The clearest proof of what Surge builds — a real, production ERP, designed around one company's actual operation and running it today. Not a concept. Not a pilot.
BERG Off-Road builds off-road trailers and campers — it isn't a software company. Nothing on the market fit how the business actually runs, so Surge founder Floris Buys, a director at BERG, built the system inside the business, not outside it — working AI-first with Claude Code.
Quotes, orders, and stock were tracked across disconnected sheets and chat messages that nobody could fully trust.
They forced BERG to bend its process to fit the software, instead of the other way around.
Nothing connected a quote to the order it became, the job on the floor, or the invoice at the end.
Every month-end meant manually checking numbers that should have already agreed.
Every sales order, quote, production job, QC inspection, purchase order, and supplier interaction at BERG Off-Road runs through Oscar — used daily by sales, production, procurement, QC, and finance.
One connected system, covering the full lifecycle of a job — and still growing as the real business needs more.
Quote intake, sales orders, deposits, CRM.
Work orders, BOMs, per-stage shop-floor tracking.
Per-stage checklists, QC certs, delivery gating.
Purchase orders, supplier catalogue, outsourced work.
Repair & maintenance jobs, customer invoicing.
Xero integration, margin, delivery performance.
HR, employees, recruitment, time tracking.
A functional comparison, not a commercial one — what each system actually does out of the box, including where mature platforms are genuinely ahead of a purpose-built system.
| Feature | OscarBuilt for BERG | OdooCommunity / Enterprise | NetSuiteOracle | Dynamics 365 BCMicrosoft | Business OneSAP | IntacctSage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Configurable Quoting (CPQ) | Native — live web quoting wizard, real pricing | Pricelists/variants; full CPQ needs build-out | CPQ is a separate paid module | No native CPQ; needs D365 Sales/ISV | No native CPQ; separate SAP CPQ product | No native CPQ — finance-first platform |
| Lead Management / CRM | Native pipeline (New → Contacted → Quote Sent → Won/Lost), tied straight to quoting | Native CRM app w/ full pipeline & activities | Native CRM included in the platform | No native CRM; needs separate D365 Sales | Native CRM/Sales Opportunities module | No native CRM; via Salesforce integration |
| Marketing | Trade-show planning, brand kit & content calendar + nightly Mailchimp audience sync for campaigns | Native Events + Email/Marketing Automation apps | Native campaign & event management (in CRM) | No native marketing; needs separate D365 Marketing | Basic native campaigns (in CRM); no event/trade-show tools | No native marketing; via Salesforce/CRM integration |
| Manufacturing & Production Scheduling | Built around our exact build stages | Native Manufacturing (MRP) app, included | Via Manufacturing Edition/SuiteApps, not base | Native, but full depth needs Premium tier | Native production orders & MRP | No native manufacturing; via ISV partners |
| BOM & Engineering Change Mgmt | Full BOM w/ formal Engineering Change Request workflow | Native PLM app: BOM versions + ECOs | Native BOM; formal ECO needs Manufacturing Edition | Native BOM; formal change mgmt via ISV (e.g. Staedean) | Native BOM; no formal change-number workflow (S/4HANA feature) | No native BOM; manufacturing via ISV (e.g. MISys) |
| Quality Control & Inspections | QC tied directly to each work order | Native Quality app w/ checks on orders | No deep native QC; partner solutions | Basic goods checks native; full QC via ISV | Via partner add-ons, not a native module | Not a manufacturing/QC-focused platform |
| Field / Repair Service Costing | Purpose-built — labour, parts, invoicing | Native Field Service app | No deep native field-service costing | Field Service is a separate product from BC | Native Service Management module | Not built for field/repair costing |
| Procurement & PO Approval | Mature: auto supplier emails, invoice capture, pushes to Xero | Mature native Purchase app | Mature native procurement & AP | Mature native purchasing & approvals | Mature native purchasing module | Strong native AP/procurement — its core strength |
| Inventory & Stock Management | Mature: full stock ledger, reorder points, kitted picking & PO receipts | Mature native Inventory app | Mature native inventory management | Mature native inventory management | Mature native inventory management | Basic native; deeper WMS needs add-ons |
| HR Disciplinary & Grievance Cases | Purpose-built, incl. labour-lawyer referral | Not a native HR case/grievance capability | Not a native capability | Not a native capability | Not a native capability | Not a native capability |
| Payroll & Core HR | Full payroll engine — funds, deductions, proration, payslips — plus leave, overtime & advances | Native Payroll & HR apps; localisation coverage varies by country | Native HR (SuitePeople); payroll native only in US/Canada | No native payroll; ISV add-ons only (e.g. NaviPayroll) | No native payroll; via add-ons (e.g. Clarity, ZenHR) | No native payroll; via ADP-powered add-on or Sage HCM |
| Recruitment / Applicant Tracking | Real applications, CVs & AI-assisted scoring | Native Recruitment app w/ candidate pipeline | No native ATS; third-party SuiteApp needed | No native ATS | No native ATS; via SuccessFactors/partners | No native ATS |
| Financials, GL & Bank Rec | Full GL, bank rec & AP/AR built in natively | Native, complete GL & financials | Native, complete GL & financials | Native, complete GL & financials | Native, complete GL & financials | Native, complete GL — its core product |
| Reporting & BI | 8 purpose-built report tabs: AP/AR, margin, WIP cost, delivery, pipeline, production | Native pivot/graph reports + Spreadsheet/Dashboard BI | Native SuiteAnalytics: saved searches & dashboards | Native reports + built-in Power BI integration | Native reporting via Crystal Reports + query generator | Native real-time dashboards & reports — a core strength |
| Built-In AI Assistant | Ask Oscar (internal) + Ask BERG (public support) | Native AI (Odoo 19/20), admin-focused | Real AI features, admin/finance-focused | Copilot — real, finance/admin-task focused | Joule AI exists in SAP's broader suite | Sage Copilot — real, finance-focused |
| Customer Self-Service & Website | Quote wizard, forms & chat built into our own site | Native Website/eCommerce app, a separate build | Via SuiteCommerce, a separate paid product | No native website/commerce layer | No native website/commerce layer | No native website/commerce layer |
| Multi-Entity / Multi-Currency | ZAR + USD live, more currencies addable; single-tenant by design — bespoke per business | Native multi-company & multi-currency | Built for multi-entity/multi-currency at scale | Native multi-company & multi-currency | Native multi-company & multi-currency | Built for multi-entity consolidation at scale |
Basis for the Oscar column: confirmed directly against BERG's own live system and codebase — actual built modules, not aspirational ones, updated as Oscar itself is upgraded. GL/statutory reporting and a full recruitment pipeline have since been built in natively, closing two gaps shown in earlier versions of this comparison. The one gap still shown honestly: Oscar runs single-tenant per deployment rather than one instance managing multiple legal entities — but because it's bespoke, it's built and priced in ZAR/USD today and can be extended to more currencies or fully customised per business, which off-the-shelf multi-entity platforms can't offer.
Vendor capabilities: based on each vendor's own published module/documentation pages and current partner/analyst sources (Sept 2026) — "native" means included in the base product; "separate product/add-on" is called out explicitly rather than blurred into a plain yes.
AI features: the other five vendors all ship real AI/copilot capability (SAP Joule, Microsoft Copilot, NetSuite AI, Sage Copilot, Odoo's native AI) — a different shape of capability from Oscar's, being finance/admin-task automation rather than a cross-module assistant plus public-facing support chatbot. Oscar's breadth across both is marked as a clear strength here.
Stage-by-stage QC gating is built into the workflow — a unit structurally cannot move to delivery without passing inspection.
Per-stage tracking flags jobs falling behind target while there's still time to act, not after the delivery date has already slipped.
Direct Xero integration on purchases and invoicing removes the manual month-end reconciliation grind.
Sales, production, procurement, QC, and finance all work off one live record — not five different versions of it.
Built for the gap between free tools that don't go deep enough, and enterprise ERP that costs more than the problem is worth.
Manufacturers, roughly 50–150 employees. Outgrown spreadsheets and disconnected tools — feeling the cost of it. Still owner-led enough to decide without a formal tender process. Not yet locked into SAP B1 / Sage X3 / Syspro — or actively frustrated with one.
Under ~20 employees — free tools (Odoo, Zoho, BizOrbit) already cover this well. 500+ employee enterprises needing multi-entity / multi-currency depth at scale. Businesses wanting a self-serve product today, not a configured partnership.
Every feature exists because a real problem showed up on BERG's shop floor or in its books. — Floris Buys, Founder, Surge
Oscar is the first time the Surge team has built and run a full ERP — it wasn't designed on a whiteboard. It was built, and is still being improved, running BERG Off-Road's real day-to-day operations. Changes ship in days, not procurement cycles, because the team building it is close to the work. See the full track record.
You don't need a bespoke build from scratch, and you don't need to force your business into rigid, generic software: a shared core platform — quotes, sales orders, production, QC, procurement, financials — configured around your production stages, your checklists, your paperwork, your integrations. The same process applies to any bespoke build, whatever the industry — see What We Build for the full picture.
Let's talk about what a real system would look like for your business.
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