In today’s dynamic business landscape, characterized by constant disruption and evolving customer demands, staying afloat requires a delicate balance of stability and innovation. The pressure to identify technologies that can both secure and propel the organization forward is relentless and increasingly involves the entire C-suite rather than just the CIO.
Success-Defining Business Decisions
Businesses are increasingly driven by two powerful forces: the pull of new opportunities and the push of emerging challenges. Understanding these forces is crucial for chief officers looking to innovate and transform their companies to be industry leaders. Pull factors for technology investments include:
Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI is revolutionizing industries by enhancing decision-making processes, automating tasks, and providing deep insights from vast amounts of data. However, AI is ultimately a tool and leaders are observing, through external insights and failed projects, that a hammer and nails don’t build a house. Success with AI starts by understanding the problems that need better solutions.
Digital Transformation: Digital transformation is no longer just a buzzword; it’s a necessity. A recent McKinsey Global Institute report highlights that digital leaders are up to 25% more profitable than their peers. Businesses that have delayed their digital transformation are either noticing tightening pressure from competitors and key stakeholders or they are at risk of Blockbuster and Blackberry scale miscalculations.
New Markets: Strategic exploration of how existing intellectual property could be used to break into new and adjacent markets has led to some of the best examples of industry domination. Consider Tesla leveraging their EV expertise to become leaders in home solar panel and battery systems. Nvidia, now among the most valuable companies in the world, was primarily recognized for 3D graphics before the explosion of ChatGPT shone a light on them beating GPU competitors to the AI race.
Navigating the Risks of Technology Investments
In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the risks associated with technology investments are significant. As companies strive to innovate and stay competitive, understanding and mitigating these risks is crucial.
Cybersecurity Threats: With the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks, robust cybersecurity measures are paramount. The constant software fluctuations create an environment ripe for errors. For better or worse, gone are the days of a clever engineer being able to create a functioning system with the software integration equivalent of duct tape. Design for security is a must, and a digital environment isn’t truly functioning if it’s easily penetrable.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG): Regulatory pressures and societal expectations around ESG are gaining traction. Forbes reports that 83% of global investors integrate ESG factors into their investment decisions. On the other hand, most executives don’t expect sustainability programs to turn positive margins until 3-5 years in. This is due, in part, to the enormous challenge inherent to embedding new metrics into central functions that can’t be paused, like the supply chain.
New Competitors: The digital age has lowered barriers to entry in many industries, leading to increased competition. Smaller, more agile, and digitally savvy competitors can quickly enter the market and redefine industry standards. Though history suggests that 90% will fail, nearly 100% will be vying for survival with digital DNA.
The Strategic Imperative of ERP in Technology Investments
When companies undertake major investments in new technologies, the benefits must be as universal as possible. ERP is, by design, a central meeting point for finance, procurement and purchasing, operations and maintenance, inventory, sales and service.
When selected and implemented correctly, ERP systems enable informed decision-making and strategic planning, ensuring companies maximize their return on digital investments (ROI) while minimizing risks. ERP systems serve as the cornerstone for navigating the myriad opportunities and threats in the modern business landscape. Yet many would never describe ERP this way, as their incorrectly selected and/or implemented system feels more like a data graveyard.
The Pivotal Role of Data and Potential of ERP
Data is the lifeblood of modern enterprises. While ERP systems may not hold all of an organization’s data, they serve as critical connection points that integrate various data sources. For example, in supply chain management, an ERP system can integrate data from suppliers, production schedules, and inventory levels to provide a comprehensive view of the entire supply chain.
One of the most impressive aspects of generative AI is its ability to process and analyze vast amounts of data to generate insights and predictions. However, without a robust ERP system to manage and integrate this data, the potential of AI and other advanced technologies may not be fully realized.
Enhancing ROI Through Effective Data Utilization
For technology investments to deliver their full ROI potential, the data within ERP systems must be easily accessible and valuable. If extracting and utilizing data from ERP systems is cumbersome, managers are likely to shift their focus to more productive tasks, leaving the ERP system underutilized. This lack of engagement can hinder the overall effectiveness of technology investments.
Process intelligence and visualization tools help managers interpret complex data, turning it into clear, actionable insights. These tools enable managers to identify inefficiencies and uncover opportunities for improvement.
For example, a manufacturing company using an ERP system integrated with process intelligence tools can visualize the entire production process. This visualization helps identify delays, optimize resource allocation, and improve overall production efficiency.
Mitigating Costs and Risks
One of the paramount considerations in any tech investment is the mitigation of costs and risks. Cloud ERP is instrumental in achieving this. Vendors with primary Cloud solutions know that their success is directly related to security, so companies that utilize a certified and vetted Cloud ERP are able to inherit more security expertise than they could hope to manage on their own.
Data interoperability is another critical aspect of ERP systems that contributes to cost and risk mitigation. By centralizing data from various departments into a single platform, modern ERP systems can deliver insights that enable collaborative action.
For instance, in a manufacturing company, having all production, supply chain, and financial data in one place allows for process mining analysis around procure-to-pay, production, maintenance, and order-to-cash scenarios. Enabling process intelligence can reduce costs and risks, and surfacing issues through data has the added benefit of minimizing assumptive blame games.
By incorporating security and data interoperability, Cloud ERP systems can provide a critical foundation for mitigating costs and risks. These systems not only protect sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance but also enhance operational efficiency and enable strategic decision-making.
Conclusion
In the face of relentless disruption and evolving demands, modern ERP systems stand as pivotal tools for industrial transformation. They provide a unified platform that integrates critical business processes, from finance to operations, supply chain management, sales and services. By centralizing data, ERP systems facilitate efficient decision-making, enhance collaboration, and drive innovation. Moreover, the integration of AI and process intelligence within ERP frameworks unlocks deeper insights, enabling proactive management and strategic planning.
Though the prevailing experience with ERP might feel like dragging an anchor, your device originally intended for stability doesn’t have to keep you stuck. Modernized ERP can act instead as a propeller to move toward new markets and digital transformation while mitigating the risks and costs of cybersecurity, ESG, and new competition. It’s time for manufacturing and supply chain executives to invest in this transformation.
Michael Ochi
Michael Ochi is Director of Product Marketing at QAD with subject matter expertise in manufacturing, sustainability, and technology. He earned his B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering through the learn-by-doing atmosphere at Cal Poly SLO.
Michal Lewanowicz
Michal, a Senior Product Marketing Manager at QAD with 10 years in tech marketing, excels in communicating complex concepts and focuses on Digital Commerce, AI, and Process Intelligence.
