High cost of legacy ERP systems

Source: Vsoftsystems, 05/11/2018

Enterprise software is expensive and investing in the latest and
greatest ERP software could become a vicious circle that requires huge
investment. Businesses that rely on outdated legacy ERP software
systems risk losing more than just their money.
Legacy software is often no longer updated or maintained, usually in
favour of more modern or new offerings. This means that as the
software degrades over time, it gradually slows down every single
business process and potentially causes disastrous errors in the data
entry or manufacturing processes.
Local business solutions provider One Channel CEO Bernard Ford says
the legacy of enterprise management systems is one of poor quality
reporting, inefficiencies and extremely high running costs. `Companies
using these outdated systems urgently need to adapt to the changing
landscape that allows for any-where, any-device access.`
`The lack of standardisation and myriad of bolt-on as well as bespoke
components that typically make up the current systems are open to
error, difficulty in maintaining, high running costs and worse,
security breaches leading to inefficiencies and lack of information,`
he explains.
Ford says post-modern ERP systems cater for the global realities of
this changing landscape. `A system that allows for the standardisation
of legislative governance rules around procurement, budgeting,
workflow approvals, notifications and audit should be implemented.`
`Post-modern, cloud-based ERP suite offers a low cost of ownership
that also allows for in-country Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and
on-demand provision of systems,` says Ford.
The importance of having access to systems that are designed to fit
the functional requirement of the organisation is paramount for the
successful deployment of the centralised infrastructure. They must be
Web-based, 100% secure and easy-to-use.
Early ERP solutions were dominated by heavy customisation. The next
phase in the evolution was characterised by a move toward
standardisation with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and
more requirements built into baseline software.
This phase was followed by growing use of managed services, starting
slowly with the application service provider (ASP) model and
progressing rapidly with the advent of browser-based and cloud-enabled
services.
Over time, technology has become exponentially more complex and costly
to manage. Each transition from mainframe to client-server to
Web-based technologies has occurred twice as fast as the one before.
The number of technologies required in each phase also has more than
doubled. This rapid rate of change presents growing risks for
organisations that manage their own ERP systems. Based on these
trends, CGI believes the next wave in this evolution is the Agile
cloud-enabled services (ACES) ecosystem.
A growing number of organisations are turning to secure post-modern
cloud-based ERP software so they can stay focused on their mission and
spend less time managing technology. These systems are sometimes
referred to as Agile Cloud Enabled Services (ACES).
This integrated ecosystem features flexible use of three delivery models:
* Company-owned private cloud - where the company provides the
infrastructure on which the software provider deploys and manages the
solution.
* Community cloud - where the software provider owns, operates and
maintains the entire infrastructure and application `stack,` including
the operating system and database, and is responsible for security,
disaster recovery and backups.
* Software as a Service (SAAS) - where the software provider owns,
operates and maintains the entire infrastructure and application
`stack` as in the community cloud, but deploys and manages a single
instance of the software across multiple clients.
Acumatica is one of the new breed of so-called `post-modern` ERP
systems, defined by Gartner as a technology strategy that automates
and links administrative and operational business capabilities (such
as finance, HR, purchasing, manufacturing and distribution) with
appropriate levels of integration that balance the benefits of
vendor-delivered integration against business flexibility and agility.
Consulting firm CGI says organisations are moving away aggressively
from highly customised, on-premises solutions toward shared platforms
and cloud-enabled managed services. It says traditional ERP deployment
models are giving way to more efficient, managed services that are
supported by cloud-enabled technology.
Acumatica was designed and built from the ground up for the modern
era. Acumatica is a post-modern, cloud-ready, integrated ERP and
Project Centric Management system comprising a suite of
built-for-purpose components.
Ford agrees with CGI that a `one-size-fits-all` approach is a thing of
the past. `ERP software and delivery strategies must converge to
address the growing demand for flexible deployment options by
function, even when part of an integrated ERP suite.`
CGI believes the time is right for an Agile Cloud-Enabled Services
ecosystem that gives organisations the versatility to balance control,
customisation and cost when deploying modern ERP functions without
locking them into a single deployment model.