How a Legacy ERP is Costing Aviation Companies Millions (Based on a True Story)

TL;DR

Aviation companies are losing millions due to legacy ERP inefficiencies—slow RFQs, data silos, manual workflows, and compliance risks. One of our recent new customers, a $30M supplier quantified their losses at $4.9M per year, stemming from wasted productivity, lost deals, and operational bottlenecks, despite having a solution in place.

The fix? They modernized with ERP.Aero, automating RFQs, optimizing inventory, and integrating with marketplaces. The result: faster transactions, higher deal conversion, and an additional $8.4M in new revenue potential.

The real question isn’t what happens if nothing changes?

The Silent Drain on Aviation Businesses

Aviation companies are leaking money—and many don’t even realize it.

For mid-sized and growing aviation businesses, efficiency is everything. The ability to respond to RFQs quickly, manage inventory in real time, and maintain seamless compliance separates industry leaders from those constantly playing catch-up. Yet, too many companies are held back by outdated ERP systems that create hidden financial drains.

Instead of speed and precision, legacy ERPs create:

• Slow RFQ processes, taking 30+ hours, causing lost deals to faster competitors.

• Data silos, leading to pricing errors, inventory mismatches, and lost sales.

• Manual workflows, draining hundreds of hours in redundant tasks.

• Compliance headaches, forcing teams into time-consuming, error-prone audit prep.

The result? Millions lost annually.

Aviation companies relying on manual RFQ processes lose up to 15% of revenue due to slow response times. In reality, the numbers are likely even worse. And to make matters worse, a single compliance misstep can cost hundreds of thousands in penalties and delays.

Let’s take a walk through a recent customer’s journey. Maybe not all of it applies to you—but some of it will likely hit home.

The Financial Toll of Legacy ERP on Aviation Companies

How Much Is Your Business Losing?

Like most aviation companies, this customer didn’t measure the true cost of inefficiencies caused by their legacy ERP. Not because they didn’t care—but because they didn’t know.

They had trusted their system for years, unaware of how much it was silently draining from their bottom line.

They went back and quantified everything. What they discovered was shocking: their ERP inefficiencies were costing them over $4.9M per year.

Where Did the Money Go?

The losses came from multiple operational breakdowns:

• $1.35M in lost productivity → Hundreds of hours wasted on manual data entry, cross-checking spreadsheets, and fixing errors led to costly mistakes and incorrect shipments.

• $1.7M in inefficiencies → Disconnected systems and data silos delayed orders, created pricing mistakes, and caused inventory shortages. They often thought they had parts in stock—only to realize they didn’t.

• $900K in lost revenue → RFQ response times exceeded 30 hours, causing them to lose deals to faster competitors.

• $1.12M in wasted executive time → Leadership was bogged down by system inefficiencies instead of focusing on growth, partnerships, and strategy.

Total Annual Loss: $4.9M

This wasn’t a theory—it was their reality.

And if you’re reading this, maybe you can relate. The details might vary, but the financial impact? You already know.

Where Leadership Should Be Focused Instead

What’s Your Hourly Worth?

If you’re leading a $30M aviation supply company, your time is worth hundreds of dollars per hour. Yet, how much of it is wasted?

Too many leaders are stuck in the weeds—approving purchase orders manually, fixing data errors, and babysitting their ERP instead of running the business.

Think about it:

• Are you still approving purchase orders manually?

• Are your managers juggling 17 spreadsheets, tracking down part numbers, instead of growing supplier relationships?

• Is your sales team re-entering data instead of processing more RFQs?

This misallocation of leadership time is one of the biggest barriers to growth.

And this customer? They were so invested in their ERP that they started looking for another service to supplement it!

They already had an ERP. They had some level of integration for their digital storefront. And yet, they were considering adding a third service just to consolidate RFQs.

That’s not a solution—it’s a red flag.

The Wake-Up Call: Take High-Impact Leadership Actions

Instead of being trapped by self-inflicted inefficiencies, leadership should shift focus to high-impact actions that drive profitability:

1. Automating workflows eliminates redundant data entry and disconnected systems → Recovers $1.35M/yr.

2. Real-time inventory tracking prevents shortages and overstocking → Cuts $1.17M in lost revenue.

3. Faster RFQ response times reduce processing from 30+ hours to under 6 → Recovers $900K/yr.

4. Reclaiming leadership time from admin work → Recovers $1.12M/yr.

It’s no longer a question of “Can we afford to fix this?”

It’s now: “How much longer can we afford NOT to?”

The Fix – How to Get Out of a Legacy ERP Trap

By this point, the choice was clear: keep losing millions or modernize for scalable growth.

But they didn’t just swap one system for another. They needed an aviation-specific ERP that would automate operations, eliminate bottlenecks, and scale with their business.

The 3-Step Audit Process

1️⃣ Identify Bottlenecks → Track where delays, manual work, and inefficiencies are costing time and money.

2️⃣ Quantify the Financial Impact → Attach real dollar values to the waste. Seeing it in black and white makes the case for change undeniable.

3️⃣ Find the Right ERP → Generic systems require costly customizations. They needed a solution built for aviation—one that worked out of the box.

The result? A complete shift from operational chaos to efficiency and profitability.

The New Revenue Opportunity After Fixing ERP

They chose ERP.Aero—and in weeks, not months, they were fully deployed.

Fixing inefficiencies didn’t just recoup lost revenue—it created new revenue streams.

• Automated RFQs cut response times from 30+ hours to under six, increasing their deal win rate.

• Real-time inventory tracking eliminated stockouts and ensured they always had the right parts available.

• Seamless marketplace integration with ILS and PartsBase expanded their sales reach and transaction volume.

• Leadership could finally focus on scaling—without adding overhead.

Transforming Cost Savings Into Growth

-$4.9M in recovered revenue -$8.4M total new revenue potential

They didn’t just fix problems—they built a competitive advantage.

The Cost of Doing Nothing is Higher

Change is hard—but losing millions every year is harder.

Right now, your company is either moving forward or falling behind.

Every month with a legacy ERP means:

⚠ Lost deals to faster competitors.

⚠ Millions wasted in inefficiencies.

⚠ Leadership time spent on admin work instead of growth.

Your revenue might be $300M or $900K, but the financial drain, and impact, is real.

The solution isn’t throwing more money at broken systems. It’s not adding a third of fourth service to fix what your ERP should already do.

The real question isn’t “Can we afford to upgrade?”

It’s “How much longer can we afford NOT to?”

Speed Wins, close RFQs in minutes, not days. Scale without hiring more people, and stop losing money on inefficiencies.

Win more deals.

🚀 ERP.Aero isn’t just an upgrade—it’s a competitive necessity.

P.S.

This isn’t just another feature update—it’s something I truly believe will change how aviation businesses handle risk. For the last five years, we’ve all seen the delays, the headaches, and the “hope nothing goes wrong” approach to coverage. That’s not how a modern aviation business should operate.

We've also been involved in the solution hundreds of times, and we're listening. We developed solutions like to eliminate the stress of risk management—so you can focus on what actually matters: growing, scaling, and moving faster than the competition. We've introduced many industry first innovations to tackle the daily stresses our industry faces, and we're committed to your success.

I’d love to hear your thoughts—How do you currently handle insurance in your business? Have you ever had a coverage delay slow down an order? Drop a comment below, let’s start a conversation. And if you have questions, my inbox is always open.