Bruce Turvey, Change Logic

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) isn’t sexy enough. This is how the Register describes a technology that has a long history of being slow, sluggish and complex even though it has modernised and evolved to the point where the capabilities it offers are indispensable. An ERP system integrates and manages core business processes across an organisation in real-time – including finance, HR, manufacturing, supply chain, services, procurement, and analytics – while acting as a single source of truth by collecting, storing, and enabling access to data from all departments. SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics dominate the enterprise ERP market, while mid-market players like Sage, IFS, and NetSuite (owned by Oracle) maintain significant market share, with emerging cloud-native providers like Workday increasingly challenging the traditional vendors’ positions.

Modern ERP, says Forrester, means an adaptive, AI-based platform that streamlines product development, processes and experiences. These new, modular ERP solutions are secure, resilient and rich with data and the capabilities of AI. They’re also easier to integrate, manage, update and customise. ERP systems are also being revised by cloud computing, which enables organisations to shift from on-premises solutions to more flexible and scalable Software-as-a-Service models, which improve the organisation’s ability to enjoy real-time collaboration, automated updates, and enhanced mobile accessibility across the enterprise.