FlowForge: Upgrade‑Safe Overlay Automation for ERP
8/10
Demand Score
Brittle or inflexible automations cause process breaks and costly custom rework during upgrades and policy changes.
8/10
Blue Ocean
Competition Level
$5k-25k
Price/Month
Predicted customer spend
18 days
Time to MVP
Difficulty: Moderate
The Problem
Reliance on third-party apps:
Competitor Landscape
- SAP Build Process Automation
- Microsoft Power Automate
- UiPath
- Appian
- Automation Anywhere
Must-Have Features for MVP
ERP event adapters and normalized event bus
Visual flow designer with guardrails and approvals
Template library per module (OTC, P2P, R2R, MFG)
Simulation/sandbox with masked data and KPI predictions
Feature flags and staged rollouts
Automated test harness and rollback plans
Built‑in observability (SLA/KPI dashboards)
Drift detection across ERP updates
⚠️ Potential Challenges
- Reliable event capture at enterprise scale
- Ensuring idempotency and compensating actions
- Change governance and business buy‑in
- Template curation for different ERP variants
Risk Level: Moderate
🎯 Keys to Success
- High‑quality templates that work out‑of‑box
- Proof of upgrade safety (simulations)
- Fast wins on top 3 business processes
- Tight governance controls to satisfy IT and audit
- Clear time/cost savings vs. custom ABAP/AL extensions
Ready to Build This?
This moderate-difficulty project could be your next micro-SaaS success.