The World in 2014

ERP Predictions From UNIT4

1. Modern ERP in demand

As many IT systems approach their 20th

anniversaries, software that has been designed to deal with the complexities of the modern

world will become more important than ever.

Combined with the withdrawal of vendor support for a range of older products,

organisations which use these systems will be at a serious competitive disadvantage.

2. Heavyweights to continue to struggle

SAP and Oracle made the headlines in 2013 for a series of failed and high-profile implementations

“Avon pulls the plug on a $125 million four-year SAP software after burdensome and disruptive software drove away many of the salespeople who fuel the company's revenue.” Wall Street Journal, December 11 2013 “SAP has been slapped with a lawsuit by over a payroll software implementation that cost taxpayers vast sums, but has never worked. After three years, and paying $50m all there is to show is a system that could not get the payroll right once over an eight-month period for a pilot group of only 1,500 employees.” Info World Applications, November 25, 2013

“Npower has admitted its customer accounts are in disarray after it moved to a new SAP IT system. The news comes just two weeks after the company announced large job cuts and contracts to outsource its backend systems.” Computer World, December 12, 2013

“The West Australian Government’s decision to decommission its Shared Services business, based on Oracle’s eBusiness ERP platform, will cost $95 million this financial year, and around $370 million overall, according to budget forecasts.” IT News, August 12, 2013

“SAP has been slapped with a lawsuit by over a payroll software implementation that cost taxpayers vast sums, but has never worked. After three years, and paying $50m all there is to show is a system that could not get the payroll right once over an eight-month period for a pilot group of only 1,500 employees.” Info World Applications, November 25, 2013

The market wants software suppliers to be focused on satisfying customer needs and with solutions that

work in today’s fast changing, uncertain world.

With the traditional heavyweights struggling to implement major deals, especially in cloud and shared

services, we don’t expect the market will get any easier for SAP and Oracle.

3. Standardisation not customisation

One of the factors behind these spectacular and costly failures was the inability of the ERP solution to cope with change. Eval-Source research found that the traditional

heavyweights can’t support system changes without complex code changes.

• System customisations can and do kill ERP projects.

• This is a particular issue in shared service environments where stakeholders’ needs can vary hugely.

• Standardised systems with changes made by simple configuration and not complex code rewrites will become increasingly prevalent in 2014 and beyond.

4. Mushrooming cloud

Cloud-based technology will continue to make inroads and uptake will grow rapidly in 2014.

Public and hybrid clouds will grow in popularity as mature and capable service providers – such as the NGD Centre below – enable true cost efficiencies.

Growth will be driven by demand for: • Unique, individual databases with no shared data

• The ability to move to, from and between clouds

• Customer not vendor-driven upgrade schedules

• Disaster forgiveness and complete ERP functionality

5. ERP that can leverage big data

ERP systems capable of integrating and processing large volumes of data and data sources will allow organisations to leverage existing systems to gain valuable insight. This will unlock better, real-time decision making.

6. Business intelligence and analytics

Capgemini research revealed the lack of business analysis and modelling that supply chain managers see in their

organisations and the opportunity this presents.

By deploying analytics and reporting outside ERP, new services can be integrated into reporting

strategies alongside ERP data.

This integration can easily be used to develop a comprehensive reporting strategy that also includes

the ERP data, where relevant.

7. Leveraging mobile devices

“Corporate workers are increasingly demanding the business apps they use be as intuitive and user-friendly as the consumer

apps they rely upon in their personal life.” The Technology Evaluation Center, December 16, 2013

ERP will increasingly be a central data repository focused on data security and agnostic to the devices used to access it.

This will cut technical admin costs and provide the ability to

add specialist solutions to be accessed by the mobile front-end.

8. Social hits the mainstream

The market is rapidly waking up to the power of creating collaborative, engaged communities that connect workforces,

customers, suppliers and partners. 2014 will see significant developments in this area.

By deploying analytics and reporting outside ERP, new services can be integrated into reporting

strategies alongside ERP data.

This integration can easily be used to develop a comprehensive reporting strategy that also includes

the ERP data, where relevant.

Thank you for taking the time to check out our predictions for 2014 in ERP.

If you’d like to find out about our

predictions in more depth take a look at our blog on The World in 2014.