A look at the next generation ERP that meets the demands of today’s tech savvy workers |Users today expect to have a level of flexibility and freedom in how they interact with technology
whether that’s selecting the kind of apps they have on their phone or how they configure their home PC. Choice in the business technology world is just as important and end users should not be constrained by having to do things in just one way but rather in the way that makes sense to them as well as their business.
Businesses of different sizes and across different sectors have their own needs and working patterns and so do their employees. And they all change over time. Business solutions too need to embrace the agility and consumerisation trends, such as mobility and social collaboration that we’re seeing in the broader marketplace.
They also need to offer the choice needed to survive in increasingly demanding markets, with end users having higher expectations and requirements of the systems they use. According to a recent report by Forrester Research, Inc., “Both customers and employees now expect that information, services, and social media will be available to them — in context — on any device, at their time of need. And business leaders are taking note: Today, 77% of business decision-makers believe that creating a comprehensive mobile and tablet strategy for customers and partners is a moderate, high, or critical priority for their company.
This need for change is highly palpable in high tech manufacturing. Keeping up with the required pace of innovation is by far the main business challenge for high-tech manufacturers today along with rapid changes in market demand and aggressive competitors. More frugal consumer behaviours in developed countries and demand from unstable emerging economies are pushing high-tech manufacturers to launch initiatives aimed at achieving superior customer loyalty through technology innovation.
It is imperative, therefore, for high-tech manufacturers to create an agile and flexible supply chain by investing in technologies that enable faster decision making, collaboration across the organisation and with business partners resulting in superior customer experience. Improving real-time access to data and sharing information with modern ERP solutions leveraging mobile, social and cloud concepts is expected to bring greater competitive advantage and growth.
Over the next three years, high-tech manufacturers will be looking for a flexible ERP system that includes or easily integrates more customer-facing functions in order to provide more timely information and ability to collaborate more within the organisation.
The rapid evolution of global business has changed the way in which companies approach the deployment of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. Today’s need for agility and responsiveness has increased the demand for choices, and customers need to be able to use the same product whether they want it deployed on-premise or in the cloud, on a desktop PC, or on a tablet or smartphone. They also need the freedom to change how it is deployed without having to configure and implement a different solution, allowing them to upgrade faster and stay updated with technological advances.
In an increasingly competitive environment deployment choice is a significant advantage for companies seeking an agile response to constantly changing market conditions. With modern ERP, companies are not forced to compromise because of the way they want to deploy their solutions.
Before, if a business wanted to move from on-premise to the cloud, it could potentially mean sacrificing functionality and forcing end users to move from one user experience to another, but with modern enterprise solutions these potential restraints are eliminated.
Having the choice means customers can make a decision today to choose on-premise deployment, knowing that at some point in the future they can choose to move to the cloud without having to change their product. There is no need to learn a new application or go through another implementation.
Allowing end users to be able to access ERP from anywhere, and at anytime, puts them in the driver’s seat, enabling them to interact with technology on their terms while empowering even the occasional user. Choice within the solution is a big enabler for today’s modern business environments and access to such choice can lead to real boosts in productivity and significant opportunity to gain competitive advantage.
Businesses should also have the choice to extend their ERP application’s capabilities if they wish. In the past, options were often restricted with proprietary toolsets for development that limited connectivity and collaboration, and constrained how businesses could extend the reach of their solution. Modern ERP platforms are supported by open and flexible architectures that encourage and embrace the integration of other applications, enable greater collaboration with business partners, and leverage new technologies without requiring the wholesale replacement of infrastructure or applications.
ERP solutions are therefore becoming more agile, adaptive and flexible—all of which lowers the total cost of ownership and encourages business to think more strategically about how they can use technology to drive competitive advantage. Thus, the winners of the future will be those companies who keep their choices open. It will be those who would not only require complete and industry-specific functionality but will also insist on choice in deployment, device, architecture, configuration, and their future.
Anish Kanaran
Channel Director
Epicor – Middle East, Africa and India