ERP is Missing a Link to the Future

(21st Century Supply Chain, 14 February 2012)

In Brief: Despite at least a decade of demand for better analytical tools, ERP) systems fail to connect changes in deliveries and inventory with their corresponding consequences, this writer says. For example, the traditional software might not flag a shortage of a relatively small component that has a major impact on the business.

Our View: While companies can take better control of internal data streams and improve productivity with ERP systems, these gains are often hard to achieve, sustain, and quantify. One Chief Procurement officer at a consumer products company says a new ERP system won’t generate COGS savings unless it also generates new data access and analytics that your company did not have before.