Revolution on Doing Business
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was novelty for most of the people lived in the 21st century, disrupted the way of life of the individuals as well as all scales of the businesses. This disruption led people to do things differently, especially with limited access to physical properties, record rooms, documents and so on.
There were memes built on this phenomenon, where it was shown that the Digital Transformation of the companies were led by the pandemic not by the chief executives.
Digital Transformation (DX)
Organizations which were reluctant to adopt technologies such as electronic & digital signatures, cloud-based applications, online transactions and flexibility to work from home (Which is allowing the employees to work from their preferred remote location) was facing increasingly difficulties to work through the regulations and the restrictions placed by the respective authorities.
This created a lot of opportunities for the companies which were in the market with the goal of transforming companies with digital technologies. Companies such as Zoom, Microsoft, Google etc. jump into embrace the opportunity and invest heavily on building ecosystems which align with the concepts of Modern Work.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications, which are now a subset of Business Applications, were not a novelty to the industry, they were not used widely as we expect them to happen during the next couple of years.
Misconception with Business Applications (BizApps) led to Failures in adoption
Business Applications in the past were misinterpreted as something which is built for Larger Corporates with complex requirements, further it was identified as a expensive activity to create a software application that suits the requirements of the business.
Further, the companies which went ahead with the adoption of such application tried to change the prebuilt application to align to the practices that they follow to date. This activity led to customizing the prebuilt application which was built for a purpose aligning to industry standards to become something else. Such customizations created chaos in many ways including the failure of implementation.
Most of these Business Applications are not meant to be changed by the implementers but expect to be deployed with the minimal possible alterations to avoid the complexities of maintenance.
Present and the Future of Business Applications (BizApps)
In today’s world Business Applications are developed by tech giants such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Infor, IFS etc. are built consciously by doing research on respective domains to identify and innovate the best practices to suit the rapidly evolving global needs.
Tech giants and other Business Applications Startups are shifting their focus from On-premises deployments to building their applications on cloud supplying Software as a Service (SaaS) on subscription basis. This leads to restricting the implementers making significant changes to the applications but allowing the consultants to work with the customers to create an environment that aligns to industry best practices.
The SaaS applications create a certain amount of friction between the product and the users, but it is a challenge that the consultants of the implementation party overcome for the betterment of their clients.
Predictions by Gartner Inc, a company that delivers actionable, objective insight
2023, 65% of large enterprise ERP deployments will be executed by predominantly remote rather than on-site implementation teams.
2024, more than 60% of organizations will deploy cloud ERP as an ecosystem of application and technology platforms from multiple vendors.
2024, at least 50% of existing ERP mega vendor clients will evaluate multiple vendors rather than automatically adopting the latest versions of incumbent ERP suites.
The Opportunity for Companies (Corporate, SMB and Public)
Considering the interests of Tech Companies have more companies adopting their Business Applications, they are working on building applications leveraging on industry best practices, internet of things, augmented reality etc. drives innovative products for a reasonable price.
This allows the companies to adopt innovative ultra modern solutions for their line of work, which further allows them to focus on building the strategy and operation of their business.
The Opportunity for Individuals (Technical and Subject Matter Experts)
A recent study by Tech Council of Australia has revealed that they estimate requirement of related talent to deploy Business Applications in next two years would be around 286,000. This aligns with the the predictions made by Gartner which are indicated above.
This is one of the biggest opportunities for personnel in the information technology domain as well as the subject matter experts who are willing convert themselves to become consultants in Business Applications.
The opportunity for subject matter experts lies for anyone in the fields of Finance, Manufacturing, Retail, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales, Human Resources and the list goes on.
Conclusion
Out of Crisis comes Opportunity, this is in fact true for Companies of all scales, Suppliers, Service Providers and individuals who embrace the Business Applications and to whom has the will to explore the area.
