How the ERP & BI conversation is changing

If you have kept yourself informed about the Business Intelligence consolidation in the ERP space, then you are probably aware that such aquisitions can have conversation changing implications in the software world. The big ones so far are Oracle and Hyperion/Siebal, SAP & Business Objects, and IBM/Cognos. If we survey the landscape closely, it becomes clear that customers and vendors are telling us something important with these moves. Here are three ways that the conversation is changing.

1. Getting Data Out of an Organization is Just as Important as Getting Data In.

Initially, as the ERP market developed, some would argue that the paramount conversation was about standardizing on business process with a common platform. Leveraging the data that ERP could capture and offer to the business was more of an afterthought. Execution on business process was the main focus. However, with the consolidations we have seen, customers, and in turn, vendors, are telling us that leveraging that data to execute on strategy (BI) is just as important. In one sense, the coming together of ERP and BI is akin to bringing two critical sides of an important business coin together. Getting data in is as important as getting data out. Customers know it (mostly), and the industry is responding. This offers existing ERP vendors the ability to have a new and more valuable conversation with their prospects and customers.

2. Beginning with the End in Mind

It is becoming clear that companies who venture down the ERP road should really begin with the end in mind. What does that mean? What if the starting conversation revolved around a company’s primary strategic objectives across the board and how visualizing the relevant data could help them reach those goals? It makes sense to talk about ERP and executing strategy (BI) at the same time because the resulting information of streamlined business processes needs to be leveraged to drive competitive differentiation, operational efficiency, and improved profitability. At the end of the day, these are an organization’s highest concerns and Business Intelligence is the way to deliver the type of visibility that will drive performance improvements. The crux is to deliver ERP and BI in tandem to help fulfill the end vision and encourage user adoption. So maybe the best way to start an ERP conversation is with a consolidated dashboard that visualizes an organizations key metrics?

3. Easing the Implementation Burden

It is no secret that ERP prospects cringe less at the cost of software than the services. Implementation costs are high. But the conversation is changing in this area as well. Conventionally, discussions about a customer’s legacy data would happen at the system integrator level and the services scope would include a component of data cleansing work that would make the data ERP ready. Unfortunately, most customers fail to adequately understand the services cost to this. Often this is a manual process that takes much time and therefore dollars. Here is where SAP has a new and valuable advantage. The Business Objects Data Quality tools (formerly First Logic) acquired by SAP can help a customer establish a DQ process to quickly de-duplicate, cleanse, standardize, and set business rules around their critical data before it goes into SAP. This is the first step to realizing a data governance vision and it will greatly reduce the time it takes to make data ERP ready. The sad alternative, for companies who fail to acknowledge and complete the data quality task, is to spend too much on services, or put their ERP implementation at risk with bad data. Garbage in, garbage out, as the old adage goes.