The Confluence of Cloud and ERP


Cloud computing is unquestionably changing the landscape of how traditional enterprise software is being licensed and implemented. Enabling ERP functionality into service-based, on-demand workloads is not only transforming time to implement, but the economics is dramatically changing where much of the costs are spread over longer periods of time rather than large upfront costs. This can be a tremendous benefit to organizations. Additionally, although there are security, compliance, and privacy considerations, moving critical applications to industry leading data centers can help improve organizations business continuity, disaster recovery, performance and scalability capabilities.

The Role of Big Data Analytics 

The application for Big Data is extending into many different areas. ERP is no exception. However, with any analytics initiative, it’s important to understand the underlying performance and trending metrics the organization is focused on capturing. From there, they can better align their big data programs and be better positioned to improve their ERP process and system changes.

Fostering Innovation 

Firstly, organizations need to determine how they want to foster innovation. What are the areas they are lagging behind in? How can they improve their go-to-market services, differentiate themselves, and improve their competitive advantages? Once those business models are identified, they can look to ERP to see how it can support these new processes.
For example, at Horizon’s Solutions, we are changing business models to support the continuing shift towards cloud computing. This new model requires changes in ERP to support areas such as subscription based billing and new customer support services. We are adopting and driving new functionality in our enterprise systems to support our evolving capabilities.

The Rising Technologies 

We encourage organization’s to first look at what business improvements they need and are willing to make. This can be in the form of process improvements, customer experiences, organizational communication, and collaboration. From there, specific technologies, whether in be in the areas of financial management, trade and logistics, relationship management, customer service, social, or mobility can be leveraged and implemented.

The Changing Role of CIOs

The experience as a CIO (Chief Information Officer) as well as working with other CIOs is that business value has to take center stage to an organization’s continuous improvement. Technology moves quickly and there is a lot of it to choose from. Understand the organization challenges and associated opportunities, develop business stakeholder commitment, take time to understand process, the people, and company priorities.
As a modern-day CIO, it is important to continue developing both business and technical acumen. Of the two, we found that business and people skills are critical to influencing transformation and driving fundamental improvement. Technical acumen is still very important and I recommend continuing to evolve these skills even if the focus is wider across a broader set of areas versus deeper in one specific technology.

Curbing the Cost Exigency 

There are varieties of ways to help mitigate the cost of ERP. Licensing is clearly a big component to the overall expense of running enterprise software. It is important to regularly assess appropriate licensing. When possible, try to limit intrusive customizations that add complexity, more maintenance, and risk upgradeability.  These all contribute to increased costs. A move to cloud services can also help reduce costs, however this is not always the case. It depends on which cloud services are leveraged.  Moving to a full-fledged SaaS solution eliminates the need for expensive hardware that is compounded when running dev, test, and production environments. However, using IaaS to simply move on-premise servers to cloud servers becomes a little trickier when analyzing costs. It may not be cheaper, but dollar for dollar you will likely experience more value when running in the cloud. This value comes in ease of scalability, ability to dial-up and down performance, improve disaster recovery and business continuity through geo redundancy.

The IoT Factor

IoT as it relates to ERP will have different meaning to different organizations. I think where there is commonality is in IoT’s ability to provide real time, intelligent connectivity to backend processes that can drive proactive process improvements.

Driving the Values 

Driving more value out of ERP doesn’t always require technology changes. We encourage our customers to frequently take inventory of how well their user education is, pay attention to change management, prioritize business enhancements, and where possible, drive more process consistency and standardization. Improvements in these areas alone will drive more value for ERP.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding the Difference Between ERP Systems and Accounting Software

Image
In the dynamic landscape of business management, having the right tools at your disposal is crucial for success. Among these tools, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and accounting software play pivotal roles. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they serve distinct purposes in helping businesses manage their operations and finances effectively. In this blog, we will delve into the definitions of ERP systems and accounting software, explore their key differences, and discuss the benefits they offer to businesses.   Defining Accounting Software: Accounting software serves as a fundamental tool for managing financial transactions and generating essential financial reports. It encompasses various functions such as bookkeeping, invoicing, payroll management, accounts payable and receivable, and cash flow management. Advanced accounting solutions also offer features for tax compliance, budgeting, forecasting, auditing, and financial analysis. By automating financia...
Read more

Three Ways to Get More Out of Your Current ERP System

Image
How can a company realize a larger return on investment and business benefits from their investments in their ERP software? This is a topic that most companies enjoy discussing about. Here are three key points: 1. Understand and leverage the functionality you already have.  Many ERP vendors offer a wide array of core functionality, advanced modules, and third-party applications to address the needs of their customer base. So much so, in fact, that many customers don’t fully understand the full breadth of what is right in front of them.  One key lesson for companies is that many broken business processes or perceived weaknesses in the system are often easily addressed by better leveraging functionality that already exists but isn’t necessarily being used by the organization. This can be a more cost effective solution than ripping out and replacing your incumbent ERP software package. 2. It’s never too early or too late to develop your business blueprint. ...
Read more

TOP 15 BENEFITS OF IMPLEMENTING ERP SOFTWARE

Image
There are many advantages to implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solution. Among countless other advantages, implementing  ERP software  can improve productivity, increase efficiencies, decrease costs and streamline processes. Let’s look at 15 of the most common benefits of an ERP system that companies have reported after implementation. ERP implementation is broken up into three phases: discovery, implementation, and results. In the initial phase, we install the software, build a prototype, and train your staff. Then we test the ERP system, create reporting templates, and run more targeted training sessions. Finally, we finalize the model of your ERP system, conduct readiness assessments, and go live. Workwise provides expert level software implementation, which is the process of placing sub-systems into your main ERP system and ensuring that they all are able to function together as one seamless system. Taking knowledge ...
Read more