The world in 2014 - ERP business and technology predictions. UNIT4 experts reveal what they expect will be the big trends in ERP in the next 12 months, including Cloud, SAP, Oracle, big data, business analytics, social and much more.

1. The World in 2014
ERP Predictions From UNIT4

2. 1. Modern ERP in demand

3. As many IT systems approach their 20th
anniversaries, software that has been designed
to deal with the complexities of the modern
world will become more important than ever.
Combined with the withdrawal of vendor
support for a range of older products,
organisations which use these systems will be
at a serious competitive disadvantage.

4. 2.
Heavyweights to continue to struggle
SAP and Oracle made the headlines in 2013 for a
series of failed and high-profile implementations
“Avon pulls the plug on a $125 million four-year SAP software
after burdensome and disruptive software drove away many of
the salespeople who fuel the company's revenue.” Wall Street
Journal, December 11 2013
“SAP has been slapped with a lawsuit by over a payroll software
implementation that cost taxpayers vast sums, but has never
worked. After three years, and paying $50m all there is to show
is a system that could not get the payroll right once over an
eight-month period for a pilot group of only 1,500 employees.”
Info World Applications, November 25, 2013

5. “Npower has admitted its customer accounts are in disarray after it
moved to a new SAP IT system. The news comes just two weeks after
the company announced large job cuts and contracts to outsource its
backend systems.” Computer World, December 12, 2013
“The West Australian Government’s decision to decommission its
Shared Services business, based on Oracle’s eBusiness ERP platform,
will cost $95 million this financial year, and around $370 million
overall, according to budget forecasts.” IT News, August 12, 2013
“SAP has been slapped with a lawsuit by over a payroll software
implementation that cost taxpayers vast sums, but has never worked.
After three years, and paying $50m all there is to show is a system that
could not get the payroll right once over an eight-month period for a
pilot group of only 1,500 employees.” Info World Applications,
November 25, 2013

6. The market wants software suppliers to be focused on
satisfying customer needs and with solutions that
work in today’s fast changing, uncertain world.
With the traditional heavyweights struggling to
implement major deals, especially in cloud and shared
services, we don’t expect the market will get any
easier for SAP and Oracle.

7. 3.
Standardisation not customisation
One of the factors behind these spectacular and costly
failures was the inability of the ERP solution to cope with
change. Eval-Source research found that the traditional
heavyweights can’t support system changes without
complex code changes.

8. • System customisations can and do kill ERP projects.
• This is a particular issue in shared service
environments where stakeholders’ needs can vary
hugely.
• Standardised systems with changes made by simple
configuration and not complex code rewrites will
become increasingly prevalent in 2014 and beyond.

9. 4.
Mushrooming cloud
Cloud-based technology will continue to make inroads
and uptake will grow rapidly in 2014.
Public and hybrid clouds will grow in popularity as
mature and capable service providers – such as the
NGD Centre below – enable true cost efficiencies.

10. Growth will be driven by demand for:
• Unique, individual databases with no shared data
• The ability to move to, from and between clouds
• Customer not vendor-driven upgrade schedules
• Disaster forgiveness and complete ERP functionality

11. 5. ERP that can leverage big data
ERP systems capable of integrating
and processing large volumes of
data and data sources will allow
organisations to leverage existing
systems to gain valuable insight.
This will unlock better, real-time
decision making.

12. 6.
Business intelligence and analytics
Capgemini research revealed the lack of business analysis
and modelling that supply chain managers see in their
organisations and the opportunity this presents.

13. By deploying analytics and reporting outside ERP,
new services can be integrated into reporting
strategies alongside ERP data.
This integration can easily be used to develop a
comprehensive reporting strategy that also includes
the ERP data, where relevant.

14. 7.
Leveraging mobile devices
“Corporate workers are increasingly demanding the business
apps they use be as intuitive and user-friendly as the consumer
apps they rely upon in their personal life.” The Technology
Evaluation Center, December 16, 2013
ERP will increasingly be a central data repository focused on
data security and agnostic to the devices used to access it.
This will cut technical admin costs and provide the ability to
add specialist solutions to be accessed by the mobile front-end.

15. 8.
Social hits the mainstream
The market is rapidly waking up to the power of creating
collaborative, engaged communities that connect workforces,
customers, suppliers and partners.
2014 will see significant developments in this area.

16. By deploying analytics and reporting outside ERP,
new services can be integrated into reporting
strategies alongside ERP data.
This integration can easily be used to develop a
comprehensive reporting strategy that also includes
the ERP data, where relevant.

17. Thank you for taking the time to check
out our predictions for 2014 in ERP.
If you’d like to find out about our
predictions in more depth take a look
at our blog on The World in 2014.