Making the move to mobile ERP

As businesses weigh up their mobile options, the working world is moving progressively towards more flexible working hours and a workforce that is increasingly needing to access business information remotely. While this is largely being led by field service workers, your sales force, operational staff, marketing and management teams aren’t far behind. This has been driving mobile access across the length and breadth of companies, into their core enterprise business systems.

But what do we actually mean by ‘mobile’ access? While it is a term that is currently being used a lot, mobile software access has in fact been around for decades. Despite often being used interchangeably with ‘cloud’, mobile access should be available via a browser or native app from both on-premise and cloud-hosted software. But it is only quite recently that having mobile access directly into your ERP system or other core business management software has become really viable.

There have been any number of early-adopter scenarios in the mobile ERP app space over the past few years. As with any disruptive technology, we’ve seen a high rate of churn and increasing fragmentation. But what has also evolved has been a raft of valuable learnings as the number of application technologies, devices and platforms continue to explode.

Not without issues

In watching the new business app world evolve, we’ve identified a number of key issues in delivering mobile ERP into this disruptive technology space:

• As a business, the number and range of devices you have to engage with continues to evolve daily and in today’s working world of BYOD (bring your own device) you can’t control what a user will want to access your system with. That means your mobile ERP system has to be ‘agnostic’ and able to be accessed by any relevant device.
• Managing the deployment of the app through online stores can be difficult. You need to make sure that all of the versions you require are available for access, across all the stores, in sync. You don’t want your staff working off different versions of the software based on the device they are using.
• Security remains a big issue, especially with the potential for data being hacked and devices being lost. If your staff members are accessing your core business systems off their own devices, you need to be very sure about device and software security.

Delivering the same experience

There are some very specific issues as well. One-size-fits-all might work in the small end of the mobile-app market, but for most mid-sized companies their ERP software and core business systems have quite a high level of configuration and customisation. That functionality needs to be delivered via the mobile interface as well. This is very difficult for native apps to achieve and any browser-based apps need to be designed to accommodate customisation as well.

As a result, a number of early adopters have been stung with integration issues. Two-way mapping between the app and existing customised business management systems have created a number of major project budget blowouts. While there are some pre-built interfaces now being provided this is still a big issue, particularly if you have to connect into more than one system.

Finally, most of your users are going to want to have mobile access for more than one device. It is quite likely your average field service manager will want mobile access on a laptop, tablet and phone. Not only do you want to avoid paying three different licence fees for one user to access the same software, you want to be sure that you aren’t multiplying any syncing or compatibility issues and creating an even bigger headache than the one you are trying to solve.

Software that is built to last

However, as with any software purchase, it’s not just function you need to think about. Delivering information to the smaller screens on most mobile devices creates a whole new range of issues in terms of how you engage with your business management software.

The multicolumn forms, large tabular displays and dashboard displays that make sense on your desktop seldom translate well to the mobile world. First and foremost, the display needs to be easy to read and easily scrollable with touchscreen control.

Any forms you are using need to be easy to complete — if you are operating off a device with a touchscreen, selecting the fields for data entry and any drop-down options need to be achievable for those that have larger fingers and thumbs. Finding your way around the information should also be just as easy as any other user experience with the software — the menu should be clear and easy to navigate with a comprehensive search function in place.

If you can achieve all of this, the great thing is that you and most of your staff will only need minimal training to get up and running on the mobile version of your business software. So long as the browser-based screens are intuitive and genuinely embrace the terminology and functionality that you experience in using your personal mobile devices, then a lot of the ‘technical’ device training has been done.

No reason to wait

That is just one of the reasons why you shouldn’t wait to embrace having mobile access to your core business systems. At the pace change is happening, there is not going to be a ‘better time’. The sooner you are able to empower your staff remotely and/or in the field with the information they need, in real time, the greater the benefit you’re going to get from your ‘mobile’ investment.

Truly mobile ERP options are available now. The functionality, security and capabilities will continue to evolve as the platforms, technology and devices that support them continue to progress and develop alongside them. Waiting is only going to create a bigger gap.

So long as you can fundamentally achieve the outcomes you are looking for from having mobile access to your software today, then you can bank on deriving incremental benefits as you progressively build your mobile capability in step with the technological developments being made.

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