How ERP Transformation Through AI-Augmentation Ushers in a New Era for Data Democratization

In business, every time-consuming data and business process problem that can’t be executed by an ERP is a corner case. And the scale and variety of corner cases are exploding as businesses adapt to rapidly changing commercial environments.  AI-augmentation of ERPs is an innovation that deals effectively with corner cases and has a clear, positive impact on productivity through data democratization, as it’s redefined in an AI context.

An ERP is a powerful engine. Historically, ERP platforms have delivered improved efficiency, compliance and control to a business’s operations. However, ERP platforms are not flexible enough on their own to capture the scope and depth of data required for success in monitoring corner-case business activities.

So, enterprises and SMEs have sought to invest in ERP transformations. Many of these transformations rip-and-replace existing ERP functionalities with updated capabilities that include AI. In a previous article, we discussed the benefits of ERP transformation through augmentation, rather than replacing an ERP platform.

A key step in ERP transformation – perhaps the holy grail – is data democratization. Today, data democratization is widely perceived to be capturing more data – business process and freeform – and making it more widely available to employees and executives. However, the sheer volume, variety and velocity of data that flow through a typical enterprise is almost incomprehensible. 

When you put it into the context of feeding an ERP to increase efficiency, compliance, and control, democratizing your data can seem overwhelming. For this reason, data democratization has not been the panacea the industry expected, especially when potential employees with complex data analysis skills are hard to find. 

The traditional definition and benefit statement of data democratization is something like…

 “Data Democratization provides more data to more people all the time to support better and faster decision making and to facilitate innovative thinking.”

Data Democratization – Redefining It in the Age of AI

We argue that data democratization in a well-configured AI-augmented ERP has a better benefit statement…  

“Data Democratization provides the right information to the right people at the right time with easy options to explore more, for better and faster decision making and to facilitate innovative actions.”

Data democratization benefits have always been a bit ethereal. The well-configured AI augmentation of a traditional ERP not only redefines data democratization, it makes its benefits tangible. It draws a direct line between data democratization and a significant, positive impact on innovation, productivity and ROI.

We have successfully completed ERP transformations through augmentation. We have observed that success is not about collecting and providing access to as much data as possible. It is about collecting, accessing and managing the necessary business objective-driven data, at new levels of granularity for a specific user at a specific time. This makes it easier for employees and executives to streamline operations and innovate to meet previously unrecognized market needs.   

AI-Augmentation Becomes the New ERP User Interface

AI networks that augment an ERP become the user interface. This interface is no longer fixed but highly flexible and more aware of what the users wants to accomplish, what data they need and how to best present it.  This expands what data democratization means while making data democratization goals more practical. Acting as the new ERP user interface AI networks demonstrate key capabilities that traditional ERPs lack.

AI Turns Data into Actionable Information

Information is data manipulated in such a way that it has more immediate value to employees and executives. Information addresses the ERP users’ problems directly. AI networks can be configured to understand how to present data to a user in a digestible way. AI-augmented networks create a user interface that changes to facilitate what that user is trying to accomplish. This is important because innovative people are discouraged when their ideas cannot be enacted, which is often the case with a traditional ERP.

Augmented AI Networks Easily Add or Reconfigure New Types of Data Collection Without Violating Business Rules

With a traditional ERP, even when it provides more data, it’s still tedious for employees and executives to add or change records in batches or in novel ways. And, simply put, it might not be possible to add types of data like new fields, tables, etc. AI-augmentation of an existing ERP allows data to be updated, added to or changed – and even new types of data to be inserted into the ERP – while still not violating business or security rules. 

AI-Augmentation Modules can Absorb More Data More Quickly 

Once there are established rules on what data AI-augmentation modules can view or update from the ERP, AI networks can be configured and updated to augment a legacy ERP implementation to aid users while absorbing new kinds of data sets. This provides executives with the valuable, real-time information they need to make better business decisions – orders of magnitude faster than a legacy ERP system can be altered.

AI-Augmentation Modules Allow for Flexible Workflows

AI-augmentation allows workflows to be more flexible than traditional ERPs, because all workflows must be carefully tested and planned. It makes this possible because the AI networks become the user interface and are flexible enough to be quickly reconfigured as needed. AI can allow workflows to proceed based on logical business rules which can be easily updated. This allows for the capture and management of business processes, making decision making for all kinds of business operations easier.

It’s Not about Just More Data – With AI-Augmentation of an ERP Better Data Becomes Valuable Information

Think about a team putting together a complex puzzle. As they begin and pieces start to drop onto a large table, and they need to be sorted. Some pieces can be used immediately, while others must be put to the side for a few moments. To add a layer of complexity, if this were a business problem instead of a puzzle, some pieces would work, and others wouldn’t.

If we use this as an analogy for the current thinking on data democratization, more puzzle pieces being dumped on the table at a faster rate will not help the team. In fact, it will have the opposite effect.

If we use the same analogy of puzzle pieces but work from an understanding that we can leverage an AI to presort all the different kinds of pieces we want, the team will be fed more relevant pieces as they assemble their puzzle. With an AI-augmented ERP data can be captured and manipulated in such a way that it has more immediate value as information to employees and executives and can be acted on with more flexibility, encouraging innovative thinking. 

So, if an AI-augmented ERP platform provides employees and executives more flexibility to capture data and execute workflows, uses a more flexible interface, presents more relevant, granular data to users when they need it and gives them more ways to act on the information given them, encouraging innovation along the way, then it really is a new era for data democratization.