sales and procurement; then by adding workflow and reporting and finally by refactoring plat forms for bet ter integration. Throughout this evolution, the underlying problem has remained the same: allowing large, complicated organisations to profit from standardised business processes and standardised data.
But organisations are still able to tap ERP applications to transform processes with reduced risk – at a lower cost and at a quicker pace. Configuration has become simpler through tool and method improvements. Functionality that once required customisation is now built into core products. And projects can now involve more concurrent activity. In fact, the traditional ERP players continue to expand the boundaries of the problems they help businesses solve – moving into information automation, mobility and collaboration arenas. Beyond all that, the fact remains that legacy ERP investments are still trusted by executives.
Disruptive Deployments
In 2010, many organisations began to see information automation outweigh business process automation as their highest priority area. In the rest economy, analytics offered improved
visibility to drive operational efficiencies, as well as a platform for growth by addressing heart- of-the-business questions that could guide decisions, yield new insights and help predict what’s next. It seemed like a no-brainer. But companies quickly discovered that the journey is complicated – requiring a clear analytics vision aligned to the business strategy, several layers of supporting capabilities and the fortitude to embed analytical thinking across mul t iple faces of the organisation. In 2011, leading organisations are launching brad initiatives with executive-level sponsorship, ready and eager to achieve their vision via real analytics.
Data volumes continue to explode, doubling
every 14 months. New signals are evolving that contain crucial information about companies and markets – including sensor-laden assets, unstructured internal data and external sentiments shared via social computing.
The crunchy questions haunting the business required a combination of hindsight, foresight and insight. By investing in a balance of information management, performance management and advanced analytics, organisations can make small steps, smartly made to capture measurable results. These can span from improving fragmented customer relationships by analysing omni-channel interactions to providing an integrated enterprise view of risk and finance. This is the essence of real analytics: delivering business value through the continuous build-out of core information disciplines.
Social Computing – not just media, collaboration or social networking – is a new fundamental for enterprise IT. Today, the voice of the Internet masses is emerging as a source of consumer sentiment, often trumping corporate- controlled messaging delivered through stores, sales personnel and other traditional channels. Employees are finding better ways to get their jobs done – including tapping experienced people not on the payroll, often through consumer-focused technologies While this may be alarming for many executives, the new world of transparency, knowledge flows and democratised opinion- making is rife with opportunities.
Social computing is the embodiment of these concepts, built on platforms that enable ‘tribes’ to communicate, collaborate and conduct business. Tribes are collections of interested or affected stakeholders, formed around shared passions, pains or common traits. The ability to monitor and even participate in their discussions is now common for businesses large and small.
Photo © Hannelie Coetzee
www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com
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