Discover why you should put your ERP system at the front and center of the enterprise.
In all likelihood, you are well on your way towards digital transformation. You want to leverage new technologies to meet fluctuating customer demands. And to this end, you have taken your business to the cloud and seek to support an agile and innovative business. But as you advance on your digital transformation journey, are you also enabling your core systems to keep up? They are the backbone of your business, so they should be up to speed. Otherwise, you risk limiting your digital transformation efforts and not reaping all the benefits.
If your core technology is aligned with the pace of the business, you are well on your way to drive innovation and agility in all corners of the organization. To this end, you should consider the journey to the cloud not as a destination in itself, but a point that will unlock future opportunities and cost savings. From there another journey emerges — the journey in the cloud that is set to come with its own advantages as well as challenges.
The key to navigating the journey in the cloud successfully is to focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. They run and integrate key operational processes that drive the organization forward — financials, planning, HR, supply chain, and logistics. This is particularly important as shifting customer demand has increased over the past few years. In fact, 74% of C-suite executives surveyed by Accenture said that they are feeling the pressure of ongoing customer demands.
The Benefits of a Digital ERP
If you put the ERP system at the front and center of the organization, you can easily stay ahead of the pack. Rather than dealing with out-dated systems that impede your growth, a digital ERP can help you keep up with shifting customer demands and drive wide-ranging changes easily.
Let’s explore the advantages of ERPs in more detail:
1. ERP Is the Gateway to Future Intelligence Capabilities
According to a survey conducted among CIOs, 53% reported that they are considering extending their current ERP system using intelligent technology. Admittedly, progress might be slow in this sense, considering that new systems of intelligence are not yet a core capability among most ERPs.
But the promise is bigger than the setbacks. Working with AI, machine learning, and analytics as an integral part of the ERP system surely has its advantages. For example, applying automation to historical financial clearing data enables companies to pair invoices with future payments. In all cases, using intelligent technology is the easiest way to enable and execute ideas that had not been possible before.
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Opting for Microsoft Dynamics 365 can help businesses go beyond traditional ERP applications and unlock the value of AI. In turn, they convert their data into insights and enable better and more informed decisions across the organization. With Dynamics 365 and AI, every stakeholder — from top management to frontline workers — can have access to insightful information that will help them solve problems and make impactful decisions. |
Image credit: Pexels.
2. Adding Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to Your ERP Unlocks Innovation
Every CIO looks to their cloud service provider to bring innovative ideas to the table that create business value through IT and provides a deep industry experience. In fact, leading CIOs combine innovation with the right team and the right implementation plan. That’s why they find and maintain a competitive advantage.
To this end, using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) alongside AI and machine learning can automate a whole new range of activities across the organization. In spite of this promise, just 17% CIOs surveyed by Accenture in the UK are actively using RPA extensively in the business processes. The same survey found that the most common use cases for RPA are customer relationship management, manufacturing resource planning, and HR-related activities.
RPA in Microsoft Dynamics 365 is already unlocking opportunities for organizations using it. Among the top benefits, the most common are the following:
- Free up time from mundane tasks that add little to no value
- Focus with ease on more strategic tasks
- Schedule and trigger events through unattended bots and do high-volume tasks faster
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3. Your ERP Is Key to Fostering Intelligent Customer Engagement
Personalization has always dominated the conversation when it comes to creating great customer experiences. But responding to unique and one-off demands is no longer enough to drive a considerable competitive advantage. Your target audience expects intelligent customer engagement through omnichannel capabilities. This is key in order to understand customer preferences in real time and tailor your capabilities accordingly — across channels and touchpoints.
Businesses can use their ERP systems as drivers in their intelligent customer engagement initiatives in order to keep up with increasing customer demands. Integrating voice assistants or virtual agents within the ERP would be one step in that direction. Doing this successfully will make the difference between leaders and laggards in a certain industry.
With Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can understand your customers like never before. Gain access to real-time customer data and unlock engaging insights that help you glean relevant information from your customers. You will get a single view of your customer base and, in turn, this will help you improve productivity and efficiency and lead to fruitful customer relationships.
Image credit: Unsplash.
What’s Next for ERPs?
The advantages identified in this article reflect that the ERP landscape is constantly evolving and changing at the pace of the business. The reality is that the ERP space is riddled with challenges and opportunities. Seen together, all these benefits can put enterprises on a solid path for growth to deliver new and sustained value.
When it comes to actually reaping these advantages within the organization, two common types of businesses emerge. Those who are using ERPs as a competitive driver in all areas of the enterprise, and those who are using ERPs only for its common applications. As we have seen, adding AI, machine learning, analytics, and RPA along with your existing ERP technology can definitely help businesses see additional value in their operations.
In all cases, ERP applications have to move along — and preferably ahead — of their business aspirations. And considering the common shifts and uncertainties of the business world, maximizing key ERP applications is essential for organizations seeking to unlock long-term growth.
To deliver on this promise, businesses need to be open to collaborate with third parties that have extensive expertise in the ERP space and can help them get started — successfully. Working with a CSP partner is the first step in that direction — they help you save costs, provide customized solutions, and benefit from specialized customer support.
Considering these possibilities, who knows where your business could be in a year’s time? Contact us today, and we’ll be more than happy to discuss your ERP challenges and opportunities. We give you the tools and you deliver more business. It’s time to find out how.
