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SuiteWorld took to Las Vegas last week, giving NetSuite a major platform for recent announcements across its technology stack. Deltek unveiled its latest product innovations, specifically towards installing Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to its solutions. Sage announced the expansion of its construction cloud suite. SAP and OneStream announced its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Finally, ECI Software Solutions announced the official launch of its mobile app for ThermoGrid. The future of ERP continues to hinge on ease of use and accessibility. As vendors introduce mobile solutions, they will extend the value of their preexisting software to meet the expanding needs of customers worldwide.

In the age of Artificial Intelligence, entry-level hackers are now combining generative AI and social engineering to enhance their online deception practices, especially targeted toward businesses. But what does this mean for ERP? And how can businesses protect their data from better-equipped cybercriminals? In this episode of The ERP Advisor, Shawn Windle will be joined by special guest, Security Awareness Advocate James McQuiggan, for the fourth consecutive year to bring attention to Cybersecurity Awareness Month, educating businesses on the dangers of AI and how to avoid falling victim to this emerging threat.

This year's Infor Now conference occurred between October 3rd and 5th. ERP Advisors Group's Founder & Managing Principal, Shawn Windle, and Digital Marketing Manager, Rebekah McCabe, attended the conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, to analyze Infor's unique product strategies and recent releases. In this special bonus episode of The ERP Advisor, the two reflect on their experiences at Infor Now 2023 and examine the conference's primary message.

Blackbaud began the week by announcing the development of Impact Edge, a new AI-powered, social impact reporting and storytelling solution for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social impact teams of all sizes. Infor then announced its Infor Enterprise Automation solution, an Infor Operating Service designed to help companies rapidly scale automation across their organizations by connecting data integration capabilities into a single platform. Acumatica announced the availability of a new set of innovative features and capabilities comprising the company’s latest product update, Acumatica 2023 R2. QAD followed the trend, releasing the latest enhancements to its comprehensive suite of Adaptive Applications. Finally, ECI closed out the week, by announcing the integration of its EvolutionX, a B2B e-commerce platform, with its Red Falcon ERP, a business management and e-commerce software.

SAP kicked off the week by announcing Joule, a natural-language, generative AI copilot. UKG then introduced generative AI-powered conversational experiences for the UKG Pro and UKG Ready HCM suites. Workday announced a series of new AI and ML capabilities and partnership ecosystem updates to help businesses drive productivity. Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Airkit.ai, a creator of AI-powered customer service applications. Aptean announced its acquisition of Apparel Business Systems, LLC. ECI announced new Spanish-language enhancements on its native mobile app for Bolt, its trade contractor scheduling and job management software.

One of the most difficult parts of launching an ERP upgrade is garnering support from all relevant ERP stakeholders in order to build a solid business case for a new ERP. If the key people across your company are not on board, then your selection can be doomed before it even begins. It is vital to build an airtight business case that gains Board and Executive support for costs, types of solutions, roadmap, and vendor shortlist. In this episode of The ERP Advisor, Shawn Windle identifies the key elements of successfully building a business case for a new ERP.

Deltek announced its expanded partnership with Procore to elevate the construction management industry. OneStream announced its enhancements across the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) sector at the 2023 Splash Berlin Global User Summit. Oracle announced its extended collaboration with Red Hat to offer customers a greater choice in deploying applications on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). IFS appointed Hoda Mansour as their Chief Operating Officer of Asia Pacific, Japan, Middle East, and Africa Regions. The Role of Artificial Intelligence in ERP: https://www.erpadvisorsgroup.com/blog/artificial-intelligence-in-erp

We have fielded thousands of calls from people who are beginning their ERP selection – and it is vital to understand what differentiates your ERP selection consultant candidates during the introductory call. Over the years, we have uncovered the best practices for selecting a lifelong partner in ERP selection, from the questions to ask to the expectations that should be set during the sales process. In this episode of The ERP Advisor, Shawn Windle will be joined by consulting industry expert Erica Windle to divulge the secrets to vetting the right ERP Selection Consultant for your business.

Oracle announced its fiscal 2024 Q1 results. Oracle and Microsoft announced Oracle Database@Azure, which gives customers direct access to Oracle database services running on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and deployed in Microsoft Azure datacenters. Acumatica announced tech industry veteran, Jeff Smits, has joined the company as its Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective September 11th, 2023. ECI announced that Riz Karim has been appointed as Chief Customer Officer to support customer growth and success globally. Qlik announced Qlik Staige, a holistic set of solutions to help customers confidently embrace the power of AI and deliver tangible value.

SAP kicked off the week by announcing it has entered into an agreement to acquire LeanIX, an Enterprise Architecture Management software provider. Salesforce announced the general availability of Bring Your Own Lake (BYOL) Data Sharing with the Snowflake Data Cloud from Salesforce Data Cloud. Salesforce and Databricks announced an expanded strategic partnership that delivers zero-ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) data sharing in Salesforce Data Cloud. IFS first announced the appointment of Andre Robberts as the new regional President for Southern and Western Europe and LATAM. Aptean announced the appointment of Miguel Gernaey as the company’s new Chief Marketing Officer.

Holding a successful ERP demonstration can be tricky for the selection novice. From vendor preparation to writing a demo script, each detail can mean the difference between seeing how your needs can be met in a product and accidentally dismissing a worthy vendor. In this EAG Selection Mini-Series episode, ERP expert, Shawn Windle, will advise ERP selection leaders on conquering software demonstrations to reach their ERP selection goals.

The process of ERP selection is hard enough without the added complexity of navigating software sales tactics, demonstrations, and negotiations. Interacting with software salespeople from multiple vendors can absorb significant time and knowing how to vet what they tell you versus what’s true is critical if you hope to buy the right product and services. In this special selection mini-series, ERP expert, Shawn Windle, will guide businesses in building their skills to effectively handle software salespeople.

SAP and Google Cloud announced an expanded partnership to help enterprises harness the power of data and generative AI. IFS announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Falkonry, Inc. UKG began the week by providing a business update for the third quarter of fiscal 2023, ending June 30, 2023. Salesforce followed suit, announcing results for its second quarter fiscal 2024 ended July 31, 2023. Qlik announced it has successfully achieved Google Cloud Ready – Cloud SQL Designation for Cloud SQL for both Qlik Data Integration and Talend Data Fabric.

Workday announced results for the fiscal 2024 second quarter ended July 31, 2023. Planful announced continued revenue growth and profitability, fueled by customer base growth and expansion of use case adoption within the base. Blackbaud announced an AI development for JustGiving, a global platform for online giving. Salesforce then announced new AI-powered Field Service innovations to help organizations across industries streamline field operations, increase productivity, and drive revenue while delivering trusted customer experiences. IFS announced that Tech Mahindra is now the exclusive distributor of IFS solutions in India, including the IFS Cloud platform which delivers intelligence and automation across FSM, ERP, and EAM. Sage confirmed that its near-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, or SBTi. Oracle rounded out the week by announcing their recognition as a founding member of CancerX, a public-private partnership formed to drive innovations that can help reduce deaths due to cancer.

Having the right leadership and a structural plan in place is vital to ensure the success of your ERP project. Improperly staffing your team will lead to project failure and significant loss of both time and resources, so don’t leave your structural plan to chance, contact an expert ERP consultant today!

Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions have transformed the way employers interact with their employees, allowing companies to take Human Resources to the next level of increased productivity and engagement for end users and administrators alike. The best HCM software can propel your business forward into a new era of business value, but how can you identify the right product for your organization? Join ERP Advisors Group where ERP expert Shawn Windle will explore the business opportunities made possible through HCM software.

Oracle announced Oracle Compute Cloud@Customer, a rack-scale cloud infrastructure enabling organizations to use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) compute services anywhere. NetSuite is the most recent vendor to extend its data center footprint into other global regions with its announcement that it is now running in OCI cloud regions in Toronto and Montreal. Microsoft followed the trend, announcing that Epic clients can now use Microsoft Azure Large Instances, a solution designed to achieve the scale needed to run the large Epic electronic health record (EHR) database – up to 50 million database accesses per second.

Certinia announced the general availability of its Summer 2023 product release. Microsoft introduced Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service, bringing the power of next-generation AI to service professionals on the frontline to speed time to resolution. Aptean followed the growth and enhancement trend, making two major acquisitions of Best Practice IT Solution GmbH and trend SWM.

Data migration is a complicated process, requiring dedication and expertise to successfully navigate the technical aspects. Without clean, transformed data, an ERP implementation will be doomed to fail before it really even begins. In this episode of The ERP Advisor, ERP experts, Shawn Windle and Quentin DeWitt, took a deep dive into the nuances of data migration, discussing how businesses can ensure the success of their projects by applying data migration best practices.

Blackbaud announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2023. Then, IFS announced its financial results for the first half of 2023 ending June 30th, 2023. Finally, Amazon.com, Inc. announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2023.

Microsoft announced results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. ServiceNow reported its second-quarter 2023 financial results for the period ended June 30, 2023. In related financial investments, Haveli Investments, L.P., a technology-focused private equity firm, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Certinia. Planful announced that Postal, a global offline engagement platform, has joined Planful’s partner network. Blackbaud then refreshed its Blackbaud Partner Network, which will deliver shared value for partners, customers, and the company.

The substantial growth in the ERP space continues this week, with SAP announcing their financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023. ECI announced the launch of Spruce eCommerce, an e-commerce solution purpose-built for the unique needs of lumber and building materials (LBM) and hardlines businesses. Are you evaluating the need for an eCommerce solution? ERP Advisors Group has dedicated the Summer of 2023 to evaluating best-of-breed solutions on the market and recently published the article “Unlock the Power of E-Commerce to Enhance Your ERP” which can be found at https://www.erpadvisorsgroup.com/blog/e-commerce-to-enhance-your-erp

Blackbaud announced the newest cohort of participants in its Social Good Startup Program. In other news, the ERP market continues to grow substantially, as demonstrated in recent financial results from OneStream for the second quarter ending June 30, 2023. Finally, Workday introduced the next generation of its patented Elastic Hypercube Technology (EHT), the intelligent modeling engine that powers Workday Adaptive Planning.

Manufacturing companies have unique operations that may require resources beyond the offerings of a standard Manufacturing ERP. Many businesses need best-of-breed manufacturing software solutions, whether MRP or MES offerings, to solve their organization’s pain points, including manual tracking and reporting on material movement, disjointed communication surrounding engineering designs, revisions, BOMs, and an overall lack of industry best practices baked into operations. In this episode of The ERP Advisor, Shawn Windle will assist manufacturing companies in uncovering their needs to answer the age-old question: why would our business need an MRP versus an ERP?

All ERP vendors are looking for ways to innovate and provide deeper functionality to previously underserved markets with many looking to benefit the SMB space. Sage has followed this trend, announcing that US customers who are looking to implement Sage Intacct will now have first-time access to the technology on AWS. Speaking of ways to encourage growth and a greater sense of community, Infor announced that it has joined the Catena-X initiative. Finally, Deltek announced that it has developed the GovWin IQ Small Business Resource Center curated specifically to support the thousands of small businesses looking for ways to find and win more government contracting opportunities with limited resources.