There are no more updates for your system
The vendor has been sold, closed down or does not answer. What runs, runs - until it no longer does.
Your system has been running for twenty years. Replacing it needs no cut-over date.
No support, no interfaces, no e-invoicing - and somewhere inside it are rules nobody ever wrote down. We replace it one area at a time with ElbDesk, our custom ERP - the old system keeps running until the new one has proved itself in daily work.
Four areas, each with a track for the old and the new system: orders are replaced, the warehouse runs in parallel and is highlighted, purchasing is recorded, accounts still work in the old system.
When it is time
Occasions
Usually the situation has been known for years, and things have stayed as they were all the same. With good reason: a system that runs every day is less of a risk than a switch on a cut-over date. But that only holds as long as the only choice is all or nothing.
Your system cannot handle e-invoices
Businesses in Germany have had to accept e-invoices since 2025, and the duty to issue them is being phased in from 2027. On many older systems that can no longer be retrofitted.
Data only comes out through an export
Every morning someone starts it by hand, copies the figures into a spreadsheet and sends them on by email.
Price tiers and special terms appear in no manual
The system knows why one order is priced differently - and so do two of your people.
One person knows why everything is set up this way
That is a risk for holiday cover, induction and succession.
Two quotes for a switch are sitting in a drawer
Both with a cut-over date. Both assume that everything is switched over in a single weekend.
Does that sound like your system? Book a call
One area at a time. The old system keeps running.
Step-by-step replacement
Instead of one big switch, one area moves across at a time - in the order that benefits you most.
Today
The old system does everything.
First area
Shipping runs in ElbDesk, firmly connected to the old system.
Further areas
Shipping, warehouse and sales run in ElbDesk; the old one has less and less to do.
Replaced - if you wish
Only ElbDesk is running; the old system is switched off.
After each area you decide whether and when the next one follows. What can stay, stays.
Our approach
Record. Connect.
Replace.
You commission each step separately. Switching off comes last, not first - and only if you want it.
Record what is in there
We start with a single thing that hurts: a spreadsheet, a report someone puts together by hand every Monday. As we go, we write down what your system does, which rules it contains and how the data comes out.
After this you have
One thing that works better from now on - and documentation of your workflows and of the rules inside the old system.
Connect, don’t switch off
The old system stays and is connected where possible. We set ElbDesk up alongside it - it has to prove itself in daily work first.
After this you have
No cut-over date - and a first-hand picture of what working with us is like.
Replace what pays off
One area at a time moves to ElbDesk, with agreed transitions and parallel operation where technically possible. What can stay, stays.
After this you have
After each area a new decision - and the overview to make it.
Let’s talk about which area in your business should move first.
Book a callWhy the risk stays small at every step
Why us
A switch on a cut-over date demands that everything works in a single weekend. With us it starts small, and you decide afresh after every area.
Nothing is switched off before the new one runs
The old system stays and is connected where possible. Whatever is added has to prove itself in daily work before anything is taken away from you.
Big contracts come last, not first
Whether a partnership works shows in the work itself, not in a quote. If it does not work out, you still have something that runs.
The knowledge in the old system is not lost
Price tiers, special terms, deadlines: we get the rules out of the system and out of people’s heads before anything moves - and check that the new one calculates the same way.
It is replaced with ElbDesk, our custom ERP
What we replace it with
We do not build a complete ERP from scratch - that is what ElbDesk is for. The standard work your old system does is already there: master data, sales, purchasing, warehouse and accounts up to the year-end close, e-invoicing included. On top of that we build your workflows the way your business really works - instead of forcing it into standard screens.
Can be introduced in stages
ElbDesk runs alongside your old system until the next area is due.
Designed for integration
The interfaces to web shop, shipping and accounts are planned in from the start, not bolted on later.
Your process logic belongs to you
You may use what is developed for your business without restriction - regardless of how things go with us.
The recording shows which area should move to ElbDesk first. If you would rather have another ERP, you introduce it with its vendor - we build the interfaces and software around it.
How it works at other businesses
In practice
Carl Ostermann Erben GmbH
ERP for a production business
The new ERP is being introduced while the business keeps running - without a cut-over date.
- Before
- Orders, costing and production data sat in separate systems; the specialist software used in production was not connected.
- After
- An ERP based on ElbDesk, adapted to the way the business works and connected to the specialist software used in production.
- Rollout while the business keeps running
- ERP along the business’s own workflows
- Connection of the production’s industry software
Durch die enge und partnerschaftliche Zusammenarbeit entwickeln wir ein ERP-System, das genau auf unsere Bedürfnisse zugeschnitten ist.
Holger OstermannManaging Director · Carl Ostermann Erben GmbHDGD Deutscher Gutachter Dienst GmbH
Expert report and billing system
The office system was rebuilt, and we took over the existing app instead of replacing it.
- Before
- Reports and billing ran separately from the app the assessors use on site.
- After
- One system for reports, credit notes and e-invoicing - connected in real time with the assessors’ app.
- Takeover and further development of third-party software
- Real-time reconciliation between app and office system
- E-invoicing from the company’s own system
Gemeinsame OKRs, transparente Projektmanagement-Tools und ein klar strukturiertes Burndown-Board gaben uns jederzeit volle Kontrolle. So konnten wir Prioritäten flexibel anpassen - und haben selten so viel Vertrauen in einen externen Partner erlebt.
Daniel L. AguirreManaging Director · DGD Deutscher Gutachter Dienst GmbH
In none of these projects was there a day on which everything was switched over.
What owners ask us most often
Objections
If we touch that, everything stops.
That is why nothing is touched at first. Record first, then connect; switching off comes last. Where technically possible, the old system runs in parallel until the new one has proved itself in daily work.
The system does things even we don’t fully know about.
That is exactly why we start with the recording. Writing the rules down is the first step - whether or not you replace anything afterwards.
Only one person knows it, and he is leaving soon.
Then it is easier now than in three years: while he is still there, he can explain why something is set up the way it is. No reason to rush - but a good moment.
How long does a complete replacement take?
That depends on how many areas move - and you decide that. Because each area runs on its own, there is no point at which you have to wait for the end.
What happens to our old data?
We work out which data is carried over and how older records stay readable - with retention obligations in mind. We involve your tax adviser in that.
We would rather introduce another ERP.
Then introduce it with its vendor - we do not build an ERP from scratch; that is what ElbDesk is for. What the new system lacks, we build around it: software for the workflows no standard covers and, where possible, the interfaces to web shop, shipping and accounts.
ERP integration & interfaces
Contact
Which system does your business run?
In 20 minutes we work out where your system reaches its limits - no presentation, straight to the point. Afterwards you know which first step makes sense.
Tobias KietzmannManaging Director
Your permanent point of contact, from the first conversation to day-to-day operation.
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