Too many organizations are still running their business on legacy sales and order management systems. These older systems that used to work fine, have become a hidden burden on profitability, agility and customer satisfaction.
Upgrading isn’t just about new technology, it’s about avoiding the cost of inaction. Because doing nothing has a cost too, and it can often be much larger than the price tag of change.
The Cost of Manual Errors
When order entry depends on multiple systems or manual corrections, it adds more cost and risk. Research from APQC (American Productivity & Quality Center), shows that organizations that process orders through digital or electronic channels average a cost per sales order as low as $4, whereas traditional or manual channels are significantly higher in comparison. This difference highlights the financial disadvantage of outdated workflows. Inefficiency and manual orders increase the likelihood of errors like incorrect quantities, pricing or invoices, which creates delays and impacts revenue. Over the course of hundreds of thousands of transactions each year, these issues quickly become a serious effect on margins. (https://www.apqc.org/resources/benchmarking/open-standards-benchmarking/measures/average-cost-sales-order-orders?)
The Cost of Imperfect Orders
The “Perfect Order Rate” is a supply chain metric defined by the APQC. This metric shows the amount of orders that are delivered on time, with no errors or damage, and correctly invoiced. Industry leaders achieve around 95% or better, whereas median performers often achieve 88%. Whilst that 7% difference might not look big on paper, wait until you break down the costs.
For a distributor processing 500,000 orders per year, that 7% difference means 35,000 orders weren’t perfect. At over $4 per incident, that’s more than $140,000 per year in avoidable costs. (https://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/article/22026774/achieving-the-impossible-dream-perfect-order-performance?)
The Cost of Downtime and Technical Debt
The ITIC 2024 Global Downtime Survey (https://itic-corp.com/itic-2024-hourly-cost-of-downtime-report/?) found that 90% of companies now estimate downtime costs at over $300,000 per hour. Legacy order management systems are often built on unsupported integrations and aging infrastructure, so they are far more likely to fail, causing more money and time to be put into maintaining them. McKinsey reports (https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/tech-and-ai/our-insights/demystifying-digital-dark-matter-a-new-standard-to-tame-technical-debt?) around 20% of most IT budgets now go to patching or maintaining outdating systems instead of innovation.
The Cost of Slow Systems
With markets moving faster than ever, customer expectations continue to increase and evolve each quarter, and whilst digital competitors can adjust pricing, fulfillment, and promotions in real time, legacy systems can’t keep up. These older systems limit how quickly a company can react, whether it’s onboarding a new supplier, adjusting shipping options, or personalizing customer experiences. Each delay translates to missed revenue opportunities.
Many Companies Still Use Legacy Systems
A 2024 survey of US IT professionals found that 62% of organizations still rely on legacy software systems. These companies are missing out on revenue, efficiency, and a competitive advantage. (https://www.saritasa.com/insights/legacy-software-modernization-in-2025-survey-of-500-u-s-it-pros?)
How OMS+ Helps
The cost of doing nothing is impactful, but so is the value of doing something. OMS+ is an automated point of sale and order management solution embedded in SAP. With OMS+, orders flow directly within SAP. That means pricing, availability, and fulfillment all work in real-time rather than bouncing between disconnected systems. The result is lower cost per order, fewer manual touches, and fewer errors. It improves the ‘Perfect Order Rate’ as everything is automated. Technical debt and downtime begin to shrink as you standardize on a modern SAP platform rather than an old legacy environment. Monitoring, adjusting, and responding to change becomes a competitive advantage rather than a struggle. Companies that upgrade to OMS+ typically see:
– Order created and completed with 30% more speed and accuracy
– Manual tasks reduced by 50% due to automation
– Up to 90% reduction in training time
– Higher customer satisfaction
Every organization reaches a point where maintaining the old becomes more expensive than building the new. Legacy systems may still function, but they hold your teams back from innovating, scaling and delivering the experiences your customers expect.
Upgrading to OMS+ is a strategic decision, allowing businesses to turn efficiency into growth, complexity into simplicity, and risk into opportunity.