The future of ERP: Trends you can’t afford to ignore
ERP trends pathing the future
The future of ERP is fast approaching. For years, ERP projects have had a reputation for being slow, expensive, and painful. It was common to hear phrases like “let’s go for a big bang rollout,” “when will we see the return on our investment” and “how do we find time to implement a new system and still do our day job.”
But that’s changing and fast. As cloud first becomes the new normal new trends are emerging which significantly change the implementation experience.
Enabled by the cloud, the future of ERP implementation is faster, smarter, and more human-centric.
Monolithic to modular, say hello to composable ERP
Gone are the days of the “one system to rule them all” approach. Today, smart organisations are embracing composable ERP – a flexible mix of systems, each selected as the best fit to maximise business value and integrated across the enterprise.
“70% of enterprises will use composable
ERP strategies by 2026” Gartner
Why does this matter? This approach maximises the functionality delivered whilst it minimises the customisation required in each platform, is quicker to roll out, easier to update and more adaptable to future business change.
Smaller releases delivering incremental value is replacing “Big Bang” drama
Horror stories often start with the same thing: a massive rollout all at once hit by operational issues that put the organisation at breaking point. Historically treated as a technical upgrade project, managing the impact of change was often under resourced with serious consequences.
Not anymore. Smarter approaches to implementations have; Smaller releases focused on delivering incremental value, faster feedback loops, and putting change management front and centre will deliver quicker wins with less risk.
Harness the power of AI, make it work for you
AI is no longer just a buzzword. It’s rapid rise enables new ways to manage the inherent complexity of ERP programmes. If used correctly AI can streamline implementation planning, accelerate delivery, and reduce risk.
Today, AI can analyse historical project data to predict potential bottlenecks, recommend rollout strategies based on organisational readiness, and even simulate the impact of changes before they go live.
AI is game changing for time intensive, longer leadtime but critical activities within the deployment lifecycle. For example, automated data analysis and cleansing from legacy systems, self-learning configuration where workflows are adjusted based on usage patterns and QA tools to write test scripts driven from user requirements and to automate testing.
AI does not replace the need for experienced humans but can help to solve a reoccurring issue and reduce the burden on organisations to find the team members to support the ERP implementation at the same time as doing their day job.
The future of ERP
ERP platforms are no longer the clunky, monolithic beast they used to be. The future of ERP implementation is smarter, faster, and more flexible. If your organisation is planning an ERP journey, make sure it’s aligned with where the industry is going – not where it’s been. Get started today!
