IT Shortlist 2013

So it's time to upgrade, even perhaps to migrate, some or maybe all of your main business systems, is it? If, like most, you haven't done that for some time and recognise that the world of IT has changed just a little in the intervening years, you'll be either champing at the bit of discovery or – depending upon your workload, experience and demeanour – dreaming longingly of retirement. Since the latter isn't an option for most of us, let's focus on the positives and make the ride as painless and rewarding as possible. Granted, your requirement may not concern the ERP system itself, but for most it probably will – directly or indirectly. So let's consider this massively expanded set of integrated business management applications as a proxy for the rest. Perhaps the first point to note is precisely that: modern ERP systems are now a far cry from their forebears. Not only have most been developed to enable far greater things – more functionality, flexibility, connectivity, automation etc – but also they have been built with much more than a nod to ease of use. And that's in terms of everything from initial configuration and implementation all the way through to the user runtime experience. All of that is important because it sets the tone for what comes next – which is first to suggest that it finally makes sense to think differently and to set aside at least some preconceptions born out of bitter earlier experience. The fact is that making your upgrade or migration a major contributor to your overall CI (continuous improvement) strategy is now an entirely realistic and sensible proposition. Why does that matter? Well there are two main implications, each to do with perception, reality and business justification. One: going the 'safe' route and implementing pretty much what you had before, but on a new platform, should no longer be considered either safe or necessary. Two: given that technology has probably enabled the world around you to move on considerably, an ERP project now offers you a chance to catch up and even leapfrog. The bottom line: anything other than CI through IT is going to be a seriously backward and fundamentally limiting step. Once you get started, you'll hear that message time and again. You will also hear that ERP module functionality, flexibility and accessibility – from APS (advanced planning and scheduling) and CRM (customer relationship management), for example – have improved immeasurably. If it's a while since you've done this, expect to be amazed at what can be done out of the box or without any kind of bespoking. Game-changers Beyond all that, though, recent years have also witnessed some potentially game-changing developments. So, if you consider little else, you ought at least to look at the latest BI (business intelligence) and analytics, as well as mobilisation and – loosely linked to the latter – user interfaces. Then, beyond the applications themselves, also consider cloud computing, in terms of how some or indeed all of your system requirements are served to (and managed for) the business. And, finally, there's 'big data', which may not now be quite the hype you thought it was. Surprised by the mention of BI? Yes, it's far from new and long-since integrated into mainstream ERP providers' offerings. But, as Adrian Simpson, chief innovation officer at SAP UK, says, it's changed massively. "One of the evolutions has been its move away from requiring a separate data warehouse, with reporting divorced from the operational ERP system, to now dealing directly with transactional data potentially on the same platform." And that's due to in part to advances in what SAP calls in-memory computing (think extended DRAM), but also big data (handling massive data sets hitherto difficult to cover fast enough with conventional database management systems). "The point is we're now able to embed analytics right into business processes – as part of the application," explains Simpson. "So business users can now iteratively explore the data. They're no longer constrained by pre-set reports. They can define their own views on the fly." Jonathan Orme, Exel Computer Systems' sales, operations and marketing manager, says the opportunities are considerable. "All ERP systems are generating and storing more and more data, and that huge growth means people are finding new ways of analysing it that make sense. The other main difference is that people don't just want to see graphical representations of the status quo anymore. They want BI to tell them where and when there is a problem – and to inform them that they need to do something. BI now is focused on problems, priorities and actions." But another development is the advent of predictive analytics. BI can now be used to look at past data and, by bringing in prediction algorithms, forecast future states, requirements and opportunities. SAP's Simpson suggests thinking about fraud management and stock control. But aligning plant maintenance with production and demand management could also be a target. Meanwhile, what about going mobile, in terms of the applications and user interfaces? There are two aspects to this. On the one hand, IT vendors will argue, with some justification, that employees have a different expectation of their systems today – that everything should be available on their smartphones and that they shouldn't need a training course to drive them. On the other, it makes undeniable business sense to build mobile devices into business processes so that salespeople and field service engineers, but also production managers, supervisors and others, can be real-time parts in the processes that matter to them, wherever they are. Either way, the good news is that most of the major system developers have embraced most aspects of mobility. Exel's Orme says that customer demand is driving developments. "The proliferation of smartphones and high speed data networks has meant that ERP systems' data and processes can now be pushed into the wider world – so that's what we've done." His advice: "We believe manufacturers are better off getting what they need as a fully-integrated part of their business solutions, rather than buying third-party products that lead to the usual problems of disparate systems. Our way they get systems designed and built to work together, not separate products with different versioning that, if they stop working, mean questions about whose fault it is." Pricing is not wildly different whichever way you go, he adds. Going mobile Dan Matthews, chief technology officer of IFS, goes even further: "For us, mobile is the default. We used to build mobile applications for casual users, but now they've been developed for professional users, such as QA and production managers. Customers are increasingly accepting and demanding these facilities." And, while he concedes that it's been slow coming, he points to cloud services built into the latest generation of ERP systems, which solve earlier ERP back-end security, set-up and access issues. Furthermore, Matthews suggests that even users of four year-old IFS systems can take advantage of IFS' cloud services for mobility. "The world of mobile apps is moving very fast, whereas ERP is quite slow to change, so we've bridged the divide," he explains, making the point that, depending on your IT supplier, some significant improvements may well be available without upgrading. That leads us neatly onto cloud and an aspect of computing that has seen no less exaggeration than any other – yet actually has a lot to offer. What's interesting is that, whereas until recently most offerings were essentially point solutions to particular problems (such as mobile sales force automation), that's changing. Now the emphasis, as far as business systems are concerned, is on enabling data to be stored and business process to run both on-site and in cloud in a mixed environment. For Simpson, it's all about delivering "better business value" in five key areas – customer management, HR, collaboration and financials as well as flexible infrastructures for new ventures, start-ups and the like. "The platform aspect is important in all of these cases. We're going to see growth around the hybrid model, coping with some business processes in the cloud while others are delivered on premise." For the vast majority of companies, which have made significant investments in on-premise solutions but want new cloud-delivered functions, that's got to be good news. In these straitened times, no one can afford to throw good systems away, And you won't have to. Download our full IT Shortlist report by clicking below: