Manufacturing high tech parts, machinery or major consumer goods depends on significant processes – defined by near perfect integration of information.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software represents the key player tasked with ensuring this integration remains seamless.
Correspondingly, a significant announcement in the world of ERP software becomes a significant announcement for manufacturing – an industry so critical to our global quality of life.
Here then, are five significant recent ERP software announcements:
1. ERP Turns 21 As we reported earlier this year,2011 marks the 21st anniversary of enterprise resource planning. How will it celebrate? By enhancing its ability to integrate with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and assimilating with the latest consumer oriented technologies (think: social media.) How else would you expect a 21 year old to celebrate?
2. Lawson Software Is Acquired Next week, Lawson Software shareholders will vote to approve or reject a merger with GGC Software Holdings, an affiliate of Golden Gate Capital and Infor. When we first reported on this in April, Lawson customers and prospects were in a bit of a scramble mode wondering what the future of Lawson would look like. While we likely won’t know the answer with any certainty for several months, we do know that the question of how ERP software will scale to meet your processes – now and in the future – is an answer any vendor must provide.
3. Rising Towards The Cloud “Starting approximately in 2013, only Microsoft will be able to offer pretty much any possible deployment model of its [ERP] software from a single code-base. ” Josh Greenbaum, Information Week
In other words, Microsoft Dynamics ERP software (full disclosure, the software I represent) will soon be available as a managed service – or in the cloud.
4. ERP Software Customers Not Planning To Upgrade Perhaps file this under ‘non-announcements.’
In relatively shocking news, a recent Forrester Survey (cited by Jeff Moad of Manufacturing Executive) indicates that 72% of ERP software customers do not plan to upgrade in 2011 – despite the fact that most upgrades can be had for little or no cost outlay.
(If you are among the companies still deciding whether you should upgrade, I’d be happy to walk you through a demo of the upgrades we’ve been working on. Simply contact me through the To-Increase website.)
5. Microsoft Dynamics ERP Integrates With Siemens Teamcenter PLM We talk a lot here about ERP / PLM integration. But we’re more excited when we get to show you.
Stay up to date on the latest enterprise resource planning insights by subscribing to our blog updates, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or connecting with us on LinkedIn.
Peter van Leeuwen
