There is no single universal owner of ERP customisations after go-live. The customer remains accountable for business outcomes and usually decides what its extensions should do, while an internal team or contracted application management services (AMS) provider may perform agreed technical maintenance. The ERP vendor supports its software or cloud service within the limits of the product and contract. The exact division depends on the support agreement and service description.
What does “maintaining customisations” include?
“Support” can mean several different kinds of work. Separate them when you assign ownership or negotiate a contract:
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Break-fix: diagnosing and repairing defects in custom code, reports, integrations, or configuration.
- Platform maintenance: operating and updating the underlying ERP software, cloud service, or infrastructure.
- User and application support: helping users and resolving application-level issues that require knowledge of business processes.
- Small enhancements: making approved changes to customer-specific functionality.
- Update readiness: assessing how a vendor update affects extensions, testing business processes, and approving releases.
A contract may cover some of these tasks and exclude others. For example, vendor maintenance for the underlying product is not necessarily support for customer-specific code. ERP Research distinguishes vendor maintenance from AMS for an implementation’s customisations, integrations, and reports: ERP Research’s support-model guide.
Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallOutdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchHow responsibility is commonly divided
A practical pattern is to keep business accountability with the customer, assign technical coordination to a named internal or contracted owner, and use the vendor for the product or service responsibilities defined in its documentation and contract. This is a pattern, not a universal contractual rule.
#1 Best Overall
| Work or decision | Typical accountable party | What to confirm |
|---|---|---|
| Business purpose, priorities, and acceptance of a change | Customer business or process owner | Who approves scope and confirms the changed process is fit for use? |
| Maintenance coordination and release readiness | Customer ERP/application owner, or a contracted AMS lead | Who tracks dependencies, plans testing, and coordinates deployment? |
| Custom-code repair, integration support, reports, or agreed enhancements | Internal team, implementation partner, or AMS provider | Which components, severity levels, service hours, and change types are in scope? |
| Underlying ERP product or cloud service | ERP vendor, within the product and contract boundary | Which platform operations and product support duties are included, and what remains the customer’s responsibility? |
| Update impact analysis, regression testing, and deployment approval | Usually coordinated by the customer or its delegate; exact duties depend on the service arrangement | Who tests customer-specific behavior, documents results, and gives the release approval? |
For example, Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations service description separates Microsoft’s SaaS responsibilities from customer responsibilities for customer-specific extensions and their operation: Microsoft’s service description. SAP’s 2025 private-cloud roles-and-responsibilities document says that, under the arrangements it describes, certain post-update nontechnical tasks—such as application settings or manual code creation in the customer namespace—must be performed by the customer: SAP’s roles-and-responsibilities document. These examples apply to specified products and service arrangements; they do not determine the terms of another ERP contract.
Who can do the technical work?
Customer ownership does not mean every task must be performed by customer employees. The work can be split among several providers, as long as someone is accountable for the overall result and handoffs are clear.
Rank #2
Internal ERP team
An in-house team can retain business and technical knowledge and coordinate changes closely with users. Check that it has enough capacity and specialist coverage for custom code, integrations, testing, and escalations.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Implementation partner or AMS provider
A partner or specialist AMS provider may take on agreed break-fix, service-desk, configuration, or enhancement work. Define the covered components, response and escalation terms, service hours, and exclusions. The label “AMS” by itself does not establish what the contract includes.
Rank #3
![Express Rip Free CD Ripper Software - Extract Audio in Perfect Digital Quality [PC Download]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41xx28xHa+L._SL160_.jpg)
- Perfect quality CD digital audio extraction (ripping)
- Fastest CD Ripper available
- Extract audio from CDs to wav or Mp3
- Extract many other file formats including wma, m4q, aac, aiff, cda and more
- Extract many other file formats including wma, m4q, aac, aiff, cda and more
ERP vendor
The vendor is responsible for its product or service only within the boundaries set by its documentation and contract. Do not assume that product maintenance automatically includes repair or validation of customer-specific code.
Combined support
A common arrangement can combine internal first-line support, vendor product maintenance, and a partner for customisation work. Name who receives an incident, routes it to the right party, and owns it until resolution; otherwise, gaps can emerge between product support and application support.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to choose a support arrangement
Compare actual coverage and accountability rather than relying on labels such as “vendor support” or “managed service.” ERP Research lists in-house teams, vendor maintenance, partner or consultancy AMS, and independent third-party support as broad models; organizations can combine them. Its guide gives an indicative estimate of around 18–22% of original perpetual ERP licence cost per year for vendor maintenance. This is ERP Research’s 2026 estimate, not a universal rate or a quote for a particular product; it notes that contracts vary: ERP Research’s maintenance-cost estimate.
| Decision factor | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| Coverage | Are customisations, integrations, reports, configuration, and defect repair each explicitly covered? |
| Updates and releases | Who assesses update impact, performs regression testing, resolves failures, and approves deployment? |
| Skills | Does the arrangement provide both functional knowledge of business processes and technical depth in code and integrations? |
| Service terms | What are the hours, response targets, escalation route, and named exclusions? |
| Knowledge and access | Will the organization retain documentation, support access, and enough knowledge to avoid dependence on one person or provider? |
| Future direction | How does the level of customisation fit the organization’s upgrade plans and the ERP’s hosting model? |
Microsoft’s support-planning guidance recommends deliberately planning application support, data maintenance, business-process knowledge, and specialist performance troubleshooting, alongside defining support and maintainability requirements: Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 support-planning guidance.
What to settle at handover
Use the go-live handover to make ownership operational. The following checklist is a practical way to document responsibilities; it is not a universal vendor-mandated list.
- Inventory each custom component, report, integration, and configuration area, with its business and technical owner.
- Record source code, build artifacts, dependencies, interfaces, and the process for obtaining support access.
- Document the testing approach, update obligations, release approval, and who can authorize deployment.
- Specify the incident intake and escalation route, including responsibility for coordinating across the ERP vendor and AMS provider.
- List what the support agreement excludes, such as unlisted components or types of enhancement, so that uncovered work is visible.
- Ensure documentation and knowledge transfer are available to the customer if staff or providers change.
What should the customer verify in its own agreement?
Because product, hosting model, edition, and contract terms differ, there is no universal responsibility matrix. Read the applicable product service description alongside the signed support agreement. For each category of work, identify the responsible party, service level, prerequisites, and exclusions. If the documents do not say who owns update testing or custom-code defects, get that responsibility clarified before relying on the arrangement.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
