Canadian municipalities are racing to replace their ERP systems. The trigger? Microsoft sunsetted Great Plains, forcing hundreds of smaller municipalities off a platform they'd relied on for decades. The result is a procurement wave that will continue through 2026.

The Great Plains Problem

Great Plains dominated small and mid-sized municipal ERP for years. Affordable, stable, designed for government financial management. Then Microsoft ended support.

Municipalities between 5,000-50,000 population suddenly faced forced migrations. No patches. No updates. No support. Replace your entire financial system or operate on unsupported software.

This explains why Q3 and Q4 2025 show unprecedented municipal ERP activity. Organizations aren't choosing to modernize. They're being forced to replace working systems on compressed timelines.

What These Contracts Actually Cost

Alberta's procurement transparency reveals real pricing from the past year:

County of Wetaskiwin No. 10 (11,000 population)

• Winner: MNP Digital

• Contract: $387,250

• Scope: Full ERP implementation

Rocky View County (40,000 population)

• Winner: MNP Digital

• Contract: $392,050

• Scope: Requirements definition and readiness assessment ONLY

• Implementation will cost additional

Town of Okotoks (30,000 population)

• Winner: Tantus Solutions Group

• Contract: $85,970

• Scope: Implementation services

Town of Barrhead (6,000 population)

• Winner: Catalis

• Contract: $85,000

• Scope: ERP software

The pattern reveals several insights:

Requirements definition alone costs $390K+ for mid-sized municipalities (Rocky View). Implementation adds another $500K-$1M on top.

Full implementations for small municipalities run $385K-$400K (Wetaskiwin). This includes software, implementation, training, and go-live support.

Software-only contracts are significantly cheaper ($85K range), but don't include implementation services that municipalities desperately need.

Pricing doesn't scale linearly with population. Wetaskiwin (11K) paid $387K for full implementation. Rocky View (40K) paid $392K just for requirements. Organizational complexity, number of departments, and existing system integrations matter more than citizen count.

Municipal Governments Leading the Wave

British Columbia municipalities particularly active:

District of West Vancouver: Complete ERP system and implementation services (closes December 11)

City of Pitt Meadows: ERP Replacement Readiness Assessment (closes December 1)

• Smart approach: assess organizational readiness before committing to vendors

• Avoids Rocky View's situation where requirements consumed nearly $400K

City of Victoria: Two separate NextGen ERP RFPs

City of Surrey: Financial software solution

Town of Blackfalds: ERP software replacement

Ontario municipalities following:

City of Hamilton: Independent oversight consultancy for ERP negotiations (closes December 5)

• Third-party governance during vendor selection and implementation

• Learning from others' expensive mistakes

City of Prince Albert: Financial ERP replacement consulting

Nova Scotia:

Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation: Complete ERP implementation replacing legacy systems

• Finance, HR, supply chain, retail operations

• Major provincial crown corporation modernization

The concentration in BC and Alberta makes sense. Western Canada municipalities heavily adopted Great Plains. Now they're all migrating simultaneously.

Consortium Purchasing Emerges as Cost Control

Canoe Procurement Group of Canada issued an RFI for municipal ERP implementation services (closes December 8). This Alberta-based group purchasing organization represents multiple municipalities seeking coordinated procurement.

The math makes sense: if Rocky View paid $392K just for requirements definition, spreading that cost across 5-10 municipalities dramatically reduces per-organization expense. Shared implementation also means shared learning as problems emerge.

Watch for more consortium approaches as municipalities realize individual procurement is expensive and risky.

Federal Activity: Beyond Great Plains

Federal departments weren't on Great Plains, so their ERP activity follows different drivers:

Department of National Defence: Cloud-based ERP RFI for Canadian Armed Forces

• Financial management, HR, supply chain, project management

• Market research for future major procurement

Department of Indigenous Services: Pharmacy Inventory Management System (closes December 2)

• Cloud-based inventory for nursing stations

• Specialized healthcare supply chain ERP

Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Complete ERP system replacement (negotiated RFP)

Shared Services Canada: ERP implementation and operational services

Canada's Drug Agency: Financial Planning and Analysis Software (closes November 26)

• Replacing spreadsheet-based processes

• Integration with SAGE 300, SAP Concur, Ceridian Dayforce

Federal opportunities are larger but slower. Municipal forced migrations create urgency. Federal modernization follows normal capital planning cycles.

Education Sector: Consistent Pipeline

Queen's University: Oracle Cloud Financial System implementation (closes December 1)

• Full financial system implementation

• Universities favoring Oracle Cloud

School District 37 Delta: Participating in Canoe Procurement Group initiative

School District 57 Prince George: Sparkrock implementation (awarded)

School District 93 Francophone Education Authority: ERP procurement underway

Education generates 2-3 opportunities quarterly. Universities choose Oracle. School districts choose Sparkrock. Different buyer sophistication levels and budget constraints create market segmentation.

Pre-Implementation Services: 

Two distinct service opportunities emerged from municipal ERP chaos:

Readiness Assessments (Pitt Meadows seeking proposals)

• Organizations want to understand gaps before committing hundreds of thousands

• Rocky View's $392K requirements bill scared municipalities into planning first

Independent Oversight (Hamilton seeking proposals)

• Third-party consultants managing vendor negotiations

• Protecting municipal interests during complex procurements

• Recognition that municipalities lack internal ERP expertise

These represent new categories as organizations realize ERP implementations fail without proper preparation and governance.

What This Tells ERP Vendors

The municipal pipeline will run for 18-24 months. Great Plains municipalities must migrate. Every 5,000-50,000 population municipality in western Canada is a prospect if they haven't already migrated.

Requirements and readiness services are high-margin opportunities. Rocky View paid $392K just for requirements definition. Implementation will cost additional $500K-$1M. Pre-sales consulting generates revenue before software deals close.

Pricing power exists in forced migration markets. When municipalities have no choice but to replace systems, urgency reduces price sensitivity. Wetaskiwin (11K population) paid $387K because delay wasn't an option.

Consortium deals are emerging. Canoe Procurement Group approach pools multiple municipalities. One large contract rather than many small ones. Different sales strategy required but potentially more efficient. If you get on the Canoe contract, you need to educate municipalities yourself on how they can use the group purchasing vehicle.

Municipal ERP is not dominated by enterprise vendors. MNP Digital, Catalis, Tantus winning contracts. Specialized government-focused vendors competing successfully against SAP, Oracle, Microsoft.

What This Tells Buyers

Budget $300K-$400K minimum for small municipality implementations. Wetaskiwin (11K) and Rocky View (40K) both spent ~$390K, though Rocky View only got requirements definition for that price.

Requirements definition before vendor selection is expensive but necessary. Rocky View spent $392K on requirements. Organizations trying to skip this step to save money typically spend more fixing implementation mistakes.