How to Reduce ERP Support Costs Every Year

Most ERP support contracts get more expensive every year. Allari's compresses — down ~30% by Year 3, by contract. The chart, the clause, and the math.

The 3-year math. Visible. Audited. Defensible.

Most ERP support contracts get more expensive every year. Allari’s model gets cheaper. Here is the chart, the contract clause that enforces it, and the customer data that proves it.

We charge for work done, not for capacity

Most ERP support contracts charge a fixed monthly fee structured to cover worst-case workload — essentially an insurance premium priced for the spike that might never come. Quiet month? Vendor keeps it. AI accelerates throughput? Vendor keeps it. Platform matures and tickets drop? Vendor keeps it.

We charge for the work the team actually did. Each month we sit down with you, walk through the work in OpenBook®, and queue the next automation or root-cause project together. When the work shrinks, your spend shrinks. Same labor pool, same platforms — different contract and delivery model.

The contract clauses that bend the curve

Baseline measurement. Engagement begins with a 90-day operational baseline. Ticket volume, chronic backlog %, recurrence rate per category, and median time-to-resolve are measured and locked into the contract as the starting state.

Monthly compression review. Each month, senior engineers review the measured compression curve against the baseline. Retired repeat-work categories, published runbooks, and reclaimed capacity hours are signed off jointly by Allari delivery leads and the customer’s IT leadership.

The recalibration clause. If monthly compression stalls below the contractually-agreed minimum, the engagement triggers a written recalibration. Either Allari adjusts the operating plan to restore the curve, or the customer can adjust scope.

At-will termination, no penalty. If the contract isn’t working, the customer says stop and we stop — same day. No multi-year envelope. No notice period, no clawbacks, no transition fees, no exit penalty. The meter stops the day you say stop. The vendor hands over documentation, runbooks, and active ticket history on the way out.

Termination terms

Same-day termination, no notice required. Walk away any day. Every artifact yours. No clawback. No exit fee. The meter stops the day you say stop.

The math, by year

  • Year 1. Fixed-fee MSP: baseline cost. Allari: down 8% from baseline (portfolio median) as initial root causes are eliminated.
  • Year 2. Fixed-fee MSP: same (decoupled from workload). Allari: down 22% (portfolio median) as recurrence drops.
  • Year 3. Fixed-fee MSP: same. Allari: down 30% from baseline (portfolio median).
  • 3-year TCO. Cumulative spend on the median curve (−8 / −22 / −30) runs ~20% below a flat fixed-fee baseline; the Year-3 run-rate is 30% below baseline.
  • Vendor incentive. Fixed-fee MSP does less work for the same fee. Allari compresses your queue and proves it monthly.

Proof

The mechanism

Cost compression doesn’t happen because we charge less; it happens because recurring tickets get eliminated. Global electronics manufacturer 36-month longitudinal ticket study (January 2022 – February 2025) measured chronic backlog compressing from 12% to 6%, sustained, across 463 closed tickets in the January–February 2025 sample. Average ticket closure: 1.77 days (−72% from 6.42).

Frequently asked questions

What’s the typical year-3 cost vs year 1?

The portfolio median compression curve is −8% in Year 1, −22% by Year 2, and −30% by Year 3, measured against each customer’s own pre-Allari baseline over a 36-month measurement window (methodology published at allari.com/openbook-methodology.pdf). Where a customer lands relative to the median depends on baseline chronic backlog: high-backlog environments compress faster in year one, stable environments more gradually. The baseline measurement determines trajectory; the monthly review enforces it.

Is this just a fixed-fee MSP contract?

No. A fixed-fee MSP holds scope and bills change orders when the queue grows. A deflationary contract holds outcome — steady-state coverage plus monthly compression.

Is the math auditable?

Yes. OpenBook® publishes the underlying ticket data, compression metrics, hours consumed, and spend-to-date as a live operating ledger your CFO and audit committee can read at any time. The monthly senior-engineer sign-off is documented. The math is on the record, not in a sales deck.

How is this defensible to my CFO and board?

OpenBook® publishes the underlying ticket data, compression metrics, hours, and spend-to-date as an auditable ledger; the monthly senior-engineer sign-off is documented.

Is the −30% a portfolio average, or one customer’s curve?

Stated separately, on purpose. The −8 / −22 / −30 curve is portfolio-illustrative — engagement data across multi-year contracts (2022–2025), each measured against the customer’s own pre-Allari baseline. The single most-audited engagement, a global electronics manufacturer, delivered −19% in Year 1 against its prior Run budget and held at roughly 81% of budgeted spend across an audited window — the one figure with a full longitudinal audit behind it. Methodology published at allari.com/openbook-methodology.pdf.

What if our internal team changes during the contract?

The compression curve is engineered into Allari’s operational discipline; the OpenBook® ledger, runbooks, and monthly compression plan transfer cleanly if your team rotates.

What happens when the queue is already small?

The Run layer reclaims a smaller absolute amount, but freed senior-engineer hours are redirected into integration hardening, automation buildout, security debt remediation, or migration readiness work.

See what your 3-year math actually looks like — a 30-minute working session where you bring your current support contract and three months of ticket data and leave with a baseline measurement and projected compression curve. Get your operational baseline. Or read the published methodology.

See this on a live engagement →

Transparent unit pricing

Allari® prices ERP support at $22.50 per 15-minute increment of measured engineering work — one flat unit across every platform, no senior tier, no platform multiplier. Every increment lands in OpenBook® on the day it is worked, so the CFO can audit the fee computation independently each month.

How the unit price is possible: senior distributed Outcome Teams across the Americas and beyond — no leverage pyramid, no bench priced into the rate — plus automation that absorbs recurring volume instead of headcount. The rate is engineered, not discounted.

The spike-month question: consumption pricing is bounded by a contractual not-to-exceed guardrail. Cumulative cost is surfaced live in OpenBook® against that guardrail, and both sides see an overrun building before it is approached — a bad month is visible, discussed, and capped, never a surprise invoice.

For the full thesis behind this math, read The Deflationary Thesis — a founder essay on why ERP support contracts have to compress.

This page is part of allari.com. The full interactive experience is available at https://allari.com/deflationary-model.

About Allari. Allari holds the run layer of enterprise ERP — JD Edwards, SAP, Oracle Fusion, NetSuite. Founded 1999. 27 years of continuous operation under original ownership. 100+ enterprise customers. Self-funded. No outside capital. We measure every ticket through OpenBook® and bring the support run-rate down quarter by quarter through Build-Run Separation.

What Allari runs

  • Run layer. Production support, environment work, ticket triage, root-cause discipline, integration operations, vendor coordination.
  • What customers keep. Build, governance, modernization roadmaps, and next-platform programs.

Verified outcomes (sourced)

  • Global electronics manufacturer — 20-year partnership, 36-month longitudinal study, 463-ticket sample, 1.77-day average ticket closure (down from 6.42 days).
  • Global advanced-materials manufacturer — 14-year operating partnership since 2012, 64,959 lifetime tickets in our PSA, 200,134 hours delivered.
  • National services leader — largest customer in our portfolio by ticket volume.

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