When ERP Becomes Infrastructure: Johnny Than on AskCipher and the Future of AI-Led Enterprise Interaction

Despite years of investment in cloud ERP platforms such as Oracle NetSuite, many organizations still struggle to unlock their full potential. Complex interfaces, fragmented institutional knowledge, and costly integrations often leave users accessing only a fraction of the functionality they’ve paid for—while IT teams absorb growing operational overhead.

In this interview, Johnny Than, CEO and Founder of Appficiency, shares his perspective on AskCipher, an AI interface layer designed to fundamentally change how organizations interact with enterprise systems. Drawing on three decades of enterprise IT experience and hundreds of ERP implementations, Johnny explains why he believes ERP systems are becoming infrastructure—and why AI is emerging as the primary interface layer. He discusses how AskCipher simplifies adoption, preserves organizational knowledge, reduces integration complexity, and enables faster time to value across NetSuite, Salesforce, QuickBase, and beyond.

Q: Could you start by explaining what this new product is designed to address and the core value proposition behind it?

A: AskCipher is an AI interface layer designed to fundamentally change how organizations interact with their enterprise systems. Rather than forcing users to adapt to complex software interfaces, AskCipher allows natural language interaction with NetSuite, Salesforce, QuickBase, and other business applications. AskCipher acts as an intelligent business operations partner, not just a chatbot, that learns and adapts over time, eliminating the need for users to learn multiple complex software environments.

Q: What gaps or challenges did you observe in the NetSuite ecosystem or customer operations that led to the development of this solution?

A: After implementing NetSuite for 200+ customers across diverse industries, we identified three persistent gaps that traditional consulting couldn’t solve.

• The complexity barrier: even with NetSuite’s powerful capabilities, users face steep learning curves navigating hundreds of features and multi-step workflows, resulting in organizations typically using only 20% of their ERP functionality because the other 80% is too difficult to access.
• The knowledge fragmentation problem: institutional knowledge about configurations, workarounds, and best practices lives in people’s heads and disappears when employees leave, forcing each new hire to start from zero and repeat mistakes the organization has already solved.
• The integration complexity trap: customers running NetSuite alongside aforementioned platforms were spending upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars on middleware and custom integrations, yet still manually switching between applications and synchronizing data across systems.

These challenges created a pattern: organizations invested in best-in-class software but struggled to access their full value. We realized they didn’t need more training or more integrations — they needed a unifying layer that simplifies interaction, preserves organizational memory, and eliminates unnecessary technical steps.

Q: How does this product fit into Appficiency’s broader technology and innovation vision for the coming years?

A: AskCipher represents Appficiency’s strategic evolution from traditional ERP consulting to full tech stack consulting, marking our shift toward what we call the “Plumber vs. Homeowner” vision, where SaaS applications become infrastructure behind the drywall, and AI is the only interface that matters. This vision extends across product and service innovation:

• Product innovation, with AskCipher expanding to support additional enterprise platforms, plus advanced multi-system orchestration and deeper continuous learning within each deployment
• Service evolution, where our AI Augmented Implementations (AIAI) deliver faster, cheaper software implementations that improve over time, while our AI Enabled Consulting (AIEC) helps organizations identify AI opportunities across their entire operations, regardless of tech stack.

Q: In what ways does this offering stand out from similar tools in the NetSuite marketplace or third-party solution landscape?

A: Most NetSuite marketplace solutions are in-app agents that are deeply connected to NetSuite, but they analyze your business in isolation. AskCipher is fundamentally different because it’s a layer, not another app. We connect NetSuite, Salesforce, Quickbase, with more integrations to come, simultaneously, enabling true cross-system intelligence. For example, you can compare customer data across NetSuite and Salesforce in real-time, enforce organizational policies across all platforms, and execute workflows that span multiple systems through natural language. The real differentiator is our enterprise-grade memory architecture. While typical AI tools forget information between sessions, AskCipher is designed to remember your organizational policies, personal preferences, and learns from every interaction. It’s not about adding another tool to your stack; it’s about creating the last user interface you’ll ever need. We’re solving the ‘100 apps problem’ where businesses are using hundreds of applications, each with its own AI agent. Instead of learning 100 different interfaces, you learn one layer that orchestrates everything underneath.

Q: Are there key technical components—automation, workflow orchestration, AI, etc.—that play an important role in its impact?

AskCipher focuses on reducing three types of GenAI friction:

• Human friction – requiring user approval for sensitive or high-impact actions.
• Organizational friction – automatically applying administrative rules and compliance requirements.
• Technical friction – maintaining context and organizational knowledge through persistent memory.
• Technically, AskCipher combines natural language processing, workflow orchestration, real-time integrations across connected platforms, and a full audit framework to support transparency and control.

Q: How does the solution help customers reduce operational overhead or simplify complex processes?

A: AskCipher improves efficiency across the full ERP lifecycle.

• During implementation, documentation and configuration accelerate through intelligent requirements gathering and best-practice guidance, reducing timelines by roughly 20% and lowering costs by minimizing manual work.
• During training and adoption, users receive contextual, personalized support instead of static documentation, shortening the path to proficiency.
• In daily operations, tasks that previously required multi-step navigation—such as building saved searches, exporting reports, or assembling cross-system insights—can be performed in seconds with natural-language queries.

The shift is from users adapting to complex software to software adapting to the way users work.

Q: Which industries or customer profiles will benefit the most from this new offering?

A: AskCipher delivers exceptional impact in industries where Appficiency has deep expertise from our 200+ NetSuite implementations:

• Construction Companies: Managing job costing, progress billing, change orders, and AIA compliance benefit from simplified project setup and financial analysis through natural language, with organizational memory built from Appficiency’s construction-specific best practices.
• Transportation, Logistics, and Distribution: A core Appficiency specialization, these operations benefit from cross-system intelligence providing instant visibility into routing, multi-warehouse inventory, and shipment tracking without the middleware costs.
• Manufacturing and CPG: Another key vertical where companies managing bill of materials, work orders, and production scheduling benefit from queries like “Show me all work orders with material shortages” through simple natural language rather than complex saved searches.

Q: Could you share an example or scenario that illustrates the measurable value customers can expect?

A: Consider a mid-sized construction company implementing NetSuite with traditional consulting versus AskCipher-augmented ERP implementation and AI Enablement Consulting:

Traditional Approach:

• Implementation timeline: 6 months
• Middleware/integrations: $100,000 for connecting tech stack
• Training: 40 hours of sessions, static documentation
• User adoption: 6-9 months to proficiency
• Functionality utilization: ~20% of NetSuite capabilities
• AI strategy: None—company struggles to identify where AI could improve operations

AskCipher-Augmented Approach with AI Enablement Consulting (AIEC):

• Implementation timeline: 4.8 months (20% faster through AI Augmented Implementation)
• Middleware/integrations: $10,000 (AskCipher eliminates middleware needs)
• Training: Interactive AI-guided onboarding, 24/7 contextual help
• User adoption: 2-3 months to proficiency (60% faster)
• Functionality utilization: 40-50% of NetSuite capabilities (2-2.5x improvement)
• AI strategy: AIEC pilot ($5K-$10K) identifies AI opportunities to streamline and simplify processes in the office of the CFO, speeding up time to reporting significantly
• *These are projections based on beta customers

Q: Have early adopters reported any specific ROI or efficiency improvements so far?

A: AskCipher was officially released in October 2025 and is currently in beta phase, concluding Q1 2026

• Beta customers are already experiencing the implementation acceleration we projected
• Organizations report a major reduction in help desk inquiries as users self-serve through AskCipher rather than contacting IT or consultants, directly reducing operational overhead.
• Executives access real-time operational data through natural language queries, eliminating the traditional request-wait-analyze cycle.
• As we expand beyond beta in February 2026, we expect to report more comprehensive ROI data, particularly around the compounding efficiency gains

Q: How do you see customer expectations evolving within the Oracle NetSuite ecosystem?

A: Users increasingly expect to interact with systems through natural language rather than detailed navigation flows. They want applications that surface insights proactively, identify anomalies, and provide recommendations.

Organizations also prioritize privacy and cost. They are looking for AI that opera
tes within their existing infrastructure, avoids new data-storage risks, and doesn’t require expensive additional middleware.

Q: What broader trends—AI-driven workflows, verticalization, automation—do you believe will shape cloud ERP adoption next?

A: AI as Infrastructure: One AI tool connected to all your business applications will become the universal layer that everything connects to. The ERP becomes infrastructure—just like servers became infrastructure when everyone moved to SaaS in the 2000s. Now SaaS is becoming infrastructure for AI. This will solve tool sprawl by giving you one intelligent layer instead of multiple AI agents that don’t know your business or each other.

Traditional ERP Gets Smarter: ERP modernization is becoming much less risky because AI layers like AskCipher can handle data entry, validation, and integration between systems. This means implementations can be more standard, with AI adapting the interface and workflows instead of requiring extensive customization. Modern ERP deployment is getting a lot faster and easier.

Q: How is Appficiency positioning itself to meet these emerging needs?

• Faster ERP Implementations: AI Augmented Implementations (AIAI) streamline configuration, automate data entry and validation, and remove the need for most customization or middleware, resulting in faster, more efficient deployments.
• Accelerated Time to Value:  AskCipher speeds up user adoption through AI-guided onboarding and contextual support, helping teams access more platform capabilities sooner and realize ROI faster.
• AI Enabled Consulting (AIEC): helps organizations identify AI opportunities to speed up processes and automate repetitive tasks through pilot programs ($5K-$10K).

Q: Appficiency is known for deep industry-focused solutions. What leadership principles guide your product and innovation decisions?

A: At Appficiency, we aim to solve the most complex tech problems in specific industries that others avoid. Our innovation philosophy is simple: go deep, not wide. We combine 10+ years of vertical expertise in construction and manufacturing with cutting-edge AI through our AskCipher platform, always with the belief that technology should amplify human expertise, not replace it. We build products like our ProjectSOS suite because we’ve seen our clients’ pain points up close. That depth of focus, paired with a global team of diverse problem-solvers, is what allows us to build and deliver solutions that truly transform how businesses operate.

Q: What are your top priorities for Appficiency’s roadmap in the next 12–18 months?

A: For Appficiency, key roadmap areas for 2026 include:

• Scaling AskCipher beyond beta and expanding to additional enterprise applications
• Strengthening cross-system orchestration for complex multi-application workflows
• Deepening persistent memory that allows organizations to encode policies and industry-specific knowledge
• Expanding AI-Augmented Implementations and building industry-specific AI playbooks for sectors like construction, transportation and logistics, and manufacturing

Q: Finally, what message would you share with organizations preparing for major digital transformation efforts in 2026?

A: The most practical step for organizations preparing for digital transformation in 2026 is to look for flexible, broader tools that augment your existing technology stack rather than replacing it. Start with a project you’ve already allocated budget for, research how AI can automate or expand its capabilities, and aim to get value in under three months. However, you don’t want to go at it alone; you can engage an AI Enablement Consultant at firms like Appficiency that have deep expertise in your vertical. The organizations that win in 2026 won’t be those with the most AI tools, but those with the smartest AI strategy executed with clarity, control, and measurable results.