Cloud ERP in 2015 and Beyond

Many Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system providers feel cursed by the Chinese proverb, “may you live in interesting times.” The reality is that this curse has no real Chinese source, and times of change are opportunities for both our industry and customers.

ERP is the buzzword that supplants the old term “accounting software” due to the inclusion of many operational planning tools such as forecasting and Material Requirements Planning (MRP). These enhanced functionalities required more access to more data to provide forward looking information for management. To have all this data available, software companies added more feature, function and complexity to the systems in an effort to provide more value.

In recent years these systems have been more frequently setup and hosted in a third party data center or “cloud” to remove the complexity of managing these systems from the companies who need the information but don’t need to focus on information technology as a core competency. The real curse is the complexity of operating the software to provide the information.

There is always a balancing act between complexity and usability. We want the information and we want the systems to be easy to use. Many cloud service providers are touting that they have achieved the nirvana of easy to use, complex software via the latest technology. The reality is that “easy” is in the eye of the user and there is no Staples Easy Button for ERP.

Part of the balancing act is getting all the users to put data into a format that it can be easily consumed by different managers and workers for their purposes. A financial manager wants to see a pipeline for cash flow where a sales manager wants to know how effective the sales process is and to evaluate his staff. Financial terms are “easy” for an accountant that demands debits equal credits in the ERP system while process automation is important for the sales manager in his Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system which was engulfed in the ERP platform.

There is always a pendulum swinging between centralization and decentralization, whether in government, management or software. A recent report by Gartner proclaimed that the concepts of ERP are “being replaced by the emergence of cloud point solutions that deliver functionality business users want that the IT-controlled and centrally-mandated ERP megasuite previously struggled to deliver.” The concept is that point solutions will be easier to use and more functional than the mega systems that try to handle all functions for all users.

Remember the curse and beware of the pendulum. The reason ERP systems came to such popularity is the availability of information for decision making! If the point solutions are not integrated, then silos of data and operational inefficiencies will creep back into your business. This is why we at I-BN have always looked at change as opportunity and tend to not allow the pendulum to swing too far for our customers. Formed in 1999 with the mission of aggregating and integrating technology into solutions to make our customer’s operations more efficient, I-BN’s objectives of automation through technology have not changed.

So for 2015 and beyond, I-BN is investing in our integration platform to bring ERP and cloud applications together as packaged solutions for our customers. With over 15 years of experience working with Small to Mid-size Business we take the “best practices” concepts embodied in ERP and apply them to integrating best of breed solutions. One recent example is the creation of an eCommerce integration package for Shopify to Sage 100 ERP and Shopify to SAP Business One. This new cloud service takes a best of breed eCommerce platform and automates the entry of web orders while synchronizing customer and inventory data with the ERP system. These packages will be on display at Sage Summit 2014 in Las Vegas in July and at the America’s SAP User Group Business One Summit in Chicago in September.

I-BN views the forecast for Cloud ERP in 2015 as partly cloudy and very sunny with a very good chance of business improvement!

Tags: Cloud Computing, ERP, Sage 100, SAP Business One