For many companies running legacy ERP systems, the issue isn’t failure.
The system still works. Transactions post. Periods close. Payroll runs.
The problem is everything around it. Especially when compared to the experience Oracle is now shaping with Redwood.
Many legacy ERP modules still rely on interfaces designed in the 1980s or 1990s. Screens built for a world where ERP users were specialists, not everyday business users. Dense layouts. Rigid navigation. Little tolerance for error. Using the system efficiently requires experience and often, tribal, undocumented know-how.
That friction doesn’t show up as a single line item. It shows up as longer onboarding, heavier training, slower adoption, and a growing dependence on a shrinking group of people who “know how things really work.”
And that’s where the real risk begins.
When UX Becomes a Talent Problem
For a long time, poor UX wasn’t the result of a conscious choice.
ERP systems designed in the 1980s and 1990s were built with a very different set of priorities. Functionality came first. Stability came second. UX, as we think about it today, wasn’t yet part of the conversation.
Once those systems became deeply embedded in core financial, operational, and HR processes, changing them became increasingly risky. Over the years, layers of customization were added to support critical workflows. The systems grew harder to modify, harder to replace, and easier to leave untouched.
Not because they were ideal.
Because they were essential for companies’ processes.
As many IT leaders have experienced, hesitation around ERP modernization is rarely about comfort. Instead, it is driven by risk. ERP failures are expensive, highly visible, and disruptive. When a system runs the core of the business, keeping it stable often feels safer than changing it.
But time kept moving.
Legacy ERP expertise is now becoming harder to find. Many of the professionals who implemented and stabilized these systems are retiring. Others have moved on to newer platforms. In many organizations, deep legacy knowledge is concentrated in a handful of long-tenured individuals who quietly become operational bottlenecks (and retention risks) because replacing them is slow and uncertain.
The hidden cost of onboarding with a poorly intuitive UX
Every new functional or technical hire exposes the issue again.
On legacy ERP systems, onboarding is rarely straightforward. New consultants (even experienced ones) face a long and tedious ramp-up period. Not just because the business logic could be complex, but because the interface itself is unintuitive, inconsistent, and unfamiliar to newer generations of professionals.
What used to be learned once and reused across projects now has to be relearned from scratch. Screens that don’t guide users. Workflows that assume prior knowledge. Terminology that only makes sense if you’ve lived inside the system for years.
That onboarding cost compounds quickly:
- It affects functional consultants.
- It affects technical specialists.
- And it limits how fast teams can scale or rotate talent.
As newer professionals gravitate toward modern platforms, legacy systems become harder to staff. The talent pool shrinks. Dependency on a small group of experienced individuals grows. Replacing or augmenting teams becomes slower, riskier, and more expensive.
And that’s where modern UX (and frameworks like Redwood) start to matter.
Fusion Changed the Platform. Redwood Changed the Conversation.
Oracle Fusion Applications have been around for more than a decade. Over that time, Fusion became Oracle’s core enterprise platform: cloud-native, continuously updated, and architected for integration, automation, and scale.
But experience lagged behind expectations.
In 2019, Oracle introduced Redwood at Oracle OpenWorld. Since 2020, it has been progressively rolled out across Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications (ERP, HCM, SCM, CX) and it now represents Oracle’s standard user experience moving forward.
Redwood was designed to reduce friction:
- Cleaner layouts.
- Consistent patterns across modules.
- More intuitive interfaces for new or inexperienced users.
The Gap That Keeps Growing
For a long time, companies managed the gap between legacy ERP and modern business needs through customization, documentation, and highly specialized teams.
Oracle has made its direction clear. Innovation is concentrated on Fusion. Redwood is exclusive to Fusion. At the same time, investment in ADF, the foundation for many legacy ERP interfaces, has slowed to maintenance mode. No new features. Limited fixes. No UX evolution.
Redwood is not coming to legacy ERP.
Every year, the gap grows. Not only in functionality, but in usability, adaptability, and talent requirements. Maintaining the old system increasingly means:
- Higher training costs
- Longer onboarding cycles
- Greater reliance on hard-to-replace specialists
- Slower response to change
Why Redwood Can Motivate Modernization
1) A tangible improvement in UX:
Redwood is not just a cosmetic redesign. It is designed to make daily work easier for end users through clearer navigation, modern layouts, improved information structure, and, in some cases, smarter search and contextual assistance.
For users in finance, procurement, supply chain, or HR, this can mean:
- Less time spent navigating the system
- Fewer errors
- Faster onboarding
- Lower frustration
Over time, this translates into lower training effort and higher productivity, which are outcomes that resonate strongly with IT and business leadership alike.
2) A unified experience across the suite
Historically, different Oracle modules could feel inconsistent. Redwood aims to standardize the look and behavior across the entire Fusion suite.
For organizations where users work across multiple domains, this consistency reduces cognitive load, shortens learning curves, and improves overall adoption.
3) Productivity, adoption, and access to innovation
Oracle positions Redwood as a driver of faster adoption and more efficient task execution. More importantly, many new features and UX-driven enhancements are now delivered only through the Redwood experience.
That creates a structural reality: staying on legacy ERP increasingly means missing out, not only on UI improvements, but on functional evolution tied to how users interact with the system.
Final Thought
Redwood aligns much more closely with how newer generations of professionals interact with software. Clearer flows. Consistent patterns. Interfaces that guide users instead of assuming prior knowledge. Add to that the growing presence of AI-assisted and conversational interactions, and the experience becomes faster, more intuitive, and easier to master (especially for users who didn’t grow up inside traditional ERP environments).
That matters because ERP is no longer used only by specialists. It’s used by distributed teams, rotating roles, and hybrid workforces that expect systems to adapt to them, not the other way around.
Redwood is also a signal.
A signal of where Oracle is investing.
A signal of how enterprise systems are expected to evolve.
And a signal that legacy ERP environments, while still operational, are becoming harder to sustain.
There may not be a single, universal deadline to “move to Redwood,” but the direction is clear. As Fusion continues to evolve, Redwood becomes the default experience, and delaying modernization increases the risk of being forced to move later under time pressure, resource constraints, or roadmap limitations. Modernizing with intention and time on your side is almost always easier than doing it reactively.
Redwood alone may not justify ERP modernization. But when usability, talent scarcity, onboarding cost, platform direction, and AI-readiness converge, it often becomes the factor that tips the scale.
As Oracle partners, we help organizations move forward without slowing projects down. Whether you’re modernizing ERP, preparing for Fusion and Redwood, or aligning your platform for AI, we can provide Oracle-certified resources in as little as 72 hours. inMOVE™ by Inclusion Cloud, our AI-powered recruiting engine is designed to ensure the right technical and functional match, so modernization doesn’t stall due to talent constraints. If any of this is on your roadmap, contact us!
