated data exchange between systems and reduces the need for manual data entry.
K2 can be integrated through the K2 API, which supports both reading and writing data. This makes it possible to communicate with external systems and technologies, including AI agents.
The K2 information system is designed primarily for medium-sized and larger companies that need to manage multiple business processes within a single system. It is used, for example, by manufacturing, trading and distribution companies as well as businesses with more complex warehouse logistics.
K2 connects areas such as manufacturing, warehousing and WMS, purchasing, sales, finance, CRM, e-commerce and document management using shared business data. It is therefore particularly suitable for companies looking to replace several separate applications with a single ERP system, automate their processes, support further business growth or manage processes across a group of companies.
The choice between cloud ERP and ERP operated on a company's own infrastructure (on-premise) depends on the company's requirements, IT strategy, costs, desired level of control and available internal IT resources.
Cloud ERP reduces the need for a company's own IT infrastructure and its management, while an on-premise solution gives the company greater control over the environment in which the system operates. When making the decision, companies should also consider security, system availability, integration options, scalability and the total cost of operation over the longer term.
An e-commerce platform can be integrated with an ERP system via an API, enabling the automatic exchange of product, pricing, inventory, customer and order data. If the e-commerce solution is directly integrated into the ERP solution, both can work with the same data without the need for regular data synchronisation.
The K2 enterprise system includes its own integrated e-commerce solution, which works with the same data as the ERP system itself. Changes to prices, inventory levels or product information can therefore be immediately reflected in the online store. Orders then flow directly into subsequent processes in K2 – from warehousing and shipping through to invoicing.
An ERP system supports production planning using up-to-date information about orders, materials, inventory, production capacity and deadlines. By connecting these data, a company can better determine what to produce, when to produce it and in what quantities, while identifying material or capacity shortages in time.
ERP also connects production planning with purchasing, warehousing and sales. Changes to an order or material availability can therefore be reflected in the production plan without having to manually combine information from several separate systems.
