FEATURE : ERP the end of support deadline in 2027 by moving to S / 4HANA on cloud .
“ We expect any organisations to take a staged approach , moving their existing ECC to the cloud and then convert to S / 4HANA ,” he said . organisations to get the value of an integrated ERP . Larger organisations that are running on legacy ERP systems can migrate and modernise to leverage on the integrated digital edge in terms of UI / UX experience , real time analytics and AI , digital assistants and robotic process automation use cases .”
According to Ramachandran , the focus of ERP is no longer only on enterprise-wide planning , but has expanded into a wider ecosystem encompassing customers , suppliers , partners , competitors , and stakeholders .
“ In fact , Gartner predicts that by 2023 , most ERP systems in the enterprise will incorporate at least one fourth-era functionality . CIOs should be looking at how the proposed ERP would deliver the following to their business including operational efficiency and resource productivity , ability for the ERP system to support scalability , change in business models , and enable modern best practices and support business resiliency .
Given the momentum around cloud ERP , IT leaders have been grappling to deal with this evolution and progression of technology in the future .
Botha said running your ERP system in the cloud provides a number of benefits including costs , agility and efficiency , resilience , innovation and sustainability . “ You can shift from a CAPEX to an OPEX model , scaling your infrastructure up or down based on peaks and troughs in demand , so you only pay for what you use , when you use it . In addition , our SAP in the cloud will provide you with scalability and access to the latest technologies to help you capitalise on emerging opportunities as they happen . On-premises infrastructure does not benefit from the level of automation and economies of scale available in the public cloud , adding more manual tasks to your workday and building up complexity you must deal with to keep your business running , he said .
With hyper-scalers providing flexible and cost-effective options to ensure high availability with stringent SLAs and fail-safe Disaster Recovery so that businesses can keep running , no matter what happens , CIOs and their IT teams need to on top of this when designing their cloud strategies .
Ramachandran said : “ Today we see more and more ERP vendors delivering complete integrated suite of ERP applications on the cloud with the best technology embedded with enhanced user experience and are scalable in nature . In addition , cloud ERPs are mostly developed from scratch with an agile enterprise in mind and with the ability to deliver in a multi-tenant model . These features make it more palatable for smaller SME
He said the key challenges enterprises in Middle East and Africa ( MEA ) face , starts with selecting the right ERP of choice based on their business ( service , supply chain or manufacturing base , etc ).
“ Moving ahead the implementation phase has its own challenges . At times skill and talent shortage gap within the organisation does not support such a transition . In fact , this gap impacts every facet of the business and requires the ability to comprehend new ways of working supported by the ERP .
“ In addition , many times even the consulting and systems integration local capabilities are scarce and require the entire ecosystem ( OEMs , partners , customers , higher education institutions ) to work together in a public-private model . This will enable implementing organisation to build an ERP curriculum that allows young professionals as well as laterals to be trained on ERP and to support the various deployments , current and future ,” he said .
Looking ahead , Botha said that although there is good progress being made in the ERP space , the lack of skills is a major issue , particularly when trying to move on premises ERP systems that have significant custom coding , to a cloud environment . This requires a unique set of skills which not all organisations have .
Tech Mahindra ’ s Ramachandran cited inadequate financial budget and resources , failure to select committees needed for the successful implementation of ERP , and failure to use knowledgeable consultants as some of the major challenges identified in implementing ERP systems in MEA organisations .
“ Also , factors like government ICT policy , inadequate training , lack of technical and process knowledge , lack of knowledge on management and project initiatives , and lack of change management can be major reasons to cause the failure of ERP implementations especially in Africa ,” he said . p
Gustav Botha , SAP Practice Lead for SoftwareONE , UK , Ireland and South Africa , SAP
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