Better Visibility to Make Quicker Decisions

About this issue

Turning Visibility into Action

ERP News Magazine Issue 8, dated March 2020, explores how organizations can turn connected information into faster decisions. Its interviews and articles place cloud systems, automation and user experience alongside the less glamorous work of implementation: defining priorities, involving employees and maintaining useful data. Customer perspectives from air filtration, pet food manufacturing and hospitality give the discussion a practical setting. The issue reflects technologies and business expectations at the time of publication.

Implementation and the Experience of Using ERP

The cover interview features Chris Pinaire, Director of Consulting and Implementation at Global Shop Solutions. He describes ERP as a continuing improvement effort rather than a single software purchase. Better visibility depends on processes that produce reliable information, employees who understand the system and a management team prepared to support change. His comments address the resource constraints of smaller manufacturers and the importance of choosing an implementation approach that fits the business. Faster decisions are presented as the purpose of visibility, with preparation and sustained use as necessary conditions.

Lee An Schommer, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Epicor, discusses experience as a product concern. Her interview connects customer feedback and the Kinetic design approach with simpler interactions and familiar expectations shaped by consumer technology. AI and the Internet of Things are considered through the problems they might solve. The emphasis is on reducing friction for actual users, rather than adding fashionable capabilities without a clear operational reason.

Two Different Transformation Journeys

American Air Filter Europe describes the challenge of harmonizing operations across sixteen legal entities with different procedures and systems. Angelika Schwartz and Frank Kress explain the decision to build a common foundation on SAP S/4HANA in the public cloud, working with Allgeier and SAP teams. Communication and cultural change are central to the account. The article describes a phased implementation beginning in Germany and Austria in 2020, with consolidated information, automation and future service innovation as objectives. These intended benefits should not be read as completed results across all European operations.

Lider Petfood General Manager Murat Tarhan provides a separate customer interview about caniasERP. Rapid growth exposed the limits of an accounting-led environment, particularly in warehousing and logistics. After reference visits and evaluation, the company began with those processes in a phase lasting about three months and extended coverage to the wider business over roughly a year. Tarhan describes customized planning screens, pallet tracking, handheld terminals and access to production and cost information. He credits management commitment, training and correct material coding as important foundations. Quality Management deployment and more detailed tracking remain next steps in the source. The interview describes ERP supporting growth, rather than establishing that ERP alone caused it.

New York Burger appears in Oracle's restaurant point-of-sale coverage. Founder Pablo Colmenares explains that growth had exposed inefficiencies in the previous system and describes simpler, faster operations with MICROS. This is a distinct hospitality example within a product announcement, with qualitative customer testimony rather than a measured return-on-investment study.

Automation, People and Cloud Choices

Oliver Betz of SAP considers intelligent technologies within S/4HANA, while Jitendra Somani of Sage Software Solutions discusses digital transformation for smaller businesses. Eran Rozenfeld of Priority Software examines mobile ERP access. Andy Coussins of Epicor brings organizational culture into the Industry 4.0 discussion, emphasizing assessment and incremental improvement. Robin Irvine of Avaap addresses cloud readiness and project staffing, while Lucy Thorpe of InCloud Solutions explores the barriers that can keep smaller companies from turning transformation ideas into working applications.

Michael Grace of RPI Consultants distinguishes practical intelligent automation from broad claims about AI. His contribution emphasizes process suitability and governance around a digital workforce. Rama Vadakattu of Infor considers next-generation consulting, including integration, accelerators and industry preparation. Antony Bourne of IFS asks whether AI-driven productivity might eventually shorten the working week; that argument is an outlook, not evidence of an achieved labor-market change. Jonathan Weiss of Software AG discusses field-service possibilities including connected monitoring, predictive maintenance and remote diagnosis, using illustrative applications rather than a single named implementation.

News and the Finance Perspective

The opening news section includes Sage Intacct Construction, Agiloft's contract lifecycle management recognition and Prophix research on the changing finance function. Infor's Black at Infor employee network introduces a people and inclusion perspective. Together these pieces broaden the issue beyond core transaction processing. The editorial thread is that effective ERP combines accessible information, usable tools and a deliberate plan for organizational adoption. Vendor announcements, survey findings, customer accounts and future possibilities retain their different evidential roles throughout the issue.