Leveraging ERP to break down disparate databases

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) offers organizations the ability to plan and allocate resources to manage their financials, people, projects and planning efforts. This in turn frees up workforces to do the tasks they were employed to carry out.

PEX Network’s recent report, ERP’s role in enhancing efficiency at professional services organizations, discussed how ERP can lead to process-oriented results by breaking down disparate databases.

Based on a survey of 181 APAC-based respondents, the report revealed that 19 percent are running disparate databases while 44 percent have some but not all systems and processes integrated and automated.

Bringing databases together offers several benefits, as explained Nao Anthony, senior manager of operational excellence at Australian multinational financial services provider Commonwealth Bank.

“Bringing databases together not only improves data governance but also opens up possibilities to correlate various aspects of organizations’ data to generate real-time proactive intel on businesses, customers, suppliers and correlation.

“The danger lies in missing out on critical intel that could have been pieced together by the combination of databases. Also, data governance and data protection efforts will be non-standard and often manual leading to the potential of data cleansing efforts not taking place due to disparate databases.”

Frederik Skyggebjerg, head of solution consulting for APAC at enterprise software company Unit4, mentioned in the report that while he is not against having different databases, if a company uses a modern cloud solution it should not be running manual processes between them as they have the potential to create further bottlenecks.

“The resulting disconnect can account for one of the biggest productivity losses in a business today where it doesn’t think ‘digital-first’,” he said.

He recommends instead a modern central platform: “Here you can integrate all your other best-of-breed solutions, meaning you can record your transactions in a safe and efficient way, and you can actually make your core business solution drive digital processes out into your other solutions.”

The report also revealed that only 32 percent of respondents operate a single integrated ERP/business management platform across all of their businesses. Nao advised organizations looking for the right time to introduce an ERP should “focus on symptoms” such as customer complaints on lack of transparency and delays or increases in the administrative costs of non-value-adding activities.

These can include the overuse of paper, mistakes due to human intervention or the duplication of efforts within value-chain functions.

“The reality is that the cost, time and complexity of an ERP implementation depends on the scale, complexity, and anticipated short- and long-term value by enterprise leaders,” Nao explains. “The disadvantage for those organizations delaying the decision to proceed with an ERP is that they may not reap the full potential of the tools widely used in digital transformation.”

What is your experience with ERP? Let us know by leaving a comment below.