The Hidden Cost of ‘Good Enough’: A CFO’s Guide to the ROI of Migrating Legacy ERP to the Cloud
For many Chief Financial Officers, the legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system sitting in the server room—or a co-located data center—is a familiar “comfort” in a volatile market. It is paid for, the team knows its quirks, and it “works.” When the IT department suggests a migration to the cloud, the instinctive CFO response is often: “If it isn’t broken, why spend millions to fix it?”
However, in 2025, the phrase “it works” has become a dangerous trap. What appears to be a stable, low-cost asset is often a “leaking bucket” of hidden expenses, missed opportunities, and escalating risks. In the modern fiscal landscape, “good enough” is the most expensive strategy a company can employ.
To move from defensive accounting to strategic value creation, CFOs must look beyond the initial implementation costs and analyze the true Return on Investment (ROI) of a cloud migration.