The enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor and consultant landscape is large and fragmented, and startups continue to emerge, especially those focused on cloud, mobile and “business planning and consolidation” technologies. In addition to ERP software vendors and consulting firms, there are also firms that focus on integrating ERP systems into the overall IT infrastructure, note Forrester’s vice president and principal analyst Liz Herbert and researcher Nate Fleming. Manufacturers account for a significant portion of that business—70 percent, according to SAP integrators HP and ITC Infotech. The ERP space is also evolving to focus on capabilities such as “customer journey mapping,” which tells the story of the customer’s experience from initial contact through the process of engagement and into a long-term relationship, as well as design- thinking sessions and studio approaches to working, according to Forrester. “We will see manufacturers look to ERP vendors to help them both be and stay competitive in today’s increasingly disruptive world.” Manufacturers can improve process efficiency and variability by adjusting how the ERP works to determine which steps to keep and which to eliminate, notes Brian Dunn, a partner with A.T. Kearney’s strategic information technology practice. “This enables manufacturers to take ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions for a given area of their business, then overlay world-class practices, as well as the manufacturer’s own tweaks based on the specifics of that company, to irk out the last mile of efficiency,” Dunn says. With ERP cloud solutions, manufacturers cannot do as much tweaking and customizing of the solution’s source code, but they still have access to leading practice and fairly robust configuration options, he says. Cloud solutions have also “radically accelerated” implementation timeframes and “pay-as-you-go” economics. The prime objective of ERP has evolved from “standardizing, simplifying and automating” business processes, toward “integrating, innovating and accelerating” around business performance, Dunn […]