Unlocking the value of ERP

There's no doubt that an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package is a powerful tool for business and, according to research conducted by Telsyte and released by Epicor Software Corporation, more than 90% of Australian organisations have such a system. Why, then, did the study show that 66% of CIOs believe that less than half of the functionality provided by ERP is being used? Epicor believes this gap is due to the lack of mobility, integration and modernisation, and that businesses are missing out on opportunities as a result.

The Telsyte Australian Enterprise Software Market Study 2015 found that 80% of Australian businesses have staff who are mobile or work remotely, yet less than half support ERP mobility. Additionally, more than 40% of organisations that use dedicated field services management (FSM) applications do not support ERP integration. These seem to be fundamental flaws when you consider that ERP is the core of a business's financial and inventory management.

Epicor has labelled this trend 'the ERP usage gap'. According to Craig Charlton, senior vice president Asia Pacifc for Epicor, "Telsyte's investigation into the challenges Australian organisations have with their existing ERP systems has revealed an unfortunate ERP Usage Gap.

"Simply put, because of factors hampering ERP feature use - including a need for more modern ERP functionality and the relative absence of integrated FSM technology - Australian businesses are experiencing fewer business benefits and less significant productivity gains than they should."

Participating CIOs nominated a range of factors leading to this gap including the inflexibility, high complexity, poor integration capability and substandard user interfaces associated with many ERP packages, as well as an overall misalignment with existing business processes.

According to Telsyte, nearly half (48%) of organisations provide no web-based or mobile device access to an ERP system and only 8% permit access via a notebook client application.

Telsyte Senior Analyst Rodney Gedda suggests that this is because legacy ERP systems provide no flexibility to adapt to new ways of doing business and that these systems typically employ poor user interfaces.

"A more robust architecture is to combine a mobile app for remote workers with a modern web-based interface for use on the office network," he said. Easier said than done, it seems, as this option has been implemented by only around one in five surveyed Australian organisations - significantly less than the 84% of companies employing mobile and/or remote workers.

In the realm of FSM, three-quarters of surveyed organisations that carry out field services management with an ERP app that supports offline access apparently experience reduced operating expenses and spend less time travelling between jobs.

Charlton says that there is obvious opportunity to realise greater benefit by increasing usage of ERP features and functionality, but argues that it is not just about automating processes in preference to using siloed tools.

"You need to do that, but it's elementary. It's old school. Today's organisations need to look for the kind of modern ERP features that will encourage people to make the most of the user technology: mobility, social collaboration tools, touch-screen technology, an interface that is intuitive and makes sense to your employees, and the flexibility to customise to name a few."

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