CEO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
2022-02-01T23:34:07Z
Feb 1, 2022
The use of AI/ML is still in its infancy or not at all taken off in the SMB market.
As tools become more accessible with the use of Low-Code/No-Code and the launch of microservices, things like a really good OCR driven by true AI/ML can really help to digitize the entire footprint for business processes, hence really elevating an ERP system to reach its true value of being a core Digital Transformation pillar.
I feel that this is the next evolution to the whole ERP space for 2022!
CEO/GM at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
2022-01-28T20:13:13Z
Jan 28, 2022
I'm seeing more growth in a loosely coupled approach to extensions of ERP systems. That allows the core ERP to provide a standardized set of functions for Fin/AR/AP/Inv/ but then connect without SDK level development to 3rd party specialty solutions by function and/or industry.
This is allowing more ERPs to move into web-based solutions - using web service connections instead of the more traditional API's. This has been a major migration for many ERPs in the last few years - and it is accelerating.
A couple of trends will continue - fueled by Covid and Cloud.
We were doing a lot of cloud implementations with clients pre-covid, and we had to explain - 'hey, even if the client is in the same town, we'd still work remotely' and still, we had to spend significant time on-site to keep the clients happy. When Covid hit, even that initial 4-day on-site discovery (teambuilding) phase went away.
Post covid, we're seeing more and more companies lose top IT talent by demanding they return to the wasteful trend of hours in the car just to sit in a cubicle instead of doing 12 hours of pure productivity from home. We're seeing more and more talent gobble up gig economy jobs instead of a 9-5 W2 employee assignment.
So with remote work more acceptable, and project-based assignments more costs effective (and sometimes the only option with employees hard to find), ProfitFromERP is doing more remote, outsourced work for clients.
It started with providing System Administrators during implementations - a little added expertise to the internal team during a period of rapid change. The goal was to train up an on-staff Sys Admin by the time ERP goes live, but sometimes it's just easier to stick with the offsite expert. We're also billing out top talent under market value $125-$175 instead of $225-$250. And due to economies of scale, what formerly took maybe 3 hours is now a 45 min job - thus a single resource is providing full-time Sys Admin services to three clients.
Then comes the projects - integrating ERP to different operational tools, configurators, quality systems, WMS, MES, BI, AI, - - - after you've helped a few clients tie these outside systems to ERP - it becomes super cost-effective to help them remotely, dealing with the same team you brought up WMS with last time. What's next? Helpdesk support and basic IT services?
Right now, we're building out a network of resources - all keyed toward working together repeatedly and offering top IT talent home to take an equity stake in their own sustaining practices.
How far will the totally remote, full service outside IT and Software offerings go? As long as it's a better deal for the companies and a better deal for the talent I would believe it's going to grow in 2022 and would expect as much as 50% of the SMB market will outsource technology projects by 2025.
It won't work for everyone - but a significant market is emerging - we had to do it during the covid shutdown and the smart companies realized how productivity jumped under this model - for emerging entrepreneurs who just want the job done today, it's ideal.
One thing that I am seeing is that ERP companies are supplying the "core" system but institutions will need to also look at other vendors to supply other needed functionality.
For instance, an employee application system not being part of the HR/Payroll ERP and needing to use a separate vendor for this. This can be costly to an organization. On top of that, it will require integration with the ERP.
It is very difficult for an organization to move from a "homegrown" system (that does everything) to a cloud-based ERP, no matter what industry.
I'm seeing clients migrate to Cloud-based ERP solutions, specifically with the Gov-Con clientele.
This also involves an infrastructure change to most IT hardware/software systems in parallel. Still, our customers are willing to make these upgrades and migrations based on the 'new workforce,' whereas, before COVID-19, 1 in 67 jobs were remote; today, those numbers are 1 in 7.
I also see clients looking at 3rd party applications versus settling for the vanilla offerings in NetSuite, CostPoint, and SAP. Many great 3rd party applications are feature-rich and plug and play into these ERP solutions. Particularly in the areas of BI, AP Automation, and CRM modules.
We are booked out through Q4 for system implementations and project management, so system transitions are in high demand right now.
The use of AI/ML is still in its infancy or not at all taken off in the SMB market.
As tools become more accessible with the use of Low-Code/No-Code and the launch of microservices, things like a really good OCR driven by true AI/ML can really help to digitize the entire footprint for business processes, hence really elevating an ERP system to reach its true value of being a core Digital Transformation pillar.
I feel that this is the next evolution to the whole ERP space for 2022!
I'm seeing more growth in a loosely coupled approach to extensions of ERP systems. That allows the core ERP to provide a standardized set of functions for Fin/AR/AP/Inv/ but then connect without SDK level development to 3rd party specialty solutions by function and/or industry.
This is allowing more ERPs to move into web-based solutions - using web service connections instead of the more traditional API's. This has been a major migration for many ERPs in the last few years - and it is accelerating.
Where are we going in the ERP world in 2022?
A couple of trends will continue - fueled by Covid and Cloud.
We were doing a lot of cloud implementations with clients pre-covid, and we had to explain - 'hey, even if the client is in the same town, we'd still work remotely' and still, we had to spend significant time on-site to keep the clients happy. When Covid hit, even that initial 4-day on-site discovery (teambuilding) phase went away.
Post covid, we're seeing more and more companies lose top IT talent by demanding they return to the wasteful trend of hours in the car just to sit in a cubicle instead of doing 12 hours of pure productivity from home. We're seeing more and more talent gobble up gig economy jobs instead of a 9-5 W2 employee assignment.
So with remote work more acceptable, and project-based assignments more costs effective (and sometimes the only option with employees hard to find), ProfitFromERP is doing more remote, outsourced work for clients.
It started with providing System Administrators during implementations - a little added expertise to the internal team during a period of rapid change. The goal was to train up an on-staff Sys Admin by the time ERP goes live, but sometimes it's just easier to stick with the offsite expert. We're also billing out top talent under market value $125-$175 instead of $225-$250. And due to economies of scale, what formerly took maybe 3 hours is now a 45 min job - thus a single resource is providing full-time Sys Admin services to three clients.
Then comes the projects - integrating ERP to different operational tools, configurators, quality systems, WMS, MES, BI, AI, - - - after you've helped a few clients tie these outside systems to ERP - it becomes super cost-effective to help them remotely, dealing with the same team you brought up WMS with last time. What's next? Helpdesk support and basic IT services?
Right now, we're building out a network of resources - all keyed toward working together repeatedly and offering top IT talent home to take an equity stake in their own sustaining practices.
How far will the totally remote, full service outside IT and Software offerings go? As long as it's a better deal for the companies and a better deal for the talent I would believe it's going to grow in 2022 and would expect as much as 50% of the SMB market will outsource technology projects by 2025.
It won't work for everyone - but a significant market is emerging - we had to do it during the covid shutdown and the smart companies realized how productivity jumped under this model - for emerging entrepreneurs who just want the job done today, it's ideal.
One thing that I am seeing is that ERP companies are supplying the "core" system but institutions will need to also look at other vendors to supply other needed functionality.
For instance, an employee application system not being part of the HR/Payroll ERP and needing to use a separate vendor for this. This can be costly to an organization. On top of that, it will require integration with the ERP.
It is very difficult for an organization to move from a "homegrown" system (that does everything) to a cloud-based ERP, no matter what industry.
I'm seeing clients migrate to Cloud-based ERP solutions, specifically with the Gov-Con clientele.
This also involves an infrastructure change to most IT hardware/software systems in parallel. Still, our customers are willing to make these upgrades and migrations based on the 'new workforce,' whereas, before COVID-19, 1 in 67 jobs were remote; today, those numbers are 1 in 7.
I also see clients looking at 3rd party applications versus settling for the vanilla offerings in NetSuite, CostPoint, and SAP. Many great 3rd party applications are feature-rich and plug and play into these ERP solutions. Particularly in the areas of BI, AP Automation, and CRM modules.
We are booked out through Q4 for system implementations and project management, so system transitions are in high demand right now.
Hi @Gene Hammons, @ErmanArslan, Oracle ACE, @Veerender Kumar, @Robin Saikat Chatterjee, @Antonio Lira and @Ayman Said,
What are your professional predictions? Can you share them with the PeerSpot community?