FEATURE : ERP SOFTWARE
Khan said CIOs increasingly recognise that in responding to market challenges , the potential burden of technical debt is there hence the need for them to lower costs within their business . “ This is shaping decision-making in the evaluation of new technologies . From a business perspective , ‘ servitisation ’ is driving change in all our verticals ,” he said . “ Service is becoming the most compelling differentiator for companies , but this requires a re-design of the value
WE SEE ESPECIALLY HIGH DEMAND FOR ERP IN SECTORS INCLUDING INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING , FOOD SERVICE LOGISTICS AND WAREHOUSING , AUTOMOTIVE DEALER MANAGEMENT AND HEALTHCARE .
chain and the use of digital technology to enable a shift to a service and outcome-based business model . This is where IFS Cloud stands above competitors because it makes digital innovation immediately consumable out of the box .
He explained that the best-of-breed ERP solutions are breaking down silos between ‘ integrated ’ but individual products such as ERP , EAM , service management , CRM , HCM etc . in favour of a single solution . “ This means they can have one technology platform to worry about and one data approach . They should also ensure that they can simply ‘ turn on ’ the modules they want to use , when they want to use them . This means that their ERP is simpler and more cost effective to run , support and update ,” he said . “ ERP will have innovation embedded natively as application services ready for organisations to use ‘ out of the box ’.
Is cloud ERP the future of ERP tech ?
Alshami explained that cloud dramatically increases the ability of ERP to perform and scale , and this is the direction in which ERP is moving . “ But not all clouds are the same . A multi-tenant cloud deployment is crucial today as it means no more upgrades , as companies can receive a monthly update to functionality ( technical innovations as well as industry specific updates with no need for lengthy downtimes typical of a traditional upgrade ),” he said . “ Infor ’ s ERP solutions utilise the enormous scale of Amazon Web Services bringing high performance , scalability and security for customers .”
According Ranjan , cloud-based ERP and other enterprise applications provide organisations the agility needed to accelerate innovation and launch services that address real-world challenges across sectors . He pointed out that cloud computing in general offers far better capabilities than the traditional IT investment model with respect to developing and operating digital workplace solutions and infusing innovation . “ The true potential of technologies such as AI , IoT and data analytics can be realised when they are deployed in the cloud environment . Globally , the use of cloud in the public sector to spur innovation , enhance agility and improve services for citizens and businesses has been increasing enormously ,” he said .
“ There is a strong shift from on-premises solutions to a subscription and SaaS based model for EAS software which is majorly driven by the rapid investments in the cloud and data centre build outs by global technology providers within the Middle East region . Investments made by major EAS vendors in the last two to three years have accelerated the speed of innovation and organisations ’ transformation journey .”
ERP challenges for enterprises
Ranjan noted that the challenges for ERP adoption in the Middle East region lie with the existing legacy IT infrastructure which , at times , creates hurdles for organisations to modernise and integrate with cloudbased solutions . “ Organisations still run disparate systems which creates silos of information lack the sufficient data visualisation tools to be able to make effective business decisions ,” he said .
At Infor , Alshami believes the challenges that enterprises face have been magnified by COVID-19 . He said last year served to highlight the challenges of trying to run a physical IT department / data centre and the direct advantages of embracing the cloud for running ERP . “ The problem for many IT heads is that while the need for solutions such as ERP has increased , budgets have also been tightened . In this context , one of the key challenges for enterprises – and more specifically CIOs – is finding a vendor who can commit to a rapid cloud deployment ; to an agreed budget in order to minimise the time to value ,” he said .
IFS ’ Khan explained that there ’ s an obvious benefit of shifting costs from CAPEX to OPEX with a cloud
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