How to Build a Digital Transformation Roadmap for 2023

About this issue

From business ambition to a digital roadmap

How can organizations turn a broad digital ambition into a sequence of achievable business changes? ERP News Magazine Issue 36, March 2023, examines digital transformation roadmaps through procurement, contract intelligence, automation, customer experience and organizational adoption. The issue connects strategy with implementation: assess the starting point, define the value sought, sequence initiatives realistically and help people use the resulting systems.

Contract intelligence and procurement transformation

Ninian Wilson, CEO of Vodafone Procurement Company, and Ajay Agrawal, CEO and Co-founder of SirionLabs, discuss a data-centered approach to contract lifecycle management. Wilson explains why archived agreements alone could not provide sufficient control over compliance, performance and value leakage. Vodafone's competitive selection considered the software, roadmap and implementation team's capabilities. The account describes digitized contract management, a central repository and broader automation of contracting processes.

Agrawal distinguishes legacy-contract extraction, negotiation support and post-signature performance management. He emphasizes training-data quality and the connection between contractual commitments and operational outcomes. His broader vendor claims about typical savings should not be treated as a measured Vodafone-specific saving. Together, the interviewees position CLM as an ongoing management capability extending beyond contract signature.

Gabe Mensching, Chief Technology Officer at NIMBL, reviews intelligent spend management within a RISE with SAP context, discussing SAP Signavio, Ariba and Business Technology Platform. Process visibility, supplier connections and extensibility connect procurement with the wider digital landscape. Unit4's sourcing article complements this perspective with stakeholder involvement, incremental delivery and adoption measures.

Frameworks, automation and people

Edward Abrahamson, Principal Consultant at Lumenia, sets out a six-step strategy process: understand business direction, establish scope, assess capabilities, evaluate opportunities, build the roadmap and secure agreement. Alan Hester, President of Nividous Software Solutions, offers a five-step approach covering objectives, technology evaluation, pilots, scaling and continuous measurement. His examples include invoice processing, brokerage onboarding and AEG Vision's revenue-cycle automation, with reported outcomes tied to distinct customers and processes.

Allan Lessing, Director of Customer Solutions at OptiProERP, examines ten expected trends, including multi-cloud, AI, automation, integrated ERP, experience and cybersecurity. Unit4 CTO Claus Jepsen supplies a separate executive perspective on composability, data management and technology choices. These are historical 2023 outlooks rather than proof that every prediction materialized.

Candice Arnold, VP of Marketing and CMO for IFS assyst, explains hyperautomation through IT service management, RPA, AI and related tools. SAP's Sindhu Gangadharan, Head of SAP User Enablement and Senior Vice President and Managing Director of SAP Labs India, examines in-application learning and SAP Enable Now. Pemeco addresses communication, training, realistic expectations and stabilization after go-live. Across these contributions, implementation success depends on organizational capability as well as technical deployment.

Customer stories: connecting information and operations

Kurita Water Industries uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Teams and Power BI to make customer knowledge more accessible. Shared information and staff-built dashboards support sales collaboration and more proactive advice. The case describes tracking customer engagement and proposed water and energy reductions, without publishing a quantified environmental saving.

Hunkemöller works with Capgemini to consolidate service information in Salesforce Service Cloud with integrated telephony. A common agent interface connects orders, shipping and loyalty information. Reported benefits include shorter call handling and better first-time answers, while staged releases and limited customization support continued development.

Derungs Licht moves from a parent-supported on-premises environment to Infor M3 CloudSuite. Online workshops help the team adopt the system, which goes live in March 2021. The customer reports approximately 50% greater efficiency in accounting, especially through digitized invoice handling. That figure concerns accounting rather than company-wide productivity.

Anton Debatin GmbH describes long-term abas ERP use linking production, warehousing, materials and finance. Its original implementation entered operation in 2002 without reported downtime in production, shipping or goods receipt. Further multisite connections and expanded subsidiary use remain plans within the historical account.

ComCenter connects Acumatica CRM and ERP with its website and warehouse system to improve outreach and operational visibility. The story reports more than 90% sales growth over five years, accounts-payable work falling from 40 hours weekly to ten or less, and online-order review dropping from four hours daily to one. Its school-sales growth appears with differing achieved and projected language in the source, so that claim needs separate qualification.

World of Beer Bar & Kitchen selects NetSuite to simplify finance across corporate and franchise locations. The account identifies reconciliation bottlenecks, fragmented access and manual payments, then describes intended improvements in accounting, inventory and closing. It provides no quantified achieved return or independently verified productivity result.

Cueros Vélez implements Infor WMS with Cerca Technology and subsequently integrates it with other operational systems. The announcement reports productivity increases exceeding 150% in height picking and classification, alongside improved receiving and inventory visibility. Scenario-based employee training supports the rollout; the percentages describe particular warehouse activities.

Curran, a Seattle furniture and flooring business, replaces QuickBooks and paper processes with Acumatica Cloud ERP Manufacturing Edition. The announcement attributes 40% revenue growth, better purchase-order accuracy and less manual entry to its transformation. These are reported customer outcomes, rather than a general forecast for every ERP deployment.

Innovation beyond the core platform

Prophix discusses finance innovation through analytics, storytelling, scenario planning and rolling forecasts, with an embedded Mission Health Communities example. Nolan Business Solutions connects NetSuite data with segmentation, lead management and marketing measurement. QAD's Trevor Long considers planning, the connected workforce, data silos and procedural inertia, while abas examines iterative progress toward digital factories.

Sage writer Asavin Wattanajantra explores AI with Forecast and Moneypenny, highlighting concrete business problems, scalable systems and communication between technology and finance leaders. Aptean applies roadmap thinking to route optimization, execution visibility, proof of delivery and ERP integration. Microsoft's closing product review presents proposed Outlook and Edge multitasking experiences within its historical rollout context.

Industry developments and implementation choices

News includes SAP's partnership with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany; Deloitte Digital's Rootstock alliance; and Eduardo Rosini's appointment to lead Sage's partner strategy. QAD reports its completed Redzone acquisition, while Aptean announces an agreement to acquire Drink-IT. Salesforce outlines an eight-year renewable-energy-certificate purchase supporting distributed projects in emerging markets, with financing and emissions benefits still estimated.

The issue's roadmap theme runs through these developments: new capabilities create value when organizations connect them to specific processes, reliable information, realistic measures and sustained adoption.