R.I.P. ERP – Long Live Modern Enterprise Systems

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a process that businesses have utilized for decades. I’m sure everyone reading this has their own story of a time when Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) came through for them, and this is certainly a loss that affects organizations of all sizes and industries.

I remember when ERP was just an infant, almost 30 years ago. It was 1990 when Gartner, Inc. coined the phrase, and back then, ERP was a way to catalog material requirements and manufacturing resource planning. But it wasn’t long before ERP started to grow and came to mean so much more. By the end of the decade, ERP was a much more inclusive system, incorporating accounting, supply chain management, and other internal business functions. I was so proud when communication channels became more agile, and Enterprise Resource Planning started to cover customer relations operations as well.  

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen reports of the death of ERP—it was Gartner itself that announced the loss and a successor in 2000, with the rallying cry of “Long Live ERP II”—but they were greatly exaggerated, as this was merely an expansion of what ERP entailed following years of technological strides. But in 2019, it has become clear that ERP has a younger sibling that has surpassed it.

(Modern Enterprise Systems) MES: The Future is Now

Of course, ERP isn’t dead. It’s just growing into something bigger and better. “ERP is now becoming more intelligent,” says Bade Dahunsi, Sr. Vice President of ERP at Katalyst Technologies. “The solution has evolved to more than just the back office.” The advent of social media has allowed for more immediate and direct communication that shifts expectations for businesses and consumers alike. “You look at crowdsourcing as, how do I improve this process to make it better? Before you didn’t have that,” Dahunsi says. “Instantly from my social media platform, I can give you what my experience is. That can also tie into seeing what I was doing wrong from the customer perspective.”

Modern Enterprise Systems (MES) give hope for the future. MES are even more dynamic and wide-ranging application that essentially unifies a business’s entire needs under one umbrella. While ERP Software often required costly, energy-absorbing computing and the resources of a responsible IT department, MES is typically cloud-based, and for that practical storage solution alone, it can save companies time and money. That also increases the capability to link different components of an organization’s processes, leading to greater transparency and communication between each chain. It’s no surprise that 38% of businesses say that integrating data across platforms is a priority, and 31% are focused on modernizing their technology.

With data management becoming an increasingly complicated process, having an updated system is essential to ensuring companies operate efficiently. Data lakes could be an ideal format to incorporate into an MES strategy. Other benefits of upgrading applications include increased security, faster access to information, and reduced costs.

How to Approach MES  

• Plan ahead - As with any situation involving an organization’s structural evolution, careful planning is key. The longer a system has been in place, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be to adjust. By getting a head start and grasping the challenges and opportunities the new approach will offer, you can prevent unnecessary delays and frustration in the implementation stage. “is what problem are you trying to solve,” Dahunsi says. “You can’t chase everything. What process needs improving? Is it your back office, or is it the front end? What are you trying to solve?”
• Adapt - Stay on top of trends to consistently determine what makes sense for your business. Be open to adjusting long-term practices, including potentially shifting the way different parts of the organization communicate. Leaders of an MES-based organization need to be directly in tune with every aspect of the company. This awareness will allow them to determine what is working and what can be improved.
• Analyze - Take full advantage of the data coming in to obtain clear, concise knowledge of how the business operates. By nature, MES allows data to be interpreted in real time, and with absolute accuracy. With MES, leaders can make more confident and informed decisions on moving forward. “Data is the new oil,” Dahunsi says. “Oil is meant to be the main commodity. The new commodity now is data. The people that have the data are the ones that are going to have the power.”

Katalyst Can Help

While you take a moment to grieve for ERP, we know we must move forward. That’s what ERP would have wanted. By reaching out to the experts at Katalyst, you can discover how your organization can stay on the cutting edge of technology. We can help you find the best solution for your enterprise planning in these trying times and in the future.

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Source Link - https://katalysttech.com/blog/r-i-p-erp-long-live-modern-enterprise-systems/