ERP Trends: What the top ERP trends to watch in 2011?

ERP trends in 2011 will be shaped by the lingering effects of a poor economy and a general embrace of mobile applications and collaboration tools.

The economy has been in hibernation for a few years now, and although there are some signs of improvement and growth, businesses will continue to be conservative with IT expenditures and that includes ERP systems. Tight budgets will lead to laser-focused expectations of feature requirements and implementation timelines.

Those looking for new systems will consider slower implementations times at department level rather than engaging in sweeping changes for the entire enterprise at once. Products that are foundational and scalable will have an edge over ones that provide an all-or-nothing approach.

Enterprise Mobility will appeal to those making first-time selections as well as those looking to extend their existing ERP solutions. Mobile offerings that access and extend enterprise data are no longer toys or novelties. They will be seen as requirements for providing true value to an increasingly distributed enterprise.

Collaboration tools will gain momentum in ERP offerings in 2011. Vendors need to come to the table with an understanding of how tightly-intergrated collaboration tools can provide measurable value to users within the enterprise as well as those the enterprise serves.

- Web based - Software-as-a-Service (SAAS) ERPs will become more mature as web technology with the advancement of HTML5, will change the way we look at web.

- More (almost) vendors will push cloud (another name for SAAS) and will launch products in this space.

- Software costs will come down by a big margin.

The exciting 2011 ERP trend we see more of our clients embracing is what I'll call 'Collaborative ERP'. In short, this is mashing traditional ERP capabilites with other collaborative tools to increase information worker productivity. A great example of this is using Microsoft Office Communicator embedded and enabled applications to access information stored in an ERP solution. This builds on and extends other familiar collaborative tools like Outlook, Word, Excel and SharePoint integrated with ERP for structured and unstructured transactional and BI centric information access and presentation. All in real-time and all with a compelling ROI given many of the tools are essentially free/sunk costs.

1) In 2011, ERP vendor consolidation and executive-level shuffles will likely continue. ERP buyers would be well advised to think about how a restructuring could affect the software they’re looking to buy. They would want to satisfy themselves that the vendor will continue to maintain, support and develop the software that is in their sights.

2) In contrast to the last two years, companies will likely have greater success in their ERP maintenance and support contract negotiations. Greater cost scrutiny, third-party maintenance alternatives and increasing vendor competition will all conspire to the benefit of the ERP consumer.

3) Companies implementing ERP will learn from the ERP failures of 2010. There will be a renewed focus on internal project management. More and more companies will ensure that their complex implementation projects are broken down into small, manageable and actionable deliverables.

4) With respect to implementation services contracts, pay-for-performance will come back into vogue. We will see increasing numbers of companies tying payment obligations to the successful completion of project milestones.

5) Companies will increasingly look to ERP to help them get more out of geographically dispersed and mobile workforces. ERP modules that enable social collaboration, mobility, real-time analytics and document management will be in high demand.

1. SaaS and Cloud computing continue getting bigger and making more of an impact on the ERP space. Small and midsized businesses are increasingly moving to the cloud as their preferred method to run their business and now larger enterprises are implementing cloud technologies to manage subsidiaries and international divisions and departments of their companies.

2. The definition of ERP is expanded to included CRM and sales, marketing, and service processes.

3. Ecommerce is increasingly coming in to scope as an ERP function for both B2B and B2C processes, whether its processing orders or providing web-based self-service.

1. Process and ERP Optimization, Workflow automation, Reporting, GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance), EAI Consolidation and Interfaces

2. Mobile Applications and Technologies (Real time apps, Bluetooth 3/4, B2C apps, app stores, multimegabit wireless broadband, Machine-to-Machine/M2M applications)

3. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Packaged or Commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) solutions in conjunction with SaaS/Cloud models

4. Product Data Management/Product Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM) Solutions for Engineering, R&D, and NPI/NPD processes with CAD and ERP interfaces

5. Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Reporting (Cognos 10, SAP Business Objects/Crystal, Oracle BI/OBIEE, MicroStrategy 9, Qlikview, Tableau, BOARD)

6. IT Service Management (ITSM) and ITIL – Self-Service, IT Request Management, Incident/Problem Management, Configuration Management Database (CMDB), and Change Management

7. Upgrades/Archiving: Desktop/Server Upgrades and E-Mail-, DBs-, and Document- Archiving

8. Desktop-, Server-, and Application- Virtualization, SOA, Cloud Computing

9. Enterprise Collaboration platforms, Enterprise Content Management (ECM) in conjunction with Document Management systems (DMS)

10. New emerging Microsoft technologies: SharePoint 2010, MS Office 2010, Windows 7 Upgrades, and MicroStrategy Software

Top Trends in 2011:

1) Businesses will face constant change in compliance, regulation, competitors, product lines, margins, etc.

2) Suppliers, employees and customers will continue to try and collaborate to increase financial performance of all participants.

3) Economies will be flat, shrink or grow; sometimes at the same time in different geographies, continents and market segments.

4) Governments of the world will make it more difficult to work across, as well as within, borders; adjusting currency, tax policy and regulations that impact a company and its supply chain

5) Business will be able to overcome all of the preceding 4 trends by focusing on their Operations ability to adapt new process, data and technology requirements without breaking stride or modifying, integrating or replacing their ERP/Best of Breed applications.

Top ERP trends for 2011:

1. New Competitive Entrants: Expect to see some new players in the ERP space in the US, especially at the SMB and middle market tiers. While the domestic playing field in the US has undergone significant consolidation over the past decade, I expect to see some new players entering the space from overseas, with a particular focus on Indian firms entering the US market. Unlike previous attempts at cracking the US market, these companies will be offering very flexible ERP application frameworks that will present a challenging competitive threat to current ERP vendors and a compelling alternative for ERP buyers.

2. It's all about the cloud: ERP buyers will be looking to safely and securely ditch their ERP infrastructures and move them into the cloud. The key words here are "safely" and "securely". Internal IT and capital spending on traditional ERP areas will focus on those differentiating factors that drive business value -- and these will likely not move to the cloud. Other commoditized business processes will likely be eligible for replacement by cloud based point solutions or suites.

3. Disruptive Forces: I expect that before the end of 2011, we will start to hear about new technology offerings that will compete at the fringe of the traditional ERP space. You can look now in the EMR space and find interesting companies like PracticeFusion that are offering enterprise quality solutions for medical practices in a radical new way. Look for low or no cost solutions built to address some of the more standardized and mundane business practices to emerge and nibble away at the current ERP vendors solutions sets.

4. Increased ERP demand in small and mid-size firms, while reduced demand for ERP at large technologically mature firms: Small and mid-size firms will continue to benefit from increased vendor competition in the SMB and middle market tiers, and will still value the stability of ERP as an operating platform for their business. These firms will likely see price stability or even a lowering of prices for ERP software and services through 2011. At larger firms with considerable experience and mature ERP installations, the attention will shift to decoupling their integrated ERP solution in order to address those areas where they can gain more business value than what a relatively homogeneous ERP solution can support. Attention within these firms will be focused on system integration, and process orchestration across different systems including ERP and point solutions.

SAP is introducing the new Duet Enterprise to finally bring SAP to the casual user desktop via Microsoft SharePoint. It will provide greater (easier) acess to SAP directly on and offline.
Applications like ESS and MSS Employee Self Service and Manaagement Self Service for HR and Mobile application. As well as Schedule change and Supplier Notifications along the supply chain will dramaticallyt improve Supply chain visibility and drive savings for manufacturers.
Another application for Duet will be CSRs will be able to drill into SAP easily and work in a collaborative environment with contract terms and approvals all via SharePoint reducing the costs and complexity of getting orders out more effectively.

A lot of great answers posted so far which indicates just how versatile and customizable ERP solutions must be in order to gain the attention from top to bottom in today's volatile market system. A great system to analyze is the Architectural Resourcing System the Department of Defense is currently putting in place; while obviously few businesses would try to model on such a grandiose scale, the ideology should be the same. Collaboration and interaction of the interactive systems to achieve overall savings is the key.

A lot of great answers posted so far which indicates just how versatile and customizable ERP solutions must be in order to gain the attention from top to bottom in today's volatile market system. A great system to analyze is the Architectural Resourcing System the Department of Defense is currently putting in place; while obviously few businesses would try to model on such a grandiose scale, the ideology should be the same. Collaboration and interaction of the interactive systems to achieve overall savings is the key.

I have been associated with the Data Processing business since
1963. From programmer, systems analyst, salesman, project leader, President and Company Owner. Still enjoying it at age 69. Projects include punched cards for the USAF KC 135's, and B52's to Complete conversion to SAP and a data warehouse with a 100 person team.

The same problems exist today that were in place when we had punched cards and the IBM RAMAC, used by the USMC in Albany Georgia and Grants Department Stores (out of business now).
There are a hand full of people in any given company who really understand the business model of that company. When you locate those few and combine them with someone who has the following attributes, then you have a successful project.

Understands that all files and storage systems begin with a flat file and a machine code. All systems are just different levels of complexity. Someone who understands UNIX, IBM Mainframe, Windows, HTML, Oracle, (others such as AS400etc.) and has successfully interfaced with business managers. These types of indiduals are few and far between.

When you have the correct platform, i.e. Oracle with a large server, the correct business owners, and the qualified consultants you will have a successful project.

The cost of the project is not so much important as the results. The results depend on buy in from the input clerk to all who effected, especially the managers or senior managers of a company.

Another aspect is the manner in which a manager or business owner will act on the knowledge gained by such systems as an ERP system.

I have programmed business machines and computers by filing off metal inserts, using machine neumonic codes, pseudo codes, object oreinted programming, HTML (etc) and all of them start out with a flat file and a machine code.

None of the above matters, in the end. The only thing that matters is how well a company or Government agency uses the information that is provided by such a system.