Get a tailored analysis of your workloads and a clear roadmap for when and how to start—with minimal business disruption. IBM’s AI-powered Business Maturity Index assessment reveals how prepared your organization is for Oracle Cloud adoption. Ready to optimize and innovate? Schedule a consultation and take the first step towards transforming your Oracle applications in the cloud.
Schedule now
CEO James Bedard james.bedard@wellesleyglobal.com
DESIGN DIRECTOR Ceci Perriard ceci.perriard@wellesleyglobal.com
VP & RESEARCH DIRECTOR Robert Holland robert.holland@sapinsider.org
VP & RESEARCH ANALYST Susan Galberaith susan.galberaith@wellesleyglobal.com
SENIOR EDITOR Radhika Ojha radhika.ojha@wellesleyglobal.com
CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER Constance Sayers constance.sayers@wellesleyglobal.com
CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Abbegayle Morrow abbegayle.morrow@wellesleyglobal.com
CHIEF EVENTS OFFICER Lisa Riley lisa.riley@wellesleyglobal.com
PHOTOGRAPHY shutterstock.com
An old ERP system is like the foundation of a historic building for many organizations. It has been there forever, it’s mission-critical, and everyone is afraid to touch it for fear that the whole thing might collapse. These organizations have spent years adding new wings and modern decor to this old building such as BI tools, CRM integrations, and custom apps, but the foundation remains largely unchanged. However, the world outside the building has changed radically. Modern cyber threats aren’t just rattling the windows; they are sophisticated thieves testing every crack in that aging foundation. A legacy ERP, with its brittle integrations and decades of technical debt, presents an enormous and irresistible attack surface. Even newer ERP systems, if not properly secured, can be vulnerable. Too often, we treat cybersecurity as a layer we can paint onto the outside. We buy the best firewalls, the smartest endpoint detection, and the most advanced monitoring tools. But we’re essentially putting a state-of-the-art security system on a house with unlocked doors and open windows. True digital resilience doesn’t come from bolting on more armor; it comes from rebuilding the core. And this is a challenge that Onapsis and its customers address in this issue’s cover story.
Today, modernizing your ERP is not just about enhancing efficiency or user experience. It has become the most crucial cybersecurity initiative you can undertake. A modern, cloud-native ERP is built with a security-first mindset, its’ architecture designed to be a fortress from the ground up, and not a façade with guards posted outside. This shift from bolted-on to baked-in security is fundamental to surviving and thriving in today’s digital economy.
MODERNIZING YOUR ERP IS NO LONGER A PROJECT THAT ONLY ENHANCES EFFICIENCY OR USER EXPERIENCE.
However, this challenge demands courage and vision. Across our industry, leaders are undertaking these complex but vital transformations, turning legacy systems into platforms for innovation and resilience. The third quarter ERP Today Magazine is packed with insights on these projects. It includes views and success stories from technology providers like SAP, Oracle, Sage, Zuora, Unit4, and Nextworld, and their partners such as EY, Inetum, SOVOS, and Fudgelearn.
In December, we aim to honor this spirit of leadership at the ERP Today Awards. It’s a night to recognize the teams who aren’t just keeping the lights on but are redesigning the entire power grid. I invite you to join us, nominate your peers, and celebrate the remarkable work being done at the very core of business. Let’s celebrate those building the secure foundations of the future.
James
Bedard, CEO ERP Today
| Q3 2025
Sage’s Walid Abu Hadba on quantum computing
Reshaping manufacturing operations with no-code platforms
Insights from Zuora’s Karthik Chakkarapani
Enterprise leaders on protecting against cyberthreats
Pushing for greater agility through AI in finance ERP
An interview with Tony Cook, Co-Founder, Fudgelearn
SAP fuels its momentum in the race for cloud dominance
Gaining an edge through cloud infrastructure migration
How LPGA is teeing up a future-ready finance team
EY’s Edward Sander on a customer-centric approach in banking
How Kyriba is cracking the enterprise code
Malvern Panalytics streamlines tax compliance with Sovos
How F&B companies can succeed in the digital era
SAGE CPO WALID ABU HADBA ON NAVIGATING THE AGENTIC AI REVOLUTION, EMPOWERING SMBS TO OUTMANEUVER THE GIANTS, AND WHY THE REAL QUANTUM THREAT ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK
BY RADHIKA OJHA
When Sneakers released in 1992, Robert Redford gave film buffs a glimpse of what the future might hold for the tech world. The core plot? Quantum computers that were used to decode encrypted information. While that future is still some years away, it is in the notso-distant future.
Quantum computing, with its mind-bending ability to solve problems, is still deemed impossible, but promises breakthroughs in
medicine, materials science, and artificial intelligence (AI). However, it also carries a more ominous potential: the power to render today’s encryption methods obsolete—like the ones in Sneakers—effectively unlocking every secure digital vault on the planet.
For most business leaders, this quantum horizon seems like the stuff of science fiction, a problem for another decade. But for Walid Abu Hadba, Chief Product Officer at Sage, preparing for that future means winning the battle of the present.
The Quantum Horizon
Abu Hadba views quantum computing not as a direct threat to AI, but as a powerful—and potentially dangerous— accelerator.
“From an AI point of view, [quantum computing] is just going to accelerate it allowing us to do massive amounts of AI much, much faster,” he notes. The real, and more immediate, danger lies elsewhere. “My biggest fear of quantum computing right now is encryption models.”
He explains that the security models that protect virtually all digital information today, from banking transactions to state secrets, could be rendered useless by a powerful quantum computer. “I think we’re going to transition from traditional RSA computing security models and encryption to quantum encryption models,” he predicts.
the same principles needed to solve today’s most pressing business challenges: Trust, accuracy, and putting a new kind of AI directly into the hands of small and medium businesses (SMBs), a user base long considered laggards in tech adoption.
While quantum computing is a challenge for the future, Abu Hadba is championing a different kind of revolution today—one that is quieter, more pragmatic, and infinitely more critical for the backbone of the economy.
This morning, you might have asked a consumer AI to summarize your emails or check the weather. The response was
MY BIGGEST FEAR OF QUANTUM COMPUTING RIGHT NOW IS ENCRYPTION MODELS.
WALID ABU HADBA / CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AT SAGE
Having previously worked at ANSYS, a leader in engineering simulation, Abu Hadba is deeply familiar with the underlying workings of quantum mechanics. He expresses faith that the industry will develop new, quantumresistant algorithms, but the race is on.
So, when will this shift become a practical reality for businesses? Abu Hadba is pragmatic about the timeline. “Not in the next 10 years,” he says, before clarifying. “I believe five years from now quantum computing will be massively more advanced than we think it is at present. It’s not 50 years away, but it’s not going to be five months either.”
The bottleneck isn’t just building a stable, room-temperature quantum computer. It’s the entire ecosystem. “Getting the quantum computer ready is one thing,” he cautions. “Getting the algorithms, getting the tooling, getting the operating systems, getting the applications… it’s a completely different way of writing an application. How many people know how to do that today? You could count them on a few hands around the globe.”
From his vantage point, the path to a quantum-resilient future is paved with
fast, helpful, and maybe even 70% accurate. For a consumer, that’s a useful convenience. But for a business closing its books? A 70% accuracy would be a catastrophic failure.
“[Business] is not a place where you allow hallucinations,” Abu Hadba states, his words cutting through the noise of AI hype. “You cannot say, ‘One plus one equals two, but there’s a possibility of one plus one equals three as well.’ It doesn’t work in our space.”
This is the core challenge Sage has been quietly working on for years, long before AI and agentic AI became mainstream buzzwords. As Abu Hadba points out, for Sage customers, AI is about three non-negotiable pillars:
1. Pinpoint Accuracy: The numbers must be right, every single time.
2. Radical Trust: Users must trust not just the answer, but the process that delivered it.
3. Actionable Insight: The AI tool, agentic or otherwise, must provide massive time savings and deep insights that are fully auditable.
“Think about preparing somebody’s
taxes,” Abu Hadba explains. “You can’t have a 70% likelihood of being correct. It must be accurate, you must save time, and you must give insights that are auditable.” This philosophy is now manifesting in Sage’s new generation of AI-powered tools.
Surprisingly, the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of AI tools like agentic AI aren’t the Fortune 500 companies with massive IT departments. In a fascinating reversal of the typical tech adoption curve, it’s the SMBs who are leaping ahead.
“It’s kind of weird, because right now, SMBs are taking the lead in agentic AI,” Abu Hadba reveals. “They beat all the [large] enterprises right now [in agentic AI adoption].”
He argues that large enterprises, shackled by the immense complexity of their legacy systems, are risk-averse. Moreover, the pain of transitioning a sprawling ERP system can take months and carries immense financial liability. “Can you go to Wall Street and say, ‘Well, I missed my earnings because I was transitioning to an agentic AI and
I’m not able to close my books?’” he asks rhetorically. “This is an easier transition for SMBs that are not weighed down by those larger commitments. They are more resilient, more experimental. They don’t mind a couple of days of pain to get to the benefits.”
The Fortress of Trust
Still, letting an AI agent handle critical financial tasks requires a monumental level of trust. This is where Abu Hadba believes Sage has created its most significant differentiator. While headlines are filled with concerns over data privacy and AI black boxes, Sage has built its AI on a foundation of user control and transparency.
“The customer is always in control of their data. Sage will not use your data without your permission,” he asserts. But the real game-changer is the auditability. “We log everything. We understand the path that the agent took and how it came to those conclusions.”
He describes a feature that is, for now, unique to Sage: a ‘one-click’ audit trace. With a single click, a user can see the entire decision-making process of the
AI agent, what question it formulated, what data source it queried, and how it arrived at the final number.
“It’s not just that the agent says, ‘I got this information from this data source.’ That’s important. But how? How did you formulate the question?” Abu Hadba explains. “Your ability to go and see where we are, how did we get it, and verify whether this is good or bad is in your hands. We may be the only company doing that right now.”
To navigate these successive waves of technology, Sage has anchored its strategy in a single source of truth: the General Ledger (GL). Abu Hadba is emphatic that Sage is not just a company that uses AI tools but has fundamentally transformed itself into “the AI company for accounting.”
This transformation was enabled by a bold decision years ago to rebuild their products on a single, agile platform. “If you asked me that question three years ago, I would have said, ‘No way, it’s impossible,’” he admits when asked about the pace of innovation. “Now we have 14
products with AI in them. Our goal is for every single product to have AI within the next 18 months.”
He acknowledges that in this new world, pure competitors and pure collaborators no longer exist. Survival depends on “co-opetition,” particularly with giants like Microsoft. “Show me one finance person that does not use Excel,” he laughs. “You want to have a revolution in your company? Forbid Excel from being used and see what happens.”
The strategy is to make Sage the undisputed center of gravity for financial data, the AI-driven GL that other systems and agents from CRMs to Excel must talk to. “At the end of the day, the last thing anybody turns off before they shut down a company is your general ledger,” Abu Hadba says. “We aim to be the source of truth, and the AI source of truth.”
Ultimately, Abu Hadba sees technology not as a force for elimination, but for evolution. “A lot of people are getting into this [idea that] AI is going to eliminate the human side of business. I never believe in that,” he concludes. “There will be some roles that will be eliminated, but there will be other roles that will be created.”
• Agility is the new competitive advantage. SMBs are leading enterprises in AI adoption. For ERP users, especially those in large, complex organizations, this is a critical market signal. As Abu Hadba points out, large enterprises are often shackled by the risk and complexity of their legacy systems. The learning? While large-scale ERP systems provide stability, they can also breed inertia. This trend suggests that waiting for perfect, riskfree AI solutions may leave
your organization behind nimbler competitors who are already experimenting and reaping the rewards.
• Don’t accept “black box” AI. In financial AI, trust requires a clear audit button. The hype around consumer AI is irrelevant to the world of finance and ERP. Abu Hadba emphasizes that for business applications, AI must be built on “pinpoint accuracy” and “radical trust.” Sage’s strategy materializes this philosophy with a one-click
audit trace. As vendors embed more AI into ERP systems, the new standard for excellence should be auditability. Demand tools that offer complete transparency, allowing your team to trust and verify the automated processes. This is the only way to ensure AI is a reliable copilot, not a potential liability.
• Your next big security challenge is on the horizon. Quantum computing is the revolution brewing for tomorrow and its most
immediate and disruptive impact won’t be on processing speed but on security. A powerful quantum computer could render today’s encryption methods obsolete, effectively unlocking every secure digital vault on the planet including your ERP’s sensitive financial data. This is a future-proofing alert. Long-term strategic planning for your ERP and IT landscape must begin to account for the eventual, and inevitable, shift to quantum-resistant encryption.
HOW NO-CODE PLATFORMS ARE RESHAPING MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS
Manufacturing’s relationship with technology is undergoing a marked shift. Where once digital transformation meant lengthy implementations and armies of consultants, a new paradigm is emerging—one that puts operational agility at the center of competitive strategy. The catalyst? No-code platforms that are democratizing enterprise software development and enabling manufacturers to respond to market volatility at unprecedented speed.
Today’s manufacturing environment is defined by constant disruption. Supply chain interruptions, shifting consumer demands, labor shortages, and geopolitical tensions create a landscape where adaptability isn’t just advantageous—it’s essential for survival. Traditional ERP systems, built for stability and standardization, often struggle to keep pace with these rapid changes.
The gap between business need and IT delivery has become a critical bottleneck. When procurement teams need new workflows to handle supplier disruptions, or when production planners require real-time visibility into inventory levels, waiting months for custom development isn’t viable. This tension has created demand for platforms that enable business users to build solutions themselves.
No-code development represents more than just a technology trend—it’s a fundamental shift in how organizations approach problem-solving. Consider a global packaging supplier that recently faced procurement bottlenecks threatening customer relationships. Rather than initiating a lengthy IT project, the procurement team leveraged Nextworld’s no-code procurement solution to automate approval workflows and optimize supplier communications. The result: a 50% reduction in manual processes and cycle times that dropped from days to hours.
This example illustrates how platforms like Nextworld are demonstrat-
ing that no-code development can deliver enterprise-grade solutions without traditional complexity. By enabling business users to create, modify, and deploy applications in real time, these platforms collapse the barriers between operational needs and technological solutions.
This democratization of development is particularly powerful in manufacturing, where operational expertise often resides with front-line managers rather than IT teams. When domain experts can directly translate their knowledge into working solutions, organizations achieve both faster implementation and better alignment with actual business needs.
Modern manufacturing operations generate enormous amounts of data—from sensor readings to real-time inventory levels across multiple warehouses. The challenge isn’t collecting this data; it’s transforming it into actionable insights quickly enough to drive operational decisions.
Nextworld exemplifies this approach by integrating AI capabilities into every layer of the supply chain without requiring disruptive system overhauls. Their platform enables manufacturers to anticipate disruptions, respond to demand fluctuations, and streamline production through what they call operating at the “speed of thought.” When inventory levels for critical components drop below optimal thresholds, the system can automatically initiate purchase orders, identify alternative suppliers, or suggest production schedule adjustments—capabilities that once required months of custom development.
The manufacturers thriving in today’s volatile environment share a common characteristic: they’ve built operations that can sense, analyze, and respond to changes in real time. This capability extends beyond simple automation to encompass intelligent adaptation.
Consider supply chain optimization. Traditional approaches rely on periodic planning cycles and static forecasts. In contrast, manufacturers using advanced no-code platforms can dynamically adjust inventory levels, reroute shipments, and modify production schedules based on live market conditions. Nextworld’s approach involves unifying data from across operations—from warehouse stock levels to supplier lead times—and making sense of it instantly through embedded intelligence that not only highlights potential issues but can recommend and execute actions autonomously.
When a key supplier experiences delays, these intelligent systems don’t just alert managers—they evaluate alternatives, calculate cost implications, and can even execute approved contingency plans automatically. This level of responsiveness is becoming a defining competitive advantage.
Perhaps the most significant impact of no-code platforms isn’t technological—it’s cultural. When business users can solve their own problems without relying on IT departments, organizations develop a more experimental, innovative mindset. This shift addresses one of manufacturing’s most pressing challenges: talent retention and development. Rather than competing for scarce technical talent, manufacturers can develop problem-solving capabilities within their existing workforce. Successfully leveraging no-code platforms requires thoughtful change management and governance. Leading platforms like Nextworld demonstrate how this can be achieved through seamless integration approaches that allow teams to customize workflows without modifying core code, making updates less disruptive than traditional ERP upgrades.
Key considerations include governance frameworks that balance innovation with control, training programs that help business users understand both capabilities and limitations, integration
strategies that ensure seamless operation with existing systems, and success metrics that measure business impact beyond just deployment speed.
The emergence of no-code platforms signals a broader transformation in how manufacturers approach technology. Rather than viewing IT as a separate function, forward-thinking organizations are creating technology-enabled workforces where every employee can contribute to digital innovation.
As these platforms continue to evolve, we can expect even deeper integration of AI, machine learning, and IoT capabilities, all accessible through intuitive interfaces requiring no programming knowledge. The manufacturers who embrace this democratization of technology development will find themselves with significant advantages in an increasingly volatile and competitive landscape.
The question isn’t whether no-code platforms will reshape manufacturing—it’s whether your organization will lead or follow in this transformation.
approach involves unifying data from across operations.
Learn more about Nextworld
No-code development is now a strategic asset
Manufacturers should evaluate no-code platforms not just as IT tools, but as strategic enablers of business agility. With the ability to create and deploy applications in real time, business users can drive innovation directly from the front lines, reducing project timelines by up to 70%. This shift accelerates
WHAT
digital transformation and enhances responsiveness in supply chain planning, procurement, and customer fulfillment.
AI integration doesn’t require disruption. Leading platforms are proving that it’s possible to integrate advanced AI capabilities without overhauling existing ERP systems. Organizations can embed predictive
analytics, automation, and AI assistants into existing processes through modular adoption. This phased approach allows teams to experiment with low-risk pilots while building toward more sophisticated, autonomous decision-making over time.
Real-time supply chain data is a competitive weapon. By combining
no-code flexibility with real-time data integration, manufacturers can enable supply chains that think, learn, and adapt. The ability to dynamically adjust inventory levels, reroute orders, and prioritize production based on live insights provides essential agility in volatile markets and positions tech-savvy manufacturers to outpace slower-moving rivals.
Karthik Chakkarapani, SVP, Corporate Operations and CIO of the monetization platform Zuora warns of the perils of waiting for a complete ERP rollout.
The budget is approved, the consultants are engaged, and the roadmap is in place for the massive, multi-year cloud ERP transformation. However, while the organization is meticulously planning this foundational shift, a critical part of its business is leaking. For Karthik Chakkarapani, SVP, Corporate Operations and CIO of Zuora, the analogy is stark. “Waiting for a three-to-five-year ERP rollout before tackling order-to-cash transformation is like remodeling your entire house while water pours through a leaking roof,” he warns.
Chakkarapani argues that in an environment where market agility is paramount, the traditional view of the ERP as the all-encompassing engine of innovation is outdated and dangerous. Moreover, as enterprises increasingly shift to hybrid revenue models, the monolithic, all-in-one ERP strategy is cracking under pressure, creating a significant competitive disadvantage for those who get the timing wrong.
Evidence of a paradigm shift is mounting, particularly in industries that are evolving rapidly. “We’re seeing a clear shift away from monolithic ERP strategies, especially in industries facing rapid change, such as telecom, publishing, and automotive,” Chakkarapani observes. These businesses are realizing that they can’t afford to have their innovation cycles dictated by a vendor’s development roadmap. Instead, they’re embracing a composable approach, where the ERP serves as the stable financial backbone, while best-of-breed platforms manage dynamic, customer-facing functions like billing and revenue automation.
cautions that this shift alone rarely addresses the complexity of hybrid revenue models. He recounts a common scenario: “We’ve seen companies move from on-prem ERP to cloud ERP expecting newfound agility, only to realize they still needed custom code for usage billing, tiered pricing, and revenue recognition.”
In one telling example, a telecom company leaped to a cloud ERP to support a new 5G service with complex usage tiers. According to Chakkarapani, they discovered their shiny new system “couldn’t automate the invoicing logic. They had to rely on spreadsheets and manual reconciliation, exactly like before.” He adds, “They didn’t have a cloud problem but an architectural mismatch.”
If bolting a modern billing engine onto a legacy ERP midtransformation is burdened with integration complexity and hidden technical debt, what’s the alternative?
BY 2027, MOST ENTERPRISES WILL BE OPERATING WITH HYBRID REVENUE MODELS, AND IF YOUR SYSTEMS CAN’T SUPPORT THAT, YOU’RE SIMPLY NOT COMPETING.
The timeline is what makes this a particularly urgent issue for CIOs and CFOs. With analysts predicting that over 50% of enterprises will deploy mixed-revenue models by 2027, the standard three- to five-year ERP transformation window appears less like a strategic plan and more like a countdown to obsolescence.
“By 2027, most enterprises will be operating with hybrid revenue models, and if your systems can’t support that, you’re simply not competing,” Chakkarapani states. The cost, far from being a future problem of technical debt, is immediate and tangible. As Chakkarapani points out, “It’s lost revenue, slower product launches, and mounting frustration from Finance and Go-To-Market (GTM) teams that can’t reconcile or adapt fast enough.”
Many leaders believe that a move to a cloud ERP, such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud or Oracle Cloud ERP, will address their monetization challenges . However, Chakkarapani
“Our approach is to decouple first,” Chakkarapani explains. This strategy involves implementing a flexible, ERP-agnostic monetization layer before the core ERP project is complete. This aids in smart sequencing. “By decoupling Order-to-Cash early, teams unlock agility in revenue operations while ERP programs continue at their own pace,” he says. This approach provides immediate relief and value, which is essential for getting a buy-in from the C-suite. “CFOs aren’t looking for magic. They’re looking for momentum,” he states.
According to Chakkarapani, the business case isn’t a leap of faith but one built on measurable, incremental ROI, which consists of:
• Faster financial closes
• Reduced revenue leakage
• The ability to launch new products in weeks, not months
It also mitigates the challenges related to revenue recognition, which is one of the biggest hurdles in modern finance. With standards like ASC 606, forcing complex subscription or usage-based models through a legacy ERP is a high-stakes gamble. “A global SaaS company ran into issues when subscription amendments weren’t properly linked to recognition schedules, triggering audit flags,” Chakkarapani notes while illustrating an example of the challenges related to revenue recognition. “The risk here wasn’t theoretical. It lay in delayed payments, scrutinized disclosures, and investor trust called into question.”
Still, the shift away from a monolithic ERP doesn’t mean that ERP is dead. Its role, however, is being clarified and refined. “As a CIO, I still need my ERP, whether it is SAP, Oracle, or
Workday, to remain the single source of truth for the general ledger, statutory compliance, and master data. That role isn’t going away,” Chakkarapani notes.
Thus, the future he envisions is one of harmonious coexistence. He believes, “The modern architecture is ‘ERP as orchestrator, specialist clouds as operators.’” In this model, the CIO curates a portfolio of interoperable, cloud-native services that can be activated or deactivated as the business evolves. “This modularity derisks M&A, accelerates product launches, and future-proofs the enterprise without locking it into another five-year, all-or-nothing bet,” he says. Finally, the message is clear for leaders amid a massive ERP transformation. Success isn’t about managing two initiatives at once, but about choosing the right entry point to drive value now. As Chakkarapani concludes, “By front-loading the modernization of your revenue engine, you create early wins for Finance and IT, de-risk the broader transformation, and ensure that by the time your new ERP foundation is set, you have an agile, competitive business to run on top of it.”
• Your ERP is a foundation, not the entire house. The traditional single-vendor-foreverything mindset is becoming a liability. For agile, customer-facing functions like complex billing, usage-based pricing, and dynamic product launches, enterprises must look to specialized platforms. As Chakkarapani puts it, the modern architecture is “ERP as orchestrator, specialist clouds as operators.” For ERP Insiders, this means strategically augmenting
your core ERP system with best-of-breed tools to handle monetization, rather than trying to force the ERP to do something it wasn’t designed for. This approach allows the organization to innovate swiftly.
• Don’t let your ERP timeline stall your business. Waiting for a full ERP transformation to complete before addressing urgent revenue and billing challenges is a critical mistake, according to Chakkarapani. By implementing a modern
billing platform first, you can achieve immediate, measurable wins. This de-risks the broader transformation, creates early wins for Finance and IT, and sets the stage for cleaner integration. For teams managing a lengthy cloud migration, this decouple first strategy provides momentum, proves ROI to the CFO, and solves pressing business problems without derailing the core ERP initiative.
• The architectural mismatch is real. Relying
solely on an ERP for modern monetization creates significant business pain. Challenges can include complex usage billing, slow integration during mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and hurdles in revenue recognition. These issues demonstrate that the problem is often an “architectural mismatch,” as Chakkarapani puts it, proving the need for a purpose-built monetization engine like Zuora that works in concert with the ERP.
BY ROBERT HOLLAND | PHOTOS ERIC M c ALLISTER
As organizations transform and update their IT landscapes and accelerate the move to the cloud, ERP systems have become a centralized source of business and financial truth. The benefits of taking this approach are significant as it eliminates data silos and inconsistencies, ensures real-time data access for users, and improves and accelerates decisionmaking. The downside is that it creates a more inviting target which, if compromised, can result in major financial, reputational and regulatory impact.
ERP Today spoke with five security experts from different industries about the changing ERP cybersecurity landscape. Covering the changing market, challenges faced, measuring success, and better securing ERP systems, the conversations form a basis for how you can ensure that you are ready to respond when your ERP system is under attack.
Mariano Nunez, CEO of Onapsis, is no stranger to protecting ERP systems against cyberattacks. Nunez was inspired to start a career in cybersecurity because he wanted to make a difference, and co-founded Onapsis with a vision of protecting mission-critical business applications. Helping customers through a deep understanding of the consequences that occur when organizations don’t secure their vital applications, Onapsis now serves hundreds of the world’s leading brands and is the only SAP application cybersecurity and compliance solution endorsed by SAP itself. Yet much has changed in the 16 years since the company was founded. Today, ERP systems that are running in the cloud can have more than 100 times the exposure they did when they were running behind a firewall.
For pharmaceutical companies, there is a need for regulatory compliance in addition to strong cybersecurity policies to protect sensitive data and intellectual property, avoid regulatory penalties, and safeguard patient safety and trust. Rowena Dsouza, Senior Director of Technology Risk Management at Merck says, “Achieving this balance is challenging. It requires a strong focus on balancing security without compromising compliance and operational efficiency. We achieve this balance with strong collaboration between business and IT, coupled with the right processes and security technology, ensuring that security aligns with risk management and business objectives.”
Calvin Leong, Vice President of Information Technology at DNOW, a leading supplier and distributor in the oil, gas, and energy sector, faces similar chal -
lenges in today’s ERP market. If DNOW’s ERP systems are impacted in a cyber attack, it could translate into a third-party supply chain risk for their customers or suppliers. This makes it vital for Leong’s team to embrace a security-focused mindset from the beginning of any project. Since ERP systems connect to the order management and supply chain logistics systems, they are at the core of business operations, making it vital to protect both the ERP system and systems it is integrated with.
Reflecting on the increasing threat against ERP systems, in the first half of 2025 there was what Nunez describes as an “unprecedented cybersecurity attack campaign against SAP systems”. While a decade ago many have questioned whether threat actors even knew how to attack SAP systems, these recent attacks made it clear that criminals have the knowledge, intent and capabilities to do so. These zero-day exploits, targeting vulnerabilities that had not been patched or reported, made every SAP customer running vulnerable components susceptible with little ability to prevent an attack.
“In this specific campaign, we observed advanced cybercriminal groups, nation-state adversaries and opportunistic threat actors, all attacking SAP systems at the same time,” Nunez explains. Although SAP reacted quickly to provide patches or workarounds, which was highly-praised by Nunez, hundreds of SAP systems were ultimately compromised. This more than demonstrates the importance placed on compromising ERP systems by these types of threat actors, and that they can act on their knowledge.
A further complication to the attacks was that many vulnerable SAP systems were compromised before patches were available. This meant that, when patches were released, an organization could end up patching a system that was already compromised, something akin to locking the door only after a thief has already gained access and lurks in the basement, making full containment and secure restoration much more difficult. Given the significance of the vulnerabilities and the timeframe over which attacks occurred, from January to June, Nunez describes this as a “pivotal point in the SAP cybersecurity space”.
Gaurav Singh, Senior Manager SAP Cybersecurity at Under Armour, also put the spotlight on the recent zero-day issue impacting SAP systems. The challenge Singh highlighted is that patching takes time. For many SAP customers this starts with patching sandbox systems, then development, QA, and finally production. Because organizations need to ensure that applying a patch doesn’t result in anything disruptive to the environment, they’re not patching everything
at the same time. This leaves systems that are still open to attack until a patch is finally applied.
Anitha Meruga, Leader for Information Security at HD Supply, said that security threats have also evolved through social engineering attacks. “Social engineering is the biggest threat actor for any network, especially over the last five years as people have become so sophisticated,” states Meruga. “Phishing attacks using AI are one way that social engineering has become so common from a threat vector perspective, and we must ensure that our security protocols are sufficient. It is now imperative to ensure you can detect if a compromised identity is performing malicious activity inside your ERP systems. ”
Meruga also emphasizes how changed environments are impacting cybersecurity. “Many companies used to work on the basis that their ERP system is behind the firewall and network and identity security rules would come into play. But the cloud and AI have changed things drastically over the last 10 years, and intrusion points are completely different. We must ensure that we keep our core ERP systems secure against these evolved threats.”
Complicating the cybersecurity challenges for organizations are industry specific requirements. For example, organizations in the healthcare sector may encounter regulations and penalties that are much stronger than other companies and industries. Dsouza indicates a need for access entitlement platforms with stringent access controls, robust role-based access controls, and adherence to least privilege management. This is because pharmaceutical companies are protecting both their own confidential data as well as patient data. This makes it even more important to have robust security in place.
Despite the need for these types of controls, organizations can face challenges with securing executive support and necessary investment. Leadership teams may not be directly involved with security planning and may look at cybersecurity as a purely IT responsibility. This makes it necessary to take a different approach to help executives understand what is needed.
Leong says that he explains these needs with analogies. “Looking at ERP, for example, we treat it like jewelry. You can put up fences and alarms and lock your door, but once someone gets inside the house, you’re not going to have your jewelry lying on the table so they can access it, are you? You want it to be safe. Using firewalls and GRC tools
“WE JUST FACED AN UNPRECEDENTED WAVE OF CYBER ATTACKS ON SAP SYSTEMS. IT’S A TURNING POINT.”
“IMPLEMENT A DEFENSE IN DEPTH WITH MULTIPLE
is not enough anymore. You want to have another layer of protection for the most important thing, which is your ERP,” he states. “That’s how we discuss the program and the need for our ERP to be seamlessly integrated with our cybersecurity infrastructure for threat hunting or monitoring assets.”
This is something that Nunez has also encountered. However, he advises, when it comes down to business applications such as ERP, IT and Security teams can more easily connect cyber risk with business risk and avoid going deep into technical jargon senior leadership doesn’t care about. Nunez recommends that leaders use the opportunity that is presented by an ERP transformation or modernization project, which can have a budget of dozens or hundreds of millions of dollars, to explain how important it is to get security right from the beginning to protect this massive investment. Not only will this secure the systems that are part of the new paradigm, but, Nunez believes, it is possible to show how incorporating security from the beginning of the process can help CIOs accelerate the transformation project, avoiding last-minute security or compliance issues and rework that could jeopardize go-live dates and operational stability.
Securing ERP systems is vital, but that does not remove the need for ongoing innovation or transformation. Achieving those goals while maintaining robust security controls requires a mindset shift according to Singh. “Cybersecurity is not a onetime thing,” he stresses. “It needs to bring together the mindset of going beyond traditional security and then baking in security from phase zero.”
However, it’s important for organizations to understand that security is an evolving process. It’s not something that is done and then forgotten. Under Armour achieves this with a collaboration between cybersecurity, ERP security, and system administrators to create a governance body that comes together to ensure that they are aligned and able to empower the business to grow.
While cybersecurity can be used to support innovation, it is also important to note that cybersecurity capabilities are evolving. An example is using automation to gain a greater understanding of patching requirements. HD Supply uses the Onapsis Platform to better understand which SAP security patches are the most critical and need to be prioritized. This has helped the company catch up from being years behind on patching when it was using basic native controls. Automation also helps the company more effectively monitor activity in privileged SAP accounts and exploitation attempts.
Although innovation is important, it must be balanced against industry specific requirements. For pharmaceutical companies any sort of downtime can have a significant business impact, and an increase in ransomware attacks targeting ERP systems means that these organizations must be working on ways to reduce the risk of attacks, particularly those that impact the healthcare industry.
“As a healthcare company, any sort of compromise has the potential to disrupt a company’s business operations for months,” states Dsouza. “It could expose sensitive company information, as well as personally identifiable information (PII) or patients and customers. This reinforces how important it is to protect critical business operations which serve as a digital backbone of the company, particularly systems like SAP. In addition to technology and the partners we work with, we also continue to invest in employee awareness and education and have ramped up social engineering attack testing so that employees can be more vigilant about attacks.”
Working in an energy company, Leong has similar concerns. “We focus on the mindset that security comes first. How do we make security a day one operation? You ‘shift left’, and ensure that all new SAP systems and custom code is created securely from the start. And then, from a data perspective, we must ensure before we give out the data or access to the data, that we have identified the necessity, the role, and how the data is being used. Data privacy, role-based security, shift-left mindset, including security as the first discipline on all development, is our base as we continue to expand and digitalize our operation. Automation from solutions like Onapsis makes this possible. This approach not only reduces risk, but also saves time and money.”
With the transformation of ERP systems accelerating in recent years, leaders need a plan as to how they will secure their most valuable data while utilizing cloud-based solutions and leveraging technologies like AI.
To help prepare for the future, Dsouza offers three steps to CIOs and CISOs: “First is adopt a zero-trust approach by never trusting by default, preventing unauthorized access to your SAP system,” Dsouza highlights. “Then implement a defense in depth approach with multiple layers of security right for the SAP environment. This could
“YOU ARE STILL RESPONSIBLE FOR APPLICATION SECURITY IN THE CLOUD.”
Gaurav Singh UNDER ARMOUR
“READINESS AND THE RIGHT MINDSET ARE VITAL FOR HANDLING ANY INCIDENT.”
include specialized platforms like Onapsis which can add that critical protection for your SAP platform. And then, I would say, security is a journey. It’s not a one-time project.”
According to Meruga, achieving this will need strong executive support. “It’s important that you have the leaders who value the necessity to make sure that your business is resilient to this new type of ERP threats,” she says. “There will still be gaps, but if they are able to take that calculated risk beforehand, the business impact is going to be minimized. You also need to make sure you have the right plan, talent and solutions in place so you are prepared for any adversary.”
One important point that needs to be emphasized is that of understanding who is responsible for ERP security in the cloud. “As a customer it’s important to understand your responsibility when it comes to managed environments like RISE with SAP / SAP Cloud ERP Private,” explains Singh. “SAP is responsible for the environment level and system level, but the application level is still your responsibility as a customer. SAP is your partner from a security perspective, but a key takeaway is understanding their shared responsibility model and how it impacts you. Especially with application-level cyber-attacks that are becoming increasingly common.”
Lastly, as the use of AI becomes more commonplace, it can further increase potential risk if not managed securely. “We now have agents directly connected with ERP systems taking actions based on data,” Nunez states. “This makes it critical to protect the source data, the models, and all the agentic architecture that is connected to the ERP system.” Onapsis has invested over $100 million in research and development over the last four years to evolve their platform capabilities, controls, and automation to provide the most advanced ERP protection in an era where there were already billions of attacks happening each day, and now AI and the cloud further expand the attack surface.”
“Readiness and mindset are vital whether there’s a small incident or a large incident,” Leong states, underlining the need for executive support and preparedness in preparing for the future. “There are so many different scenarios and so many applications in the world, or in any organization, that preparation is key. Even if you follow all the guidelines, you follow up with all the patches and configuration, security incidents will still occur. The only constant is not if but when a cybersecurity incident will happen. In the cloud and AI age, hav-
ing the right plan, team, process and technology to quickly detect and respond to incidents affecting the ERP is a necessity.“
This is necessary to support a future for which organizations may not be entirely prepared. In the first half of 2025, Nunez saw advanced adversaries going after systems in ways that are extremely difficult to defend. But even beyond these most recent attacks, it is not unusual for a typical SAP penetration test to reveal that an attacker can gain full access to financial data, employee salaries, critical intellectual property, and even shutdown manufacturing. All without needing a username or password. This is often achieved not by exploiting recently revealed vulnerabilities or misconfigurations, but something where the system has been vulnerable to for five or more years. “While securing SAP is not easy, many of our customers are now remediating critical SAP vulnerabilities in less than seven days. It is a really hard conversation for CIOs to explain that a core SAP system was breached through a year old vulnerability they didn’t know about,” states Nunez.
Although more cybersecurity vendors are waking up to these challenges, their solutions may be doing everything but protecting the most important applications their customers have—their ERP solutions. Onapsis is working with many of these vendors on deep product integrations so that there is a way to provide a holistic view of security for customers, but Nunez says that without more embedded capabilities many vendors will end up with a blind spot around these most critical applications.
The most important step any organization can take to protect its ERP system is to start preparing now. Secure executive support. Embrace a new mindset when it comes to cybersecurity. Educate leadership teams on the potential impact of attacks. Implement a layered defense utilizing solutions like the Onapsis Platform. Work with trusted partners, such as Onapsis, that provide a more holistic view of security and comprise team members with deep cybersecurity and technology knowledge. But, whatever steps are taken, make sure they are started today.
Anitha Meruga
HD SUPPLY
“WE MUST ENSURE THAT WE KEEP OUR CORE ERP SYSTEMS SECURE AGAINST THESE EVOLVED THREATS.”
As CFOs and finance leaders push for greater agility, resilience, and efficiency, the concept of autonomous ERP is rapidly moving from buzzword to boardroom priority. For years, ERP systems have been the backbone of financial operations, dutifully recording transactions as a system of record, generating reports, and supporting compliance. But the next generation of ERP isn’t just about tracking the business—it’s about running it. As the era of self-driving ERP takes shape, forward-looking finance leaders will need to rethink their technology strategies, invest in intelligent platforms, and embrace the automation of strategic, not just operational, processes.
For decades, the finance function has been defined by processes that are crucial but often labor-intensive, complex, and slow to adapt. Today, ERP platforms like Unit4 are changing that paradigm by embedding Generative AI, automation, and machine learning into the financial core. This shift is transforming finance teams from transactional hubs into strategic enablers and longterm it will fulfil Unit4’s vi -
sion to reshape enterprise software by creating self-driving ERP – systems that free-up users from routine tasks so they can focus on work that drives impact, creativity and progress. For example, the University of Salford implemented Unit4’s ERP to gain real-time insights into funding, grants, and obligations, enabling efficient compliance with donor reporting requirements.
As a broad cross-functional and cross-industry trend, discussions have evolved from considering the role of generative AI to the potential of AI agents in ERP. The technology has the potential to see AI tools evolving from assisting roles to autonomous systems capable of executing complex tasks with minimal human intervention.
DISCUSSIONS HAVE EVOLVED FROM CONSIDERING THE ROLE OF GENERATIVE AI TO THE POTENTIAL OF AI AGENTS IN ERP.
Consider invoice management, a historically manual process. ERP platforms like Unit4 are rapidly transforming invoice management by streamlining everything from data capture to reconciliation, and embedding AI-assisted workflows natively, making invoice workflows faster, more accurate, and auditable in real time. With intelligent OCR, machine learning, and natural language processing, AI-enabled systems can now extract key fields from invoices, predict accounts and codes, flag discrepancies, and
even initiate approvals without human intervention, reducing invoice processing time and cutting exception handling.
Beyond transactional automation, autonomous ERP platforms are increasingly capable of proactive decision-support. Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) is undergoing a major shift—from spreadsheet-driven reporting to AI-powered data storytelling. According to Unit4’s 2025 whitepaper, 80% of FP&A leaders now prioritize actionable insights over raw data, and AI is emerging as the catalyst for that change. By combining predictive analytics with natural language generation (NLG), AI tools can now surface trends, identify anomalies, and translate complex data sets into digestible narratives tailored for decision-makers. Unit4’s FP&A software leverages these capabilities to help finance teams move from static dashboards to dynamic, personalized business narratives that drive real-time strategy. This level of financial foresight can dramatically improve working capital management and support faster, more informed strategic decisions. What sets platforms like Unit4 apart is their ability to embed predictive capabilities directly within core financial processes, rather than relying on disconnected, siloed point solutions, such as Excel spreadsheets. This integration
not only simplifies data flows but also ensures that finance leaders have access to timely insights without jumping between systems. The professional services sector—encompassing fields like consulting, legal, healthcare, accounting, and IT services—is particularly well-suited for autonomous ERP adoption due to its project-based nature and reliance on human capital.
For instance, Magnox Ltd., a UK nuclear decommissioning firm, transitioned its HCM and FP&A systems to Unit4’s cloud platform to boost agility, data visibility, and employee engagement. With support from Embridge Consulting, the shift enabled a 50% reduction in performance management time and laid the groundwork for real-time forecasting, centralized workforce planning, and scalable modernization. The transformation also catalyzed a cultural shift across Magnox’s 12 sites, producing a record 75% participation in engagement surveys
and over 22,000 employee comments— insights now powering the company’s forward-looking “Regeneration” plan focused on simplification, skills, infrastructure, and workforce strategy.
Unit4’s vision for self-driving ERP also supports complex project accounting, a critical capability for services-centric businesses. By automating time capture, budget updates, and billing processes, these systems free finance teams to focus on strategic activities rather than administrative tasks. For example, ALTEN Group, a global engineering consultancy, leveraged Unit4 ERP to streamline its complex, multinational project accounting processes. By implementing Unit4’s integrated project management and financial tools, ALTEN achieved enhanced visibility into project delivery and resource utilization across its global operations, leading to more efficient and transparent financial management.
In the race to stay competitive in in-
creasingly complex and uncertain global markets, finance leaders who cling to dated processes risk falling behind as their peers harness the full potential of autonomous ERP. The shift from static, backward-looking systems to intelligent, self-driving financial platforms isn’t a nice-to-have upgrade—it’s a strategic necessity. Those who invest in AI-powered financial platforms today will gain the agility to respond to market shifts, the foresight to anticipate disruptions, and the strategic advantage to lead in an era defined by real-time data and intelligent automation. All told, the global autonomous AI and autonomous agents market is expected to reach $70.5 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research.
• Focus on strategic automation. CFOs should prioritize platforms that automate not just routine tasks, but strategic processes like financial planning and project accounting. Agentic AI systems can autonomously analyze vast datasets, identify patterns, and generate accurate forecasts. This capability allows finance teams to simulate various scenarios, assess potential outcomes, and make informed decisions. For instance, AI-driven forecasting can improve accuracy by up to 20%, according to research by the McKinsey Global Institute, enabling organizations to anticipate
market shifts and adjust strategies proactively. Also, by continuously monitoring financial data and external factors, agentic AI can identify emerging risks and recommend mitigation strategies. And in project accounting, agentic AI can help automate time tracking, budget monitoring, and resource allocation, ensuring projects stay within budget and on schedule.
• Prioritize embedded intelligence. Choose ERP platforms that integrate predictive insights directly into core processes, reducing the need for costly third-party tools. And this intelligence should extend beyond just insights.
Companies in professional services, public sector and non-profit arenas should model and deploy finance use cases where co-pilots and autopilots offer recommendations and execute autonomous actions.
• Prepare for proactive finance. Invest in technologies that move beyond historical reporting to real-time insights and predictive forecasting. A recent study from Accenture highlights that companies embracing reinvention strategies, including AI adoption, achieved an average profit margin (EBITDA/revenue) 5.6 percentage points higher
than their peers between 2019 and 2022. Looking ahead, the adoption of AI in strategic finance is expected to continue its upward trajectory. Companies that scale AI effectively are poised to outperform their peers significantly. Research from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) indicates that modest investments in specific AI use cases can generate up to 6% more revenue, and with rising investments, the revenue impact from AI triples to 20% or more. And leading companies yield 3 percentage points more EBITDA, a lift of almost 30% compared with companies that fail to scale.
A modern Office of the CFO needs tools that cover multiple areas – from planning and analysis to financial close and group reporting. By joining forces, Aico, Mercur, and AARO together offer a comprehensive solution that makes work smoother, faster, and more reliable.
Automate manual tasks in the financial close, including reconciliations, journal entries, and intercompany transactions.
Reduce errors and strengthen control with standardised workflows and automated checks. Integrates easily with SAP and other ERP systems.
Free up time for the finance team to focus on analysis and strategic initiatives by eliminating repetitive tasks. Become less dependant on IT.
Bring together budgeting,forecasting and analysis in a single system. Faster reporting, fewer errors, and stronger decision support.
Connect financial and operational data directly from existing systems. Gain a single source of truth and real-time insights via dashboars..
With shared workflows and real-time insights, planning and follow-up become simpler and more efficient.
”We want to give the Office of the CFO tools that feel like a natural extension of the way they work – not yet another system to learn. When planning, analysis, close, and reporting are seamlessly connected, we free up time, reduce the risk of errors, and give the team the opportunity to focus on what truly drives the business forward .”
Michael Teixeira, Group CEO
Streamline complex group reporting and ensure compliance with various accounting standards (IFRS, GAAP).
Automated data consolidation in real time – regardless of the number of companies, currencies, or ERP systems involved. Make decisions based on up-to-date information.
Make all entries traceable – from source data to final report. This simplifies audits, strengthens control, and builds trust.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementations are notoriously complex, often requiring months—or even years—of planning, configuration, and integration. But amid all the talk of data migration, system customization, and deployment strategies, one critical element is too often overlooked: the end user. Fudgelearn, a UK-based training consultancy founded in 2017, is on a mission to change that.
Fudgelearn’s co-founder Tony Cook has been a fixture at Oracle conferences since the mid-1990s. Over the years, he noticed a trend. “Discussions at these events always focused on technology—integrations, configurations, implementations. But almost never on the people who actually have to use the system,” he says.
That observation became the driving force behind Fudgelearn. The company fills a critical gap in the ERP space, offering tailored training solutions that empower users to understand, adopt, and excel with their new systems. “When companies invest millions in complex ERP or HCM solutions, ensuring a return on that investment depends on user adoption,” Cook explains. “And that starts with training.”
Historically, training during ERP rollouts has relied on the “train-the-trainer” model, where knowledge is passed from system integrators to internal program teams, who then attempt to cascade it to the wider organization. Fudgelearn saw the limitations of this model early on.
“It’s like a game of telephone—the original message becomes less clear with every retelling,” Cook says. Instead, Fudgelearn provides direct-touser training strategies, supported by modern tools and a team of seasoned professionals who understand both the technology and the user experience.
This people-first philosophy underpins every client engagement, from on-site sessions to blended learning programs as Oracle Guided Learning implementation partners that combine virtual training, customized documentation, and real-time in-app guidance.
In response to increasing demand for flexible, accessible learning, Fudgelearn launched the Fudgelearn Academy— a free educational platform that serves both business leaders and everyday users. The Academy offers webinars, e-learning snippets, downloadable guides, and product demonstrations, all designed to drive community engagement and foster a culture of continuous learning.
“We created it as a resource hub for the Oracle user community,” Cook says. “It’s not about selling—it’s about sharing knowledge, building connections, and helping users get the most out of their systems.”
One of the most significant advancements in enterprise training has come in the form of artificial intelligence.
Fudgelearn has embraced this shift through a strategic partnership with ClickLearn, a software vendor whose platform enables rapid content creation, simulation-based learning environments, and multilingual support through AI-powered features like voiceto-text, auto-translation, and automatic video recording.
“This kind of AI integration changes the game,” Cook says. “We can now create, update, and deploy training content faster and more cost-effectively. If a process changes, we can simply edit the text and regenerate the training materials using AI-driven voiceovers. It removes complexity and ensures consistency.”
This approach not only accelerates project timelines but also enhances the learner experience, offering tailored, real-time assistance that supports users beyond initial go-live—especially important in today’s rapidly evolving cloud environments.
“WHEN COMPANIES INVEST MILLIONS IN COMPLEX ERP SOLUTIONS, ENSURING AN ROI DEPENDS ON USER ADOPTION.”
A standout example of Fudgelearn’s work is their engagement with Travis Perkins, one of the UK’s largest suppliers of building materials. The company needed training support during a major Oracle implementation. Fudgelearn provided a blended model—virtual and in-person sessions—along with custom documentation and the integration of Oracle Guided Learning, which delivers step-by-step assistance directly within the application.
“It’s about providing support where and when users need it most—while they’re actually doing the work,” Cook explains.
The results? Reduced reliance on Help Desk resources and greater user confidence, which translates into more efficient operations and lower support costs.
Too often, training is seen as a “nice to have” rather than a mission-critical component of digital transformation. Fudgelearn challenges that mindset by delivering tangible return on investment.
“When users don’t know how to use the system, they call the Help Desk,” Cook says. “Each service ticket can cost £12-13 to process. Multiply that by thousands of users, and you’re looking at an enormous expense that could have been avoided through effective training.”
Fudgelearn helps organizations avoid these downstream costs while also improving user satisfaction and adoption rates. Their track record includes global programs with Ricoh, public sector projects, financial services work with Schroders, and multilingual training rollouts across Europe.
Supporting Continuous Learning ERP systems in the cloud are updated frequently, often several times a year. This constant evolution makes a oneand-done training approach obsolete. “The days of big-bang training before
go-live are over,” says Cook. “You need a strategy for supporting users in business-as-usual operations, long after deployment.”
That’s why Fudgelearn encourages the use of digital adoption platforms that guide users through workflows and deliver continuous learning opportunities. “It’s not just about launch day—it’s about long-term adoption and operational success,” says Cook.
a vast content library that accelerates training timelines.”
Unlike competitors who may offer slices of the solution, Fudgelearn offers the full package—strategy, content, technology, and delivery—all tailored to the unique needs of each organization.
And it’s working. “One of our trainers recently received a standing ovation at the end of a session,” Cook recalls. “That’s almost unheard of. But the biggest compliment is when customers come back and ask us to support their next project.”
“WE CAN NOW CREATE, UPDATE, AND DEPLOY TRAINING CONTEN T FASTER AND MORE COST-EFFECTIVELY.”
TONY COOK, CO-FOUNDER, FUDGELEARN
While Oracle remains a core focus, Fudgelearn is actively expanding its services across other major platforms like Microsoft, SAP, and Workday. “What we do is translatable,” Cook says. “An ERP is an ERP. What matters is understanding the user and creating the right training for their needs.”
The company is already engaged in early-stage projects outside of Oracle and is eager to broaden its horizons. “We’re opening our doors to everyone,” Cook adds. “Our goal is to support digital transformation across the enterprise ecosystem.”
In a crowded market of training consultancies and e-learning vendors, Fudgelearn distinguishes itself through its holistic approach. “We lead with people, not technology,” Cook says. “We work closely with clients and system integrators, bringing together deep experience, flexible delivery models, and
Of course, no profile of Fudgelearn would be complete without asking about the name. “Every trainingrelated brand name was taken,” Cook laughs. “We liked the word ‘fudge’ because it represents blending. It also gave us a bit of cheeky irony—we’re the company that doesn’t fudge your training.”
And it turns out, that memorable name has become an asset in a market full of generic alternatives.
While technology plays a key role in Fudgelearn’s offering, Cook credits the company’s success to its team. “We have a fantastic mix of experienced professionals and rising talent,” he says. “They’re the ones who win the hearts and minds of our clients. Their dedication, creativity, and innovation are what make us who we are.”
As digital transformation continues to reshape the enterprise landscape, one thing is clear: Fudgelearn’s people-first, tech-enabled approach to ERP training is a model worth emulating.
Learn more about Fudgelearn
How a key industry award fueled SAP’s momentum in the race for AI and cloud dominance.
When SAP claimed the coveted ERP Today ERP Vendor of the Year award in 2024, it wasn’t another trophy for ERP giant’s mantelpiece. According to James Bates, Head of Industry and Customer Advisory for SAP UKI, the recognition has become a powerful catalyst for deeper strategic conversations and accelerated market momentum towards SAP’s cloud transformation mission. For SAP, the 2024 ERP Vendor of the Year award has become a launchpad for accelerated innovation and market expansion in the AI-driven enterprise era.
“Winning the ERP Today Vendor of the Year award has re-affirmed SAP as the partner of choice for organizations transitioning to the cloud,” Bates explains. But beyond the obvious prestige, the award has served as tangible proof of industry leadership when engaging prospects and expanding SAP’s ecosystem reach.
The timing couldn’t be better. As organizations grapple with legacy system limitations and seek AI-powered transforma -
tion, SAP’s award-winning foundation has provided the credibility boost needed to attract major enterprise customers. This includes high-profile wins like BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, which was showcased at SAP’s Sapphire conference in May this year. The event drew 18,000 customers, experts, and thought leaders.
While awards provide validation, the real test lies in continuous innovation. SAP hasn’t rested on its laurels, instead doubling down on the capabilities that earned the recognition in the first place. The most significant development? The launch of SAP Business Data Cloud, designed to help organizations unlock their data’s full potential while delivering AI-powered insights.
Today’s disconnected IT landscape makes it difficult for many organizations to take advantage of AI and the agentic experience.
JAMES BATES, HEAD OF INDUSTRY AND CUSTOMER ADVISORY FOR SAP UKI
SAP’s AI assistant. What started as a helpful copilot has become what Bates describes as “virtually omnipresent.” Joules is helping companies enhance decision-making and automation while ensuring operations remain efficient and sustainable. Companies like Spirit Energy are already exploring how these AI tools can build more intelligent and dynamic enterprise environments.
“With organizations increasingly looking for greater returns on AI, our launch of SAP Business Data Cloud helps businesses unleash their full potential,” Bates notes. The platform’s partnership with Databricks creates an intrinsic connection between data products and AI models, delivering advanced analytics across core business operations from finance to human resources.
Perhaps most transformative is the evolution of Joule,
Customer outcomes tell the most compelling story of SAP’s post-award trajectory. The company is witnessing unprecedented demand from organizations seeking to migrate from legacy ERP environments while simplifying and uniting data operations across HR, finance, procurement, and sales.
The public sector provides a particularly striking example. SAP’s work with the Unity Programme, which serves HM Revenue and Customs, the Department of Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, will positively impact more than 100,000 civil servants by reducing manual, time-
consuming administrative processes.
Education represents another growth area. Inspired Education Group’s renewal of its SAP SuccessFactors deployment now streamlines HR operations for 14,000 employees across six continents. The integration of Joule supports better recruitment, talent retention, and overall employee experience. This demonstrates how AI enhancement translates to measurable business outcomes.
These wins reflect a broader pattern. According to Bates, “Organizations across industries are prioritizing cloud migration not just for technological advantages, but for the operational simplification and AI readiness that modern ERP platforms provide.”
The Cloud-First Future
Looking ahead, SAP’s vision centers on helping more businesses complete their cloud journey while leveraging AI-powered innovations. “Today’s disconnected IT landscape makes it difficult for many organizations to take advantage of AI and the agentic experience,” Bates emphasizes.
• Time for strategic investment is now. The convergence of SAP’s award recognition and accelerated AI capabilities creates a unique window for organizations considering ERP transformation. Recent market research indicates that 70% of enterprises will increase their ERP cloud investments by 2026, with AI integration being a primary driver. Business leaders should evaluate current legacy system limitations against SAP’s proven track record and advancing AI capabilities. The Unity Programme’s impact on 100,000+ civil servants demonstrates scalable transformation potential across sectors. Don’t forget to submit your organization’s ERP transformation stories for the 2025 ERP Today Awards.
• Consider AI-first ERP strategy. SAP’s commitment to managing 80% of transactions through Joule represents a fundamental shift toward agentic AI in enterprise operations. Some forecasts predict that AI-augmented ERP deployments will grow by 45% annually through 2027, making early adoption crucial for a competitive advantage. Technology leaders should prioritize
SAP has committed that 80% of its most-used transactions will be managed via Joule, and the company has already delivered more than 1,600 skills support The numbers support this ambition. SAP has committed that 80% of its most-used transactions will be managed via Joule, and the company has already delivered more than 1,600 skills supporting tasks across HR, finance, and supply chain operations.
Innovations like Joule Everywhere, Spend Control Tower, and the Business Data Cloud represent more than feature
vendors demonstrating tangible AI integration rather than superficial features. SAP’s 1,600+ Joule skills across HR, finance, and supply chain operations provide concrete evidence of AI maturity beyond marketing promises. Don’t forget to submit your organization’s AI-first transformation stories for the 2025 ERP Today Awards.
• Stay the course with cloud migration acceleration. Organizations seeking unified data operations across HR, finance, procurement, and sales aligns with recent research findings that show 65% of enterprises will prioritize data integration over feature richness in ERP selection in 2025. Leaders should focus on platforms offering harmonized data models and outof-the-box integration rather than point solutions requiring extensive customization. SAP’s Business Data Cloud partnership with Databricks exemplifies the integrated approach necessary for successful AI deployment. Don’t forget to submit your organization for consideration for the Data & Analytics Powerhouse award as part of the 2025 ERP Today Awards.
additions. They are building blocks for a harmonized data model that enables faster decision-making and reduced complexity. This integrated approach positions SAP as an enabler of intelligent enterprise transformation.
The award-winning foundation continues to support these ambitions by providing the credibility and market recognition necessary to attract large-scale deployments. As Bates notes, the recognition serves as a “valuable proof of our industry leadership” when expanding into new markets and verticals.
A STRATEGIC MOVE ISN’T JUST ABOUT SAVING MONEY BUT ABOUT GAINING AN EDGE BY GENERATING
A PATH TO COST TAKEOUT THROUGH CLOUD
INFRASTRUCTURE MIGRATION
BY CRAIG POWERS
Enterprise systems are essential for function, and that has only become truer in the era where digital, data-driven business is not a competitive advantage but a prerequisite for even competing. These systems are so vital that once they are implemented, many of the costs are accepted as necessary, and changing anything for the sake of savings, particularly on the infrastructure side, might be more of a headache than they are worth. That was more likely to be true in the on-premises era of enterprise technology. However, cloud infrastructures have created more of an appetite for migrating to new infrastructures in search of cost reduction.
A growing number of technology leaders are seeking “cost takeout” strategies to reevaluate the financial math of enterprise systems. While cost takeout might just sound like a synonym for cost-cutting, there is a difference. Cost-cutting is generally more aggressive and is done in the name of reducing expenditures, even when it reduces capabilities. Cost takeout, on the other hand, is more strategic in nature. It involves right-sizing, consolidating redundancies, removing waste, and improving efficiency. Many companies are finding that moving to a new infrastructure-as-a-service provider provides them with the opportunity to undergo cost takeout, reducing the overall investment in their enterprise systems without compromising functionality. Furthermore, companies are taking advantage of cost takeout to “self-fund” the next wave of business transformation with data and AI.
Cost takeout strategies can also be part of a larger effort to fix infrastructure issues. For example, one mid-market CRM and ERP vendor that hosts its offerings on cloud infrastructure was facing challenges with their provider around database management, performance, support, and licensing.
The company dealt with issues around costly manual configuration and maintenance, which also led to development delays. There was limited performance during peak periods, slower-thanexpected ticketing resolution, and a challenging and complicated licensing model with administrative overheads that wouldn’t work as the company looked to grow its SaaS offerings.
To fix these issues and in an effort to reduce costs, the CRM and ERP provider migrated to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). It began with one development environment as a three-month proof of concept, but eventually, the entire production environment was moved to OCI
The results of the infrastructure migration were encouraging—the company reports a 30% boost in productivity, a 25% improvement in cost efficiencies, and a 30% savings in costs associated with database monitoring, patching, upgrading, and management. Its CRM offering is able to scale more effectively for peak periods, and additional CPU is paid for only on a per-use basis. The licensing structure associated with OCI also removed the need to create separate agreements for additional instances, creating up to a 50% cost reduction per new license. They are also finding benefits in better support.
In another project, a global education services company with more than 100,000 student users in more than 1,000 high schools found that its cloud infrastructure was struggling to handle a growing base of users, resulting in insufficient memory and computing resources. There were multiple service outages impacting all customers, and the company’s infrastructure wasn’t meeting the demands of peak times. To solve this issue, they sought to expand capacity while also taking out infrastructure costs.
Much like the CRM and ERP provider, the educational services company underwent a proof-ofconcept period and determined it would move to OCI, along with its previous infrastructure service. Through the two-day migration, the company reduced its monthly infrastructure usage costs by 30%. With a foundation that could handle peak traffic, support hours were reduced by 80%. Onboarding for new students and partners was also improved through better service availability.
Another example is a retail optimization provider migrated to OCI with an objective to give its customers the ability to reduce labor costs. The OCI migration allowed them to speed up the adoption of the company’s application, resulting
in a 40% reduction of labor costs related to implementing their products.
A final example, a large IT staffing organization migrated its Customer Management System (CMS) on a MySQL database to OCI in the quest for a multi-cloud option and to combat limited resources in the ability to stay up-to-date with MySQL security releases. The staffing provider was able to build a multi-cloud environment and achieved a 75% cost reduction while experiencing better performance and scalability.
Maximizing cost takeout requires more than a liftand-shift migration. Organizations should examine where costs can be reduced, including areas such as infrastructure spend, licensing, data transfer patterns, and administrative workloads. Any potential savings should be validated through proofs of concept before taking on larger-scale projects.
It’s not just about the savings of running a new cloud infrastructure, the cost of the migration needs to be factored into the cost takeout equation and business case. Migration costs include data transfer, testing, and cutover planning. It is important to implement governance policies, tagging strategies, and automated instance scheduling at the beginning of the project to track that costs are actually matching projections. There is external help for this analysis, such as IBM’s approach, which provides Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis for OCI.
On the people side, IT and line of business teams
BE
OF A
must work together throughout the process of migrating cloud infrastructure. Cost takeout is a joint effort of IT and finance that touches contract negotiations, procurement strategy, support arrangements, and operational workflows. When managed as a joint program, the financial and operational benefits are optimized.
Spending expectations on cloud infrastructure are shifting, and companies aren’t just assuming that there are high costs associated with their critical systems that must be absorbed. Those that identify cost takeout opportunities will be better positioned to reinvest savings into innovation and growth. Cost takeout is the chance to reduce the financial profile of these enterprise systems while potentially enjoying operational benefits of a new cloud infrastructure at the same time.
Learn more about Oracle + IBM
• Don’t be afraid to reexamine the costs associated with running your critical systems. While migration to new infrastructure may sound daunting, it is much more achievable in cloud deployments. Explore your options, look into different providers, and ensure you are getting the best deal and the best performance.
• If a proof of concept (POC) is required, start with areas that can be extended rather than a throw-away POC. Companies that achieved cost takeout through a cloud infrastructure shift began by migrating a non-critical module or non-production environments as a proof-of-concept. This
allowed them to measure performance, getting a better idea of costs, and set the foundation for better user adoption down the line.
• Develop a comprehensive total-cost model to evaluate if you will achieve true cost takeout in your migration. Consider not just the cost
of infrastructure usage, but also the different license reuse policies, the level of support needed, the amount of downtime expected, as well as the cost of actually migrating your systems. Include lines of business in the conversation when developing the business case and consider external help for TCO analysis.
How LPGA is teeing up a future-ready finance team.
BY RADHIKA OJHA
When you think of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), you might picture championship swings on perfectly manicured fairways. But behind the glamour of the tour is a complex, multi-layered global business navigating the same intense financial pressures as any other international enterprise.
For Mary Salter, LPGA’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), steering this operation meant confronting a hazard that wasn’t on the course: a legacy finance system holding her team back. Navigating the risks of on-premises servers and cumbersome manual processes required a new kind of caddie that was powered by modern technology.
“Prior to Sage Intacct, we were on an older Sage product,” Salter explained during an interview with ERP Today. “Our data was on a local server, and we’d heard about some other organizations that were having these cybersecurity breaches, so we knew we needed to address security. Moreover, we found that just transacting in the old system had become cumbersome, and we were even doing bank recs in Excel, which was a bit antiquated.”
According to Salter, the move to Sage Intacct was, therefore, about mitigating risk and fundamentally changing the finance team’s role from scorekeepers to strategic players.
For Salter, the actual value of any technology is measured in the one resource you can’t buy: time. The goal was to automate the mundane to free up her team for more impactful work.
“Any right technology tool should give you time back, so you can use and repurpose it to do more strategic things or process improvements, or tasks that can drive the business forward,” Salter stated.
This philosophy extended beyond the finance department. By implementing a system with accessible dashboards and streamlined check requests, managers across the LPGA were empowered. The efficiency gains were not isolated in a single department but radiated throughout the organization, allowing everyone to focus on what truly matters.
However, implementing a new system is one thing; trusting it is another. This is especially true when introducing concepts like AI and automation. For Salter, trust was the linchpin for successful adoption. “Can I trust the outputs? Can I trust what the system is producing?” she asked, voicing a concern many finance leaders share when evaluating new technology.
The proof came from tangible results. A prime example was the month-end
Any right technology tool should give you time back.”
MARY SALTER CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, LPGA
closing, a notoriously painful process for any organization with multiple subsidiaries. Salter said that the LPGA has five, including three international entities.
“Consolidation took days before the new system,” Salter recalled. “Once we shifted to Sage Intacct, consolidation began to take minutes instead of days and was very reliable and trustworthy. We’ve now reduced the close time by 50%.”
Salter added that when presenting financials to the board or executive leadership, she could stand behind the numbers with absolute certainty, backed by a system that worked flawlessly under pressure.
One of the most compelling aspects of the LPGA’s journey is its pragmatic, piece-by-piece approach to modernization. Rather than a disruptive big bang implementation, the LPGA adopted capabilities as its needs evolved.
Salter pointed to a specific example at LPGA’s UK subsidiary. At the time of implementation, the subsidiary’s existing Sage 300 product was better suited for local VAT tax requirements. Instead of forcing a fit, they waited. “We pivoted and decided not to put our UK subsidiary on Sage Intacct until the product could be further developed,” she said.
This forward-looking, adaptable approach excites Salter the most. “I love a partner that is not just meeting you where you are but providing something that you didn’t even know you needed,” she remarked.
For the LPGA, finance transformation is not the end goal. It’s a critical enabler of its core mission. As Salter concluded, “Our mission is simple: to empower women and change their lives through the game of golf. So, if anyone can come alongside us and help drive that mission home, we’re excited about that opportunity.”
• Embrace composable ERP as a practical reality. The monolithic, all-or-nothing ERP implementation is no longer the only path. The LPGA’s decision to temporarily keep its UK subsidiary on a different system demonstrates the power of a flexible, phased approach. For ERP professionals, this means focusing on incremental value and choosing partners that allow building a tech stack that fits the business’s unique, evolving needs rather than forcing the company to fit the software.
• User trust is the gateway to AI adoption. Sage’s investment in AI and tools like Sage Copilot is exciting, but Salter’s perspective underscores a critical truth: adoption hinges on trust. Before finance teams embrace AI for complex forecasting, the system must prove its reliability on foundational tasks. By automating and perfecting processes like financial consolidation, Sage is building the credibility needed for users to trust its AI-driven insights eventually. The lesson is clear: build trust in the basics first, and the leap to advanced AI will feel like a natural next step, not a risk.
• The true ROI of ERP is redeployed human intellect. The modern ERP’s most powerful business case is process efficiency and elevating the human workforce. Salter’s focus on giving time back so her team can drive the business forward is the goal for most finance organizations. For ERP professionals building an investment case, the narrative should shift from cost savings to value creation. A successful implementation unleashes an organization’s workforce from the drudgery of manual tasks to focus on strategic analysis, innovation, and direct impact on the organization’s mission.
INETUM REDEFINES TRANSFORMATION THROUGH PLATFORM ECOSYSTEMS AND AI INNOVATION
“WHEN WE SPEAK OF TRANSFORMATION, IT’S ABOUT HARMONIZING TECHNOLOGY WITH BUSINESS—NOT JUST IMPLEMENTING SOFTWARE. WE TAKE A PLATFORM-CENTRIC VIEW, INTEGRATING BEST-IN-CLASS SOLUTIONS ACROSS THE VALUE CHAIN.”
HEMANT
LAMBA CEO OF INETUM SOLUTIONS
In a market oversaturated with digital transformation promises, Inetum is striving to deliver tangible results for its primarily European clients with precision, clarity and consistency. Under the strategic leadership of Kathy Quashie, EVP and CEO of Inetum Growing Markets and Hemant Lamba, CEO of Inetum Solutions worldwide, the European digital services company is not just participating in the transformation conversation — it is shaping it.
With an ambitious yet focused approach, Inetum is leveraging its platform-based strategy, deep client intimacy, and differentiated delivery model to create meaningful business outcomes across Europe and growing markets. Quashie emphasizes, “From public sector modernization to AI-enabled service innovation, Inetum is positioning itself as a scalable and trusted partner.
“Digital” is a term that’s lost much of its punch through overuse. For Inetum, however, digital transformation isn’t a nebulous aspiration — it’s a defined, data-driven strategy anchored in three principles: cloud-first, data-first, and AI-first.
“When we speak of transformation, it’s about harmonizing technology with business—not just implementing software,” explains Lamba. “We take a platform-centric view, integrating best-in-class solu-
CLOUD PLATFORM
tions like ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft, and across the value chain. That’s where real impact begins.”
This strategy emphasizes seamless integration—from customer acquisition and internal employee experience to backend supply chain and compliance. What sets Inetum apart is its dedication not only to the mid-market and public sector but also to verticalization. We develop industry-specific use cases in areas such as e-health, Industry 4.0, utilities, smart cities, retail, and telecom. This approach ensures that transformation initiatives are not only technical but intimately aligned with industry needs.
With GenAI and Agentic AI reshaping enterprise value propositions, Inetum has taken a decisive step toward embedding these technologies into its core offerings.
“Innovation is in our DNA,” says Lamba, who also oversees the group’s innovation labs. “We don’t just experiment with GenAI — we’ve built an internal GenAI Hub that is LLM-agnostic and designed to scale. From training to deployment, we help our clients be AIready, not just AI-curious.”
The company’s “AI readiness” model begins with robust data foundations, followed by cloud optimization and platform alignment. It’s a pragmatic model that rejects “proof-of-concept fatigue” — a trap many organizations fall into when AI projects stall after initial tests.
Inetum’s enterprise AI solutions range from predictive analytics and workflow automation to Agentic AI that enables autonomous decision-making within defined business constraints. Its early selection by ServiceNow as one of the top 10 partners to pilot its Agentic AI use cases further underscores Inetum’s credentials.
Inetum focuses squarely on markets where it can build depth, not just breadth. Nearly 100% of its business is concentrated in Europe, particularly in midmarket enterprises and the public sector.
“We’ve worked closely with regional governments and public institutions,” Quashie notes. “We speak the languages, understand the regulations, and build intimacy at a regional level.”
This intimacy fuels trust—an asset Inetum cultivates deliberately. Its bestshore strategy, a hybrid of nearshore, offshore, and on-site delivery, reflects this client-centric ethos. Whether it’s leveraging SAP expertise from Portugal
“FOCUS IS OUR SUPERPOWER. WE’RE NOT TRYING TO BE EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE. WE’RE SOLVING REAL PROBLEMS IN SECTORS WE UNDERSTAND DEEPLY.”
KATHY QUASHIE EVP AND CEO OF INETUM GROWING MARKETS
or deploying ServiceNow talent from Bulgaria and India, the company offers flexibility without compromising cultural relevance or quality.
To Quashie and Lamba, culture is more than a corporate cliché—it’s a competitive differentiator. Both have gathered leadership across geographies to co-create trust-focused team norms, emphasizing trust, accountability, and excellence.
“In a high-trust environment, people are empowered to innovate and take responsibility,” Lamba explains. “Culture
isn’t taught—it’s experienced.”
Quashie echoes this sentiment, pointing to Inetum’s strategic bet on the UK and Ireland (UKI) as a proving ground for cultural and operational cohesion. With Inetum’s acquisition of ServiceNow specialist Unifii, the UKI market has become a launchpad for its broader strategy of organic growth in the growing markets.
Despite operating in a competitive landscape, Inetum’s growth strategy avoids the pitfalls of undisciplined expansion. Instead, it targets high-potential regions like the UK and Ireland, combining local acquisitions with innovation labs and deep partner ecosystems.
Their success in public sector IT has been bolstered by the UK government’s BOS2 framework (RM6285), G-Cloud 14 and DOS 6, giving Inetum direct access to public sector procurement for cloud and hybrid SaaS solutions. These strategic footholds are part of a deliberate plan to replicate their proven European model in newer markets.
“Focus is our superpower,” Quashie notes. “We’re not trying to be everything to everyone. We’re solving real problems in sectors we understand deeply.”
With over 7,000 experts in its Solutions unit and a goal to double its team size in the coming years, Inetum places massive emphasis on capability building. Its 2025 certification strategy aims to ensure 100% of consultants are certified across its four core platforms— ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft.
Regional hubs such as Bulgaria (ServiceNow), Portugal (SAP), and Belgium (Microsoft) are not only delivery centers but also Centers of Excellence. These hubs enable Inetum to execute at scale while retaining regional specificity, a balance few competitors manage well.
Moreover, each hub operates with internal academies and innovation labs. We have seven GenAI Hubs across Europe to accelerate learning and product development in tandem.
Lamba acknowledges the industry-wide fatigue around AI. “There’s too much ‘death by POC,’” he quips. “Everyone is experimenting, but few are scaling. Our approach is grounded—we ask: What is the business case? Are you AI-ready? If not, we get you there.”
Inetum’s GenAI Factory is a cornerstone of this effort, offering enterprises a structured way to develop, deploy, and scale generative and agentic AI solutions across their platforms. This includes industry-specific applications already live in ServiceNow’s marketplace.
Lamba stresses, “Crucially, Inetum’s AI approach is enterprise-first. Inetum helps clients bridge structured and unstructured data environments, a key hurdle in most GenAI implementations. Whether dealing with legacy databases
or real-time cloud services, the goal is to unify and extract value seamlessly”. Security is also paramount. As AI expands, so do the risks. Inetum’s AI roadmap includes a strong focus on zero-trust frameworks and cybersecurity, integrating safety protocols from day one.
Inetum’s ambitions are bold: to be the uncontested leader in digital transformation for Europe’s upper mid-market and public sector. Yet, it’s the clarity of execution that’s winning clients. Its playbook is repeatable: start with client intimacy, build on trusted platforms, layer in AI and data, and deliver through a blended nearshore/onshore model. It’s a strategy grounded in execution, not hype.
As Lamba puts it, “We’re not interested in being the loudest voice—we
want to be the most dependable one.” Inetum’s story is not one of radical reinvention but one of focused excellence. For C-level leaders navigating a complex landscape of AI promises, hybrid cloud realities, and digital fatigue, Inetum offers a model worth emulating: pragmatic innovation, deeply local engagement, and an uncompromising focus on results. At a time when many digital transformation narratives are fraying under scrutiny, Inetum’s is just beginning to unfold—with clarity, credibility, and a roadmap built not just for growth, but for trust.
Learn more about Inetum
• Focus on industryspecific solutions and deep platform integration. Inetum’s competitive advantage lies in its verticalization strategy (developing industryspecific use cases) and its platform-centric approach, integrating best-in-class solutions like ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft. The company focuses on understanding the unique needs of specific industries like smart cities, e-health or utilities, for example, and ensuring seamless integration of ERP systems within a broader digital ecosystem. As Quashie aptly summarized, “Thus, seeking partners, like Inetum, who not only
implement ERP but also possess deep industry knowledge and a proven track record for delivering tangible business outcomes.”
• Emphasize client intimacy and a trustfocused culture for true success. Deep client intimacy, particularly within the European mid-market and public sector, leveraging regional understanding and a blended delivery model are some of the hallmarks that have made Inetum successful. As Quashie and Lamba point out, their internal culture emphasizes trust, accountability, and excellence. This underscores the value
of prioritizing strong, long-term relationships, understanding regional context and regulations, and fostering a collaborative and trustworthy engagement. All these factors can result in more tailored ERP implementations and ongoing support that aligns with an organization’s specific needs and cultural nuances.
• Focus on AI readiness and scalability for pragmatic innovation. Inetum’s approach to innovation, particularly with AI, emphasizes practical application and scalability rather than just experimentation. Their “AI
readiness” model, starting with data foundations and cloud optimization, aims to avoid “proof-ofconcept fatigue.” This highlights the fact that when organizations seek implementation partners, they must look for one that can guide them through a structured AI adoption journey, ensuring their data and infrastructure are prepared for AI integration. The partner should help the organization focus on solutions that can be scaled for real business impact within their ERP landscape and beyond. This is what Inetum’s mission is all aboutto help our customers transform potential into performance.
BY EDWARD SANDER
When people hear the term “community banker,” they often picture a local branch manager who knows nearly every customer by name and understands their key financial milestones — buying a home, financing a car, saving for college or planning a family vacation.
Since the early 2000s, the expansion of national banking brands has significantly reshaped retail banking, moving away from the era of community banking and relationship-driven service. Accelerating this shift are retail marketplaces, which have conditioned consumers to expect a full suite of products, personalized and instantly accessible, at their fingertips.
In this environment, delivering personalization that connects consumers with the right product recommendations and financial content throughout their life journey has become the gold standard in banking—a benchmark pursued by both global giants and regional institutions alike.
All banks face growing threats from FinTech companies that deliver hyper-personalized financial services—often at lower fees and with frictionless user experiences. These companies thrive by offering financial products and services at key moments in the customer journey, helping consumers complete purchases seamlessly—often without ever needing to speak to a live person.
For example, a popular search platform now offers a “Buy now” feature that allows consumers to purchase products directly from the search results page. A user can complete an entire transaction without ever visiting a retailer’s website, effectively bypassing the traditional retail broker or salesperson in the process. Additionally, this search engine recently introduced an AI-powered agentic checkout system that can complete the checkout on a user’s behalf when certain conditions are met— like a price drop—using saved payment details to finalize the purchase.
Meanwhile, traditional banks—despite possess-
ing the consumer data and relationships FinTechs often lack—struggle to translate that data into actionable insights. Many fall short in using technology to deepen customer understanding and to effectively convert insights into cross-sell and upsell opportunities.
To keep pace, many consumer banks are racing to optimize product and service delivery across digital channels while striving to create a unified user experience. By 2025, an estimated 216 million US customers will be using mobile and online banking services. But delivering a truly comprehensive digital experience requires more than basic functionality. It spans seamless onboarding, personalized financial content, a broad suite of product offerings and intelligent product matching—all critical to meeting modern consumer expectations and ultimately driving deeper engagement and higher lifetime value.
Cybersecurity risks and an increasingly complex regulatory landscape are two of the most pressing challenges retail banks will face in the coming years—both play critical roles in a rapidly evolving digital environment. Data breaches and cyber threats can compromise customer information, damage reputations, and lead to significant financial losses for both customers and banks.
Alongside the growing threat of cyber attacks, the need to comply with shifting regulations—particularly those around data privacy and anti-money laundering—can continue to strain the operational capability of banks, especially smaller institutions. The paradox retail banks face is that these risks are only the starting point; to deliver effective, modern digital experiences, institutions must also modernize the infrastructure that supports them.
While much of the digital investment has focused on the front office—enhancing customer-facing apps and interfaces—the benefits of digitization must extend deeper. Modernizing core infrastructure allows banks to realize dual benefits: operational efficiency and stronger risk management. By streamlining back-office processes, automating manual workflows and integrating intelligent compliance tools, banks can not only lower costs but also improve their ability to detect and manage risk—creating a more resilient and scalable foundation for long-term growth.
Banks cannot afford to be reactive. Rising consumer expectations, mounting regulatory pressures and intensifying competition from FinTechs
demand a proactive and comprehensive digital strategy—one that spans the entire customer lifecycle and internal infrastructure.
To remain competitive and resilient, banks must: Acquire customers through new channels by embracing embedded finance models that lower acquisition costs while opening up new revenue opportunities.
Deliver a seamless, secure onboarding experience that integrates frictionless digital flows with robust data protection and identity verification.
Provide a comprehensive suite of financial products including savings, lending, insurance, credit and investment options — offered in a way that’s easy to access and compare.
Increase engagement and lifetime value by turning customer data into real-time insights that drive personalized content, timely product recommendations and proactive financial guidance.
Adopt modern infrastructure and partner with leading FinTech companies to accelerate digitization with speed and scale.
These are no longer nice-to-haves. They are table-stakes in a rapidly evolving financial landscape—strategic moves that banks of all sizes must master to meet the expectations of today’s digitally empowered consumer.
To meet rising customer expectations for enhanced digital services, banks are accelerating investments in core system and infrastructure transformation. While large institutions often have the resources to rearchitect their digital experiences using advanced Gen-3 banking platforms, many regional and community banks lack the scale, budget or in-house capabilities to undertake such a significant overhaul.
This is precisely where the EY Digital Marketplace—powered by EY Digital Marketplace enables regional and community banks—regardless of their digital maturity—to level the playing field.MoneyLion’s embedded finance platform, Engine—can help enhance a bank’s ability to leapfrog the competition by accelerating digital transformation and delivering advanced, customer-centric experiences.
It empowers them to build compelling value propositions that grow their customer base, deepen engagement and reduce attrition in an increasingly competitive market.
This new AI-powered offering from the EY organization and Engine delivers banks a modern digital platform and unlocks new acquisition channels through Engine’s network of 1,300 financial service
partners. Within this ecosystem, consumers are continually matched with personalized financial offers and educational content tailored to their individual needs. The API-based platform can be deployed within weeks, allowing banks to rapidly expand their digital footprint and reach net-new customers at scale. Historically, regional and community banks relied on opening new branches to drive growth. Today, digital account acquisition has become a competitive necessity. EY Digital Marketplace helps banks meet this challenge by providing a tailored, customized digital platform that delivers a broad mix of personalized products and investment options — creating meaningful value for their customers through:
Acquire customers by participating in financial marketplaces and deepen engagement, offering customers a full-suite of product offerings through a single integration — paired with a unified, personalized shopping and onboarding experience. This streamlined approach enables banks to broaden their offerings, meet customers at their point of need and significantly enhance overall satisfaction.
Provide a fast, intuitive onboarding experience using a hosted digital infrastructure with know-yourcustomer (KYC) support, aligned to a bank’s own compliance processes and requirements. This improves customer experience while ensuring regulatory compliance.
Maintain brand control and leverage consumer data insights to manage incentives and create engaging experiences across thousands of uniquely targeted product-specific campaigns. Utilize demographic and geographic targeting to tailor products and marketing, fostering deeper customer connections and loyalty.
Our EY Jumpstart activation program enables banks to launch their digital marketplace in weeks, driving deposit growth. This program includes risk assessment and a clear business case, ensuring swift implementation of digital strategies. By integrating these unique capabilities with deep EY banking domain knowledge, the EY Digital Marketplace equips banks with the tools they need to thrive in a competitive landscape, ensuring they can meet the demands of today’s digital consumers effectively.
As the banking industry faces unprecedented challenges and evolving consumer expectations, EY Digital Marketplace emerges as a vital resource for financial institutions seeking to thrive in this dynamic environment. By enabling banks to offer a comprehensive suite of digital products and personalized services, it empowers institutions—regardless of size or digital maturity—to enhance customer engagement and drive growth.
Navigating any new digital journey can be daunting due to the multitude of available platforms, vendors and resources in the market today. Finding the right implementation advisor and collaborator is crucial. This is where EY professionals provide trusted assistance by providing industry-specific insights, transformative strategies and implementation experience that assist organizations in managing the complexities of digital transformation. Through strategic partnerships, such as the alliance with MoneyLion‘s embedded finance platform, Engine, banks can now leverage innovative solutions to streamline operations, reduce attrition, improve customer experiences and unlock new revenue opportunities.
EY DIGITAL
REGIONAL AND COMMUNITY BANKS, REGARDLESS OF THEIR DIGITAL MATURITY, TO LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD.
In an era where customer expectations are soaring, banks must not just adapt but lead the charge in digital transformation. EY Digital Marketplace equips financial institutions with a gamechanging, white-labeled platform that connects them to high-intent customers across 1,300 financial companies within the Engine network. This is not just about accelerating deposit growth; it’s about forging enduring relationships that elevate customer loyalty and drive sustainable success. By embracing EY Digital Marketplace, banks can redefine their competitive edge and transform the way they engage with their customers, ensuring they thrive in the dynamic financial landscape of tomorrow.
The author is Partner, EY Americas Nexus Financial Services Leader, Ernst & Young LLP The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.
Learn more about EY
Kyriba walked away with ERP Today’s 2024 Finance Solution of the Year award in December last year. At the time, the company was already making waves as a mid-market treasury system that challenged industry giants. Today, it is powering some of the world’s largest enterprises. Kyriba’s trajectory offers fascinating insights into what it takes to build truly resilient financial infrastructure in an increasingly complex business environment.
“People buy on trust,” says Thomas Gavaghan, Kyriba’s SVP, Product Solutions & Strategy, reflecting on the award’s impact. “They don’t buy on features and functionality; they might say that, but at the end of the day, it comes down to trust.”
It’s a refreshingly honest take in an industry obsessed with feature warfare. However, the numbers back up this philosophy. Since winning the award, Kyriba has continued its remarkable ascent up the enterprise food chain, with household names such as McDonald’s, AIG, Prudential, MetLife, and Princi -
pal now operating on its platform. These are the companies “on the side of stadiums,” as Gavaghan colorfully puts it.
THOMAS GAVAGHAN SVP PRODUCT SOLUTIONS & STRATEGY, KYRIBA
The transformation is striking. When Gavaghan joined Kyriba 11 years ago, the buying process was a relatively simple affair between treasury teams and the vendor. Today, every deal involves IT procurement, heavy RFP processes, and enterprise-grade scrutiny. The company has evolved from a $30,000 annual cash management tool to a comprehensive liquidity platform requiring complex ERP integrations and API-based architectures.
This evolution perfectly illustrates the broader shift toward financial resilience that’s driving enterprise technology decisions in 2025. Organizations are looking beyond point solutions towards integrated platforms that can handle the complexity of modern global finance while providing the transparency and control that modern risk management demands.
Perhaps Kyriba’s strategic maturity is most evident in its approach to artificial intelligence (AI). While competitors rushed to slap AI-powered labels on their marketing materials, Kyriba took a more measured approach, launching its Trusted AI (TAI) platform in April 2025 after years of careful development.
“We call it Trusted AI because there’s a little bit of a hype cycle going on with AI,” Gavaghan explains. “In verticals like ours, AI is very highly scrutinized. It’s not hand grenades and horseshoes here - it’s got to be spot on.”
The company’s co-innovation approach involved customers from day
one, bringing together a diverse group of large and small enterprises from both Europe and the Americas, as well as global and regional companies, to help shape use cases and adoption strategies. This customer-centric development model addresses a critical challenge in AI adoption: the first-mover trust paradox, where organizations wait for others to validate the technology before committing to it.
However, Kyriba’s AI advantage extends beyond careful implementation. The company’s platform sits at the intersection of cash flows, debt levels, interest rates, FX data, market information, payment flows, and accounting records. This comprehensive data ecosystem provides Kyriba’s AI with unprecedented
context, a significant moat in a market where AI is only as good as the data it works with.
While newcomers continue to enter the treasury management space with lower barriers to entry and AI-enabled solutions, Kyriba’s differentiation strategy focuses on something much harder to replicate: ecosystem connectivity.
“The moat that we have is our integration and connectivity, an ecosystem that we’ve built and productized,” Gavaghan emphasizes. This isn’t just about having APIs; it’s about having battle-tested, enterprise-grade integrations that work reliably at scale.
The company’s Bank Connectivity
as a Service offering exemplifies this approach. Through partnerships with major banks like Bank of America and Scotiabank, Kyriba now serves customers who would never have purchased its solution directly, such as family doctor offices that process payments through their bank relationships. It’s a brilliant expansion strategy that extends the reach of Kyriba’s platform while leveraging trusted banking relationships.
This ecosystem approach reflects a broader trend in enterprise technology—the shift from best-of-breed point solutions to integrated platforms that can handle complexity while reducing vendor sprawl. For CFOs and CIOs evalu-
ating treasury solutions in 2025, this represents a fundamental strategic choice.
The old model of cobbling together separate systems for cash management, forecasting, risk management, and FX hedging is giving way to unified liquidity platforms that provide holistic visibility and control. This consolidation goes beyond operational efficiency to building the kind of integrated financial intelligence that enables truly resilient decision-making.
Kyriba’s journey from mid-market player to an enterprise platform illustrates this evolution perfectly. The company’s investments in ERP integration, API-first architecture, and comprehensive connectivity positioned it to capture the wave of digital transforma-
tion sweeping through enterprise finance. Most intriguingly, Kyriba’s approach to AI reflects a mature understanding of technology’s role in enterprise resilience. Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for human expertise, Kyriba frames it as an augmentation of human expertise. According to Gavaghan, “AI doesn’t replace people. People who use AI will replace people who don’t.”
This philosophy extends to Kyriba’s implementation approach, where AI is treated like hiring a new employee, with training, context, guardrails, and specific responsibilities. It’s a refreshingly practical perspective that sidesteps the hype while focusing on real value creation.
In verticals like ours, AI is very highly scrutinized.”
The treasury management space is becoming increasingly crowded, with new
entrants leveraging AI and lower development costs to target specific use cases. Some, like Statement.io, have already been acquired after brief runs in the market. This consolidation trend suggests that while barriers to entry may be lower, barriers to sustainable success remain high.
Kyriba’s response has been to double down on their platform strategy, recognizing that partial solutions, no matter how AI-enabled, can’t compete with comprehensive liquidity platforms backed by robust connectivity and proven enterprise deployments.
Learn more about Kyriba
• Prioritize integration depth over feature breadth. The lesson from Kyriba’s success highlights a sustainable competitive advantage that stems more from connectivity and integration depth than from feature proliferation. Tech leaders should evaluate treasury and financial management solutions based on their ability to integrate seamlessly with existing ERP systems and provide unified data flows across the organization. Kyriba’s success with enterprise customers, such as McDonald’s and AIG, stems from its ability to handle complex, multi-system integrations that deliver real-time liquidity visibility across global operations. When evaluating financial
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR ERP INSIDERS
platforms, prioritize vendors who have productized their integrations rather than offering custom toolkit approaches. This distinction often determines long-term implementation success and total cost of ownership.
• Embrace co-innovation for AI adoption. Kyriba’s Trusted AI launch demonstrates the power of customer-driven AI development. Rather than rushing AI features to market, tech leaders should establish co-innovation programs with key customers to validate use cases and build confidence in AI applications. The company’s approach to bringing diverse customer groups into the development process, encompassing different
geographies, company sizes, and industries, provides a blueprint for responsible AI adoption in financial services. This collaborative approach addresses the first mover trust challenge while ensuring AI implementations deliver measurable business value. For enterprise leaders, this means actively participating in vendor innovation programs and demanding transparency in AI model training and validation processes.
• Build ecosystem platforms, not point solutions. The evolution of the treasury management market toward comprehensive liquidity platforms reflects a shift from best-of-breed point
solutions to integrated ecosystems. Kyriba’s Bank Connectivity as a Service model, serving smaller businesses through banking partnerships, illustrates how platform thinking can expand addressable markets. Tech leaders should evaluate their financial technology stack through an ecosystem lens, considering how individual solutions contribute to overall financial resilience and decision-making capability. The future belongs to platforms that can unify cash management, forecasting, risk management, and FX hedging into coherent, AI-enhanced financial intelligence systems that support enterprise-wide strategic decision-making.
Where the biggest names in enterprise tech tell you what they really think, Live!
erp.today/live Candid conversation. Compelling content. Live!
In the intricate world of scientific instrumentation, Malvern Panalytical stands as a beacon of precision and innovation.
Formed from the merger of Malvern Instruments and PANalytical, this global leader in laboratory analytical instruments faced a formidable challenge: unifying disparate tax compliance systems across continents. The solution? A strategic partnership with Sovos that transformed their tax operations from a fragmented patchwork into a cohesive, efficient system.
Mergers often bring the promise of expanded capabilities and market reach, but they also introduce complexities, especially in financial operations. Malvern Panalytical’s merger presented a scenario where one entity utilized Sovos for sales tax compliance, while the other relied on a different provider. This disparity led to inconsistent exemption certificate storage and time-consuming tax status up -
dates, often requiring intervention from the UK Finance team, causing delays due to time zone differences.
“[SOVOS FILING GIVES US] GREATER ACCESS TO DATA FOR FINANCE.” RICHARD BEETLESTONE
According to recent market research, the global tax management software market is expected to grow from $18.2 billion in 2022 to $35.8 billion by 2027. This growth is fueled by rising regulatory complexity and the globalization of trade. For Malvern Panalytical, modernizing tax operations was no longer optional—it was essential to stay compliant, efficient, and audit-ready across more than 40 countries. Malvern Panalytical required a system that could centralize tax operations, provide global accessibility, and integrate seamlessly with their existing ERP infrastructure. Malvern Panalytical’s journey underscores the transformative impact of strategic technology adoption in tax compliance. By embracing Sovos’ comprehensive suite, the company not only
streamlined its operations but also empowered its teams and enhanced its global responsiveness. For ERP professionals, this case study serves as a testament to the value of integrated, cloud-based tax solutions in navigating the complexities of modern financial operations.
Malvern Panalytical turned to Sovos, implementing its comprehensive sales tax suite, which includes Sovos Global Tax Determination, Sovos CertManager, and Sovos Filing. This cloudbased solution enabled the consolidation of global tax operations under a single provider, streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency.
• Sales Order Processing Team: Gained autonomy in managing tax data, leading to faster customer service and reduced dependency on the finance department.
Furthermore, Sovos CertManager served as a centralized repository for exemption certificates, reducing the risk of errors and ensuring readiness for audits.
“MORE AND MORE GLOBAL MANUFACTURERS ARE REALIZING THAT TAX TECHNOLOGY CAN BE A COMPETITIVE DIFFERENTIATOR.”
The transition to Sovos brought immediate benefits:
• Enhanced Efficiency: Monthly financial reconciliations became more manageable, with reporting capabilities simplifying the process.
• Improved Responsiveness: Tax status updates and re-invoicing, which previously took hours or days, could now be completed within minutes.
• Global Accessibility: The Sales Order Processing team gained the ability to manage tax data independently, regardless of their location or time zone.
Richard Beetlestone, Financial Controller UK/AMEC at Malvern Panalytical, remarked, “CertManager has provided the functionality that we needed to enable our Sales Order Processing team to manage the data themselves, regardless of their time zone or location.”
The adoption of Sovos not only streamlined operations but also empowered Malvern Panalytical’s teams:
• Finance Team: Freed from time-consuming manual processes, the finance team could focus on strategic initiatives.
Beetlestone highlighted the benefits, stating, “[Sovos Filing gives us] greater access to data for Finance in order to see monthly transactions and returns online, and reconcile against SAP for anomalies.”
A Sovos spokesperson noted, “More and more global manufacturers are realizing that tax technology can be a competitive differentiator—not just a
compliance tool. Malvern Panalytical’s implementation is a great example of using cloud automation to empower teams across finance, sales, and operations.”
As more enterprises shift toward realtime e-invoicing, digital VAT reporting, and global tax transparency initiatives, centralized, integrated platforms like Sovos will become the default standard.
A recent industry report found that companies adopting integrated tax compliance platforms reduce audit risk by 45% and cut tax processing times by 60%.
Learn more about Sovos
Centralize tax compliance to enhance efficiency. In the wake of mergers or global expansions, disparate tax systems can hinder operational efficiency. Centralizing tax compliance under a unified platform, as Malvern Panalytical did with Sovos, can streamline processes, reduce errors, and enhance responsiveness. Sovos’ integration capabilities with ERP systems like SAP ensure seamless data flow and real-time updates, crucial for maintaining compliance across jurisdictions.
Empower teams through decentralized access. Granting teams across the organization access to manage tax data can lead to significant improvements in responsiveness and efficiency. By enabling the Sales Order
Processing team to handle tax status updates independently, Malvern Panalytical reduced delays and improved customer service. Sovos CertManager’s userfriendly interface facilitates this decentralized approach without compromising data integrity.
Leverage cloud-based solutions for global accessibility. Cloudbased tax compliance solutions offer the flexibility and scalability necessary for global operations. Malvern Panalytical’s transition to Sovos’ cloud suite allowed for realtime access to tax data worldwide, eliminating delays caused by time zone differences. Such solutions are essential for organizations seeking to maintain compliance and efficiency in an increasingly interconnected global market.
How food and beverages companies can succeed in the digital era.
BY CRAIG POWERS
The path food takes from harvesting to distribution to store shelves and then to tables is essential for everyone, but full of challenges for food and beverage companies. Keeping the food safe is important, and strict regulations help ensure that. The demands from customers regarding eating preferences, as well as the information on packaging, are changing, leading to more regulations on what information must be shared on a food label. While navigating these challenges in a vital and highly regulated industry, food and beverage companies face supply chain volatility and staffing shortages. In the digital era, navigating these challenges requires a data-driven approach with efficient processes buoyed by a powerful technology and application stack.
Unfortunately, many companies in the food and beverage sector continue to struggle with digitizing and integrating their processes and technology. Inefficiency reigns with manual processes and a reliance on manual operations that slow productivity. The lack of integration leads to siloed, disparate systems and departments trying to function with data inconsistencies and inefficient access to critical data. As a result, just 32% of food and beverage executives
can create practical value from data, according to research by Aptean, an ERP provider that specializes in the food and beverage sector. The lack of digitization has also led to the prevalence of paperbased processes and the associated paper processing, which is more costly than electronic invoicing. The lack of technology is driving transportation and logistics leaders to higher costs and impacting delivery experiences.
Staffing and skills shortages are causing 45% of food manufacturers to turn down business, according to research by Aptean
Legacy systems and processes are also impacting the business. Food and beverage companies are also seeing 24% of revenue held up in accounts receivable, slowing cash flow and limiting agility. The staffing and skills shortages are causing 45% of food manufacturers to turn down business, according to research by Aptean, an ERP provider specializing in the food and beverage sector.
How can food and beverage companies overcome their process and technology roadblocks to meet consumer demands
better, comply with changing regulations, and succeed in the face of staffing shortages? Collecting, accessing, and analyzing the right data would certainly help. That starts with integrated ERP systems that consolidate data across departments for better decision-making. In addition to the ERP foundation, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools help collect and manage customer data to provide insight into customer behavior and preferences, and provide a source of information for analysis against broader industry trends. In terms of delivery and logistics, Supply Chain Management (SCM)is essential to enhance logistics and inventory management. Finally, as long as customers have integrated ERP, CRM, and SCM systems providing clean and actionable data, Business Intelligence and Analytics can transform that data into insight for drive data-driven decision-making.
Food and Beverage-Specific ERP Companies have been seeing benefits
those to fit their own needs. In response, software providers such as Aptean have developed ERP systems tailored to the
duction, compliance, and quality control. Additionally, they are also aligned with the industry’s workflows, enabling
common manual processes for automation, reducing errors and increasing efficiency. Finally, in the case of Aptean,
real-time analytics with insights made for food and beverage organizations enable proactive decision-making.
While the benefits of digital transformation and implementing modern, tailored ERPs are evident, the journey to those returns on investment can be tough to start. Before beginning any ERP implementation, migration, or upgrade, companies should conduct a thorough needs analysis and set clear objectives.
A launching point for many companies that have transformed successfully is to assess current processes. This helps identify the most glaring inefficiencies and areas where process change could lead to overall improvement. This is important to do before taking the next step, which is investing in technology like ERP, CRM, SCM, and analytics. Automating a broken process won’t improve anything, so it’s important to make sure there is a plan for process transformation along with technology upgrades.
technology stack. That’s necessary to meet the demands of the industry, but more can be done to capitalize on the investment and become a food and beverage leader. First, with the new data foundation in place, companies should be looking to leverage AI and advanced analytics. In the case of Aptean, the AppCentral platform features add-ons that bring intelligent automation and data-driven insights. These can help optimize processes and enable better decision-making through improved forecasting. Companies should also ensure that they have integrated their complementary systems—bringing together ERP with customer-focused and supply chain systems.
Technology projects should also include a focus on training for existing employees.
Technology projects should also include a focus on training for existing employees to develop the skills they will need to work with the processes and technologies. That also serves to encourage adoption. During implementations, engaging stakeholders is essential, both to get them acclimated on the new systems and to get feedback on how new technology can best support lines of business.
After the ERP implementation, the transformation continues. There will be a wealth of new data available, and companies should focus on using that data to enhance customer experiences by improving service to meet evolving expectations.
Transformation doesn’t end when a company upgrades its processes and
Beyond expanding technological capabilities, food and beverage companies should continue to engage with the lines of business and end users. This helps gather essential feedback and enables continuous improvement of processes and technology configurations. Additionally, training and change management should be ongoing to ensure employees are able to use new systems and follow new processes, which leads to better adoption and better returns on investment.
Moving away from siloed systems and paper-based processes is critical in the digital business era. There are so many challenges that food and beverage companies face and those that have undergone transformation of processes and technology have seen increased efficiency from better processes and increased automation, enhanced data visibility leading to better decisionmaking, and improved customer satisfaction. Working with technology providers that have industry-specific knowledge has the potential to amplify all those benefits as food and beverage organizations look to navigate through changing landscapes.
• Identify your most significant industry challenges and assess where your processes and technology are falling short Before embarking on a digital transformation, identify the specific areas where improvement is most necessary and where it can make the biggest impact. This may be manual and inefficient processes or siloed and incapable systems.
• Consider technologies that maximize investment and allow for scalability. When considering an ERP transformation, consider what customizations are necessary to meet the specific needs of your industry and whether an industry-specific ERP may be the best fit. Explore cloud technologies that support scalability and will integrate with other important systems, such as CRM, SCM, and analytics.
• Build a culture of continuous innovation. Implementing new processes and technologies is just the first step to becoming a digital business. Never stop engaging with line-ofbusiness stakeholders and end-users to identify areas for improvement. With the right tools and organization, innovation and improvement can be continuous. Training and change management shouldn’t stop when new systems go live.
The original AI-powered testing platform for any application
Get a free personalized online Testing Health Check today!
Learn how to power SAP hybrid integration with Red Hat OpenShift Red Hat for SAP.
Learn how to power SAP hybrid integration with Red Hat OpenShift Red Hat for SAP.
Scan to Learn How to Modernize SAP Integration
Scan to Learn How to Modernize SAP Integration