With ever-growing pressure to digitise processes and provide the best experience for customers, organisations are struggling to deliver. Many digital initiatives are failing due to siloed ERP solutions, legacy operational systems, and processes.

Digital initiatives fail without the right operational systems and processes, and many enterprise resource planning (ERP) initiatives have failed to deliver on their promises due to lack innovation in the software. Today, we see the beginning of a new era of operational systems that are so different that calling them ERP no longer makes sense. We call them the digital operations platform (DOP) to reflect their Agile, AI-based, and experience-driven nature and the critical role they play in digital business. Application development and delivery (AD&D) pros must adopt the DOP to achieve digital business success.

This article will highlight the importance of finding an innovative partner to implement an ERP system capable of leading your business into the future:

  • The reason most current ERP approaches are failing to deliver the speed, flexibility, and intelligence necessary for the digital era
  • The need for a bold digital approach leveraging a low-code platform to achieve scalability and real organisational success
  • The critical role of an agile, AI-based, and experience-driven digital operations platform
Organisations think conservatively about ERP modernisation because they have significant financial investments and worry about too much disruption to the business or the possible failure of a too-big technology project.

To succeed with a DOP, AD&D businesses must:

 

  • Stop spending money to enhance a dying and outdated system. Think about your ERP system like your car. Would you spend thousands to put in a new engine if the metal was starting to rust? And what if the warranty was expiring? Incremental ERP investments may also mean that you’re still driving an old car while your competition is winning the race in a new one. 
  • Build the business case on economics, not emotions. ERP decision makers often let emotional and political factors get in the way of thinking clearly about real costs. Many businesses worry about asking for new budget and resources for a major ERP overhaul — especially if they’ve only recently completed their last one. Keep basic economics in mind: The sunk costs are spent and cannot be changed regardless of any future decision. Build your business case on factors that matter for digital business: namely, speed and experience. Make sure that you measure business ROI, not technology ROI.

The ERP market has undergone significant consolidation but little real disruption in the enterprise segment in the past 20 years. Now, with new pressures on business results and experience, we expect to see the digitalisation coming, and coming very soon.

If you’d like to discuss upgrading from your legacy system from one of the leading providers of ERP software, Sage X3, get in touch and speak to a member of our team 0845 094 3885.

    SOURCE: Forrester Research, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries