Legacy ERP Integration for a Light Manufacturer
Industry: Manufacturing · Location: Melbourne · Timeline: 8 weeks · Outcome: Bought the business five more years before a full ERP replacement is needed.
The Problem
A light manufacturer had been running a mid-tier ERP from the early 2010s. The vendor had stopped supporting it three years earlier. The business needed to connect it to Xero for accounting and Shopify for online sales, but the ERP had no modern API — only a brittle 1990s terminal interface. Replacing the ERP properly would have meant six months of disruption and a five-figure licence spend. The owner needed a bridge.
What We Did
We built a thin "modernisation layer" on top of the legacy system. A small Python service reads and writes the ERP's database tables directly (with the vendor's blessing, documented in writing), exposes a clean REST API, and synchronises orders and products bidirectionally between the ERP, Xero and Shopify. We added a small web dashboard so the production manager can see live order status without logging into the green-screen terminal.
The Result
The business now takes online orders through Shopify, which flow straight into the legacy ERP and into Xero, removing manual re-keying. The owner estimates the integration saves two staff days a week. Instead of an ERP migration in three months, the business can plan a replacement over the next two years.
Why we did not rewrite the ERP
The alternative was a full ERP replacement: a six-to-twelve-month programme with data migration, staff retraining and production risk. The business could not afford that. A thin API layer bought two years at roughly a tenth of the cost.
We did get the legacy vendor's written agreement to read and write the database directly. That is important: touching a vendor's database without permission is a good way to find yourself in a contract dispute. With that agreement in hand, the Python integration service was straightforward, and we kept it well documented so that when the business does migrate to a new ERP, the integration layer can be re-pointed without a rewrite.
Stuck with an old ERP you cannot replace overnight?
Book a call. We can build a bridge that buys you time without forcing a big-bang rewrite.
Book a Free ConsultationFrequently Asked Questions
Can we keep our ERP instead of replacing it?
Often, yes. Wrapping a legacy ERP in a modern API layer lets you keep using it while connecting it to Xero, Shopify and other tools. This project bought the business two years to plan a proper replacement on their own timetable.
Is it risky to touch a vendor's database directly?
It can be. Directly reading or writing a vendor's database without written permission is a fast route to a contract dispute. We always secure the vendor's written agreement first — it is a non-negotiable step in this kind of work.
How much manual work can an integration remove?
In this project the integration removed manual re-keying between three systems and saved roughly two staff days a week. Your number depends on how many systems and how many transactions you handle.