Some Thoughts and Info

“According to the IDC (International Data Corporation) one of the effects of the Covid outbreak is that by 2023, 75% of organizations will have a digital transformation roadmap in place, up from 27% in 2020, and to quote directly “Resulting in true transformation across all facets of business and society”.

If the above prediction is accurate (and based on the accuracy of previous predictions of the IDC there is no reason to doubt that it is), the next few years are going to be challenging for businesses in South Africa as there are very few who are truly ready for this fast-approaching digital transformation.”

Over the past 15 years of being involved in the "ERP" space, in my experience two "fundamental" factors have proven to be evident within this environment:

1-Businesses have had to adapt their processes and products to remain relevant and to be able to continue to deliver a value proposition within a constantly evolving market.

2-ERP solutions providers have had to do the same and redevelop and grow the products and systems on offer, to remain relevant and meet the demands of the business sector.

Through a process of natural evolution, the symbiotic and co-dependent relationship between ERP systems providers and the business sector has grown and evolved in a way that few would have been able to predict even 10 years ago.

In fact, it's impossible to determine who is driving who in what I call the "push-pull" relationship between the two. In other words, are ERP systems providers driving innovation and introducing new products and solutions based on strategic planning and predictions of where the market is heading? Or is the business sector placing demands on these systems providers for innovation and solutions, based on the factors and challenges that they are facing, reactive vs proactive? In my experience, anecdotal as it may be, calling this a 50/50 tie would be the most accurate assessment.

What both players in the above-mentioned scenario often seem to lose sight of are the factors that are contributing to and driving the evolution of the market. Stated in the simplest form, we have journeyed through a process of the IoT, to so-called “Edge” computing, to cloud solutions and to a consumer base that has become mobile, “Tech Savvy” and as a result, far more expectant of instant engagement with service providers. As an example, we have moved from writing a letter of complaint to “The Manager”, to sending an instant message via various available platforms, with the expectation of instant responses.

The outcome of this situation is that software options and solutions have become more diverse and bespoke, designed to address specific needs that are present at the “edges” of the business operations, the “last mile” processes, the above example of customer engagement being a case in point. In fact, businesses and software providers seem to have adopted the very same “instant gratification” approach in how they engage with various internal and external stakeholders and businesses seldom include these "last mile" solutions as an integral part of the core ecosystem.

Seen in isolation, this is not a problem, but in my experience these systems are deemed to be “unstructured” and have not been implemented within the prescriptions of a strategic roadmap, resulting in businesses having multiple, non-integrated and fractured solutions in their environments and often that the outcome is directly contradictory to the intention.

What many businesses also lose sight of is the fact that people are the core to the success of any business and should always be central to the planning and deployment of any new system. The objective should be to streamline workflows, lighten the workload, so that more time can be spent focusing on the core functions of the business, those functions that are critical to revenue generation, customer engagement, profitability, and strategic planning. Yet, this is seldom the case. More often than not, the deployment of these systems results in a heavier workload on the employees within the organization due to poor planning or a lack of understanding by decision makers. Usually, dual, or multi-system capturing is required, departments become more siloed that ever before, workflow processes become more inefficient, Excel spreadsheets grow in size and number (and the list goes on) and in the end, the users become quite averse to any new system implementation "because it just adds to their workload" resulting in innovation being suppressed instead of enhanced.

This non-integrated or unstructured environment also makes it impossible to correctly utilize all relevant data for operational auditing, KPI measurements, exception reporting and predictive modelling

10 years ago in South Africa, you could probably use one hand to count the number of "ERP" systems available. Today, the landscape has drastically changed and a simple google search literally returns thousands of results on available "ERP Systems" or "CRM Systems" or "Invoicing and Tracking Systems", I am sure that you get the point. The problem, in my humble but experienced opinion, is that these so called "last mile", function specific software systems have become the norm instead of the "outliers" and that most businesses believe that having these in place, external to a central integrated strategy, will address their business needs and sustain market relevance over the medium term. This, in my opinion, has and will continue to prove to NOT be the case.

According to the IDC (International Data Corporation) one of the effects of the Covid outbreak is that by 2023, 75% of organizations will have a digital transformation roadmap in place, up from 27% in 2020, and to quote directly “Resulting in true transformation across all facets of business and society”.

If the above prediction is accurate (and based on the accuracy of previous predictions of the IDC there is no reason to doubt that it is), the next few years are going to be challenging for business in South Africa as there are very few who are truly ready for this approaching digital transformation.

Those who are, will grow and succeed, those who are not, will only be able to throw people at the problem for a short while, until they become irrelevant within this new market landscape.

Of real concern to me are the business who honestly believe that having several separate “digital” systems or ERP solutions in place to deal with specific needs or who have catered for remote or hybrid working conditions, means that they have deployed digital transformation and are ready for the change that is coming. Trust me when I say that if this is you, a radical mindset shift is needed, and soon.

My advice to all businesses is to ensure that you have a comprehensive digital transformation roadmap in place, are ready to invest in digital experiences and ecosystems and are willing to drive digital transformation initiatives.

As a country, South Africa needs every single business to grow and prosper, so that we can reduce unemployment and contribute towards the upliftment of our society, so I implore you to consider the future, adapt, strategize, invest in the future so that you can grow from strength to strength.