The 5 operational gaps that ERP does not solve in medium-sized Spanish companies

Why the software that manages everything... doesn't manage everything

There is a paradox at the heart of medium-sized Spanish companies. After years of investment in management systems, after expensive and lengthy implementations, and after the IT team has spent months configuring modules, most middle managers are still starting their week just like they did ten years ago: opening Excel.

The problem isn't that the ERP doesn't work. The problem is that the ERP was designed to manage financial transactions, not to cover the daily operations of a real business.

‍According to IDC data collected by ERP News, the so-called workflow process gaps—those gaps between what the ERP manages and what the teams need to do every day—generate an estimated 20% loss of productivity in organizations that already have ERP in place. [1]

Adoption data in Spain is revealing: 54.6% of companies with more than 10 employees already use ERP, above the European average of 43.3%. [2] There is no problem with adoption. The problem lies in what happens after the implementation: that 20% of the operation that remains uncovered and that the teams solve with spreadsheets, emails and informal processes that no one controls.

Only 27% of Spanish companies make full use of the potential of their ERP. The remaining 73% have invested in a system that covers the financial and accounting core, but leaves the operational layer where real value is generated (and lost) unresolved. [3]

In this article, we identify the five most common and costly gaps, with verifiable data to support them.

These are not generic opinions or trends, but rather real frictions that operations, logistics, sales, HR and management teams face every week. And they are, precisely, the territory where satellite tools built with a no-code/low-code stack provide the greatest return in the shortest time.

Why ERP can't cover everything: a structural limitation, not a defect

Before entering into each gap, it's important to understand why this problem exists structurally. ERPs —SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, Odoo— were born with a specific mission: to guarantee the integrity of financial data and to automate the order-invoice-collection cycle. These are transactional systems. Its design prioritizes the consistency of accounting data over operational flexibility.

This has a direct consequence: any process that does not fit into that central cycle — a quality checklist, an approval workflow with conditional logic, an employee portal with specific shifts to the industry agreement, a sales dashboard crossed with logistics — is beyond the native scope. And customizing it within the ERP has a cost that medium-sized companies would find it unfeasible to assume: between 150,000€ and 750,000€ for a medium-sized company, with terms of 3 to 18 months.

The result is an ecosystem of patches: Excel for reporting, email for approvals, WhatsApp for shift coordination, Google Sheets for project monitoring.

ERP exists, but it coexists with shadow IT that absorbs time, generates errors and creates dependencies on specific people.

The 5 most common and expensive gaps

Gap 1. The rigid reporting that requires us to live in Excel

This is probably the most universal and transversal gap. 65% of teams using ERP consider that accessing their own data within the system is difficult. [3] The reporting module is often designed for standard financial reporting, which greatly limits flexibility.

Any customized view — such as an operational dashboard, a profitability analysis per customer, or a KPI panel that crosses sales with logistics — requires the intervention of IT or external consulting. The result is predictable: teams end up exporting data to CSV, crossing sheets manually and building their own dashboards in Excel, week after week.

A satellite tool, developed with WeWeb and connected to Supabase, could consume ERP data via API or through a database replica, allowing the creation of dashboards updated in real time without the need to modify the central system. Tools such as n8n or Make would be responsible for the automatic synchronization of data.

Thus, “Monday morning” ceases to exist as a concept.

Gap 2. The processes that ERP ignores: the kingdom of shadow IT

Gartner estimates that shadow IT represents between 30% and 50% of a company's real technology spending, and that 41% of employees are already acquiring or creating technological solutions without the knowledge of the IT department. By 2027, this figure will reach 75%. [5]

The pattern is repeated in all sectors: managing incidents in Excel, monitoring projects in Notion or Google Sheets, coordinating suppliers via email or quality controls on paper. These are critical processes for daily operations, but they are beyond the reach of the ERP.

The reason is simple: ERP is not designed for these types of flows. These are not standard transactional processes. For example, a quality checklist with 15 industry-specific fields is unlikely to have a native module in solutions such as SAP Business One.

This is where the no-code approach comes in. A custom-built application can digitize these processes in just 4—6 weeks, incorporating adapted forms, automatic notifications, full traceability and connection to the ERP. Thus, the relevant financial data flows without duplication, while the rest of the operation gains efficiency and control.

Gap 3. Undigitized Approval Flows

77% of medium-sized companies do not use the workflow management features of their ERP. [4]

Purchase requests, vacation approvals, price changes or registrations from suppliers continue to be managed by email. McKinsey estimates that employees waste up to 9.3 hours a week searching for information and coordinating approvals. [7] In addition, 45% of the time spent on these processes could be automated.

Although ERPs include native workflows, they are often rigid, require consulting to set up, and offer a limited user experience.

An application built with WeWeb can solve it with one-click approvals from the mobile, while n8n orchestrates the logic: if the amount exceeds a certain threshold, it notifies the financial director; if there is no response within 48 hours, it automatically scales. All this with full traceability.

Gap 4. Fragmented integration between systems

51% of companies recognize that integration problems prevent them from taking advantage of their data, and 99% face challenges stemming from the complexity of their technological ecosystem. [6]

In practice, ERP coexists with CRM, HR tools, e-commerce platforms and multiple sectoral systems —hotel PMS, industrial MES, educational LMS— that don't communicate with each other. The result: hours spent manually reconciling data that should match by definition.

Tools such as n8n or Make act as an integration hub, connecting these systems through APIs and webhooks without the need to modify any. Supabase can function as a unified data layer.

This lightweight middleware approach is what Gartner calls composable ERP, and it aims to become the dominant architecture in medium-sized European companies in the coming years.

Gap 5. Managing People Beyond Payroll

The HCM segment was the fastest-growing segment in the global ERP market in 2024, with an increase of 13% year-on-year. [8]

The signal is clear: companies are looking for people management solutions that their ERP doesn't provide. Shift management with agreement logic, digital onboarding, mobile-accessible employee portals, performance evaluations or training planning are common needs.

The ERP covers payroll and contracts; not daily HR operations.

An employee portal built with WeWeb and Supabase can cover these needs in 4—6 weeks. With n8n synchronizing key data with the payroll module, duplication of work is avoided and the employee experience is significantly improved, far beyond what standard modules offer.

The Spanish context amplifies these frictions

Spain adds a regulatory layer that intensifies these gaps. The convergence of regulations such as the SII, VERIFACTU (mandatory since January 2027), the Create and Grow Act on B2B electronic invoicing and TicketBai in the Basque Country requires many companies to manage multiple tax reporting formats.

Many international ERPs don't include these serial locations.

The starting point is not ideal either: only 26% of medium-sized Spanish companies have a good level of digital maturity. [9] However, the market is evolving rapidly. Gartner projects that by 2026 75% of new business applications will be developed with low-code or no-code platforms. [11]

In parallel, the European low-code market will increase from 2,920 million dollars to 17.310 million dollars in 2033. [10]

The Opportunity of Satellite Tools

These five gaps are not failures of the ERP, but rather structural limitations of a system designed for a specific purpose. The ERP does its job well. The problem comes when you expect it to cover everything.

The solution is not to replace it—a project lasting 12 to 18 months and hundreds of thousands of euros—but to complement it.

The opportunity lies in building satellite tools: specific applications for each gap, developed with no-code technologies (WeWeb, Supabase, n8n, Airtable, Make, Lovable, Figma), delivered in 4—6 weeks and fully integrated with the ERP, without replacing it or interfering with the internal IT team.

The most honest position is clear: it complements the ERP, not a substitute for it.

Medium-sized companies have already resolved their financial system. What you need is to cover that 20% of the operation that the ERP was never designed for.

Bibliographic references

Methodological note: The numerical citations in superscript [N] refer to the APA references listed below. All statistics have been verified in the original sources before inclusion.

[1] ERP News. (2024). Electronic Workflow Process Gaps Kill an Estimated 20% of ERP Productivity. ERP News. https://erpnews.com/electronic-workflow-process-gaps-kill-an-estimated-20-of-erp-productivity/ — Data based on IDC analysis on ERP productivity in European organizations.

[2] Eurostat. (2023). e-Business integration — Statistics Explained. European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=E-business_integration — Annual survey on the use of ICT in EU companies. Spain: 54.6% of companies with 10+ employees use ERP, compared to 43.3% of the European average.

[3] Saas Worthy. (2024). Top 50 ERP Statistics That Will Define 2025. SaaS Worthy Blog. https://www.saasworthy.com/blog/top-erp-statistics — Compilation of industry statistics on ERP adoption, satisfaction, and limitations.

[4] AberdeenGroup, cited in FounderJar. (2024). The Ultimate List of ERPStatistics for 2025. FounderJar. https://www.founderjar.com/erp-statistics/ — Survey of 500+ mid-market companies on the real use of their ERPs.

[5] Gartner. (2023). Predicts 2023: Workforce Technologies. Gartner Research. Cited in: Aluri. (2024). Shadow IT Statistics: Key Facts to Learn in 2025. https://www.zluri.com/blog/shadow-it-statistics-key-facts-to-learn-in-2024 — Projection: 75% of employees will acquire technology without knowledge of IT by 2027.

[6] Panorama Consulting. (2024). ERP Report 2024. Cited in: SaaS Worthy. (2024). https://www.saasworthy.com/blog/top-erp-statistics — 51% of companies recognize that integration issues prevent them from taking advantage of their data; 99% face data complexity challenges.

[7] McKinsey Global Institute. (2012). The Social Economy: Unlocking Value and Productivity Through Social Technologies. McKinsey & Company. Cited in: Valamis. (2023). Why Do We Spend All That Time Searching for Information at Work? https://www.valamis.com/blog/why-do-we-spend-all-that-time-searching-for-information-at-work — Employees spend up to 9.3 hours per week searching for information and coordinating approvals.

[8] Gartner. (2024). Market Share: Enterprise Resource Planning, Worldwide, 2024. Gartner Research. https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6524002 —Growth of the HCM segment in the global ERP market: 13% year-on-year in 2024.

[9] ICT Directory/Zoho. (2025). The situation of digitalization in large and medium-sized Spanish companies. DirectorTIC. https://directortic.es/noticias/situacion-digitalizacion-grandes-medianas-empresas-espanolas-zoho-2025021443226.htm — Only 34% of large companies and 26% of medium-sized companies in Spain have good digital health.

[10] Market Data Forecast. (2024). Europe Low Code Development Platform MarketSize, 2033. Market Data Forecast. https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-low-code-development-platform-market — The European market for low-code platforms will grow from 2,920 M$ to 17,310 M$ in 2033 (CAGR 21.86%).

[11] Kissflow/ Gartner. (2024). Gartner Forecasts for the Low-Code DevelopmentMarket Growth (2026). Kissflow. https://kissflow.com/low-code/gartner-forecasts-on-low-code-development-market/ — Gartner projects that 75% of new business applications will be built with low-code or no-code platforms by 2026.