Competing for ERP overlay budget
Didero
The real fight is not to replace SAP or Oracle, it is to win the new software budget for the layer that makes those systems usable day to day. ERP still holds the vendor master, purchase orders, and payment records, but teams buy Levelpath, Zip, or ORO when the ERP workflow is too rigid, too slow, or too hard for employees to navigate. That makes these tools direct substitutes for the same modernization project, even when their product stories differ.
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Zip is the clearest example of the overlay model. It sells intake to procure and intake to pay as a front door for requests, approvals, supplier onboarding, PO creation, invoices, and payments, while emphasizing integrations with existing systems instead of rip and replace deployment.
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ORO and Levelpath package the same budget in slightly different ways. ORO leads with configurable orchestration and AI agents across enterprise procurement workflows, while Levelpath leads with AI agents and a more guided user experience across sourcing, supplier onboarding, risk, contracts, and invoicing.
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That is why Didero is pulled into the same spend decision even with a narrower focus on direct materials. A manufacturer may only fund one new procurement layer above ERP, so Didero has to prove that direct materials automation delivers better ROI than a broader indirect spend platform.
Going forward, this budget will consolidate around platforms that can land as an easy overlay and then expand into adjacent workflows. The winners will look less like classic procurement suites and more like AI control layers on top of ERP, with the strongest position going to products that turn messy purchasing steps into one clean workflow without forcing a system replacement.