Here's an idea
Anywhere groups of people are involved in making decisions, the tendency is this: The ones worth most get the least scrutiny, and the ones worth least get the most attention. Everyone has an opinion about the latter (``bikeshedding'') and everybody hopes someone else will have dissected the complex issues around the former and thus expects someone else to make intelligent comments.
Another thing that struck me reading this is that beyond the massive bloat to deal with ``every possible issue'', getting at the data requires the ERP software to integrate with the ``office tools'', not the other way around. Those tools are also generic and usually rather poor quality things, despite all the features, and are from a vendor that doesn't want to extend as much as a pinky in help to anyone else. In techie's terms, that doesn't scale well. In executive terms it is yet another part of the expensive disaster.
What it comes down to is trying to shotgun all your problems away by giving users overly complex tools that they don't even want to understand, and that don't mesh well with what they're used to but obviously don't understand very well either. On top of that the tools are supposed to embody ``process'' as documented but which isn't quite the same as practice, and thus the tools don't fit the actual task, and never will.
To fix this you need better tools AND users better trained to use them, and probably both a procedure writer who goes around and observes what happens, then documents it to make it visible within the organisation, and a toolsmith who goes around and asks what is needed, and provides those tools to demand. How he does it, what existing tools he adapts or uses to create new tools is of lesser importance. But ``turn-key'' will never work, unless you can somehow clone your entire business and do the exact same thing as someone else using their tools. You know, like certain fast-food franchises.
Note that I've off-handedly branded both the ERP vendors and our friends from redmond as big useless, and the money spent on them as largely wasted. I do think so, but given the rather strong opposition against ``user education'' (fostered by... you know who, very well done that) they will have some business yet. Because ``turn-key'' is still a buzz word.
I also predict that this note will have very little impact because it asks people to think about Big Problems, which is Hard. Dealing with something small is easier so given half a chance they'll talk the colour of the proposed new bike shed over once again.