Next Generation ‘Cloud ERP’ is still a massive trend, one that all the big enterprise software players and industry analysts are driving.

But they come with a warning: that this is not to be underestimated as a simple upgrade on an existing ERP but rather a much larger undertaking, a greenfield new ERP implementation.

One such example of this is SAP’s S/4HANA. The change is so substantial, that the biggest management challenge is in building a business case to support the planning of such a massive undertaking. 20 years ago, CFOs swore never to take the pain of a complete ERP implementation again, so it is understandable that there is a great deal more effort now on helping ‘manage’ and embrace the change!

Vendors, surprisingly, still tend to focus on providing information that is technical, with documents entitled ‘Simplification Guides’ running to hundreds of pages!

One ERP expert compared S/4HANA to a transplanted organ: “SAP is a big box of business processes … If the business processes don’t make sense, the body rejects the organ,” he said.

It seems we still have some way to go to move the debate to business value, return on investment and speed of adoption. We don’t want a repeat of the lessons of the last century!

You can find the full article with commentary here

Our ‘Something To Consider’ snippets are framed as small, digestible, ‘dashes of insight’ around the pillars of what we define as “World Class Finance” – Process Optimization, Financial Control and Compliance, and Risk Assurance, all underpinned by technology enablement and integration.