2017/11/20 15:04:25

Evolution of ERP systems

TAdviser learned from participants of the domestic market of ERP systems what important innovations receive solutions of this class and what developers aim at. Article is included into the overview of TAdviser "The Russian market of ERP 2017"

Content

2017
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2017

Clear interfaces

ERP systems continue to develop and have new opportunities. However, expansion of functionality should not affect users therefore developers try to simplify and make as much as possible more convenient interfaces of systems negatively.

Developers now considerably change the interface and the modes of work with systems — users need a convenient system which could be used not only from workstations at office, but also on mobile devices "in fields", – Ivan Fyodorov, the director of the department of ERP Corus Consulting Group tells.

Artem Padeysky, the director of strategic marketing of Prof-IT Group also agrees with it:

Development of ERP systems towards "intuitive interface" with which it is convenient to work on mobile "gadgets" continues, - he says.

Andrey Li, the director of the department of personnel management systems of I-Teco company, lists examples of the functions increasing convenience of the user interface: the clever assistant, predictive input, the adaptive and unified design under any types of devices. Besides, according to him, the ERP software products and services of self-service of employees even more often supplement with the functions promoting to increase the involvement of employees into processes of the company: corporate and social networks, gamification, chats, etc.

Roman Konovalov, the CEO of ID-Management Technologies, notes that the concept of self-service of systems is more and more demanded by the market.

For the modern, completely automated business it is crucial to involve in work of employees on all sections of the enterprise, both regular, and "field". Therefore it is necessary to provide, first, the simple interface for work of unprepared users with an information system (for example, by means of drag-and-drop of the interface and data visualization), and secondly – to ensure data security, to differentiate access to them in an information system depending on the employee's position in the company, - he says.

Cloud readiness

ERP systems become available to deployment in a private and public cloud.

As Yury Vostrikov notes, the commercial director of NORBIT, new versions are developed taking into account deployment in clouds, special environments for their development are created, besides industry settings which were absent in basic functionality of a system are added.

Ivan Fyodorov from Corus Consulting, adds that in addition to release of cloud versions of the main ERP systems which are specially "ground" under such format, many vendors offer the cloud resources that is very convenient in terms of uniform point of entry and support.

Intellectual functions

All ERP systems which want to remain in a trend and to be in demand, develop functions of more intellectual direction of forecasting and the analysis.

So, Roman Dzvinko, the chief executive "SPC of Businessavtomatik, notes that his company sees the development in implementing in the ERP solutions technologies using neural networks, i.e. to create systems using artificial intelligence which would allow customers to predict the requirements, to optimize technology processes, to prevent plunders, to reveal violations of technology processes, to offer optimization technology and business processes and also could signal about changes in that structure of ERP-of the solution which can be.

For example, our AIS "Vizari" is already now used by the state corporations for identification of unreasonable purchases, search of different seasonal components and their forecasting and also accounting of different technology components, work-related personnel, - the expert "adds SPC of Businessavtomatik.

Internet of Things

One more important direction in which developments are conducted it is Internet of Things. Thanks to this technology the set of the additional devices connected to the Internet can be automatically sent to the ERP system.

Such approach with supply chain management, operation with partners, capacity of devices and other areas from the uniform center allows the companies to control all processes at absolutely other level. At the same time, businesses practically in any industry will be able to take out for themselves advantage from such systems, - Natalya Semichastnova, the deputy CEO of Corus Consulting Group and the director of the department of SAP considers.

Machine algorithms

A number of experts predicts that further technology development of ERP systems will be connected with development and deployment of the solutions allowing to transfer a number of processes or functions, classical for ERP, to completely machine algorithms

Such processes will be executed or in general without participation of the person, or with his minimum participation. Technological capabilities of the same SAP HANA platform already quite allow to implement similar solutions, - Semyon Danilov, the director of the department of corporate solutions of IBS believes.

In-memory calculations

Interesting technology trends in development of ERP are shown by the world leader of this market – SAP company. As Semyon Danilov from IBS notes, their ERP system of the last generation of S/4HANA is implemented based on high-performance in-memory of the SAP HANA platform. It allowed to increase repeatedly performance of analytical and calculation tasks, up to a possibility of the solution of such tasks in real time.

Alexander Niznik, the CEO of Novardis, adds that technology revolution on transition to in-memory calculations gives the chance to implement online of the solution for such business challenges which it is earlier traditional for the technology reasons were background.

For example, in the field of omnichannel sales it is online remaining balance and also calculation of MRP (Material Requirements Planning) — i.e. cost minimization, connected with warehouse stocks, - Alexander Niznik adds.

Industry solutions

More and more market participants propose niche industry solutions.

Roman Konovalov, the CEO of ID-Management Technologies, notices similar innovations in ERP from SAP.

For example, in the new version of the SAP S/4HANA ERP system functions for management of merchandising in retail trade (Retail Merchandise Management) are improved and also functions which solve problems of the mining, grain processing industry are developed, - he tells.

According to him, industry specialization of ERP solutions will develop as ready-made products which already consider special standards, requirements, features of regulation of the specific industries are interesting to customers.

Following to world IT trends

Participants of the Russian market note that the directions of development of ERP systems in general match the trends, general for IT market.

Development of ERP systems is directly connected with world technology trends: BigData, IIoT, artificial intelligence, blockchain and others, - Sergey Petrov, the board member of Galaktika corporation says.

The built-in analytics, omnichannel support, integration with cloud services on the basis of machine learning (Machine Learning) and data analysis (Data Mining, Big Data), mobile applications, - gives examples of innovations for ERP systems Denis Kosenkov, the vice president for consulting of Columbus Russia & CIS company.

The following technologies have the greatest impact on ERP: Big Data and cloud computing, Internet of Things and predictive analytics, mobile communications and social interaction. ERP should be scalable, convenient for sharing both for ten, and for several hundred employees worldwide, - Ekaterina Voropayeva, the president of Maykor-GMCS considers.