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Fiona McGuinness12-Nov-2018 15:36:585 min read

Modern Vs Future Ready ERP/Business Management Software – Which one will get you where you need to be?

Modern ERP systems are designed to support your entire organisation from the core. It’s features and functionally-rich abilities enable you to generate a seamless flow of real time information, controls and workflows.

This is a given for any ERP solution worth its salt.

However, if you want to future-proof your organisation, this level of functionality simply doesn’t go far enough. ERP vendors have traditionally focused on managing businesses within the confines of the initial implementation and the micro business environment. The problem with this approach is that it is short sighted and will prevent businesses from thriving in today’s digital environment.

“Traditional ERP needs to be renovated for the digital future”   Gartner 


Future Ready ERP systems
 are different. They extend beyond the walls of your business and support ongoing real-time change, embedded analytics, growth and diversification with ease. They enable you to embrace the latest technologies, become more mobile and take advantage of new sales channels. And they support every individual in your business to carry out their tasks as efficiently and effectively as possible.

As developers of ERP software, we’ve been through many technological challenges in our 27+ years in existence – Y2K, the Euro changeover, the dramatic increase in online shopping and increased mobility, to name but a few.  And while our R&D team continuously track the latest technologies or the next big thing in ERP software, it’s our direct link with our customers that keeps us on our toes.  We use their feedback as the basis for our innovation roadmap and these insights, married with our focus on developing ‘epic’ innovations in the ERP space, enabled us to develop the Intact iQ solution; an industry driven, future ready ERP solution that encompasses everything our customers need in today’s digital world.  More importantly, it’s a solution that is future-proofed for the next 10-15 years.


How Future-Ready ERP is changing the ERP Value Proposition

Agile Empowerment = Embedding Change

Lean, agile, digital transformation…all of the buzz words populating the business vernacular of today. But what’s the common theme here?

Change is a constant

With this in mind a static ERP system becomes ineffective in this environment of constant change. Many of the changes you have or will bring about in your organisation will simply not become an embedded part of your processes, controls or culture if your ERP system doesn’t facilitate these changes.

Future Ready ERP solutions are geared towards continuous improvement.  They embrace lean thinking at their core ensuring your ability to rethink, reinvigorate, react and reinvent is not impinged.

They afford you with the functionality you need to be able to customise fields, layouts etc. across your entire system at company, role or even user level. This differs dramatically to other systems where such fields are hard coded and make you reliant on the software provider at a time and cost that suits them!

This level of autonomy and control will make you more agile as a business as you can make a significant number of system changes in an instant. Such swift turnaround times will also encourage your employees to work with, not around the system.

 

Enterprise Mobility = Access, Anytime Anywhere

Legacy ERP systems find it difficult to extend to mobile applications as the technology framework isn’t naturally mobile enabled. Future ready ERP systems are mobile enabled throughout. Related enterprise mobility apps that enable you to sync your smartphone with your ERP systems provide your team with the real-time information, alerts and functionality they need to be highly effective.

It also minimises all those calls back to the office for information or to instruct teams to make a change in the system. The employee has the power to do this sitting right in the palm of their hand.
Device Agnostic ERP
The possibilities are limitless. From  enabling your delivery teams to capture signatures on their smartphones to delivering bespoke KPI information to your senior teams. It is this type of functionality that the employees of today expect! Rightly or wrong, smartphones have become an extension of ourselves. Your employees engage with them constantly so they are right to ask why shouldn’t we be able to access the company’s ERP system through mobile?

To find out more about how enterprise mobility can empower your teams click here

Personalised User Experience = Productive Teams

ERP solutions are tech brutes! They are powerful solutions that encompass all the functionality required to best manage your business. However, users can get lost in all this functionality leading to low acceptance rates, frustration and massive learning curves.

Future Ready ERP solutions optimise the system at the user level. Dashboards, Menus, Reports, Control Desks are tailored to the needs of the individual; essentially creating personalised workspaces for your team. Your employees intuitively learn how to navigate the system with ease making them extremely efficient.

Personalised automation also drives employee responsiveness. Rules or alerts bespoke to the employee are enforced by the system enabling employees to prioritise their workload.

 

A Digital Fabric = Supports your Strategic Ambitions

Working with businesses over the past 27 years, we’ve seen our customers expand horizontally and vertically, embrace new channels and markets and embrace an array of new opportunities brought about by the digital age. We therefore firmly believe that your ambitions should never be limited by your ERP system. On the contrary it should be a strategy enabler. Traditionally however that hasn’t always been the case with growth and scale often causing systems to creak and become sluggish, hampering companies from moving forward.

Catalyst Versus Inhibitor

Future Ready ERP solutions are built for growth.  At their core you’ll often find the .NET Programming Framework and SQL database technology. This technology stack enables ERP solutions to easily expand and extend in line with your business ambitions. It facilitates the addition of new branches or diversifying into new business areas with ease. Future Ready ERP systems act as a digital fabric that can spread out across your entire business and stretch further when required to accommodate growth, in whatever forms it comes in.

 

To summarise, if you are considering changing your ERP solution it is worth investigating the vendors that can offer you the personalised, future-ready, mobile enabled solution that you need in today’s digital age.  It must be able to facilitate self-service changes, enable growth with ease and allow you to seamlessly take advantage of advances in new technology. It’s these qualities, layered on top of the functionality that traditional ERP solutions offer, that will truly enable you to elevate your business today and for many years to come.


If you’re unsure as to whether or not your need an ERP solution, our comprehensive ‘What is ERP software and do I really need it’ overview will go some way in helping you decide.

 

References:  Gartner, Postmodern ERP: A Vital Foundation for Digital Business, 2014.

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Fiona McGuinness

I've been part of the Intact family for 16 rewarding years. After completing my Business Studies degree, I knew Marketing was a field I wanted to pursue. Prior to joining Intact, I primarily worked in the financial sector, focusing on marketing for credit unions. When I started at Intact, I handled all the marketing tasks by myself. Over time, as our team expanded, so did my role. Now, I specialise in crafting compelling content across various platforms, from blogs to video scripts. No two days are the same, and I thrive on the dynamic nature of my role. Whether it's diving into customer case studies or lead campaigns, I'm driven by the positive impact our solutions bring to businesses. In an age where AI plays a significant role, I remain a firm believer in the power of authentic content. When I'm not working, you'll find me enjoying quality time with my family, sewing, or watercolor paintings.