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Business Transformation

2023 trends for international ERP  

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

So many exciting innovations are happening in the field of ERP. Solutions become smarter, faster, and more user-friendly, and adoption is increasing. Great technological innovation is not the driver, though. More than ever, companies focus on building resiliency. The pandemic, global crises, and the lack of talent have challenged the world of business more than anything during the past years.   

To build resiliency, businesses must have outstanding operational efficiency, flexibility, and reduced complexity in all processes. Therefore, ERP plays an even more important role than ever.  

Based on our experience as leaders in international ERP project management as well as the experience from our extensive global partner network, we have summed up what international ERP trends you should look out for in 2023. How can your international company become more resilient and prepare for more growth? And what internal and external challenges should you be aware of?  

1. Advisory before the journey begins 

First of all, international companies increasingly need advice on their entire digital journey. ERP is a very important part of digital transformation, but the journey involves more steps – before and after implementation. Much focus is on processes, systems, and technologies. But what matters just as much is digital maturity assessments, management, and governance.  

Any international company must have an overview of the soft spots and prepare the organization for change – before actually changing it. Digital maturity assessment, readiness assessment, and scoping and roadmaps are tangible tools with which companies can handle intangible factors. What is important is to find a partner who can manage, support, and inspire every step at the way as well as design the right solution, implement it and roll out globally.  

2. The human perspective of ERP 

One of the greatest barriers to successful ERP is not technology; it’s the culture within the organization and lack of communication. Therefore, company leaders should focus even more on the human perspective in large transformations, ensuring buy-in from the receiving organization, user involvement, and user training.  

More and more companies do a readiness assessment before kick-off. If employees don’t understand the changes, don’t get motivated by changes, or don’t agree with changes, it’s most likely an expression of lack of readiness, rather than obstinacy. Also, it’s important to align the strategic goals of the ERP project with each local organization. Never underestimate the influence of local culture and customs in each country. All aspects must be considered and acted upon. 

 3. ERP migration to cloud 

Organizations still using on-premises ERP are starting to feel left behind. On-premises ERP requires expensive hardware as well as start-up, maintenance, and upgrade costs. Cloud ERP, on the other hand, offers a more open, flexible, and scalable solution and is becoming more popular, especially for small and medium-sized international organizations.  
 

Cloud solutions are modular-based and comes in many shapes. 100% cloud may not be the optimal solution for your organization. Hybrid cloud ERP solutions (combining on-premises and cloud) are ideal for organizations that have an established on-premises ERP solution as it allows them to add newer cloud solutions and functionality without changing their current system. With SaaS ERP solutions, organizations increase scalability and flexibility, only pay for the modules they use, allowing them to have tighter control of their budget. Also, it frees up IT resources.  

4. Mobile ERP applications 

Mobile ERP applications became hugely popular during the global lockdown. This functionality allows employees to work outside of regular working hours to perform business operations anytime and anywhere which is ideal for international organizations.  

Mobile access enables employees to capture real-time data straight from the field and ensures accessibility for everyone in the organization. It can accelerate business processes, increase productivity, and save time, effort, and costs. With improved communication it allows for quick decision-making, better workflow, and enhanced efficiency.  

5. Best of breed ERP 

Overall, ERP systems are moving away from silo structures, and companies are asking for deeper functionality for specific industries. They simply want to deliver better user experiences without having to upgrade the entire system. Therefore, more and more companies move from suite solutions to best of breed solutions, minimizing the core system and adding the modules that create most value for their business.   

6. Data-driven ERP 

Data is still king, and ERP will continue to evolve into data-driven platforms that emphasize insights rather than just reporting. Intelligent access to data, faster analysis of data, and much better insight into data should be top of mind with any business leader.  

AI technologies, such as machine learning, are helping international organizations process data, so it can quickly be transformed into actionable insights to help with smarter decision-making. These technologies tend to provide a tremendous impact at very little cost.  

When IoT is integrated with ERP, the benefits are clear, too. It’s possible to gather, store, and process large amounts of data gathered from sensors allowing organizations to analyze key metrics and uncover more about the device’s capabilities. Organizations are demanding more advanced asset management capabilities, real-time insights, and improved forecasting and interoperability.  

 Want to know more? 

At Pipol, we understand the importance of keeping up to date on the above trends, and together with our global partner network we can help international companies benefit the most from their entire digital journey and ERP investment. In 2022 we worked with 97 partners in 45 countries.  

Contact us if you want to know more. 

Download our ebook “5 Steps Guide to International ERP” and learn more about the steps to having a sucessful International ERP solution.

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