“Smaller companies that may not have had ERP in place are realizing that they will be left in the dust if they don’t get onboard with modern ERP systems”, comments Manufacturing and Supply Chain Expert, Lisa Anderson, MBA, CSCP, CLTD, president of LMA Consulting Group Inc. Cloud, AI and mobility take hold, as enterprises seek improved integration, democratization of application development and a greater emphasis on customer experience.
Between the COVID-19 global pandemic and the subsequent economic upheaval, 2020 was a year when many enterprises were just lucky to survive. As we look ahead to 2021, the vaccine rollout promises an eventual return to normalcy. But organizations aren’t simply looking to get back to where things were; they are determined to re-invent their business models, revamp their processes and transform their organizations from top to bottom.
The disruption of traditional supply chains, the sudden and in many cases permanent migration of employees to home offices, the dramatic shift from in-store to online sales, and the requirement that companies deliver goods to the customer’s doorstep in a safe, contactless manner have elevated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems from the back office to the front lines of that digital transformation effort.
Here are the top 7 ERP trends that we see happening in 2021.
Cloud migrations on the rise
Yes, moving a massive, monolithic ERP suite to the cloud is about as popular as getting a root canal. But it can’t be avoided. “On-prem-only will no longer work,” says Michael Larner, principal analyst at ABI Research. “Nowadays, there’s an acceptance that cloud platforms should and will become the norm.” On the vendor side, traditional ERP vendors that might have initially viewed the cloud skeptically have fully embraced the merits of cloud-based platforms and are pushing their customers to migrate, he adds. Cloud delivers speed, agility, resilience and innovation, all critical factors as companies battle to improve their competitive positions going forward.