If you are running an older ERP solution, especially those implemented prior to the year 2000 (Y2K), you may not even be aware of what you can expect from a modern, technology-enabled, next generation ERP. For many, many years ERP selection was largely driven by fit and functionaly. Even today, Mint Jutras ERP Solution Study survey respondents put fit and functionality close to the top of the list of selection criteria.
As a result, the footprint of ERP has grown steadily, to the point where it is sometimes hard to figure out where ERP ends and other applications begin. But it isn’t the depth and breadth of functionality that qualifies an ERP solution as “next generation.” It is the underlying technology. And conversely, it is that new technology that enables ERP footprints to expand at an accelerated rate.
Unless you are a technologist (and most business executives are not), you might not know or care about that underlying technology, because you don’t understand it. But it is dangerous to ignore it simply because of what it can do for you.
