A report into the future of ERP Part 3 of 3: What’s sERP (social ERP)

Niche Reports for our Niche Clients

Reminder ..

Social ERP: What is it?

Companies across the world find it hard to merge demand from their (social) customer relationship management systems with the needs and the advance notice required by their supply chain partners (distributors, suppliers, procurement) in order to produce these goods on-time and on-budget. With all of this recent talk about sCRM (social customer relationship management), it only makes sense that a conversation about sERP (social enterprise resource planning) should begin. If customer relationship management (CRM) represents the front-of-house business functions (sales, marketing, customer service), then enterprise resource planning (ERP) generally represents the back-of-house functions like manufacturing, supply chain management, financials, project management, HR and data services.

It doesn't really seem possible, to me, to socialize one without the other .. So how can brands get the customer from Facebook to Safeway? Brands need to be able to acquire the social customer, track their data, monetize that customer, and prove the results at retail and through the supply chain. Social enterprise resource planning (sERP) differs from plain-old-regular enterprise resource planning in a few key ways: Social Data: Customer data will be shared (or “socialized”) throughout the supply chain depending on whatever level of

privacy the customer has opted into (or out of)

Real-time access and real-time sCRM: These new social ERP systems will be largely web-based and will not only give suppliers and customers access to live data, but will disclose limited portions of the brand's social customer relationship management data

Trust/believability metrics: Supply chain partners will get more accurate data because there will be a layer of social metadata on top of enterprise resource planning to account for trust and believability in business relationships (i.e. “Is this sales projection coming from a trustworthy salesperson?”)

Cloud computing’s economic advantages are re-ordering ERP strategies globally

Companies aren’t just relying on Operating Expense (OPEX) reductions anymore to drive their SaaS initiatives; many are indexing financial performance in selling and service strategies including sales force automation (SFA), CRM and Service Lifecycle Management (SLM).

The accelerating depth of insight analytics and Big Data are capable of delivering, combined with social media and mobility, and are changing the nature of the customer experience daily

The diagram below points out the part of social media and mobility such as seen by Dr. Vishal Sikka Sikka - CTO of SAP AG

* Two-tier ERP is going to accelerate in both the Microsoft and SAP customer bases as their most profitable customers invest in new markets globally. * There is a need for better alignment between the needs of diverse business models and IT systems as another catalyst of two-tier ERP growth. * The difficulty of making a monolithic ERP system scale for the specific compliance and reporting needs in China was one of the primary factors that drove the development of advanced SaaS-based ERP internally. With greater compliance requirements comes great accounting and financial reporting as well, especially in China.

The most disruptive change is occurring in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) strategies of companies that are expanding into high-growth global markets including BRIC (Brazil,

Russia, India and China).

Where do things move most ?

Latest studies show that .. The ability to integrate with external social media tools on the public internet does not weigh heavily

on the selection process for ERP. However the adoption of social media functions to include collaborative and communication capabilities is viewed with importance but is not seen as a major influencer. There are two primary benefits of social functionality embedded in ERP:

o to streamline and communicate within the enterprise and secondly o to document business processes to support lean initiatives.

Manufacturing executives are optimistic about the potential benefits of social functionally embedded in ERP and realize that there could be great value if their ERP application includes features that mirror the functionality of online social networking tools. Increasing communication in the enterprise and the ability to capture the tacit knowledge of senior employees are the most frequently reported benefits.

Percent Rating Extremely/Very Important in Coming Years

Future Outlook for ERP with Social Media Tools

Potential value/use in collaborative/social functionality embedded in ERP

Most respondents see value in enterprise 2.0/social media functionality within ERP

The benefits of integrating social media sites with ERP had largely to do with retail marketing and reputation management.

How integration of ERP with online social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. can be used.

*Data above is outcome of a research conducted collaboratively with Affinity Research Solutions and IFS North America, the Americas subsidiary of a provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) and other enterprise solutions. In total, 325 corporate, operations, and IT executives and managers in manufacturing companies participated in this study.

http://www.foodmanufacturing.com/articles/2011/01/marrying-erp-and-social-media

A different survey of 268 manufacturers, 63% of respondents said that enterprise resources planning (ERP) software will provide its highest value when integrated with social computing technologies. Users want ERP software to perform the functions of collaborative technologies and social networks.

But why do manufacturers want social technologies in the enterprise? According to Manufacturing Business Technology - a trade publication, they want to develop ways to share the knowledge of senior engineers and professionals. Among manufacturers with more than $1 billion in revenue, 72% said they wanted this capability.

Manufacturers are most interested in using data from social networks to capture leads, research competitors and perform business intelligence functions, such as product training. They are also interested in receiving contextual information from similar users at other companies, and troubleshooting.

Facebook in the Factory

Manufacturers are turning out to be the surprise adopters of Enterprise 2.0 technology. In a recent survey done by the 2.0 Adoption Council, manufacturers were some of the most eager

adopters of social technologies.

Reference points : http://socialmediatoday.com/metzmash/105615/social-erp-what-it http://dynamics.cincom.com/2013/06/how-social-media-mobility-and-analytics-are-fueling-two-tier-erp-strategies/ http://www.foodmanufacturing.com/articles/2011/01/marrying-erp-and-social-media http://readwrite.com/2009/12/17/facebook-in-the-factory#awesm=~oH3kNEBljOSQEQ

Of potential interest : http://blog.trginternational.com/trg-in-the-board-room/bid/195517/Social-ERP-as-the-new-manufacturer-essential-in-2014#.U5q4GrEVf5w

Niche solutions to niche challenges

At Niche we try to bring extra value to our customers and believe that sharing our specialist

market research reports could bring this added value to your business.

Please share your feedback on the report and feel free to forward it to anyone who might find it

interesting.

This is a quick reminder to say we are here for you in case you need our support or expertise, we

thought this is a better way to touch base instead of using the classic sales approach of “Hey do

you have any needs..?”.

On the other hand we understand that you might prefer limiting the number of e-mails or calls

you receive, so if this is the case please let us know, we will take your request into consideration.

Niche solutions to niche challenges

www.nicheitrecruitment.com | ali@nicheitrecruitment.com

Office +971 442 736 32 Mobile +971 529 259 002

London, Dubai, Sao Paulo

Jumeirah Bay X2 Tower, X Cluster, level 3, JLT, Dubai, UAE

Ali El Jishi

Partner & Senior Account Manager