ERP in the Cloud: Realising the full potential for emerging markets

The world has witnessed a remarkable disruption and digital transformation in technology over the past few years. Many organisations have transitioned from large-scale, resource-intensive implementation exercises to operational investments with lower costs. This particular trend has not only set the stage for financially viable technology but gives organisations across the world breathing space in terms of faster implementations and rollouts. 

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has been a key element of this transformative journey of digital disruption. Over the last two decades, it has helped companies in emerging markets manage all aspects of their operations, from procurement and manufacturing to financial reporting. 

Now those old, complex systems are giving way to a new generation of cloud-based ERP applications that offer companies big advances in automation, ease of deployment, and artificial intelligence-based analytics.

Emerging technologies propelling cloud ERP 

While companies in emerging markets are in the early stages of cloud ERP adoption, CIOs and CFOs have realised the myriad opportunities it brings to the table, especially in improving business processes and reducing capital investments in the data centres and other systems that will be used to manage on-premise software.

One of the main reasons business leaders prefer cloud ERP over on-premise software is that the former is future-ready and already benefiting from emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain. 

Cloud-enabled emerging technologies play a key role in changing the way companies operate and compete. 

A CFO could now use AI to automate and improve the accuracy of routine financial management tasks. For example, an ERP system with AI capabilities embedded could learn what a standard expense (and expense report) looks like and flag suspicious expenses to the manager – significantly reducing the time managers need to spend on reviewing expenses.1 

With such ERP cloud solutions, organisations in emerging markets can go the distance in their respective business sectors and Oracle plays a key role in this market by helping to modernise organisations through our in-depth ERP Cloud suite. 

For example, in Sri Lanka Millennium Information Technologies2 (MillenniumIT ESP), a leading information systems solutions provider in Sri Lanka, has gone live on Oracle ERP cloud to help simplify its business processes and increase visibility into its financial operations. The project was completed in 10 weeks and has helped enable MillenniumIT ESP reduce IT complexity and increase employee productivity by helping to automate previously manual processes and improving decision making through advanced data analysis.

Bac Ky Logistics, a fast-growing logistics company in Vietnam, is using Oracle ERP Cloud to embrace automation, enhance operations and deliver a stronger overall customer experience. Cloud applications such as Oracle Transportation Management (OTM) Cloud and Oracle IoT Cloud Fleet Management are enabling Bac Ky Logistics to automate the scheduling and management of transportation and delivery to help improve efficiency and enhance customer experience.

Compliance drives 

cloud ERP adoption

In emerging markets, the solution to business challenges is often associated with rapid expansion into digitally-driven global marketplaces. While these organisations grow, they have a huge burden to face: complying with new and changing regulations at country, regional and industry levels. 

From hiring to accounting, material purchasing to electronic payments, different regulations in different markets are challenging hurdles to leap across most of the time. Noncompliance to regulations is not an option, as it results in unnecessary fines, affecting the bottom line and the reputation of a company.

According to Constellation’s 2018 survey of CFOs, compliance has become a key factor in driving cloud ERP adoption across emerging markets and 42% of participants have pointed out that regulatory compliance is a top priority. 

The continually up-to-date nature of cloud applications shifts the risk from the business to the technology vendor. Oracle ERP Cloud customers no longer have to worry about compliance as the application is continually updated by Oracle in line with local, regional and international regulations so customers can stay up-to-date on all fronts as they expand progressively.      

Cloud ERP is 

the future of finance

ERP of yesterday often required expensive and lengthy reimplementation to upgrade but with cloud coming into the fore, it will be the last upgrade you will ever need. A recent study revealed that cloud delivers 3.2 times the return on investment (ROI) compared to on-premise software, while lowering total running costs by 52%.3 Cloud ERP provides automatic and continual updates to our latest best practices, as well as technology upgrades to security, functionality and capabilities. And of course, it’s scalable.

Finance executives have emerged as powerful digital stewards—according to a recent report from Accenture—using data to drive greater efficiency and foster new, digitally-driven business models. 6 The report, titled ‘The CFO Reimagined: From Driving Value to Building the Digital Enterprise’, states that nearly half of all tasks in corporate finance departments will be automated within three years, freeing up capacity that finance chiefs can redeploy to develop the business. Today, 34% of finance tasks are carried out by technology; by 2021, almost half (45%) of these duties will be taken over by automation, says the report. 

With such developments happening in the finance space, cloud ERP will be the ideal disruptor that will increasingly usher in digitisation for finance functions and find new ways to use technology to transform finance leaders into change agents. Continuous innovation with a trusted ERP partner, unleashes finance teams to become strategic contributors to the organisation’s needs of tomorrow. When finance leaders become true change agents by embracing innovation, they can drive greater business insights, manage regulatory requirements and will never lose ground with obsolete technology again.4

Oracle has all the right tools to make ERP cloud migration much easier for organisations. Tools like ‘Oracle Soar’ automate the move to Oracle ERP Cloud, enabling customers with applications running on premises to upgrade to Oracle Cloud Applications in as little as 20 weeks. 

Furthermore, Gartner has named Oracle's ERP Cloud as a Leader in its 2018 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Core Financial Management Suites for Midsize, Large, and Global Enterprises, for the second consecutive year. Gartner has also rated Oracle ERP Cloud above average in all areas of functionality, citing improved year-over-year scores in financial analytics and reporting, accounts receivable, and general ledger coding structures.5

For the businesses in emerging markets, cloud ERP is an opportunity to add value from the get-go. Once their cloud ERP is in place, organisations can begin to deploy advanced technologies such as intelligent automation, cognitive and artificial intelligence tools, chatbots, and advanced analytics. Not only can these tools help further reduce the cost of finance but they offer the potential to fundamentally transform the business.

[Paolo Maraziti is Head of Business Development, APAC Applications. As Senior Director of SaaS Go To Market, Paolo Maraziti is responsible for executing business strategy and business development for Oracle’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions in APAC. He brings Oracle’s SaaS product strategies to life with campaigns that generate a strong customer pipeline and develop new revenue opportunities. In his time at Oracle, Paolo has focused on Customer Experience solutions. He remains a fond advocate of customer centric business models and cloud as enabler of continuous business and organisation rejuvenation. Before his recent relocation to APAC in 2017, he led the Customer Experience Go To Market in EMEA, introducing and driving the shift of the GTM to Cloud and promoting industry-specific digital transformation frameworks to drive digitisation strategies for the front office. Prior to joining Oracle, Paolo was a Global Client Manager at Hewlett Packard, where he led Applications Development and Maintenance contracts in the supply chain for one of the company’s lead accounts. He previously worked in Logistics and IT at Procter and Gamble. Paolo earned his Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Salerno in Italy. He is the father of twins and enjoys playing bass and sailing in his free time.]

Footnotes

1 https://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2018/04/20/the-future-of-erp-automation-fewer-spreadsheets-better-reporting/#6045a55f229f

2 https://www.oracle.com/lk/corporate/pressrelease/milleniumit-esp-deploys-oracle-erp-cloud-2018-05-21.html

3 https://blogs.oracle.com/modernfinance/cloud-delivers-3x-roi-in-new-value-research

4 https://blogs.oracle.com/modernfinance/why-obsolete-technology-costs-more-than-you-think 

5 https://blogs.oracle.com/modernfinance/5-reasons-to-take-a-new-look-at-oracle-erp-cloud