Lumenia Consulting’s ERP HEADtoHEAD reinforces its position as the leading ERP comparison event

Lumenia Consulting has concluded its 11th UK ERP HEADtoHEAD™ event at The Eastside Rooms in Birmingham, delivering the strongest engagement in its history and further cementing its position as the UK and Ireland’s leading independent ERP comparison event.

The 2026 event welcomed over 180 attendees, with a marked rise in buying-team participation: a defining feature of the event’s format. Delegates represented a broad range of sectors including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, retail, aerospace, public sector, construction safety, facilities management, and hospitality. Organisations ranged from mid-sized enterprises to large corporates with turnovers exceeding £1bn.

This year’s expanded attendance and cross-industry diversity underline ERP HEADtoHEAD™’s growing influence as the go-to event for organisations embarking on ERP change.

A format designed for decision-makers

Unlike generalist technology conferences, the ERP HEADtoHEAD™ is built around script-based, side-by-side ERP demonstrations, allowing delegates to compare how different systems tackle identical business scenarios.

This structured evaluation approach, unique at this scale in the UK and Ireland, is a core reason the event continues to grow in prominence among CFOs, CIOs and transformation leaders seeking clarity in an increasingly complex ERP landscape.

The agenda featured:

• 14 ERP vendors – with system demonstrations from NetSuite, Sage X3, Odoo, IFS, Infor, Epicor, and many more
• 6 complementary solution providers
• Two expert panel discussions
• Lumenia-led sessions on ERP readiness, selection criteria, transformation pitfalls and AI adoption
• 1:1 access to vendor and consultation expertise across the expo floor

Key themes shaping the ERP landscape in 2026

Across both days, several strategic trends emerged as key priorities for ERP buyers:

1. Agentic AI accelerating ERP-orchestrated processes: delegates showed strong interest in practical AI use cases, particularly automation of decision-making and workflow orchestration across finance, operations, and supply chain.
2. Change management remains the number one success factor: despite rapid technological evolution, transformation readiness, end-user alignment and process governance were cited repeatedly as the elements most likely to determine project outcomes.
3. Balancing ERP transformation with BAU pressures: buyers voiced concerns around resourcing major ERP change programmes while sustaining business-as-usual operations in an unpredictable economic environment.
4. Legacy systems and cloud migration hesitation: common pain points included decades-old platforms, customisation debt, uncertain migration paths and integration complexity – all challenges that influenced high interest in Lumenia Consulting’s independent advisory services.

Ian O’Toole, Managing Partner, at Lumenia Consulting said: “What stood out most at this year’s was the sense of momentum across the ERP community. The two-day programme sparked the kind of conversations that only happen when you put motivated project teams in the same room.”

“Many buyers spoke openly about the challenge, and necessity, of resourcing major transformation programmes alongside the ongoing demands of business-as-usual in a volatile global economy. That honesty, and the willingness to learn from one another, is what makes this event so valuable.”

Throughout the event, delegates scored the ERP vendor demonstrations to determine the best vendor demonstration. The winner of the ‘ERP HEADtoHEAD™ Best Vendor Demonstration – UK 2026’ was Aspera Solutions, demonstrating Epicor ERP. Aspera achieved an overall delegate satisfaction rating of 96.19%. In very close second were IFS and Anthesis, demonstrating IFS Cloud and in third place were TEKenable demonstrating Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. 

A milestone year

The Birmingham edition marks the continuation of a growth trajectory that began with the first UK HEADtoHEAD™ in Reading in 2016, followed by several years in Milton Keynes and virtual editions during the COVID-19 pandemic. From just 11 sponsors in 2016 to the largest line-ups in 2026, the event has evolved into the most established and trusted ERP evaluation platform nationwide.

Lumenia Consulting has confirmed that the ERP HEADtoHEAD™ will return to The Eastside Rooms on 9-10 March, 2027, reinforcing the event’s ongoing commitment to Birmingham and the wider West Midlands: a region recognised for its rapidly growing digital and advanced manufacturing ecosystem.

Visit the ERP HEADtoHEAD™ event website for further event information and pre-register your interest.