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ERPodcast Episode 4 – 2019 The State of the ERP Address   Time for Profit from ERP (MFX)   It’s ERPodcast the verbal musings of the Director of Consulting Services at Profit From ERP, Gene Hammons – Today it’s The 2019 State of the ERP Address - We’ll talk about new efficiencies driven by cloud ERP, increasing pressure on internal corporate teams taking on a new ERP projects, ERP platform diversity which means something for everyone, and we’ll cover the strategic impact of ERP and the core competency to be a technology driven company instead of an M&A target   If you Google ERP related queries, you’ll find a world of information – most of it written from the perspective of someone who’s trying to sell you their ERP software. Which, while that is informative to a point, it’s not always the point you were looking to answer.   So, our perspective.   We help client companies analyze, select, and implement ERP software as well as related operational software and mobile apps. Granted, software selection expertise does not translate into an accurate general overview of the entire ERP industry – what we do have is a specific, laser focused, examination of real world results from actual working companies.   We do selection/implementation again and again, for client after client. In a variety of industries, business lines and verticals.  The commonalities of our clients are they’re already successful and growing, usually they’ve outgrown or outpaced the current system.   It’s gotten to the point where regardless if the cost seems huge, they know the effort needs to be undertaken –   Our consulting practice is designed to turn that around.   Instead of approaching the project as a huge cost, we look to the efficiencies – the productivity gains – the cost avoidance – the labor savings – the revenue increases – and we measure it all, as increased Profit – Profit From ERP.   Profit is the goal. ERP is the tool.   And while it’s not exactly a Congressional Proclamation, it’s definitely a real world perspective, it’s the 2019 State of the ERP address –   -Break-   Welcome back to the ERPodcast, the 2019 State of the ERP Address – before we jump into today’s content, a bit of backstory.   Yes, I know there’s always a bit of backstory with me – but just this morning, I saw a pull quote from noted economist Thomas Sowell, who said “One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and proved disastrous before, time and time again.”   So we don’t want to be angering Economists and we have a general policy of avoiding disasters – so let’s understand history driving today’s trends.   Trend #1 Cloud Computing Driving Efficiencies   In the early days of ERP, everything was modular to the extreme – you could buy a General Ledger or GL system from one company and tie that to an A/P or Accounts Payable system from another company. Today, all these modules have long been incorporated into different views from the same relational database, so any modern ERP will contain fairly complete financials.   Now if you’re working with a consulting firm that’s put together an RFP to send out to ERP providers, and on the front page of that RFP are questions that ask if the ERP package contains a GL, AP, AR, Purchasing and the like, there’s only two reasons – One, they’re using an old RFP form from the 1986 era of extreme modularity or two, they’re sending it out to ERP softwares that they have no idea or have never used that ERP – both big clues – take a hint.   The common model is completeness of base financial functions within a single database.   In the old model, only huge companies had the IT resources to keep all these different codebases integrated through upgrade roadmaps and changes in features – and with the changes to a single relational database,