Is Erp on Its Deathbed?

Is ERP on its deathbed?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a system that manages multiple business functions by integrating all of them into a single system, designed to serve the needs of each different department within that enterprise[1].

Over the years, ERP has become more of a methodology and it goes far beyond being just a simple piece of software. The need of ERP systems for integrating all the company information to efficiently utilize the data, will not only transcend the corporate boundary to fit in systems of partners and suppliers, but also will help to bring in additional functions like supply chain management[1][2].

Looking from the service oriented view, it is true that all the firms want to measure success based on number of customers rather than the number of products sold. It has become important to maintain and always have an increasing customer base to keep that strong hold on profitable business. All firms today want to offer their services and stop one time buying of the product. This makes it easy not only to retain customers but also to escalate the business. It is true that ERP does not fit in this whole ideology. However, that does not mean that ERP is on its deathbed. ERP brings significant changes to how a company does business. ERP system provides the means to have all applications share a single definition of data, processing rules and format standards[2]. Implementation of an ERP system incurs costs and results in benefits over time[4].

If you could place an order for a laptop from Amazon today then that was only possible because of ERP. Today ERP has become a part and parcel of some or the other services and facilities that we use. Thus, it meets specific requirements of business and indeed acts as the backbone of many companies and government agencies around the world.

With the advent of cloud-based IT capabilities and software-as-a-service (SaaS) as well as platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service business...