The data highlighted a growing need for companies to adopt a simple solution to improve 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 quick and easy access to core functions appropriate to their job from any mobile device.
Here’s what else we can expect to see as the year progresses:
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 vendors 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 antediluvian 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 cryptocurrency or AI will make any serious 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 reaching the end of life. This will be a huge challenge for ERP software companies that don’t have the resources or inclination to modernize early 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.