Entering 2026, businesses face numerous significant changes. Rapid technological advancements, constantly evolving customer demands, increasingly stringent compliance requirements, and a more complex global supply chain are all contributing factors. These changes are redefining the role of ERP systems. They are no longer solely for operational management; instead, they are becoming platforms that support data-driven decision-making by leaders, while simultaneously driving automation, building industry-specific digital ecosystems, and enhancing business adaptability.

In this article, 1C Vietnam summarizes 10 key ERP trends for 2026. These trends show how ERP is reshaping manufacturing business operations, shifting towards new technology platforms centered around artificial intelligence and data analytics.

ERP Trend 2026 #1: Comprehensive Supply Chain Performance Tracking

Supply chains are expanding in scale and scope globally. Manufacturing businesses now work simultaneously with multiple layers of suppliers, third-party logistics providers, and outsourcing partners across diverse geographic regions. In this context, the ability to track the supply chain in real time is crucial for reducing disruptions, shortening delivery times, and maintaining consistent product quality.

ERP trends in the supply chain in 2026 will enable businesses to track materials, monitor shipping progress, and analyze supplier performance in real-time.

From 2026 onwards, ERP systems need to be designed to connect more deeply with the entire ecosystem, enabling businesses to track materials, monitor shipping progress, and analyze supplier performance in real time. ERP systems also need to seamlessly collect data from IoT devices, partner portals, and logistics networks, helping businesses anticipate risks early and proactively respond, rather than just reacting after problems have occurred.

ERP Trend 2026 #2: Enhancing User Experience and Mobile Capability

With a growing number of young professionals in the manufacturing industry, and hybrid work models becoming the new standard, ERP systems are demanding not only functional but also user-friendly experiences, accessibility, and mobility.

Intuitive interfaces and user-role-based design that simplify complex tasks are a key ERP trend for 2026, catering to the increasingly younger workforce in the manufacturing industry.

Modern ERP systems are increasingly shifting towards intuitive interfaces, designed around user roles to simplify complex tasks. Mobile accessibility has become a mandatory requirement, allowing management, operations, and field staff to interact with the system from anywhere, from scanning inventory in the factory and approving production orders remotely to monitoring KPIs while on the go.

ERP Trend 2026 #3: High Customization - Flexible Manufacturing

Consumers are increasingly favoring personalized products, with shorter production cycles and faster delivery times. Traditional ERP models struggle to keep up with these changes. Instead, next-generation ERPs with mass customization capabilities will allow manufacturing businesses to flexibly adjust formulas, product configurations, packaging, and delivery schedules to meet specific needs, while still ensuring quality and compliance requirements.

Emphasizing customization is a key ERP trend for 2026, particularly relevant to the manufacturing industry, which demands flexible operational capabilities.

By effectively managing variable production with next-generation ERP systems, businesses can respond more quickly to changing customer demands while maintaining effective cost control and traceability. Flexible manufacturing is no longer an optional advantage, but a necessary condition for businesses to maintain competitiveness from 2026 onwards.

ERP Trend 2026 #4: Integrating Sustainability and ESG Metrics

Sustainability has become a mandatory requirement in business. Consumers, investors, and regulators are increasingly demanding greater transparency from businesses in their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) practices. Next-generation ERP systems allow for the direct integration of sustainability metrics into operational processes, enabling businesses to track energy consumption, waste, emissions, and resource utilization at each stage of production.

ERP trends in 2026 emphasize sustainability by integrating these metrics with real-time sustainability reporting into the ERP system.

When ESG data is seamlessly integrated with production planning and supply chain management, businesses can make decisions that balance profitability and environmental responsibility. Sustainability thus becomes part of daily operations, rather than just being summarized in periodic reports.

ERP Trend 2026 #5: Network Security - A Core Competency of Next-Generation ERP

ERP systems are increasingly connected to numerous devices, vendors, and cloud services, causing the cyberattack landscape to expand rapidly. Therefore, cybersecurity will become a fundamental element in ERP system design by 2026, rather than just a final, add-on layer. Security mechanisms will be integrated directly into the system architecture to protect critical business data: end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and legal compliance frameworks…

In the context of multi-device, multi-vendor, cloud-based ERP and services, cybersecurity is becoming a fundamental ERP trend for 2026.

In parallel, ERP supports proactive risk management through vulnerability detection, monitoring of anomalies, and automated incident response. Highly secure systems are especially important for industries requiring absolute regulatory compliance and product integrity, such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and chemicals.

ERP Trend 2026 #6: Decision-making with AI-integrated ERP

Data in businesses is constantly increasing, but translating operational data into effective decisions remains a major challenge. Many organizations possess vast amounts of data, yet fail to unlock its true value. From 2026 onwards, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into ERP systems will play a central role in transforming data into predictive insights and optimal action recommendations.

Next-generation ERP systems leverage AI to not only analyze past data but also support trend forecasting and action planning. From forecasting demand fluctuations to predicting equipment maintenance needs, the system provides intelligent recommendations and automated processes, helping users make faster decisions based on transparent, reliable data.

Decision-making based on AI-integrated ERP – a typical ERP trend of 2026 in the process of transforming data into predictive insights and recommending optimal actions for businesses.

The next step in this trend is the emergence of AI agents. Instead of simply responding on demand, AI agents in ERP are designed to proactively participate in the workflow coordination process, collaborating with other agents and triggering contextually appropriate actions. AI is gradually becoming the "experience layer" of the system, enabling users to interact with the ERP more intuitively and seamlessly, while most of the processing and coordination logic takes place in the background.

Although current AI agents are still primarily focused on specific functions and have not yet reached complete autonomy, the trend is clear. Preparing the right data platform, processes, and ERP architecture now will be crucial, enabling businesses to proactively leverage AI models in the coming stages.

ERP Trend 2026 #7: Cloud ERP and Composable Architecture

Manufacturing businesses are increasingly moving away from monolithic on-premise ERP systems towards cloud-native architectures. Cloud-based ERP offers flexibility, scalability, and remote access, while improving system performance and compliance with management requirements. Cloud ERP also opens up a new approach to system modernization. Instead of replacing the entire ERP system at once, businesses can deploy and upgrade in stages, minimizing disruption to core operations and facilitating the integration of technologies such as AI and IoT.

On a Cloud ERP platform, the Composable ERP architecture is gradually playing a central role in ERP strategy. Therefore, Cloud ERP continues to dominate when discussing ERP trends in 2026.

Against this backdrop, Composable architecture is increasingly playing a central role in ERP strategies. Composable ERP is not a ready-made product, but rather an architectural approach where modules and platforms are designed as components that can be interconnected, extended, and flexibly restructured. This approach allows ERP functionalities to be leveraged by intelligent automation layers, supporting flexible orchestration and a context-aware, adaptive user experience.

Composable ERP thus becomes a foundational element for long-term adaptability. Instead of building ERP as a fixed system for many years, businesses can develop ERP as a strategic framework, connecting multiple applications and platforms in a hybrid and multicloud environment. As this model continues to mature, ERP gradually moves from a trial-level composable deployment to a widespread, enterprise-wide architecture, adapting to the pace of business change in the coming period.

ERP Trend 2026 #8: Integrating ERP with the entire enterprise technology ecosystem

Modern manufacturing businesses rely on a variety of specialized tools for diverse purposes: data analysis, quality control (QC), warehouse automation, and other operations. By 2026, interoperability and ecosystem integration will become core expectations when selecting a suitable ERP system.

Modern ERP systems offer powerful APIs and extensions, demonstrating the ERP 2026 trend of leveraging the best technologies on a single data source.

Modern ERP systems provide APIs along with robust extensions and connectivity, enabling businesses to coordinate complex processes across multiple platforms. This allows businesses to leverage the best technologies in each sector while maintaining a unified data source for all operations and critical data through the ERP system.

ERP Trend 2026 #9: The Optimal ERP Solution Tailored to Industry Specifics

Mass-market ERP solutions are gradually giving way to specialized systems, designed to suit the specific operational processes and compliance requirements of each industry. Today, manufacturers expect ERP systems to be purposefully built for the particular industry in which they operate.

ERP trends in 2026 gradually demonstrate that mass-market ERP systems are giving way to specialized ERP solutions tailored to the specific operational needs of each industry.

In practice, businesses involved in manufacturing processes (such as food, pharmaceuticals, or chemicals) clearly benefit from ERP systems that integrate functions such as quality control (QC), batch traceability, formula management, and compliance tracking (FDA, GMP, etc.). These specialized ERP solutions not only shorten implementation time but also improve ROI by minimizing the need for complex customization.

ERP Trend 2026 #10: Results-Driven Analytics and Operational Performance

By 2026, manufacturing businesses will no longer need reporting interfaces that simply display data; they will need direct insights into business results—a consequence only possible from results-focused data analysis.

Outcome-focused data analysis – The ERP trend of 2026, powered by integrated artificial intelligence (AI) within ERP systems such as Gen AI.

For example, businesses leverage data to identify the highest-performing individuals in operational forecasting. More importantly, the data helps them understand how these individuals effectively organize their work, thereby standardizing and scaling this across the entire team. As a result, businesses can focus resources on higher-margin opportunities, ultimately improving overall business performance.

Currently, such insights often come from manually aggregating disparate data across multiple systems. From 2026 onwards, ERP will continue to play the role of the central data platform for businesses, where operational, financial, and sales data are interconnected and standardized. On that platform, intelligent layers like Gen AI will aggregate and interpret data in natural language, helping leaders access insights faster without relying on complex customized reports.

Stay ahead of ERP trends in 2026 with 1C Vietnam's ERP system.

ERP trends in 2026 reveal a clear common thread: businesses are no longer seeking systems that solve individual, isolated problems, but rather a platform flexible enough to handle operational, technological, and data requirements simultaneously. In other words, the ERP of the future will not just “do better” at each function, but will be redesigned to operate as a unified, more flexible, and intelligent platform.

In Vietnam, ERP revenue is projected to reach approximately US$50.42 million by 2025, with an average growth rate of ~6.58% per year from 2025 to 2030. In this context, 1C:ERP is positioned as a unified management system, helping manufacturing businesses maintain stable operations while being ready to embrace ERP trends in 2026.

In terms of operations, 1C:ERP supports businesses in managing their supply chain, production, quality control (QC), and core processes on a single platform, with data centrally stored and updated in real time. Combined with robust security and access control mechanisms, all of this enables businesses to enhance their ability to monitor, react quickly to changes, and better control risks.

1C:ERP is also designed to serve specific operational scenarios across diverse manufacturing industries: Mechanical Engineering, Plastics, Pharmaceuticals, Wood, Trade, etc. Simultaneously, its mobile accessibility and operation allow management, operations, and field personnel to interact with the ERP system directly in the factory, warehouse, or while on the go, shortening response times and improving operational efficiency.

As an ERP system with both on-premise and cloud models and a multi-module structure, 1C:ERP allows businesses to deploy and scale the system in stages, while easily integrating with other solutions in the technology ecosystem (IoT, MES, Digital Twin, etc.). This approach ensures that 1C:ERP does not become a "bottleneck" as the business scales up, but continues to serve as a foundation for long-term innovation.

At the data and decision-making layer, 1C:ERP connects data between departments and provides real-time reporting, laying the foundation for advanced analytics and data-driven decision-making scenarios.

Stay ahead of the curve with ERP 2026 trends for manufacturing businesses with 1C:ERP. Contact us for a consultation today: https://byvn.net/Vm80