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abas ERP

abas ERP at a glance
Vendorabas Software (Forterro group); US operations via abas USA
HeadquartersKarlsruhe, Germany; abas USA in Sterling, VA
OwnershipForterro, majority-owned by Partners Group since 2022 (Battery Ventures minority stake)
DeploymentCloud or on-premises; new deals increasingly quoted as SaaS subscription
Target marketMidsize discrete manufacturers, roughly 50-500 employees; MTO, ETO, and ATO environments
IndustriesAutomotive suppliers, electronics, machinery and plant engineering, medical devices, metalworking, rubber and plastics
PricingNot published; quote-based
Websiteabas-erp.com/en

Overview

abas ERP is a mid-market manufacturing system developed in Germany and sold in North America through abas USA. The target is discrete manufacturers of roughly 50 to 500 employees, with a clear tilt toward make-to-order, engineer-to-order, and assemble-to-order work. Its reputation rests on one property above all: configurability that lets a company model nonstandard processes without forking the code base, and still take upgrades afterwards. That combination has historically separated it from more rigid SMB packages.

Vendor, history, ownership

Abas Software was founded in 1980 in Karlsruhe, Germany, and built a worldwide partner network around the product. The US subsidiary in Sterling, Virginia has handled direct sales, implementation, and support for North America since the 1990s. Forterro, a group of European industrial-software vendors, acquired the company in 2019. Forterro has itself been majority-owned by the investment firm Partners Group since 2022, with Battery Ventures holding a minority stake. The product name survived all of that. The commercial model did not: under Forterro, SaaS subscriptions have become the default for new business.

Modules and capabilities

Coverage runs to more than two dozen functional areas across the business cycle: quoting and sales, purchasing, scheduling, production planning and control including MRP, warehouse management, service, and financial and cost accounting. Dashboards, KPIs, and business intelligence come built in, while APIs and IoT connectivity handle shop-floor and third-party integration. The distinguishing piece is the customization layer, which lets partners and customers tailor screens, workflows, and objects in a way designed to survive release upgrades.

Typical customers

The stated sweet spot is midsize discrete manufacturing, about 50 to 500 employees. Vendor-listed industries include automotive suppliers, electronics, machinery and plant engineering, medical devices, metalworking, and rubber and plastics. In practice the US base skews toward custom and complex work: job shops and ETO or MTO operations where a standard ERP template fits badly from day one.

How it is sold

Cloud and on-premises deployment are both available. New US prospects should expect a subscription quote by default, though on-premises remains possible if you ask for it. Pricing is not published. User counts, module scope, and implementation complexity drive the number, and quotes come through abas USA and its partners.

Our take

For a US mid-market manufacturer whose processes refuse to fit a template, abas belongs on the shortlist, because the configurability is real rather than a slogan. The counterweight is the local organization. abas USA is far smaller than the US operations of domestic competitors, so implementation capacity, consultant availability in your region, and reference customers in your industry are questions to settle before signing, not after. Ownership by a private-equity-held European group has already shifted the pricing model once, which is reason enough to read the long-term subscription terms closely.

A 50-to-500-employee ETO or MTO manufacturer should look. A company that wants a standard cloud package switched on in a quarter should not: the configurability that makes abas attractive is also what makes the implementation effort substantial. Run competing offers through a structured selection process and model multi-year cost with the ERP TCO calculator.

What the abas ERP website looks like

Current view of the vendor homepage, captured by our editorial team.

Screenshot of the abas ERP vendor homepage

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Frequently asked questions

Who owns abas ERP, and who supports it in the United States?

abas Software has belonged to Forterro, a group of European industrial-software companies, since 2019, and Forterro has been majority-owned by the investment firm Partners Group since 2022, with Battery Ventures retaining a minority stake. For US customers the day-to-day contact is abas USA in Sterling, Virginia, which has handled sales, implementation, and support since the 1990s. That organization is well established but considerably smaller than the US operations of large domestic ERP vendors, which can affect consultant availability in some regions. Ask for reference customers in your industry and your geography, and clarify support hours and escalation paths before you sign.

Is abas ERP a good fit for engineer-to-order manufacturers?

Engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturing are the environments abas has focused on for decades, and its US customer base is concentrated there. Project-driven production, complex bills of material, and heavy process variation are all supported. Configurability is the real point: companies can model unusual workflows and still take upgrades afterwards, which is exactly the trade-off most ETO shops fail to get from standard packages.

How is abas ERP deployed and priced in the US?

Cloud and on-premises are both available through abas USA, though since the Forterro acquisition new deals are increasingly structured as SaaS subscriptions rather than perpetual licenses with maintenance. Companies set on on-premises operation should confirm current terms and long-term support commitments for that model during negotiation. Neither abas nor Forterro publishes price lists, so every figure comes from an individually scoped quote driven by user count, module scope, deployment model, and above all implementation effort, which is significant in the custom-manufacturing scenarios abas targets. Request a full multi-year projection covering subscription, implementation, and support instead of comparing license figures alone.