What’s changing in the landscape of ERP

Just as the software and technology industry is always changing, so too is the world of ERPs. Recent developments in IT have helped make obsolete the monolithic legacy ERPs of the past and have pushed the focus towards digital transformation, mobility, and agility.

Here at Reflex, we emphasize the fact that we offer a postmodern ERP. Rather than a one-size-fits-all monolithic solution, our software offers modular agility so that clients can select the functionality that best fits the needs of their company. The fact that we rewrote our ERP software from scratch in recent years is the main reason we can offer a leading-edge solution.

We’re not alone in transforming our IT offerings. The ERP landscape is changing—vendors across North America are creating innovative new solutions to compete against the outdated big box solutions. Businesses now have options for cloud-hosted software, artificial intelligence, advanced business intelligence and analytics, and so much more.

In a recent article on the Panorama Consulting Solutions blog, entitled “Top Predictions for the ERP Software Industry in 2018,” Eric Kimberling explores possible changes in the ERP landscape in the coming year. He states, “With the global economy continuing to improve, more companies scaling for growth, and capital investments continuing to gain momentum, more companies will be more likely to invest in their digital transformation initiatives.”

As we explored in a previous blog post, digital transformation is sweeping the business world. Companies are revitalizing their IT strategies with new and disruptive technologies, all to stay relevant and competitive in their fields.

Kimberling also states that “The coming year may be the year where […] cloud systems are either more widely accepted – or the trend proves to be a short-lived fad.” The option to move to a cloud-hosted ERP solution has been one of the biggest changes in the past few years. One of the main reasons we developed our Reflex ERP software so that it can be hosted on-premise or in the cloud was to give our clients the option to choose. That way, we can offer clients the best fit depending on their preferred hosting solution. As more and more software vendors begin offering cloud hosting, it will soon become clear whether the cloud will become more popular than on-premise for ERP solutions, or whether it will be a passing phase.

Of course, it’s the same story as “out with the old, in with the new.” When it comes to ERP software, the legacy systems are struggling. Their clunky, outdated software can only go so long with new user interfaces masking their inability to grow and change in an agile technology environment. As Kimberling states, “Vendors will be less likely to introduce new functionality or provide long-term support for […] dated products, leading many organizations to conclude that they have no choice but to migrate to more modern enterprise technologies.”

When it comes to ERP software, businesses need solutions that can not only keep up with their IT needs, but that can offer the promise of growth, change, and agility into the future. One big change in the current ERP landscape is that businesses are beginning to seek outside of the big box/big name software vendors, looking instead for reliable software solutions that also offer the advanced technology that legacy ERPs can never achieve.

We’re excited to be part of the changing future of ERP software. Learn more about Reflex as a postmodern ERP system in this blog post.