Digitally Stagnant ERP Software and its Quest for ‘Digital Transformation’

• Julius Rassou
• 22-Sep-2017 12:49:07

Digitally Stagnant ERP Software and its Quest for ‘Digital Transformation’

Enterprise Resource Planning software, beefed-up with technology and backed by a flurry of up-to-date Apps and Services has enhanced the digital competency of the Digital Literates among the contemporary corporate decision makers to the extent of enabling them to develop their own ERPs. These Digital Literates gain Digital Competence by purchasing the software and licenses and implement the software on hired public or private cloud facility. This kind of implementation is termed DIY (do it yourself) SaaS, wherein the user enjoys ownership as in On-Premise implementation; and financial and technological advantages as in On-Cloud implementation.

 

This trend stipulates the ERP solution providers to drastically research and widen the technical scope of their software, in order to stay above the tenacity of futuristic business stakeholders.

 

What could be the possible solution to bring about such a change?

 

One breakthrough statement by the International Data Corporation (IDC) beams from among a few, with the enlightenment that Digital Transformation is restructuring many software applications. ERP software is no exception to it.

 

Digital Transformation is the culmination of the 3 step process, starting with Digital Competence; which, from the perspective of ERP, is gained by businesses through the implementation of ERP. Second in line is the faculty of Digital Usage, which Companies acquire through the hands-on experience of conducting business processes, aided by the Digital Competence gained earlier. This process though might have been exciting in the past decades, now has come to a point, where technological saturation has brought about a state of stagnancy beyond which development seems impossible.

 

Such mundane repetition of routine, and unbearable boredom of technological deficiency; necessitate the birth of the third dimension of digitization, Digital Transformation. Digital Transformation is the process of infusing digital nuances and technological innovations into the core aspects of the software. This Digital Transformation is what is required of ERP solutions to meet the advanced process requirements of futuristic business establishments.

 

With supreme technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Embedded Intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the offing; the desired boom in bringing about the Digital Transformation of ERP software could be in merging the technologies with the software. In doing so, until we get to see what could be done in reality, the following solution might be a postulate to dream about:

 

The ERP solution on being infused with Artificial Intelligence (AI) should acquire machine learning and cognitive technologies, which in turn should automate the solution to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence. This breakthrough solution, on being laced with Embedded Intelligence, should be enabled to reflect on its own operational performance, usage load, and environment to enhance its performance, lifetime, and quality; thereby ensuring unlimited lifetime customer satisfaction. Further Embedded Intelligence should empower the system to gather data on its own through powerful analytics and predictive capabilities; and translate the faculty into cost savings, innovation, and profitability. Crowning the already automated system with the Internet of Things (IoT) concept should further the automation into the very business processes governed by the ERP; and what we might have could be the ultimate business process solution, on owning and implementing which, any business could not but succeed, and that too with the ultimate ease and unlimited authority vested command over any market.