ERP remains the backbone of any medium or large business. This is set to remain true looking ahead. But additional functionality, integration ability, and openness to interface with the plethora of new and exciting technologies already here and on the horizon remains critical. The following are some key trends in the industry for the year ahead.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Poised to potentially be one of the most disruptive technologies in history, AI is set to revolutionize many complex tasks once the sole domain of humans. This is expected to escalate, and will impact the way a business operates into the future. Imagine a scenario where a sales rep speaks their order telephonically to an ERP system. An invoice is immediately generated and sent to the customer, as is a purchase order to procurement to replenish stock levels. Easy, quick, accurate and secure.
- Big Data
The love affair between Big Data and ERP will grow even stronger in 2017, and looks set to become a rock-solid commitment. Big Data will continue to enable companies to gain greater visibility into smaller and more subtle changes in their business, helping them discover new market opportunities, revenue trends, and customer requirements for new product applications. Big data also simplifies the decision-making process, allowing management to be more agile and efficient.
- Rapid Innovation
Like with anything, the future requires simpler and faster technology, especially where users are concerned. The quicker a company can go from ideation to market adoption, the better it can disrupt and possibly influence markets and business models. With ERP, this translates to simple and clean applications that support users through quick and easy data entry and access to information.
- Continued growth of IoT
With an estimated 50 billion IoT sensors by 2020, companies face the daunting challenge of integrating and analyzing all this new data, as well as monetizing the functional use of sensors and applications required. ERP solutions with flexible inventory management will enable companies to develop and monetize new revenue streams, as well as to process this abundance of data.
- Mobile availability
Today’s professionals are constantly on the go, and mobile devices will continue to spearhead connectivity in the field. The demand for ERP solutions to deliver increased capacity and amplified output cannot be ignored. Employees must easily be able to access everything from dashboards to in-depth charts and displays.
- Social Media
Social media’s integration into ERP continues to evolve in 2017. ERP solutions connect users to all and any data they may require, but social networking is what allows them and their client to discuss these points in real time.
Open, easy sharing is where it is at for the year ahead.
