Digital transformation is one of the favourite terms in the industry for the last few years. About “86% of the CEOs say a digital transformation is their top priority,” reports a recent Price Waterhouse Cooper study. However, the term digital transformation means something different to almost everyone. Do investments around Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud make one a digital enterprise? The answer may not be a “yes” always. However, when enterprises invest in “SMAC” and decide to relook at its existing business processes with customer engagement in mind the digital transformation gives a very different perspective and looks more complete.
CXOs are acknowledging the benefits of looking beyond SMAC and are evaluating technologies that can drive this. Now the question is, has the technology matured enough to meet this expectation? How about the Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that handles the core functions. The answer is yes!!! Technology providers are moving swiftly, and are providing a range of solutions such as commerce, analytics, mobility and IoT which can be accessed by upgrading the current enterprise resource planning software.
Looking at the evolution of Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software would help us answer - Why the inclusion of ERP software in your digital transformation is key to your success:
Like Digital transformation is now, ERP used to be the favourite kid in the block in early 80'. Then considered to be a silver bullet for all issues to the Financial / Accounts departments. Designed as a commercial off-the-shelf solution to replace in-house organization-specific application suites.
Sure, there was a need for such systems which had the ability to act as a single source of information. The technology companies were under immense pressure to expand this to other departments. However, with the invention of new technologies and an increase in the data volumes the existing ERP are not able to live up to the expectation of the users. “Collaboration” has become the new Jargon.
The expectation is for a system that can seamlessly engage different departments within the organization and the modern world, including the customers, partners, and suppliers to name a few... While the leading vendors such as SAP, Oracle, and their enterprise customers are looking to get the best of the existing traditional ERP solutions by cloud-enabling and integrating the Social, Mobile and Analytics onto their established systems. Agile organizations like Microsoft and Salesforce have launched cloud-native solutions that are developed on the principle of platform engineering. These solutions are engineered to be intelligent, integrated, infinitely scalable and connected.
Let us look at Microsoft’s ERP “Dynamics 365” which has caught the attention of the analysts. Microsoft has made huge strides towards achieving its vision of delivering a modern and smart ERP with Dynamics 365. All the enterprises' capabilities in Microsoft dynamics for field and operations support over 60 language localization across 36 geographies. Customers can also subscribe Microsoft business application platform delivering capabilities such as Power BI, PowerApps, Common data services helping customers collect and analyze data. Offering a single system that lives up to the true essence of “Collaboration”.
With technology being made available, it is key for enterprises to put together a digital mandate, evaluate the technology and identify a right partner who can support and guide throughout one’s digital journey.
To read more visit