Better integration of IT systems is the best way for businesses to achieve a strategic advantage as well as value addition. So said Alec Joannou, Anglo American's global head of applications, during his keynote address at the GijimaAst Open Day.
He advised business executives to link all their systems to get the full view of their organisations for easy access to all innovative solutions. ”Businesses should look at the information value chain to make good executive decisions,” he said. Joannou argued this would help companies focus on long-term relations with clients as well as long-term solutions.
Wake-up call
Joannou pointed out that currently, enterprise resource planning (ERP) elements do not focus on the full value chain. “In the ERP view of the world, value-added decision support is limited since there is a lack of real-time, relevant and reliable information at the PCS level,” he explained. “This is also because there is no drill-down or flexible enquiry to that level”.
He added that when it comes to ERP, there are inefficient and broken processes due to extensive manual interventions as well as limited end-to-end visibility and traceability of processes. And the picture is further complicated by lack of standardisation and absence of a common business language, Joannou added.
“This often leads to poor decision support and analysis limits possibilities for revenue enhancement opportunities,” Joannou said. He pointed out that the underlying costs of supporting malfunctioning processes are rising unchecked year-on-year. The end result is an inability to respond to the market, he argued.
IT evolution
According to Joannou, constant IT evolution means its ability to contribute to the enterprise keeps on rising, and businesses need to take advantage of this. “From the beginning IT has been key to productivity, end-user empowerment, and the creation of added value and greater business effectiveness,” he insisted.
In addition, IT equipment and software have steadily become cheaper, more powerful and easier to use, Joannou pointed out. “At the same time they have also become more intimately embedded in business processes and deeply interwoven into the fabric of the enterprise,” he added.
“Composite applications and better integration are now coming to the forefront as businesses are after value creation and better business effectiveness.”
Value-added decision support is no longer limited, since what is more important is real-time, relevant and reliable information, he stated. Nowadays, fully automated flow and full end-to-end visibility and traceability of processes are crucial in IT systems.
Businesses should therefore strive for standardisation and a common business language across all applications to experience the full value of their IT investments, Joannou concluded.
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