FEATURE : ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING market . Various regions are seeing even up to four times growth with regards to ERP adoption ,” he said . “ African countries , like most of the developing world , face challenges such as low economic capacities , limited infrastructures , limited human skills , and cultural barriers . These complexities may enhance the difficulties of ERP implementation and highlight the necessity of defining an efficient way to implement ERP systems within the African context .”
He said the industry is seeing more and more features that make it more palatable for smaller SME organisations to get the value of an integrated ERP . “ Larger organisations who are running on legacy ERP systems can migrate and modernise to leverage on the integrated digital edge
Darren De Vries , SADC Channel Partner Manager , Seidor Africa , said the African ERP market is highly competitive with most vendors focusing their attention on cloudbased ERP offerings which offer customers flexible financial and deployment options with simplified and accelerated implementation times .
De Vries said ERP software can provide the ideal platform for Digital Transformation , which enables companies across the African continent to integrate all aspects of business operations – leading to greater efficiency , speed , customer satisfaction and profit . “ African businesses , as with many other regions , are looking for easy to implement , mature , simplified ERP which results in a fast time to value ” he said .
That being the case , CIOs on the continent are being encouraged to look out at key business trends in the ERP space to ensure success and enterprisewide integration .
Ramachandran said the focus of ERP is no longer only on enterprise-wide planning , but has expanded into a wider ecosystem encompassing customers , suppliers , partners , competitors and stakeholders . “ In fact , Gartner predicts that by 2023 , majority of ERP systems in the enterprise will incorporate at least one fourth-era functionality . CIOs should be looking at how the proposed ERP implementation would deliver the following to their business : operational efficiency and resource productivity and the ability for the ERP system to support scalability and change in business models ,” he said . “ Today we see more and more ERP vendors delivering complete integrated suite of ERP applications on the cloud with the best technology embedded with enhanced user experience and is scalable in nature . In addition , cloud ERPs are mostly developed from scratch with an agile enterprise in mind and with the ability to deliver in a multi-tenant model .” in terms of user interface / user experience , real time analytics and AI , digital assistants and robotic process automation use cases . They are scalable in nature to support growth and business resilience demands ,” he said .
De Vries said taking technology out of the equation and focusing on purely business benefits , CIOs should investigate extending ERP beyond the back office by granting ERP access to additional , internal users like sales , service , and warehouse staff . Furthermore , he explained that integration with external customers , suppliers and business partner systems will provide tangible benefits . “ A business intelligence platform providing real-time reporting and analytical capabilities should also be a serious consideration ,” he said .
According to Tech Mahindra ’ s Ramachandran , the key challenges enterprises in Africa face , starts with selecting the right ERP based on their business ( service , supply chain or manufacturing ). “ Moving ahead the implementation phase has its own challenges . At times skill and talent shortage gap within the organisation does not support such a transition . In fact , this gap impacts every facet of the business and requires the ability to comprehend new
Darren De Vries , SADC Channel Partner Manager , Seidor Africa
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