Planning for the mobile business cloud? It's already here...

Bernard Ford, CEO of One Channel, introduced Dedenis, who spoke of the enterprise resource planning or ERP revolution. This means we can effectively involve everyone, everywhere, at any time in any of the work we're doing. He shared what Acumatica is doing from a platform perspective to give a sense of why other businesses should look at ERP and building the company backbone on a different level of platform to what you're most likely already using. This is crucial as mobile applications and devices have changed how people use ERP.

Dedenis began by admitting that calling it the 'ERP revolution' is a little pretentious as it's nothing new, but it is truly a revolution if you consider how it has been used in the last 20 years and how it will be used in the next 20.

Cloud revolutions, silo problems and enterprise resource planning

Starting with some stats, Dedenis said we've communicated more in the past two years than ever before, and data production is at an ever-accelerating scary rate, with as much as 90% of the world's current data created in the past two years alone, 4 billion devices expected by 2020 and 250-billion 'things' connected to the internet. All of this is a sign for the future, but most businesses today don't take full advantage of the information created by their employees as it's all silo-based. Instead, sharing across departments would improve overall company understanding and functioning.

In clearing up some misconceptions, Dedenis said that the cloud is mainstream, so the idea that some countries are less connected or less ready for it is wrong, we all use it already on a daily basis for personal and corporate life. It's no longer a good business model to keep corporate data private, as we all need access to it in order to make better decisions and build better products.

How mobile devices have changed the world of work

The rise of mobile devices is indicative of the fact that we've moved from a world where the enterprise controlled everything to one where the consumer's world involves the smartphone and connecting to apps for their daily work, as well as a blended personal and corporate life identity. Today, we check our business and personal emails at the same time. That's today's reality. So the fact that you have employees connected on mobile devices should be a benefit for your company.

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But it's not all good news - the data inflow is becoming widely unmanageable for many companies, especially those who are wasting and losing the data created by employees. The sheer volume of data is a problem for many, but instead of this we should focus on how to take advantage of it, to filter and select it and put it to use, to involve anyone, on any device, at any time, which in turn will mean the company can be more agile and make better decisions.

Once you're connected, you start sharing and making a difference for your company. Email and file-sharing were at the start of this in the early 2000s, but it's when tablets were released in 2008 that there was a huge leap in the amount of connected people in companies. At first this was fought as it was felt that personal life would bleed into corporate identity - now it's expected.

For the naysayers, Dedenis says it really is everywhere. South Africa as a regional hub targets the rest of the continent, as does cloud. The benefit is that you can do it once and not have to replicate the same process repeatedly. You simply add a location and get it all centralised. But you need to keep it platform-agnostic. In reality, IOS is only 14% of mobile market; we have no control over the devices our employees bring to the office. The 'bring your own device' trend will change the world and ensure that platforms are device-agnostic. This is where cloud platforms come in, as they make it easier to work across devices. The benefits are immense, as rather than rushing to scribble down data in the field and input it when you're back in the office, you can simply carry a tablet around with you and do the work wherever you are.

Future-proofing ERP by eradication silo work

The thought process or reality of trying to future-proof your business should take you five or ten years down the line as that's how long you're using an ERP. You should also think about how it will help you achieve your goal. Dedenis emphasised Bob Metcalfe's law, where one comprehensive network process is better than multiple smaller ones operating in silo. Silo thinking severely limits interaction and collaboration across the business.

This ties into B2b portals connecting businesses together too, not just within each organisation but also between them. So it's not just about CRM or customer relationship management but rather about experience relationship management or XRM, connecting everyone. To those who fear data security in moving your operations to the cloud, Dedenis asks" "Do you do internet banking? Where do you think that data is stored?"

In speaking of the ease of deployment of mobile, Dedenis stated that native apps offer a far better user experience and integrate with the device's existing features, like the camera and fingerprint recognition.

A mobile workforce solution would thus use smartphones to process information while both online and offline, and features such as geo-tracking can assist with checking that employees are where they say they are or if they're in trouble, facing an emergency situation. That's because mobile brings you real-time visibility, so that you know exactly what's happening in the field at any time.

But what is a mobile workforce?

A growing number of employees are out in the field on a daily basis - this is not necessarily about working from home one day a week but rather about being constantly in and out of the office, such as with your sales team. It can be expanded further to mobile point of sales, meaning you won't have to be paid at a specific sales register in a bricks-and-mortar store. It's also helpful for field marketing.

It's crucial for the apps to work all the time, whether there is connectivity at the time or not, and to simply push the information back when you are connected again. If you can save each employee just five minutes a day on administration tasks, this adds up fast.

Regardless of your industry, most mobile workforces are run in the same way based on configuration rather than development, which is important in the B2B space as each company wants different specifics in order to function optimally.

Also remember that going mobile is not just about displaying your website on a handset, you have to ensure it is optimised and easy to work with, so that it's easier for your employees to work for you.