Companies can seek integrated solutions, leverage optimal IOT performance in their business

In terms of ERP, customers are reluctant to shift from a traditional ERP into IOT. What if incorporating IOT into your ERP infrastructure didn't mean you have to change your entire infrastructure, but wrap around it?

"ERP solves a very important problem in the industry, which is transactions that describe and record business activity, whether financial or operational. That is the strength of ERP and that is something that is much needed and is a very necessary thing for any business infrastructure," says Patrick Shields, Chief Technology Officer at Software AG South Africa.

The Internet of things (IOT) is a completely different platform to ERP, and is not interested in transactions at all. For a traditional ERP vendor to bridge its offering into IOT, it might seem like an entirely feasible or realistic approach. However, this is where the misconception comes from in the first place.

"Customers are able to actually profit from all of that data from IOT, because the future ERP has now become flexible and intelligent and has constantly streaming real-time information. The big ERP vendors are not going to change their ERP infrastructure by themselves to become more flexible. This is where we come in, because we are able to help our customers do this," adds Riaaz Jeena, Sales Director at Software AG.

"We can allow for them to make that case without them having to make a large amount of changes to their infrastructure. We can allow them to become flexible and intelligent, and even more real-time operational."

We are asking our customers to take heed of the fact that we, as an organisation, can help them: "IOT can help businesses reach a stage of significantly progressive digitalisation, without having to replace an existing ERP infrastructure with the Internet of things." adds Jeena.

ERP is a part of general business infrastructure that covers a range of transactional and administrative functions, all of which are critical to any existing business, which is how it has become a commodity. ERPs don't innovate businesses, they don't differentiate. IOT, on the other hand, is a path to differentiation, which is an advantage.

IOT is fundamentally different technology and approach to transformation to what ERPs do. Businesses can do both, and want to do IOT.

"ERP is not going to become a unique selling point for your business or your product; it doesn't allow you to do that. But collecting data from various areas is how IOT will add to your existing infrastructure and ERP," concludes Jeena.