As investment in digital transformation continues, IT is becoming enmeshed in every facet of a business. This means today's IT leaders must be versatile and well attuned to the company's wider objectives and strategies, seeking out new and innovative ways to leverage technology to improve company performance and remain relevant.
We sat down with Annexa director Jarred Spriggs to discuss how cloud ERP fits into the equation and helps IT leaders meet their long-term business objectives.
As Annexa's technologist/services director, what are the most significant advantages of utilising cloud ERP in a business?
ERP can mean many things to many people, which is why ERP has so much value. But the term ERP's been around since the nineties. At the time, ERP was designed solely to manage resources and materials in manufacturing. Today they have evolved beyond supporting the processes behind manufacturing products and managing materials to support business processes across an entire organisation in almost any industry and across all departments such as supply chain, finance, operations, sales and marketing.
Today, there are three types of ERP deployments - on-premises, hybrid and cloud ERP. Cloud ERP offers the significant advantages of security, flexibility, costs, scalability, support and analytics. However, whilst each is an extremely valuable bi-product of cloud ERP, analytics and support deserve particular attention.
Analytics is essential for handling underlying data complexity and giving business leaders the level of real-time visibility needed to uncover insights hidden in their data and make informed decisions.
By support, I am referring to supporting end users with anywhere access to the platform and data. Cloud ERPs offer a real-time view of the business, allowing users to access the platform remotely to quickly and efficiently complete business processes. So, these systems support the end business user in their role. This is increasingly critical as businesses shift to hybrid working models.
Given the plethora of ERP solutions on the market, what key capabilities should someone in a CTO role look for when evaluating an ERP?
As a CTO, flexibility and adaptability should be some of your top priorities. The CTO is potentially responsible for many systems and, in some cases, disconnected and challenging ones. So, before evaluating any ERP platforms, they must first understand all the different systems and business processes across the organisation. They will then be able to consider how their systems should be connected and how this will bring their people and processes together before evaluating ERP platforms against those goals.
There are many parties in an organisation, each with diverse needs and slightly different processes, so a flexible cloud ERP that allows you to build your processes around your people and resources is critical.
The ERP can be evaluated against process automation, a significant business strength. Cloud ERPs enable you to automate repeatable business tasks such as payroll, order processing, invoicing, reporting and data entry, which will bring enormous value to IT, finance, and operations.
In addition to automation, a well-rounded ERP has solid financial and accounting modules that allow you to build on top of standard business processes. Additional capabilities spread across the organisation with CRM to support the customer lifecycle and sales and marketing modules to extend that customer reach. Your ERP choice also depends on your industry. For example, native ERP features such as professional service automation should feature in the evaluation process if you are a consultancy or agency.
What are cloud ERP's key opportunities, and why is the potential for impact so enormous?
In addition to the ability for accurate decision-making based on real-time information, Cloud ERP provides the flexibility to grow and change.
If you rewind the clock two years ago to pre-COVID times, having flexibility wasn't as important as it is today. But we saw businesses already using cloud ERPs grow and adjust despite all the disruptive changes. For example, we saw some customers shut down their retail stores and turn them into fulfilment centres. So rather than sending all their products from a warehouse, they could ship goods to customers from multiple locations, which shortened delivery timelines when delivery times were blowing out. They could do this because they had a cloud ERP system allowing them to adjust their business processes quickly.
Then there's the potential in all that data and the extra information you can access when you bring your business systems together. For example, real-time information is fantastic because it lets you make quick financial or product order decisions. But when you build up an extensive database of information, you can start to gather insights based on patterns and history. So, the more data you put into the system, the more insights you can get, and the more business automation can happen.
Consider the example use case of using machine learning for suggested selling online. A customer is browsing a website and orders, say, a door handle. The AI system, paired with a machine learning algorithm, had learned that when other customers ordered that door handle, they also required a unique lock mechanism. So, it displays that product to the customer. So, the system helps your sales team upsell the lock to the customer to support the purchase of the door handle, which means more sales and more satisfied customers. Because of all the data available in the system, cloud ERP makes these types of buying situations possible.
How does cloud ERP's extensibility drive value for Annexa's customers?
Extensibility is a core strength of cloud ERPs. I've been involved in ERP deployments across hundreds of customers, and one big thing I've learned is that cloud ERPs give organisations the flexibility to match their pace of change. That may mean adding a manufacturing module to their existing processes that allow them to manufacture an item they previously purchased from a supplier. Or they may need to offer a customer portal, and again, they can use that extensibility to add that new capability to their business with minimal effort.
Customers can also expand their sales reach. For example, a start-up focused locally can extend its cloud ERP to support expansion into different markets. Despite these new countries having different tax rules, product regulations, and multiple currencies – the cloud ERP can support it all in one system. Implementing an ERP that offers this level of extensibility means that rather than having to fit their business around an inflexible system, they know that their system can grow with them and extend for any future business case.
Last thoughts?
I think the only constant in technology is the state of change. So having a system that is adaptable and flexible is always going to support a business in the future. A business is 80% people, so the system needs to play a supporting role to them. So, it needs to be flexible for the change of people, the change of customers, and the change of markets.
We know that technology and systems will change and evolve, so we can't be set on what future business processes or products look like. All we know for sure is we need to be adaptable to any changes in the future.
Cloud ERP considerations for the C-Suite
Explore the critical C-Suite considerations for determining the cloud ERP architecture that’s right for the CEO, CTO and CFO, their teams and their entire organisations.
Annexa is a leading NetSuite partner with extensive experience designing and implementing comprehensive and customised business systems, including payroll solutions, financial management, warehouse management and ecommerce solutions.
