It’s that time of year again where we take stock of what 2017 has presented us with and think about what might be in store for the next 12 months. Google’s 2017 in search data revealed how was the most popular type of question asked by internet users, as people looked for answers on how to offer help and make a difference. It’s been a chaotic year for many, and not just thanks to the extreme weather.
This year, we surveyed 500 senior business decision makers in UK companies to find out just how mobile their businesses are. While 88 percent permitted mobile working, many staff in operations roles such as HR, customer service reps, and production staff rely on systems which leave them oftentimes chained to their desks with little chance of performing job functions from a mobile.
The data highlighted a growing need for companies to adopt a simple solution to recover efficiency and workflow for employees who rely on computers to access business systems. 2018 should bring with it an increase in awareness of mobile ERP solutions so that all employees can enjoy some level of speedy and easy access to core functions relevant to their job from any mobile device.
Cloud ERP will continue to make gains, although vendors that are choosing to go all in with cloud are pushing customers away. They may even experience a backlash, with some customers insisting on on-premise and switching vendor if they can’t accommodate.
ERP systems will increasingly be hooked to IoT, tapping into data from systems such as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) that have machine efficiency data and other big data harvested from sensors for analysis purposes.
Virtually all ERP systems will have to have some means of social collaboration that will slowly replace more antiquated means of communication such as e-mail and reduce reliance on outside systems for communication. Conversations will increasingly be kept inside the walls of the ERP system.
No, unlike other ERP analysts, I don’t believe that either ccryptocurrencyor AI will make any stern impact on the deployment of ERP systems in 2018. The technology is just too new and not a focus of ERP vendors since they’re working on more imperative priorities. Perhaps in 2019.
Most legacy ERP software from the ‘90s will have to be replaced by modern platforms since they will increasingly be success end of life. This will be a huge dare for ERP software companies that don’t have the resources or inclination to modernize ancient client/server beasts. Further complicating the push to modernize enterprise ERP systems will be the lack of consulting talent to migrate from the old to the new.