Effective ways to analyze and use enterprise data

The future of ERP Software reflects the future of business. As professionals continue to become more mobile, do business in multiple geographies, and put data at the heart of every decision, they’ll expect their accounting solutions to support them. There’s a critical reason why legacy and on-premise systems can’t keep pace.

There are occasional periods in history where certain industries must completely reinvent themselves. For example: fax machines, once indispensable for business, are now all but extinct. Windows Servers replaced Novell Networks and cell phones have all but replaced land lines (just try looking for a pay phone these days). Even travel has completely transformed from railway transportation to air transportation in a relatively short amount of time. The key for businesses who want to stay ahead of disruption is to have the foresight to see a paradigm shift before it happens.

I heard a speaker say once that if the railroad tycoons of the Industrial Revolution would’ve realized that they were in the transportation business, as opposed to the railroad business, they would rule the world today. Progress always moves forward, sometimes faster than many of us can keep up with. A similar paradigm shift is happening within the ERP space.

For the past 30 years, legacy and on-premises systems have dominated the landscape. Unfortunately, the technology that many of these manufacturing systems were founded on has become obsolete. This technology is now preventing its’ users from taking advantage of the latest and greatest innovations in the ERP space, as that legacy technology is unable to integrate with the new modern technology.

• We’ve seen accounting centric users, once reluctant to work with anything other than a text-only monitor and an alphanumeric keyboard, demand a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse.
• We’ve seen warehouse management technology such as barcode readers and RFID scanners go from only being available to large, multi-national corporations, to being made affordable and used by the mom-and-pop distributor next door.

But That’s All in the Past. What’s the Future of ERP?

More recently, with the advent of the Internet and cloud computing applications, we’ve seen a new paradigm shift happening with ERP systems. Users have become more and more familiar and comfortable with using CRM systems applications on their phones, tablets, and browsers on their laptops. They now expect and demand that same ease-of-use and flexibility from their ERP systems. We’ve seen the demand from end-users to have workflow engines, or intelligent software that can proactively determine a process or notify users when an exception occurs. Our clients want simple to use, configurable dashboards, that give them one click to key, relevant information. Our clients demand POS solutions that allow them to analyze their sales and financial data from a variety of different perspectives.

Due to our ever-shrinking world, and ever expanding global economy, our clients demand international solutions that can manage multiple currencies, as well as multiple legislations and physical requirements. This allows them to have subsidiaries and partnerships around the world, and have all their users on a single, fully integrated platform.

All of this represents the new norm, and the new paradigm shift in the ERP industry. Unfortunately, many legacy and on-premises systems cannot take advantage of these new trends because the platforms and language they were originally written in simply do not support them.

Why We Believe the Future is in the Cloud

The only true Cloud ERP, ERPNext designed its ERP platform to provide all the power inherent in the older legacy and on-premises systems, with the added benefit of a modern, user-friendly platform that can take advantage of these newer requirements coming from our user base. 

ERP users have traditionally spent too much time verifying the past and on time-consuming, resource-heavy operations such as batch transaction processing, the account closing process, and periodic audits, which help to identify issues only once it’s too late to act on them. The ERP users of the future will need to use augmented intelligence (AI) tools. Some potential use case scenarios. For example, behind the curtain, AI tools could spot irregular transactions, ones that have incorrect values, or could interest users, and prompt them to review transactions. AI bots will also contribute to collaborative conversations, and users may be able to ask the bot (via conversational UI’s as well as by typing) to perform tasks or for information, for example,“What’s our Quick Ratio?” The bot will then show the user performance cards and reports to explain the insights.

The digital assistant will also help users increase their productivity. By monitoring and learning from users’ ERP systems usage, it can adjust what users see on their screens to reflect their preferences and behaviors and simplify everyday tasks. As the AI tool gets smarter, it will derive insights from user’s data and prompt them with opportunities and alerts via predictive capabilities.”

ERP is set for a major refresh. Vendors are infusing ERP with more AI and machine learning capabilities. This will make it easier for businesses to get up and running more quickly with ERP, and to quickly automate repetitive, time-consuming tasks–and to get better insights into what’s happening in their businesses. Integrating IoT with ERP–and with AI/ML–will also come into better focus. IoT sensors can bring new data directly into ERP systems. By providing companies with effective ways to analyze and use this data, companies better automate functions such as re-orders and replenishment–and more.”