ERP Resources

When 'Good Enough' isn't Good Enough

2025-06-30T17:23:00.002+05:30

I was in a class where the faculty asked us a simple question:
“Is 100% quality possible in your work?”
The class laughed.
“Maybe 95%, maybe 97% on a good day,” we said.
But 100%? Impossible. We’re only human.
Then the professor told us something that stopped us cold.
“Yesterday, I took my father to the hospital.
The cardiologist recommended surgery.
As a quality consultant, I asked what percentage quality he could assure.
He said, ‘About 90%. Human error accounts for the rest.’
That’s better than what you’re all claiming today.
Should I go with this doctor?”
The silence in the room was deafening.
Why do we expect 100% from doctors—but offer 85% in our own work?
Why is 100% “unrealistic” for us, but non-negotiable when we’re the customer?
💡 It hit us:
If our work affects real people—and it does—we don’t have the luxury of "good enough."
Whether you write code, lead a team, or build a product, you owe your customer your best.
✅ 100% quality is not about perfectionism.
It’s about respect, integrity, and excellence.
Let’s raise our bar.
Because someone, somewhere, is trusting us like we trust that doctor.
How is it relevant to ERP?
The points made above apply as well to ERP Implementation. Count the number of times where you have provided 'Symptomatic Solution' rather than doing Root Cause Analysis? Where you provided the first available solution and move on?
Why can't we be like Steve Jobs who demanded perfectionism from his team on everyone of their deliverable? Can't we strive for perfect documentation, for example. In my over 25 years of ERP Implementation, I have seen only one user manual that meets the 'Perfect' criteria. Why can't we elevate our work to that level?
What do you think?

SEVEN REASONS WHY YOUR ERP's MOST POWERFUL TOOL IS GATHERING DUST.

2025-06-25T18:16:00.000+05:30

Every robust ERP boasts impressive costing capabilities, supporting methods like Standard Costing, Transaction Weighted Averaging, Period Moving Average Costing, Actual (Specific) Costing, and FIFO. Yet, in most implementations, you'll likely find Transaction Weighted Average Costing (aka Weighted Average Costing) as the default.

I've observed countless ERP projects (excluding my own) where customers simply don't gain significant value from the Costing module. Here's why:

1. Lack of customer demand: Customers often aren't aware of the Costing application's full potential and just want a "business as usual" solution that mimics their existing reports. Even when they want to change, the magnitude of the changes deter them from going forward (like setting cost element wise standards to move to standard costing, reconciliation between current cost / profitability data with the proposed model etc)

2. Lack of ownership clarity: Is costing only accounting or is there more to costing? Costing sits uncomfortably between Supply Chain and Finance. Supply chain team thinks that since costing includes accounting, it should be owned by Finance. Finance team thinks that since Costing initiates from Procurement and flows through manufacturing and order fulfillment, it has to be owned by Supply Chain Team. Without a clear owner, it's often left to fend for itself, like an orphan.

3. 'Derived Information' fallacy: Project Managers frequently assume, "What is there to focus on costing? Just input the transactions, and the system handles costing, right?". This leads to deficient focus by the PM. This ties directly into the ownership issue.

4. Consultant's lack of conceptual knowledge: Costing is concept-intensive, especially Standard Costing, requiring an understanding of quantity and rate variances. Many consultants are product specialists, not business process experts, able to configure WAC but struggling with broader discussions on margins and profitability.

5. Data accuracy challenges: Accurate costing relies on meticulous data input across various modules. Inaccurate bills of material, routing, or inventory data can render costing results meaningless. Even when your go live is awesome, sloppy ongoing data update and maintenance leads to GIGO phenomenon. Soon organization lose trust on the costing data generated by ERP and revert to excel based analysis and reporting.

6. Integration complexities: Costing data often needs to be integrated with other systems for comprehensive analysis (e.g., budgeting, financial planning), and this integration is frequently overlooked or poorly executed.

7 Focus on compliance, not insight: Many organizations prioritize costing simply for financial reporting compliance rather than leveraging it for strategic decision-making and operational improvements.

Your views?

YOUR ERP IMPLEMENTATION IS DOOMED TO FAIL - UNLESS YOU FOLLOW THESE SEVEN RULES

2025-06-10T15:46:00.000+05:30

After 27 years in ERP, I’m still haunted by one question: Why do ERP implementations fail?
We refine requirements across bidding, discovery, and solution design phases, yet many projects collapse. Why?
It’s simple: knowing a technical solution is not the same as delivering a seamless customer solution. These skills are worlds apart, like solving math equations versus using quantitative models to dominate the stock market.
Here’s how I approach ERP success:
1. Plan Meticulously: A project plan isn’t optional—it’s essential. As Covey said, “Begin with the end in mind.” A solid plan visualizes the entire lifecycle, but too many skip this.
2. Scope Like a Hawk: I lock down scope early and treat any creep like a threat. Change requests aren’t freebies. Want me to deliver that for free? Good luck with that (And customers appreciate my rigidity)
3. Action-Oriented Reporting: My reports focus on clear deliverables and risks, keeping the team sharp. What we did so far has to be put in context of where we are going.
4. Cut-and-Dry Emails: Ownership must be crystal clear. I don't sugarcoat. I end emails with, “If I don’t hear back in three days, this issue is considered closed.”
5. Early User Engagement: Involve users from day one—they need to understand the process and share the load.
6. Follow Vendor Guidelines: It’s shocking how often companies ignore the vendor’s methodology.
7. Build One Team: When the “us versus them” gap disappears, magic happens.
My deep ERP process knowledge helps me weave solutions together, but I’ve made three mistakes in my career. They still rankle.
1. Delaying Ownership of a Troubled Project: I hesitated to take control of a failing project, fearing the risks. By the time I stepped in, the damage was already significant.
2. Failing to Communicate Risks: I failed to communicate the risk of a customer decision and a perfect project turned mediocre. I still regret it.
3. Managing Projects Outside My Expertise: Attempting to lead in unfamiliar territory left me floundering. Now, I never underestimate the importance of domain expertise.
ERP success isn’t about perfection; it’s about paranoia, vigilance, discipline, and learning from failure.
And asking the right questions.
Are you asking the right questions to avoid becoming another statistic?

Seven Mistakes - How Bad Project Managers Sabotage ERP Projects

2025-06-08T09:37:00.003+05:30

Over my ERP career spanning over 25 years in ERP, I have worked with many project managers. I have come to the conclusion that bad project management is the only reason for the failure of an ERP Implementation Project.

Here are seven common mistakes that I have seen PMs make. This list is not in any order, you can say that this list may have recency effect.

1. Focusing on Costs: Focusing on project costs is one of the tasks of the PM. Some PMs focus too much on cost and become anxious too early in the project. This anxiety transfers to the team and the team gets scared of asking for help. Paradoxically this increases project cost. Another wrong decision is to make changes to the team in the middle of a key activity. This disturbs the project momentum.

2. Ignoring risks: If there is one task that PM should focus on, it is the risk management. This includes risk identification and risk assignment and follow up. In many projects that I have worked on, Risk Tracking is considered to be an overhead

3. Ceding too much ground to the customer: In some prestigious projects, customer ends up driving the project and PM do not push back. This is wrong since customer do not have expertise in ERP Implementation. This lack of push back transfers the project management load to the team.

4. Ignorance of the importance of Data Migration: Data Migration is the most crucial activity in an ERP implementation and I have seen PMs offloading the ownership and responsibility to third party DM vendors. It is very important that the implementation team drives Data Migration, since it has direct impact on the quality of implementation

5. Inability to handle stress: I have experienced this with two PMs. Both of them could not handle stress and will shout at everyone at the first sign of a project challenge. This dampens the motivation of the team and destroys the communication channel within the team.

6. Doesn't plan well, if at all: I have been in multiple projects where project had moved to the UAT stage, with lots of delays of course, and the Project Plan was not base-lined with the customer. Without an approved plan, the project is directionless.

7. Poor communication / closure skills: Project management is a communication game. PM need to understand the stakeholders and have a clear communication plan for each group of stakeholders. However, most of the PMs believe that having one weekly report is enough communication.
These are the seven mistakes that I have seen PMs make in ERP Implementation. I am sure there are more.

What has been your experience?

Seven ERP Trends for 2024

2024-02-26T16:14:00.000+05:30

Introduction:

The world of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is constantly evolving, driven by technological advancements and changing business needs. Global ERP Market is expected to grow from about 48 Billion in 2022 to about 96.85 Billion by 2032 growing at a CAGR of 7.3%.

As we enter 2024, several key trends are set to reshape the landscape of how organizations manage their operations. These trends promise increased efficiency, improved decision-making, and enhanced agility in a dynamic market. Let's delve into seven of the most significant trends that will likely impact the way businesses operate and leverage their ERP systems.

Seven ERP Trends for 2024

1. Cloud First: Embracing Agility and Cost-Effectiveness

The dominance of cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) ERP solutions continues to surge. This shift towards the cloud empowers businesses, particularly large multinationals, with seamless collaboration and real-time data sharing capabilities across global locations. This trend is driven by several factors:

Reduced Costs: Cloud eliminates the need for expensive hardware and IT infrastructure, leading to significant cost savings.
Enhanced Scalability: Cloud-based ERP solutions effortlessly scale up or down to accommodate changes in business needs, offering greater flexibility.
Improved Accessibility: Cloud ERP can be accessed from anywhere, anytime, and on any device, fostering better collaboration and boosting employee productivity.

2. Integration with Cutting-Edge Technologies

The integration of emerging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain within ERP systems is gaining significant traction. This integration offers several benefits:

Blockchain for Transparency and Security: Businesses are increasingly adopting blockchain technology within their ERP systems to enhance transparency, traceability, and security in supply chain and financial transactions. This allows for the creation of immutable ledgers, providing a clear audit trail for products from manufacturing to delivery.
IoT for Real-Time Monitoring and Optimization: ERP systems integrated with IoT devices enable real-time monitoring of equipment health, leading to reduced downtime and maintenance costs. In addition, this integration helps businesses optimize production processes and improve resource utilization.

3. Hyperautomation: Streamlining Operations

Hyperautomation refers to the strategic application of multiple automation technologies, including Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML), to automate as many tasks as possible within an organization. This trend is gaining momentum in the ERP space, as businesses strive to streamline operations and eliminate inefficiencies.

Hyperautomation can be applied to various areas within the ERP system, including:

Data Entry: Automating repetitive data entry tasks saves time and improves accuracy.
Invoice Processing: Automating the processing of invoices reduces errors and enhances cash flow.
Customer Service: AI-powered chatbots can handle basic customer inquiries, freeing up human agents to address more complex issues.

4. Rise of Industry-Specific Solutions: Tailoring ERP to Unique Needs

While traditional ERP systems offer a generic approach, businesses are increasingly demanding solutions tailored to their specific industries. This demand has led to the development of industry-specific ERP modules that cater to the unique needs of various sectors, such as healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

These specialized solutions offer several advantages:

Pre-Built Functionality: Industry-specific ERP solutions come equipped with features tailored to the specific industry, reducing the need for extensive customization.
Embedded Best Practices: These solutions incorporate industry best practices, offering valuable insights and helping businesses improve their operations.
Faster Implementation: Industry-specific solutions can be implemented more quickly and easily, minimizing disruption to business operations.

5. Data Privacy Compliance: A Growing Priority

With increasingly stringent global data protection regulations, the emphasis on data privacy and compliance features within ERP systems is intensifying. This trend ensures that businesses can operate confidently, knowing their data is secure and compliant with relevant regulations.

6. Eco-Friendly ERP: Aligning with Sustainability Goals

Environmental sustainability is becoming a critical business imperative, and ERP systems are playing a key role in this shift. Businesses are increasingly seeking eco-friendly ERP solutions that can help them track and manage their sustainability efforts. Modern ERP systems offer features such as:

Carbon Footprint Tracking: Businesses can leverage their ERP systems to track their carbon emissions across the entire supply chain and identify areas for improvement.
Energy Efficiency Monitoring: These systems can monitor energy consumption in real-time, allowing businesses to identify and implement strategies to reduce energy use.
Sustainable Sourcing: Businesses can utilize their ERP systems to manage and track the sourcing of materials from sustainable suppliers, contributing to a more responsible supply chain.

By embracing eco-friendly ERP practices, businesses can not only reduce their environmental impact but also demonstrate their commitment to sustainability, which can be a significant advantage in attracting and retaining eco-conscious customers.

7. The Human-Centric ERP: Fostering User Adoption and Engagement

While technology is undeniably transforming the ERP landscape, the human element remains crucial. In 2024, we will see a continued focus on developing ERP systems that are user-friendly, intuitive, and engaging for employees. This includes features such as:

Personalized Dashboards: Users can customize their dashboards to display the information they need most frequently, improving their efficiency and decision-making.
Mobile Accessibility: ERP functionalities will become increasingly accessible from mobile devices, catering to on-the-go work styles and fostering greater flexibility.
Simplified User Interfaces: ERP systems should be designed with intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, ensuring ease of use even for non-technical users. This will improve user adoption, reduce training time, and enhance overall satisfaction with the system.

A study by MIT Sloan Management Review found that companies with a user-centric approach to ERP implementation are 30% more likely to see a positive return on investment. By designing human-centric ERP systems, businesses can increase user adoption, improve employee satisfaction, and drive greater efficiency across the organization.

Conclusion

By embracing these seven key trends, businesses can leverage the power of ERP to achieve new levels of efficiency, agility, and competitiveness in the ever-evolving business landscape. As technology continues to advance, it will be exciting to see how these trends further shape the future of ERP and empower businesses to thrive in the years to come.

References

Cloud-First, Always:

Gartner Predicts 80% of New Deployments Delivered as SaaS Within Five Years: https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/cloud-infrastructure-and-platform-services

AI and Machine Learning (ML) Take the Wheel:

IDC Survey: 73% of Businesses Are Considering or Already Using Cloud ERP: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US46733721

AI could add up to $2 trillion to the global economy by 2030: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/artificial-intelligence/notes-from-the-ai-frontier-modeling-the-impact-of-ai-on-the-world-economy

Hyperautomation for Streamlined Operations:

The Hyperautomation Market Will Reach $246.9 Billion by 2025: https://www.forrester.com/report/the-rpa-market-will-grow-to-usd22-billion-by-2025/RES177085

Sustainability Takes Center Stage:

66% of Consumers Are Willing to Pay More for Brands Committed to Sustainability: https://nielseniq.com/global/en/insights/

The Rise of Industry-Specific Solutions:

Global Industry-Specific ERP Market To Reach $4 Billion by 2028: https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/erp-software-market-1412

Democratization of Data and Analytics:

Companies that empower employees with self-service analytics are 58% more likely to outperform their competitors: https://www.accenture.com/content/dam/accenture/final/capabilities/technology/cloud/document/Accenture-Cloud-Data-Value-A-New-Dawn-for-Dormant-Data-vF.pdf

The Human-Centric ERP:

Companies with a user-centric approach to ERP implementation are 30% more likely to see a positive return on investment: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-831-user-interface-design-and-implementation-spring-2011/

The source for this information is a market research report from Market Research Future titled "ERP Software Market - Global Forecast to 2028" published in November 2023. You can find the report here: https://www.precedenceresearch.com/erp-software-market

The Power of Precise Problem Identification in ERP Implementations

2023-10-20T19:43:00.005+05:30

It is a known fact that many ERP implementations are either outright failures or are suboptimally implemented leading to permanent dissatisfaction of the end users. While there are many reasons for this, one of the issues that I have seen, and which can be very easily resolved, is this.

"Incomplete / incorrect problem statement. The consultant do not have a clear idea of the issue and hence the problem remains unsolved for a long time."

Let me give you one example.

We were upgrading a customer from EBS1 R12.1.3 to R12.2.10. I was providing project oversight. One of the issues that remained open for a long time was this.

"When you create a customer, the value for the field Default Collector appears as 'Credit Manager'. We want the value to be set as blank so that we can update it based on the correct value."

Why is this issue open? I asked the consultant.

Sir, we tested this thoroughly, this is the normal behaviour, replied he.

Does it work the same way as in Reference Instance (the current 12.1.3 instance)?

Yes, we checked it, the behaviour is the same.

Can you show it?

The consultant quickly opened the application and created a customer. The behaviour was as per expectation. The value of 'Default Collector' was being picked up from the configuration and system was working correctly in my opinion.

However...

Customer still maintained that this was an issue.

So I called a meeting of all stakeholders and spent 30 minutes reviewing the issue.

We found that the customer was creating new customers through a custom form and they had written code to update this field value.

The customer was testing the issue using the custom form and consultant was testing the standard application.

This crucial difference was missed out by the consultant.

We reviewed the custom code. Someone had hard coded the default collector value as 'Credit Manager'.

We made minor change to the code and the issue got resolved.

An issue that was pending for over 3 months was resolved in just one hour!

I would like to think that the customer was happy. He was more relieved, I will say.

In any similar project, consultant would have raised a service request with Oracle Support and they would have analyzed for a few days before refusing to support issues with Custom Applications.

That is when consultant would have realized that there was a customization in the process flow.

There is only one lesson here. Before doing any testing, prepare the detailed test cases as per the available documentation. It will take time, but the testing will be very rigorous.

At a broader level, understand and document the issue very clearly. Use screenshots, test cases and the works to clearly identify the problem.

The solution, as they say, lies in the problem.

What do you think of this anecdote? Throughout my career I have faced this challenge. What about you?

From Recipe to CRP: Seven lessons that a Chef can teach an ERP Consultant.

2023-04-24T15:28:00.000+05:30

The world of culinary arts and the world of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) consulting may seem like two vastly different fields, but there are many valuable lessons that can be learned by bringing them together. For one, both are in the service industry and they work to deliver customer satisfaction. They have targets, deadlines and teams who work together to achieve the ultimate goal of making their customer happy.

So it is natural that there are lessons that a chef can teach an ERP Consultant. Here are of them.

1. Attention to detail

As a chef, attention to detail is critical. Even the smallest mistake can ruin a dish. Every ingredient must be measured precisely, and every step in the recipe must be followed exactly. A chef cannot afford to overlook even the smallest detail, as it could impact the taste and quality of the final dish.

Similarly, an ERP consultant must pay close attention to the details of a project. Even a slight change could make the difference between a 'Customer Delight' and a mere 'Successful Implementation'. Or even a disaster. Each aspect of the ERP system must be thoroughly evaluated, and every step in the implementation process must be carefully planned out.

For example a wrong configuration option could mean that the end user clicks three times rather than one. Missing a small aspect of data migration could mean multi year reconciliation challenges. Forgetting to mask customer email id during the testing phase could mean wrong dunning statements going to the customer leading to long-term disputes.

It has happened. I remember reading a case where the customer sued the implementation partner because even after go live, they ended up printing payroll checks for 'Test Employee 1' and 'Test Employee 2'

Forgetting to take the backup before applying a critical patch could mean that months of effort goes down the drain.

So 'attention to detail' is as important for an ERP Consultant as it is to a chef.

In my ERP Implementations, I give a lot of attention to details. I am a big fan of checklist approach (Chefs call it recipe). I ask my team to make a checklist and report on it so that no important detail is missed out.

2. Planning and preparation

A chef cannot simply start cooking without proper planning and preparation. They must create a menu, gather ingredients, and ensure that all necessary equipment is clean and in working order.

Similarly, an ERP consultant must plan and prepare for each project. Even before the project starts, you should do your back ground work. You should visit the customer's website and understand what they are doing. If you have a retail customer, go to the nearest supermarket and checkout their products. Try to find out about their distribution. Do they sell to small vendors or to big supermarkets. What are the SKUs that they sell? Do you see their distributions vans on the road as you take your morning walk? This exercise will give a feel of the customer's business.

Before starting their work, chefs neatly arrange everything they need. The have the tools, the pots and the pans, the meat and the vegetables, neat and clean stoves, aprons...

That is not how a typical ERP Consultant starts his implementation. They start looking around for tools, templates, reusable components and standard presentation AFTER they start the project.

Ideally, they must conduct a thorough analysis of the organization's current processes and systems, develop a project plan, and ensure that all necessary resources are in place. Preparation must also include clearly understanding the approved scope of work

In summary, prepare. Have the predictable aspects in place before you go for that first project meeting. It fast tracks the implementation

3. Flexibility and Adaptability

Chefs know that things don't always go as planned in the kitchen. Unexpected issues can arise at any moment. Perhaps an ingredient is unavailable or a piece of equipment breaks down. A chef must be able to adapt and quickly find creative solutions to these problems.

Similarly, an ERP consultant must be flexible and adaptable. They must be able to adjust the project plan as needed and find creative solutions to any unexpected issues that arise during implementation. Unexpected issues are the norm in ERP Implementation. A key team member could quit, a key assumption made about the solution do not hold, customer changes his business requirement.. Anything is possible and ERP Consultant should expect the unexpected and handle it.

4. Collaboration and Communication

A chef cannot create a delicious dish alone. They must work collaboratively with their team, including sous chefs, line cooks, and servers. Each member of the team has a specific role to play, and they must work together to create a successful dining experience. This requires strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively as a team.

Similarly, an ERP consultant must collaborate with various stakeholders throughout the implementation process, including executives, managers, and end-users. Each stakeholder has a unique perspective and set of needs, and the consultant must work collaboratively with them to ensure that the ERP system meets everyone's needs.

One of the best examples of team work that I have encountered is a recent project with multiple stakeholders. We worked together so effectively that this turned out to be one of the best projects that I have worked on. Team work matter.

5. Continuous improvement

A chef is never truly done improving their craft. They must constantly experiment with new ingredients and techniques to stay ahead of the competition. They should be aware of the environment and skill themselves on the latest innovations in the area of cooking. In addition, they must be aware of the latest jargon (Hello KETO Diet) to satisfy customer's palate and their intellect.

Similarly, an ERP consultant must always be striving for continuous improvement. They must stay up-to-date on the latest ERP trends and technologies, and they must constantly seek out ways to improve the system's functionality and user experience. This will enable them to deliver better experience to the end user.

In my years in ERP, I have worked on Character based applications, GUI, Client-Server, 3 tier, On Premise, Cloud Computing, Activity Based Costing, Average Balances, IFRS15, AI, ML and many new technologies and jargon. This has helped me to enhance the value that I generate for the customer.

6. Attention to the customer

A chef's success depends on the satisfaction of their customers. They must create dishes that not only taste great but also meet the customer's expectations. They may take dietary restrictions or personal preferences into account when creating menus or preparing dishes. I prefer less spice in my food, so I am elated when Chef listens to my requirement and deliver the same.

Similarly, an ERP consultant must focus on the end-user experience. They must ensure that the ERP system is user-friendly and meets the needs of the organization's employees. They must also be responsive to end-users' feedback and make adjustments as needed to ensure their satisfaction.

An example is data migration. Customers know their data since they are dealing with it everyday. After go live, the first thing they check for is if their data has successfully migrated. Knowing this, an ERP Consultant can prepare reconciliation test cases to review the key data before handing over the instance to the customer.

7. Time Management

A busy kitchen can be a chaotic place, but a good chef knows how to manage their time effectively. They must be able to prioritize tasks, delegate responsibilities, and ensure that everything is done on schedule. This same skill is critical for an ERP consultant who must balance multiple projects, deadlines, and priorities. She must ensure that project tasks are completed on time and budget

Bonus: Eighth Habit: Creativity

Cooking is often seen as an art form, and chefs are known for their creativity in the kitchen. They may experiment with new flavor combinations or presentation techniques to create unique and memorable dishes.

Similarly, ERP consultants can benefit from a creative approach to problem-solving. Thinking outside the box and exploring unconventional solutions can help consultants find innovative ways to address complex challenges.

I have delivered many creative solutions in my ERP Implementations. One example is loading of overheads on to the products. Normally it it done through a cumbersome process of month-end allocations. However, in one of the projects we were able to provide and innovative solution that delighted the customer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the world of culinary arts and the world of ERP consulting may seem very different, but there are many valuable lessons that can be learned from both. By bringing these two worlds together, we can learn to be more creative, customer-focused, and adaptable while still paying close attention to detail, managing our time effectively, and working collaboratively with others.

So if you're an ERP consultant looking to take your skills to the next level, consider spending some time in the kitchen and learning from a master chef

References:

Leadership Lessons from the Kitchen: Gary Furr, LinkedIn
What the best chefs can teach you about leadership: Sanne van Schoonneveldt on LinkedIn -
8 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Iron Chef: Rebecca O. Bagley
5 Life Lessons I Learned as a Chef: Clifton Long Jr.

From Cutting Board to Cutover: Applying cooking lessons to ERP Consulting.

2023-03-26T20:27:00.006+05:30

I love cooking.
This started as a necessity since I am a vegetarian (occasionally I eat eggs) and I have to travel abroad for work. My travel is often 2 to 3 months at a stretch and I have to cook my food to survive.
Of course cooking is relaxing as well.
Recently I re-discovered the joy of cooking.
The catalyst, the cue, that made me love cooking again was very simple.
A sharp knife.
I found a very sharp knife and I discovered that with it I could cut onions at a granularity that I had never done in life. I have used many sharp knives earlier, but this one was exceptional. The fluffiness of my omelette increased manifold as I used really 'Finely chopped' onions.
Cooking suddenly become a delight.
I am an ERP Professional. Whenever I experience such things, I try to find lessons that I can use in my profession. What are they?
Here goes.
The obvious lesson is to be prepared. Have the right tools in place before you start the work. In the cooking shows on TV, the chefs arrange everything they need before they start cooking.
Unlike the chefs, many PMs start the ERP Implementation projects and THEN start looking out for tools and templates. Is there a project plan that I can reuse? Are there a data migration templates, or extraction scripts that I can give to the customer? Or standard training materials or connectivity tools or reusable components that others have used or even I have used earlier...
There is no tools standardization in the project. Every project creates its own tools. A classic example is Data Migration Strategy Document. I myself have used at least five different templates while managing my project. There is nothing stopping me from consolidating the lessons and preparing a master template.
The second lesson is about having a process. A good chef has a 'place for everything and everything in its place'. And she maintains the discipline over and over again.
A typical ERP implementation begins with a process. It starts with an awesome folder structure with folders for Project Planning, Invoices, Tools and Templates, Familiarization, Refinement...
Every team member knows the structure and how to update it.
As the project evolves, new employees join and educating them on folder structure is the least of the priority. Gradually the process fails. New personal folders get created on the common folder, files start getting saved in local machines, version mismatch, customer complaints....
The third lesson, I think the most important one, is to go slow. As we all know, cooking on small flame is the best way to cook. The flavor is enhanced and all items are consistently cooked. I have seen novice cooks toggle between 'High' and 'Low' flames. The cooking is never tasty.
Similarly in ERP implementation, there will be situations when things don't go your way. Project Managers react to every small events like it is a catastrophe. Do not do that.
If cooking teaches you anything, it is to stay calm. Things have a way of sorting themselves out.
#ERPConsulting

Top 7 ERP Trends for 2023

2023-01-29T22:27:00.000+05:30

Another exciting year begins for ERP Market. After almost three years of self imposed isolation due to COVID, companies are cautiously optimistic and are starting to allocate IT Budgets, most of which will go to investment in implementation or upgrade of their ERP Systems.

But here is the catch.

The last three years saw the explosion of technology in the form of AI, ML, RPA, Blockchain and many other technology advancements. Due to this the expectation of Businesses from ERP has undergone significant changes when it comes to ERP. The question that I hear from every customer is 'What can we do more with ERP?' and 'How can Senior Management see demonstrated value out of our ERP Investment?'. Unfortunately many vendors still position their ERP System as an efficient back office solution and not as a value enhancer.

This has to change. ERP Systems integrating with AI and ML is the bare minimum expectations these days. Good news is that many ERP vendors realize this and are taking baby steps to incorporate ML into their ERP Systems. For example, Oracle has incorporated OCR (Optical Character Recognition) into its Cloud Application in which the ERP system can be 'taught' to read different formats of Supplier Invoices.

Let us come back to the key topics. Following are the top ERP Trends for 2023. Most of these trends are continuation of the existing trends that are accelerating compared to the earlier years.

1. Cloud Adoption: Much has been written about the benefits of Cloud Adoption. Cloud adoption as a trend started sometime in 2016 or 2017. In the last 5 years cloud offerings of the ERP Vendors have stabilized. Vendors seem to have addressed many of the early concerns like system security and system performance. In the last two years, I have implemented multiple Cloud Implementations and only one EBS (Oracle E-Business Suite) On Premise project. That last one was where customer wanted to add more businesses to their existing on-premise ERP Application.

On their part, ERP Vendors have also tailored their Cloud Offerings to suit the requirements of different industries and incorporated customization options to handle specific custom requirements. This helps them expand their offerings to a variety of industries

Another opportunity for Cloud Adoption is to move the current On-premise applications to the cloud, customization and all. ERP Vendors provide IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) option where the customer can move their On-premise ERP Applications to Cloud Infrastructure. This has two advantages, one, the companies can monetize their non-core IT Infra assets like Servers and two, they can convert their existing Capex to Opex which can be more predictable and controllable.

2. AI and ML Utilization: ERP Vendors need to integrate AI, ML and other advanced technologies to stay in the race. Customer Demand is the driver for this trend. There are many business processes where AI and ML can add value. These include intelligent document reading and transaction creation, Demand Planning, Inventory Management, Production Planning and Production Scheduling being a few. Different vendors are focusing on different business areas for technology integration. I implemented Automated Vendor Invoice Processing and it was not very successful, but today, with ML being incorporated in this process, the updated offering is very user friendly.

3. ERP on Mobile / Mobile First ERP: This is the next logical step to Cloud Adoption. The customer is expecting ERP on Mobile. This is a low hanging fruit and help the IT Department to show value to the senior management. Year 2023 and beyond will definitely see more of this trend. Don't be surprised when the guy sitting across you at the airport on the airport is connected to the cloud ERP system and is raising a Purchase Requisition. If not all areas, many of the senior management facing areas like requisitions, Sales Invoices, Inventory Onhand Quantity tracking, Critical Customer tracking and Budget Controls are ripe to move to mobile, and they will.

4. 'Mobile-ization' of ERP: This is different from the point 3 above. Once the customers adopt to Cloud, it becomes easier to integrate different third party apps with ERP. ERP application will become like a mobile operating system that allows different apps to work seamlessly. For example, customer can integrate their ERP application with niche third party applications that will enhance the value add. Customers are already integrating their ERP systems with Niche CRM, SCM, Planning and Budgeting, Advanced Production Planning and Scheduling systems. This trend will accelerate. The ERP Server will become like Mobile Phone.

5. Digitization Initiatives by Governments: These are exciting times for technology enthusiasts who track government initiatives in the area of technology. Governments of different countries, states, cities and even municipalities, from Africa to Alaska and Greenland are focusing on digitization and digitalization initiatives with the goal of improving the efficiency and transparency of Government Services. For example, in year 21-22, the Budget allocation for Digital India Initiative of Government of India increased by 68 percent over the previous year. ERP remains the backbone of these initiatives. However, due to data sensitivity, these initiatives are likely to be more on on-premise servers rather than on Cloud.

6. Analytics and Big Data: While new customers are taking baby steps towards selecting and implementing ERP Systems, mature ERP adopters are looking to reap value out of their ERP Investments through actionable information, insights and intelligence. Predictive analytics helps to identify potential risks in advance while 3-D Data Analytics help to cull out hidden insights that can help strategic decision making. Most of the ERP Vendors provide Analytics on the cloud that can easily integrate with existing ERP Systems. This trend will accelerate in 2023

7. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): In the last few years, companies have been investing big on IoT (Internet of Things). For example, it is estimated that 35 Million IoT devices will be installed in the year 2023. While IoT devices have been churning out vast amount of data, the integration of this data with the ERP Systems for planning, scheduling and analysis was far from satisfactory. With the advances in Big Data Analytics being integrated with ERP, this is bound to change. ERPs will be vastly efficient to cater to the data provided by IoT devices. ERP Vendors will have to work towards making this integration smoother by standardizing the IoT data and delivering APIs to seamlessly integrate IoT devices with their ERP applications.

While these are seven trends that will guide ERP Market in 2023, these are not all. Additional trends to watch out for include Personalization of ERP, Integration of Industry 4.0 with ERP, the initiatives of governments towards securing Personal Information (GDPR for example), rapidly evolving Technology Landscape (Who would have thought of ChatGPT just two months ago?) etc

Top Seven ERP Trends for 2022

2022-02-19T19:36:00.004+05:30

This post was originally published in Ximple Blog. Ximple provides ERP Solutions for Wholesale Distribution Industry. You can contact Ximple on Email info@ximplesolution.com and over phone +1 301 949 4400. You can get additional details from the company website www.ximplesolution.com

Introduction:

COVID pandemic has accelerated the Digitization, Digitalization and Digital Transformation plans for many Organizations. Organizations have suddenly understood that Technology can improve efficiencies and profitability. Technology no longer looks esoteric.

In addition, the last ten years have seen many technologies and ideas mature from the POC (Proof of Concept) phase to become ‘Industry Ready’. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Remote Collaboration, Machine Learning, Robotics Process Automation, Industrial IOT and Blockchain has demonstrated its value to the early adopters who made these technologies a part of their day-to-day activities. The information and intelligence provided by these technologies have added value to the adopters.

Companies have started looking at technology as a revenue driver rather than a cost element. This shift in perspective means higher readiness to embrace technology.

ERP is the backbone of any technology initiative in the company. ERP will both drive and be impacted by the shift to technology adoption mindset of the companies. This article looks art seven trends that will influence the ERP market in the coming years.

While on the demand side Organizations are evaluating ERP as a part of their Digital Transformation initiative, ERP Vendors are providing new revenue models to lower the pain of the customers and improve the customer experience. They have introduced simple and innovative revenue models that give a sense of predictability to their customers. They are regularly adding new features to their applications to meet myriad requirements of the customer.

Both these aspects, demand pull and supply push will drive the ERP market in the years to come.

Global ERP Market:

The ERP Market is expected to grow from 44.40 Billion USD in 2020 to 60.23 Billion USD by 2020 according to the market research firm Valuates Reports. The major factors impacting the rise in demand are technology adoption, efficiency improvement and cloud & mobility. Yet another driver is the demand for ERP from SME segment.

While North America will see the largest market share, Asia will see the highest increase in demand for ERP, especially driven by SMEs in India, China and Singapore.

Global Cloud Computing market will grow from 445 Billion USD in 2021 to 832 Billion USD by 2025 ( and further to $947 Billion by 2026). ERP Vendors are expected to add new technology solutions to their Cloud portfolio to benefit from this investment.

Trend 1: Cloud ERP: Cloud ERP Vendors are offering a number of value propositions. They are moving away from the traditional pitch of Capex (Capital Expenditure) versus Opex (Operational Expenditure) and are now stressing advanced security, data redundancy, flexible payment plans and advanced features in their ERP applications. This makes Cloud adoption an attractive option for companies considering ERP. On-premise model limitations like regular and disruptive upgrades, high amount of Capex and shrinking consultants ecosystem as consultants shift to Cloud ERP make Cloud adoption an easier decision for customers.

Trend 2: Integration with Advanced Technologies: Cloud computing is enabling ERP Vendors to quickly integrate advanced technologies like IIOT and Blockchain with their ERP. ERP Vendors are already providing standalone technology solutions to their customers and we will see these getting integrated quickly. A simple example of this integration is the use of real-time data provided by IIOT to trigger the Blockchain smart contract that automatically generates a new Sale Order in the ERP application. Another example will be the use of Machine Learning to auto-fill data in ERP thus reducing data entry and improving user experience. Improving user experience will be the initial goal of these integrations, but soon they will start generating business value by enabling better analysis and decision-making.

Trend 3: Industry specific solutions: The teen years of the 21st Century was driven by Generic ERPs and Cloud adoption. Now that the cloud has matured, ERPs that provide niche, industry specific solutions will be the future. The core ERP will remain unchanged of course, but ERP Vendors will offer more niche and modular solutions that will deliver a plug and play integration with ERP. For example, while the generic Procure to Pay solution will still be available, the ERP Vendors will offer bolt on solutions to handle the complex procurement process or the dairy or a meat processing industry, the unique supply chain requirements of a Wholesale Distribution industry or the complex costing requirements of a logistics industry.

While the second decade of the 21st Century focused on generalization, the coming decade will see specialization coming back with a vengeance.

Trend 4: Digital Transformation: This is a change in mindset for an Organization, where it changes the way it uses Technology. The objective is to make IT as a business value proposition and a revenue driver rather than just a resource consuming department. An ideal transformation will change every aspect of the Organization starting from sourcing to customer relationship and everything in between.

The COVID pandemic of 2020 has energized the digital transformation initiatives. While mobility and remote working was always the goal of the transformation, the pandemic removed the skepticism around that. The pandemic has convinced many CEOs that Digital Transformation could work and there is lot more appreciation and budget going in for it.

ERP is the foundation of a successful Digital Transformation. Implementing ERP as a part of a five year Transformation plan will be a key trend in the coming years.

Trend 5: Mobility, Voice, Bots, Collaboration: ‘ERP on the go’ and ‘ERP Everywhere’ are going to be the new trend. Mobility will enable both date entry (input) as well as information access (output). While many ERPs are already enabling mobility, it is going to explode with Cloud Adoption. It is only a matter of time before the salespersons at a customer site will check the mobile for available to promise and scan the QR code on the product to enter a new sales order.

Voice will be another related trend. Already CEOs are integrating their ERP with Alexa and getting the latest production numbers at their table by asking a simple question to Alexa or Siri. Going forward Voice could be used for data input, where a buyer can create a purchase requisition by dictating the order to Alexa. Potential is enormous.

RPA is getting integrated with ERP to create Chatbots that can help stakeholders get their clarifications quickly and accurately. Chatbots can also encourage internal collaboration. In addition, ERPs are integrating collaboration tools like chats and videos (and even Wiki) to their ERPs.

Future for ERP appears exciting.

Trend 6: Plug and Play Integration: With Cloud Adoption, Integration using standard APIs will be the new trend. Customers will no longer be dependent on a single vendor for the entire solutions. You could see customers using one ERP for their core processes and using solutions from different vendors for their specific requirements. For example, they may use SAP as their core and use Oracle HCM (Human Capital Management) for HR, a third party payroll vendor for their Payroll, a sourcing solution from another vendor and an advanced planning system from yet another vendor. Customers will expect their ERP Vendors to provide seamless and non-invasive integrations of these niche solutions with their ERP Systems. This will be similar to many apps being installed on your mobile phones.

Trend 7: Intelligent ERPs (iERP) that use AI and ML for advanced analytics: With the advent of Cloud ERP applications, the analytics features supported by ERP applications are becoming stronger by the day. Most of the applications have enabled embedded data warehouse tools like Cubes to have a 360 degree interaction with ERP. Unlike the past where data flowed from ERP to the DW (Data Warehouse), the advanced ERPs allow DW to use the information to generate transactions in ERP.

While information if available in abundance, the currently available analytics tools are weak in generating intelligence out of the information. In addition, those tools are good at analyzing structured data, they are weak at handling unstructured data. That is where new technologies like AI and ML will play a major part in the future. They will use both structured and unstructured data for predictive analytics and identify gaps as well as opportunities.

AI and ML are going to make ERPs Intelligent.

What are the challenges that ERP Vendors can expect in the coming year?

COVID remains the main concern. In 2020, companies scaled down on their IT Investment. They are not expected to review the IT Budget in the current year as well. In a survey, more than 80% of companies reported same or lower sales expected in 2021 compared to 2020. No new ERP Investment is expected in the first half of 2021.

The trends we discussed so far will come into effect as soon as the pandemic situation improves and world regains confidence.

Conclusion:

The COVID pandemic has changed the way companies look at technology adoption. Over the last ten years, many new technologies have come out of the labs and have become ‘Industry Ready’. This includes Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Industrial IOT (IIOT), Robotics Process Automation (RPA), Blockchain and Cloud Computing.

These technologies offer value propositions that Customers cannot ignore anymore. Organizations are designing their Digital Transformation strategies that will provide the technology roadmap for the future. In addition COVID pandemic has demonstrated that Technology is scalable and mobility is real and both of them help increase revenue, reduce costs and improve efficiencies. Digital Transformation has moved from the esoteric concept to a driver of business value.

In addition, the market for new technologies is expected to explode over the coming years. The Global Cloud Computing market is poised to more than double by the next five years.

The coming decade looks very promising for the ERP market. ERP being the backbone of Digital Transformation will benefit as Companies look at initiating the transformation process. Other than Digital Transformation, there are standalone trends that drive ERP Adoption in the coming years.
This is an exciting time for ERP.

Diary of an ERP Consultant - Bank Statement Interface and me

2021-11-04T21:09:00.012+05:30

Yesterday I watched the movie 'Julie and Julia'. In that movie, the protagonist, Julie Powell, decides to complete all the 524 recipes from the book 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' (written by the legendary cook Julia Child) and blog about it.

You can watch this movie on Netflix. Nice movie.

Watching the movie reminded me that I started this blog as a medium to pen my learning, successes, failures and frustrations as an ERP Consultant. When I work, I work a lot, about 11 to 13 hours on an average. I love my work and the challenges that I face.

I hope that you, my reader, will enjoy reading about it as much as I do doing it.

Right now I am working on two separate challenges, one of them is urgent and the other is not so much.

The first one is Bank Statement Integration. My customer has moved to a new bank and we have to configure the statements integration into Oracle ERP.

Let me explain.

On any day, a business organization does many bank transactions. They may make payments to the vendor, pay salaries and advances to the employees, reimburse employees for their approved expenses or receive checks and transfer payments from their customers.

These are some example transactions.

The payments are always entered in their books first and the bank impact happens later. For example, if I give you a check for 1000 INR, I record it in my books as soon as I cut the check and give it to you. However, the transaction is reflected in the Bank Books only when you deposit the check in the bank.

This means that there is an entry in my 'Cash Book' which is not reflected in the 'Books of the Bank'.

Another example, is when a customer directly transfers the money to your bank account electronically. In this case the Bank's records are updated but that change is not reflected in the books of the company.

This difference is regular and dynamic. The result is that the 'Cash Book' of the company is different from the 'Books of the Bank'.

But these books should be in sync, right? I mean, if you cut a check, you need to know when it is encashed, right? Else, how will you plan your cash position?

Or, assume a fortunate situation where customer has deposited money in the bank. If you do not sync it up with your records, you may have unused bank balances that you did not know of.

The process of syncing up the two books is called Bank Reconciliation. This is an important and sacred process followed by finance managers in any company. They prepare a statement known as Bank Reconciliation Statement.

There are many formats of this statement. One such format is given below.

Question: How do you know that the finance manager has completed bank reconciliation?

Answer: It is month end and he is smiling :)

Finance managers are very passionate about how the Bank Reconciliation Statement looks. They want it exactly as per their format. But ERP is naughty. It will give you all the information, but will not structure it the way you want. Bank Reconciliation Statement look and feel is a constant source of friction between consultant and customer in a typical ERP Implementation !!!

Shall I tell you a trade secret that only very senior ERP consultants know? We welcome this specific friction. It tells us that there are no other critical open issues in the project. If they were there, customer would be focusing on them rather than on the look and feel of this statement. Ironically friction on Bank Reconciliation Statement is a good friction to have.

The document that companies use to reconcile Bank Book and Cash Book is called the Bank Statement. You all know what it is. Every once in a while, you check your bank statements to see if the salary has been credited, right. Even companies do the same. The only difference is that they do it everyday since they have many receipts and payments to reconcile !

This process is tedious to do manually. But ERP makes it easy by automating this entire flow.

Everyday, the bank server will send (transmit) the Statement to a location specified by the Organization (target directory). This process is called File Transfer. There are many rules (called Protocols) used in File Transfer. The latest and the most secure protocol is called SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol, duh ! ). ERP Process will automatically pick this statement and load it into the ERP System. And ERP will also do the Automatic Reconciliation of the Bank Statement with the ERP Transactions so that the accountant will only need to handle the exceptions.

This is what we are trying to do for this customer.

The challenge we are facing is that the statement is not getting interfaced into ERP. The process is throwing some errors that I am unable to decipher.

When faced with things that you can't handle on your own, you seek support from Oracle Support. I have raised a Service Request (SR) to get this issue sorted out.

Many consultants have this mistaken notion that raising SR will expose their ignorance. They feel that the customer will prejudge their knowledge and lose confidence in their consulting skills.

Au contraire...

There are many reasons why you should raise SR as soon as you face a problem. One, there are about 40000 highly skilled support engineers working to resolve your issues. Customer is already paying for the support. So why not use it? Two, back in the days of On Premise applications, many of the issues faced were product bugs and only Oracle Support could resolve it. Three, Oracle Support might have already faced this issue and have a solution readily available

Of course it is possible that your knowledge was not sufficient. But that is OK. Show me one consultant, nay one person in this world, who is expert in everything...

I spent four hours yesterday (third November, today is Fourth) with my colleague Anurag to resolve this issue. We tried multiple options. Modified the transmission configurations, checked tonnes of documents on Oracle Support and validated that they are not relevant to the issue that we faced, logged out of the application, logged in again and tried. shut down the computer and restarted and tried again....

No luck. Sigh...

Despite today being holiday I have been working on it since morning. Oracle had asked us to change some settings and try again, which I did.

As of now, I am sitting in front of the computer, regularly refreshing my Oracle Support page to see if there is any update. I feel like a horn-bill waiting for rain...

Wait continues...

My problem is that when faced with a challenge like this I can't sleep. The problem keeps bugging me at night. What did I miss, I ask myself. I twist and turn at night. In the day, I am acerbic and irritable and the world disgusts me.

I am in that phase right now.

Just now Oracle has posted an update. They have asked to update the configuration and try again. I have asked for clarifications.

That is another thing I do. Whenever I am interacting with Oracle Support, I ask many clarifications before I take any action. This helps me in two ways. One is to keep engaging with the support consultant. He / she is the one person in the world that can help me right now. So it is good to keep that engagement going. Another is that it helps to understand their thoughts and clarify the issue.

It also helps the consultant. I might have done some analysis that may add a fresh perspective to them.

It is Win-win. I always look for win-win.

18:44: Oracle gave an update. They asked me to remove the decryption configuration and try again. I tested it. The process is still failing with error. Updated the SR. Also reviewed the log file, the error message is different from last time. That is progress.

Today is Diwali and I am working on an SR. The last time I spent my Diwali working on an SR was back in 2005, while implementing Lot Costing for Tanishq.

The more the things change....

19:00: Again refreshed the SR. No update.

19:40: Still no update. Called the Support Engineer and left a message.

21:00 Still no update. It is frustrating

I am stopping for today. I won't sleep today, I think

Next Day, 5th November... Good morning universe...

Woke up at 4.30 after a disturbed sleep. Wanted to check the SR status, but did not want to switch on the lights and wake up others. Walking around the home on pins and needles...

5:00: Checked the email. There is an email from client to see if we can do this task manually. Very embarrassing to me as a consultant to have the situation come to this pass. I said Yes

6:00: Finally checked the SR. Still no update from support. Updated the SR explaining the urgency.

6:10: Called Oracle Support helpline and asked for a manager call back. They told that the manager will call me back in an hour. Lets see.

6:30: Manager, a lady named Diane, called me back from the US. She told me that the SR is Sev 1, Non 24X7. A new consultant will be starting the shift in an hour, he / she will call me back.

Diane wished me 'Happy Diwali'. Very thoughtful of her

This issue is becoming exciting.

I am going out cycling right now. I couldn't do any exercise yesterday evening since I was glued to Oracle Support Portal. I don't want to waste this day as well.

Here is my cycling route (Cicola Routa)....

09.00: Back from almost two hours of cycling. Feeling energized

09.30: Oracle support called. They want to do an OWC along with a consultant who has access to SFTP Server. I am not sure who is the resource. I asked the PM, he told me to check with the customer.

In Tamil, my mother tongue, there is a saying "Pazhaya Kurudi Kathavai Theradi", which roughly translates to 'Back to square one'. Not sure if customer knows the login credentials. What tool will I use to connect to SFTP Server?

I am stuck here? This is tech stuff and I have no idea. I have many questions.

Who owns the SFTP Server? How to access the server? From what I see, the bank is the owner. Will they allow Oracle Consultants to see the data? How can we purge SFTP Server?

Handling these multi-stakeholder issues is the most challenging. I am no longer in control and I have to accept uncertainty and delay in the resolution of the issue.

09-Nov-21: No real update from anyone. Updated the SR with this status and asked for an OWC to keep the issue moving.

10-Nov-21: We had an OWC with Oracle. I asked Vaibhav to participate since he had been following up on this ticket. One SFTP expert from Oracle Support joined the call. They said that the problem is related to the FTP Server maintained by the bank. They asked for the screenshot of FTP Server with the Files and also asked to change the name of the input file to a short file name. I informed the same to all the stakeholders. Lets see.

That is another thing I do. I communicate often and in detail. I would like to keep all the stakeholders informed so that they feel comfortable about the progress of the ticket and also they know where the responsibility lies to progress the ticket. In addition, it keeps the ticket moving.

And in ticket resolution any type of movement is progress.

10-Nov-21: Customer send us extensive details. Updated the SR. I loved the level of details provided by the customer. Updated SR. Informed customer

11-Nov-21: Another OWC with Oracle. They reviewed the details. We were able to connect to the Customer Server using WinSCP (I don't know what it is) and verified many information. Based on the input from Oracle support team, further testing was done.

Good news is that the program is now ending with 'Warning' and not 'Error'. That is progress. I think we are very close to resolution.

Fingers crossed.

Done Finally...

On 19th of November we went live. We loaded all the statements till 19th of November. And went live.

So what is my approach?

Clearly understand the issue.
Accept Uncertainty. There is bound to be delays. Don't stop
Ask your network for support. You may know many people who can support you.
If you raise an SR Follow up regularly with Oracle Support.
Be an active partner in solutioning with Oracle Support. Don't just raise an SR and forget. Seek clarifications, give inputs, engage.
Communicate often and in details. Keep the stakeholders regularly updated
Drive the customer and the other stakeholders. Lead.
Follow up till closure. Don't be an 80 percenter.
Seek Win-win

The power of wishing...

2021-10-29T19:37:00.003+05:30

This post was first posted in LinkedIn. Here is the link to the post on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6859852551110701056/

"Be very careful with what you wish for, because you will get it".

So they say.

Ever since I started believing it, things have started happening as per that.

I had not flown in an aircraft till the time I was 37.

Every time I looked at the sky, I wish I could fly one day, I said to myself.

For the next ten years I have flown so much that I was considered as a 'Travel Expert' in my company. I accumulated over 200000 flying miles in Lufthansa and Air France combined.

Take another example.

I hadn't worked on ERP Product for over 7 years before I worked with Deepak NR of Sonata Software about four years ago. on a Microsoft Dynamics project. The guy knew MS Dynamics like the back of his hand. He could single-handedly implement integrated MS Dynamics solution for a customer, including SCM, Retail, Logistics and Finance.

'I wish I could be like Deepak. I want to be a hands-on expert in Oracle Fusion', I told myself one day while watching Deepak in action.

I had never implemented Oracle Fusion solution till then. So what were the chances?

But I still wished. There was no price for wishing, right?

Fast forward four years....

That is exactly what I have been doing for the last 8 months. I am working for a great company providing AMS solutions on Oracle Fusion. I am the lead architect and I get to work on customer's problems in different areas including Procurement, Inventory, Costing, Manufacturing and Financials.

I have implemented innovative solutions in different areas, revitalized a sub-optimal implementation, done data conversion, created and updated complex Subledger Rules to meet different accounting and reporting requirements, streamlined business processes, developed complex reports in both FRS and OTBI, implemented Budgeting, AIP (Image Processing) and Multi-level allocations and complex approval workflows.

And I really enjoy what I do.

When I wished for it four years ago, I never knew it would happen this way. But it did.

That is the power of wishing.

There are many more such examples

But here is the caveat.

'You should be clear about what you wish for, because you will get it'.

That is so true.

What am I wishing for now? Two years ago I wished for opportunity to implement Oracle Fusion projects in Europe.

I want to travel across Europe, cycle in Amsterdam, see the Greek Architecture, laze around by Seine in Paris, see where they had the Berlin Wall, Pray for the lost souls at the Auschwitz memorial in Poland, Pray at St.Peter's Basilica in Rome, Run those trails in Germany and Norway that I do virtually now ...

Its a big list, the universe is still working on it.

And I am working on my Spanish. Como esta usted? Me llamo Ram. Soy de India.

You never know.

#ERPConsulting #ERPImplementation #OracleFusion #DigitalTransformation

The Great ERP Promise

2021-09-12T22:14:00.001+05:30

I had posted this in ERPCommunity.com. Here is the link. https://erpcommunity.com/articles/the-great-erp-promise

Here is the article....

As per various surveys done on ERP customers, 70% say that their implementation was a 'success' and only 30% say it is a failure.

Gives a neat quaint picture, doesn't it?

Only 30% failure, thinks a prospective customer. May be all those stories about 'ERP Failures' that I read about are wrong. Name one application that can be implemented without any glitches? Enterprise applications have their gestation period, right? Also they say ERP has become a commodity. How hard it is to implement a commodity?

I implement ERP for a living. One of my job as a consultant is to do reviews. It could be implementation review, post implementation review, ERP Usage Review, User Satisfaction Review....

You name it, I have done it.

The kind of feedback that I get from the reviews is very disturbing.

A large company could not close their Financial Year in ERP for two years after going live. Things were a mess, Accounting, Costing, Compliance....

Another company lost almost 50% market cap after implementing ERP.

Companies with wherewithal are suing their implementation partner for huge amounts.

Disturbing stories.

The sales of a small scale company stopped after implementing ERP. 'We had material in our stores, but not in our ERP application. Due to this we had to lose sales of one full month while consultants tried to resolve the issue. On top of that we had to write off the entire inventory since we were dealing in highly perishable goods', one manager told me.

"We don't understand how ERP costs our finished products, due to that we have given up on a proper profitability analysis in our low margin industry', says another

"We are maintaining a parallel system in Excel, since my users do not have a clue how ERP works', tells another

Complex processes, unreconciled clearing accounts, untrained (minimally trained) users, wrong data conversion, pressure from auditors (and even 'observations'), high amount of data entry ('My user spends 7 hours a day just running bank reconciliation process, how can he get time to do Cash Position analysis'), unsuitable costing methods, nerve-racking notifications and alerts, unexpected process holds, unexplained errors, unposted accounting entries, uncleared interface tables, performance issues (between 5 and 7 in the evening, our system becomes unbelievably slow), user errors, delayed period closing, agitated middle managers, flustered employees ....

Problems abound.

Data conversion for the previous period is going on even after go live. Cutover is a never ending activity.

You ask the CIO of these companies how they rate their ERP Implementation and they will say 'Mild to moderately successful'. 'We are doing most of our processes in ERP' they will fill the review comments.

'We are entering the transactions, but we are not getting any good reports from the system. We depend on Excel for management reporting', says the CIO who says that his ERP implementation is moderately successful. He doesn't even know if his ERP is performing as expected.

"We were promised a very good compliance reporting system, but we are doing all our compliance reporting in Excel', says another

From my experienced eye, these are all failed implementations. What use is an ERP if it can't give you the information that you require.

There is this 'Great ERP Promise', isn't it? That it will act as a backbone to your 'DigitalTransformation' initiative? That is what sales guys told you.

Tell that to that CFO of an SME sitting yonder with his hands on his chin, wondering how is going to prepare the Balance Sheet and Profit statements.

His trial balance has huge amount in 'Suspense Account' and ERP shows his profits have fallen 40% month on month after implementing ERP. His product costs have gone sky-high, his inventory turns have fallen to the ground. Prior to ERP implementation, he was proud of his performance.

Not anymore. Now his boss is doubting the earlier numbers.

I don't want to end this article on a negative note. I know that there are some of you who are reading this who want to know if there is a way out.

You want to know if your Current Investment in ERP can be salvaged? Yes of course it can be.

My company specialize in that. We analyze the current state, identify a best solution that might involve process changes, user training and reconfiguration and in few cases, re-implementation. We have this passionate team who is always looking to add value to the customer and once we get involved our deep knowledge and strong internal project management processes ensure a great solution to the customer.

We take you along in this journey. Everything is documented explained to you and we work as a team with a common goal of getting you the best return on your ERP Investment.

We help you realize 'The Great ERP Promise'

This is not a plug. Just a statement of fact.

My interview with Paapri Cloud Technologies

2021-08-13T20:50:00.001+05:30

Recently Kurtis Lilford of Paapri Cloud Technologies interviewed me for a post in his company blog.

The article is titled

The Operational Dream: Is ERP all it’s made out to be?

Before the interview Kurtis Lilford had asked me a few questions like 'What is Cloud ERP', 'What are its advantages' etc. As a part of the Q&A he asked me about Cloud ERP Readiness and the common hesitations for companies to move to Cloud ERP.

That last question was very interesting.

The common hesitation that I have seen are two. One is hesitation to store sensitive company data in a third party storage system. You are exposing your IP to a third party vendor and to potential hackers. That last part about hackers is the second reason for hesitation. You no longer have control on your data. The final hesitation is due to Geography Risk. As the recently introduced GDPR showed, any new legislation by the host countries could mean that your data is declared non-compliant and you could potentially end up paying hefty fines.

What do you think of the Interview?

The confessions of a Cloud ERP Consultant....

2021-08-07T11:56:00.008+05:30

I implement Cloud ERP for a living. I tell customers about how safe is Cloud and how it eases their operations.

The key argument to prospects is that it makes your desktop thin by making applications and reports available on demand.

But here is the problem. I still use the office applications installed on my desktop to create my documentation. I don't normally use Google Docs or Office 365. I still save my photos on my desktop.

It is not the money.

It is the mindset.

I may be a cloud consultant. But I still want to save the documents on my desktop. Every fortnight, I want to save them in my backup device, just in case. I want to feel in control.

In my recent interview (ttps://https://lnkd.in/gSygmY5) with Kurtis Lilford I talk about the 'Culture of Cloud Adoption in an Organization'. If the Organization has a culture of storing their data in Cloud and accessing it from anywhere, they are much more likely to adopt Cloud, I opine in that interview.

I believe in Cloud. I think that this is the future.

But then, these habits come in the way.

If I as an individual finds it difficult to change my habits, imagine changing the habits of a company with hundreds of employees like me.

No wonder Organizations remain skeptical. Change Management is a monster in transformation.

Approach ERP Implementation with a Vision, not as a Project.

2021-07-27T21:52:00.004+05:30

Recently Eric Kimberling had asked this question in LinkedIn.

"If you put in the time to choosing the right vendor and implementation partner who has experience running transformation projects, can you count on them to run your project?"

To this I had responded that "No. Their agenda is short term till the end of the project whereas the agenda of the customer is long term stabilization. There are many phases in any project where the agendas clash and it is always the customer who lose out."

In the article (Link below) that I wrote for ERPCommunity.com, I expand on that theme.

https://lnkd.in/gdB2v_b

Check it out and let those Likes and Comments pour in !!!

#digitaltransformation #digitalindia #erpsoftware #erpsolutions #erpcloud #erpimplementation #makeinindia #erpindia #erpconsulting #enterpriseapplications

This is the article I wrote for ERPCommunity.com

During my many years in ERP implementation, I have observed this. Many companies approach ERP Implementation from a project mindset, not with a transformational vision.

What is the difference?

Project mindset asks the question 'How do I complete this project'. This mindset comes from the word 'Project' itself which evokes the idea of something with a start and end date like constructing a building or a mall or a new product. The goal is to erect that construction or deliver the product.

Project mindset looks at schedule, time and cost. The focus is always short-term.

A vision mindset focus on Customer Lifetime Value Add. It looks at usage and benefits. How are we going to use it? Will it add to the workload of our employees? Will it improve my company performance, will it automate the processes and help my company achieve quick RoI, will it lower my overall costs...

But we know this already. Thousands of manhours have been devoted to this subject.

But even today, 30 years after Gartner coined the term ‘Enterprise Resources Planning’, ERP implementations struggle to deliver these benefits. Why?

There could be many reasons. Here is one perspective that hopefully adds to the discussion

The two stakeholders in any project are Implementation Partner (IP) and the customer. Most of the projects are driven by the IP who has a 'Project Mindset'. Their objective is to resolve the immediate challenge to get the project to a closure. They look for the easiest option out of many, to configure the system. The focus is on 'Project Completion', not 'Customer Value Add'

The 'Project Mindset' is ok for constructing a building. You build it sell it and the customer starts using it. There is no further value add from that building.

That is not the case with ERP. Most of the value add from ERP implementation comes AFTER the implementation. You have to implement ERP with the potential future benefits in mind. That is vision.

Let me illustrate this with an example.

Question from customer: How do I enter and approve an invoice in Oracle Fusion?

Implementation Partner with a Project Mindset will suggest as follows.

You manually enter it in AP, validate it and send it for approval. Once it is approved, enter manual payments and when the statement comes, upload it manually in Cash application and do manual reconciliation. Regularly run process to 'Create Accounting' and account for the transactions - both invoices, payments and reconciliation.

This is the solution implemented in 99% of ERP projects. Whatever may be the product. Oracle Fusion is just an example since I work in that area.

This is project mindset. Focus is on getting the work done but doesn't really add any value. Customer just moves from one horse to another. The key stakeholders are spending time on data entry and not on improving controls, handling exceptions, lowering costs or improving relationships with their key vendors. None in the company adds any value to anything.

How this requirement does looks from a Vision mindset? You could have a 'automation vision' of automated data entry, automated notifications and actionable alerts and a paperless organization.

For example.....

You automatically import the invoice into Fusion, do a basic verification and put on a manual hold. A hold notification will be sent to a user who will do the final verification and releases the hold. A scheduled program will send the eligible invoices for approval, another scheduled program will account these invoices and a third scheduled program will create a payment batch. Once the payment is approved, the payment file will be automatically sent to bank. Once the payment is done, bank will send the statement and same can be automatically uploaded in Fusion and automatically reconciled.

Notice how the vision mindset lowers data entry and reduces the load on key users enabling them to focus on what is important for the company like improving cashflow, reducing working capital and strengthening vendor relationships.

It is not just payables invoice. You could create your Purchase Requisitions on your mobile, automatically send it for approval, and automate the entire purchase process without any manual intervention. Only manual work is to go to the collections section and pick up your shipment !!!

But, as I said above, this doesn’t happen in 99% of ERP implementations. They still struggle with entering the transactions, selecting the right vendor, the right expense charge account. The entire process in ERP feels like a sheer and tedious waste of time with some esoteric benefits like 'data iintegrity', 'end to end tracking' and 'advanced analytics' thrown in without much of a delivery.

Why don’t ERP implementations focus on ‘Vision’?

There are many reasons, I am giving below three of them.

First,the implementation team itself do not have a vision for the project. They just reach the customer site and start the work without understanding the digital transformation context, overall technology stratey and the place of this project in that strategy. They just start placing bricks without understanding how the building is supposed to look like.

In my most recent project for a startup in India, where I was the Project Manager, I set the vision for our implementation as 'Simple and scalable'. The solution must be simple to use and scalable both horizontally (easy to add new features) and vertically (easy to add new businesses as the startup grows exponentially). One way we converted the 'Scalable' part of vision to reality was by adding a 'Business Segment' dimension in the Chart of Accounts, even though at the time of implementation the company had only one Business. We also configured the system for Business Segment wise consolition and reporting. We standardized the automated data entry through Excel Based upload to make the data entry process simple. This was 'SIMPLE' part of the 'Simple and Scalable' vision for our team.

The problem is that most implementation teams lack this vision. They just start the project like jumping on to a running train and try to make the best of it.

Second, nobody tells the end user about the vision or the potential of the application to dramatically transform their work. The vision of paperless organization, process streamlining or long-term ease of business process do not percolate down to the end user. End user focus is on ‘how he can do in ERP what they are doing now in Legacy’ and not ‘how they can do their current process BETTER in ERP’. They want to know how they can enter invoices in the system rather than how to automate invoice entry.

No one has told them to ask these questions.

Third reason is the overt pressure put in by the implementation partner. The fact is that every organizations start the projects with a vision mindset, but as the project progresses, the implementation partner converts it to a project mindset. All those weekly reports and steering committee meetings and risks and schedule slippages and change requests and cost escalations simply wear you down.

At some point the goal becomes to 'Just get this over with somehow'.

That is the sad reality. That is why ERP Success statistic confuse the customer feedback of ‘My ERP Implementation is OK’ with ‘The ERP implementation is successful’

Being ERP Consultant is a huge responsibility

2021-07-22T10:46:00.006+05:30

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6810372555896172545/

A couple of weeks ago, I faced a problem in a project that I am managing.

In addition to being the PM, I am also the solution architect in this project. So I had to find a solution to this issue. I couldn't just 'Project Manage' it away.

I spent about three to four days thinking about this problem. My normal experience is that the correct solution comes to my mind if I give it that much time.

Like that 'Double Helix' thing.

It did not in this case.

I was frustrated.

Since the problem was tough, I used my usual channels, LinkedIn messaging and talking to expert friends. Based on their suggestions I worked out a solution and presented it to the customer who accepted it and approved it.

Despite that I was uncomfortable. The solution was not logical. It did not 'Sell to my Sleeping Point'

(Check the end of this blogpost to see what I mean by 'Sleeping Point'. https://lnkd.in/gg-3UxG)

The other day, while writing about this issue in my daily journal, I realized where I had gone wrong. I was double counting one number.

Once I factored that in, the solution was logically sound. It met my very high standards.

Eureka!

Now I had the hard task of apologizing for my error and getting the new solution approved. I was very apprehensive how the CFO would react.

They don't react well. Normally

Yesterday I called up the customer CFO to tell him of my mistake. He patiently listened to me and all the time I was talking, did not say a word.

Finally he asked me one question.

"Do you think that this is the best solution?"

"Yes sir, 100%"

"Then go ahead. I trust you to do the best for my company"

Being an ERP Consultant is a huge responsibility.

Project I managed went live recently

2021-07-03T18:05:00.000+05:30

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6811226861700481024/

Here is my LinkedIn Post about Go LIve

How to handle Letter of Credit (LC) in ERP

2021-06-24T18:07:00.000+05:30

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6810138575162757120/

I put up this question in LinkedIn

I have a practical question for the Oracle EBS Financials experts out there. Here is the business scenario. How do you handle this in Oracle?

Let us say you do an import based on an LC. You enter a future dated payment in the system, with the date of 1st November 2021. As the mid of October arrived, you realize that you have a cash crunch. You do one of the three things. One, get an extension from the vendor to 1st December, two, change your bank to one where cash is available or three, do both of them. My understanding is that In Oracle EBS, once the future dated payment is entered in the system, you cannot do any of this. But this is a regular business scenario. How to handle this in EBS?

As usual, the best answer I got is from Siva Ganeshan

Dear Ramaswamy, The LC is not recorded as Future Payment. We created a Custom Screen (Solution) to manage the complete LC Limit Sanctioned, Utilised and Balance amount available for each bank with whom we availed LC facility and integrated to Payable. It is not hard customization of Core Payable applications. If you check full LC Process, the banker is only going to make payment to Supplier on due date based on the LC limit sanctioned to you before and You don't make payment on due date.Hence you don't need to create a Future Dated Payment. The Banker will intimate and debit your bank account from the LC limit to your bank account and it is reflected in your bank statement. Then only you record this transaction in Payables as Payment because Exchange Rate to everything will change on due date,

Thank you Siva....

What are Microservices?

2021-03-13T23:04:00.001+05:30

This is the tenth of a series of articles on 'technologies for the coming decade that I am writing in my blog. I intend to cover 21 technologies / ideas. Here is my publishing history.

Introduction

About 50 years ago we used to predominantly have General Physicians. She was the Go To Doctor for all the illnesses ranging from headache to cuts on your ankles.

If the GP is down due to illness, say diarrhea, all the medical support systems in the town came to a standstill. Whether you had a head ache or a throat infection or a knee pain, you had to wait till the GP was available.

In technical terminology, that single GP was a 'Monolithic Architecture', akin to a single application that is installed as a package or an executable. In case of a bug in one part of the application, the entire application went down and all the inter-dependencies had to be retested before the application was available again.

In the world of medicine, then came specialization. You had specialists handling different illnesses. If a 'Hand Surgeon' was not available, treatment of other illnesses did not have to wait. In case of a complex case which needed expertise of multiple experts, a clear communication protocol was established between different specializations.

If you look at a modern hospital as a software application, each of the specialist is a 'Microservice' and these services communicate through a standard communication protocol.

The application (hospital) do not stop due to issues with a single specialist. In other words, the issues are 'localized'.

Multiple small services, talking to each other through a standard communication protocol and where the problems are localized...

This is Microservices.

What are Microservices?

Microservices is an 'Architecture'. It is not a group of services lying around for the application developer to pick and choose as the name seem to suggest. In microservices architecture, different parts of the application are developed as separate services. Each of the services talk to each other through APIs.

Each of the services will have its own code, logic, APIs and configuration settings. They will be grouped together as a single block called 'Container'. This process is called 'Containerization'. Each container can be installed separately.

Since each container is a separate entity, any issues in one part of the application can be localized to that container and can be addressed quickly without impacting the other parts of the application.

Consider an e-Commerce application. It may have features like Product Catalog, Order Placement, Shipping, Tracking, Payments and Returns. Each of these are developed as a separate service. A problem in the catalog application will not impact the payment application. This is the benefit of Microservices.

Explain the evolution of Microservices

First driver is the introduction of Web Applications. You could install your application on a remote server and users could access the application through browsers installed on their desktops. Suddenly the user base exploded. Anyone sitting in any part of the world could access the application.

This led to the demand of 'high level of application availability' and increased the pressure on traditional tightly integrated applications. Any bug in any part of the application impacted the application availability and customer response. E-Commerce vendors started looking for 'Loosely Coupled' applications where each component was delinked from the other and could talk to each other through a common language.

Scalability was another driver. The nature of E-Commerce is inconsistent demand. You could have peak demand in some areas for a couple of weeks followed by regular or even subdued demand on other days. In a 'Tightly Coupled Application', this meant that the entire application had to be made scalable to respond to such demand fluctuation. This was an inefficient approach. Why should you add resources to an item catalog application when the demand spike was in the Order Entry application?

Microservices was the logical answer to scalability. You could have a separate Order Entry application which could be scaled up during the peak demand period while the other applications could maintain at the base level of resources.

Finally, traditional application had to be written in only one language. Technology was evolving radically with new languages evolving to meet the requirements of modern business. Traditional applications, developed in a single language, were losing out on the best features of modern languages like Python. In addition, developers were also moving to new languages. Microservices allows different applications to be written in different languages. This overcomes a key challenges of traditional applications.

In summary, evolution of web applications, need for limited scalability, and evolving technology were the key drivers of Microservices.

Monolithic Architecture: The opposite of Microservices

Traditional applications were designed as 'Monolithic Architecture'. The applications may be modular, but application was developed as a single, big executable. Any changes, issues or bugs in any part of the application meant two things. One, the System Integration testing became critical. Even when the changes are made in a small part of the application, the entire application had to be tested for impact on other areas.

Two, every time changes were made to one part of the code, the entire application had to be reinstalled. This meant significant disruption

Microservices resolved both the issues of traditional applications. By keeping each service as a 'localized entity', it ensured that any issues in that application can be separately handled and installed separately.

Advantages of Microservices

We have already discussed this. The advantages include localized bug fix, localized install and maintenance, multiple languages, localized scalability and standard APIs that communicate between services.

Challenges of Microservices

Given the advantages, it is easier to assume Microservices as a panacea, which it is not. For one, the monolithic applications are also evolving with technology. The main advantage of monolithic architecture is control. It is easy to plan deployment and shut down. A large application made up of microservices could be difficult to maintain and manage. When you add additional complexity like different languages, the number of resources required to maintain the application increases.

Also microservices could compromise quality standards. Since each services is coded as per its own standard, the project manager may find it difficult to enforce a single quality standard for the entire application. However, this is also applicable in a modularized monolithic application where different modules are developed by different teams with their own quality standards and time line pressures.

For microservices to be successful, a tight control on its original and continuing scope is very important. It is very easy for the application to be divided thinly with too many individual services or tightly to have too few services.

Related Terminology

Cloud Computing: Read my post HERE
Containers: As discussed earlier, these are blocks of services with their own code, configuration and APIs. These are the basic building blocks of Microservices
OAuth: Open Authorization (OAuth in short), is the access protocol between different services. OAuth is an 'agreement' between two services whereby one service provides customer information to the other without the use of passwords. OAuth is used by Facebook to share customer information with Instagram, for example.
Docker: This is a platform that enables developers deliver packages in Containers. In other words Docker enables 'Containerization'
Spring Cloud: In simple terms, a spring cloud is a library of tools and resources that help developers develop standard patterns. Some examples are Service Registration and Recovery, Routing, Load Balancing and Distributed Messaging.
REST API: This is also known as 'RESTful API'. This is the communication protocol using which different services 'talk' to each other. REST stands for 'REpresentational State Transfer' and API stands for 'Application Programming Interface'

References

What is Multichannel / Omnichannel capability?

2021-02-26T19:27:00.002+05:30

This is the ninth of a series of articles on 'technologies for the coming decade that I am writing in my blog. I intend to cover 21 technologies / ideas. Here is my publishing history.

What is Multichannel?

The word Multichannel refers to the different marketing channels through which the company delivers information and sales promotion to the customer. The channels could be Physical Store, Advertisements, Banner Ads on Social Media, Videos on Social Media, Mobile Phone, Mobile Phone App, Company Website, Emails and even door to door communication.

What is Omnichannel?

Omnichannel refers to the various channels that a customer tracks a specific transaction.

Imagine the following scenario. You are standing in a bus stop. You see a banner ad for the latest gadget and decide to buy it. You access an online store in your mobile phone and place an order. Later you call the customer support over the phone to update the order and change the make of the gadget (you modify the order over the phone). Based on your credentials, the support team picks up your order, updates it while you are holding the phone and sends you a confirmation message on your mobile phone.

You get a delivery message on your email when the item is available in the store nearby. You go to the store and pickup the item. After inspecting and accepting the item, you make payment through a payment gateway.

There is only single transaction, you buying the gadget. You access multiple channels which are marked in bold in the above two paragraphs.

You can expand the above scenario to include more channels. For example, the above customer could be browsing Facebook and saw a digital ad, clicked on the ad to place an order. Or the information could have come through an email. The point is that the new technologies have increase in the number of channels that the customer is exposed to.

One transaction done through multiple channels, this is Omnichannel for you.

How is Omnichannel different from Multichannel sales?

Multichannel is when the company uses different channels to market their products and deliver product information to the customer. In traditional Multichannel scenario, once an order is placed, the order fulfillment and customer payment happens in the same channel. Multichannel has been existent for a long time.

Omnichannel is different. In Omnichannel, customer can conduct different parts of a single transaction cycle in different channels.

Modern technology changes the way both Multichannel and Omnichannel works. It factors in both technology and availability of different devices for customer to access the product.

Omnichannel: Why now?

While Multichannel has been present for a long time, the idea of Omnichannel is relatively new. With the advent of technology and the preference for e-Commerce, the purchasing behaviour of individuals has undergone change. Various studies show that customers use at least two channels to make a purchase on internet. It is also found that customers do not like to repeat their orders and expect the Organization 'take off from where they left off' for every new interaction.

Customer is very happy if the Organization remember their engagement history and unhappy if they have to repeat the same thing to many different employees in the Organization.

Presence of multiple devices and customer demand for better efficiency has acted as a catalyst for Omnichannel selling.

How Multichannel integrates with the Omnichannel?

The diagram below shows the relationship between Multichannel and Omnichannel

The new technologies that will drive Multichannel and Omnichannel

The exploding demand from the customers is the main driver of technology adoption. An average customer is using about five channels on an average including Mobile apps, Youtube, Social Media, Portals, Push Messages, Emails and Store. They expect the information available in all these different channels to be in Sync with each other.

The next driver is personalization. Retail stores are using technology to track the purchase behaviour of individual customers. Creating a customer account has become mandatory for making any purchase. The advent of AI has made personalization easy to adopt. Stores are using technology to drive related purchases ('Customers also bought') and offer spot discounts. It is only a matter of time technologies like facial recognition will help retailers to welcome individual customers.

Cascading effects of technology advances in upstream areas like Supply Chain management is another driver. Retailers are forced to adopt technology just to 'stay in place'.

Yet another driver of technology adoption is advanced analytics. New technologies like AI and ML enable analytics at a granular level. Technologies like IoT and RFID enable retailers to track product life cycle even beyond the point of sale and that information can be used for further personalization by anticipating customer needs.

Chatbots are another technology that is fast picking up. Chatbots help the company to be available to the customer at a 24*7*365 basis and help handle most of the repetitive issues related to the sales.

Finally, we should not miss the most exciting emerging technology, Voice. Alexa, Siri, Cortana and other Voice technologies are poised to revolutionize Multichannel environment. After all, which customer won't be pleased as they enter the retail store and a humanoid robot welcomes you with 'Good Morning Mr.Ram, How can we help you today?'

What are the benefits of Omnichannel?

Customers get a seamless experience. They can place an order online, update the same over the phone and finally pick the material from the nearby mall. This increases customer satisfaction

Transaction errors are reduced since all the channels are integrated.

Omnichannel: Challenges

Getting Omnichannel readiness is not easy. The technology is complicated and is evolving. If majority of your customer use only one channel or two at the max, why spend the money and effort in designing Omnichannel?

Since the customer is using multiple channels, it is difficult to identify the profitability of a specific channel.

References

What is Multitenancy?

2021-02-07T10:48:00.002+05:30

This is the eighth of a series of articles on 'technologies for the coming decade that I am writing in my blog. I intend to cover 21 technologies / ideas. Here is my publishing history.

Introduction to Multitenancy

Let us take the example of a bank. A bank has thousands of customers. Every customer accesses the information stored in a single server. While all the customers access the same application, the data of each customer is different and secure from the data of every other customer. The balances and transactions of every customer are segregated and has no impact on the balances and transactions of other customers.

Similar is the case with apartment complexes. Many tenants / owners live there. They pay annual charges based on the usage. Each house in the complex has its own lock and key (security) and has unique designs (configurations).

Multiple tenants sharing resources by paying periodic subscription charges that are based on resource usage, with the data of each tenant being maintained separate and secure from that of another tenant and each tenant having limited flexibility to configure their application features, access and user interfaces...

That is Multitenancy for you.

What Multitenancy is not

Multitenancy is different from 'Tenant Space'. This is where the customer rents out a slice of the Sever Space and uses it to install their own application, databases and code.

Multitenancy is different from 'Multiple Application Deployment'. In this case even when the customer shares the same sever space, they access different applications installed on the server.

For an architecture to become Multitenancy, different customers should share the same application instance.

A formal definition of Multitenancy

Multitenancy is a feature of Cloud Computing. Gartner defines Multitenancy as 'a reference to the mode of operation of software where multiple independent instances of one or multiple applications operate in a shared environment. The instances (tenants) are logically isolated, but physically integrated. The degree of logical isolation must be complete, but the degree of physical integration will vary.'

In a multitenant architecture, tenants share the following features.

They can configure their unique user interfaces and experiences.
They can have a unique application configuration based on their business rules and requirements.
Tenants can have control on their database schema. They can add and remove database tables for example.
They can create users and provide them controlled access to the data.

Three types of Multitenant architecture

1. Multitenancy with a single application and database instance: This is the simplest of the multitenant architecture. Every tenant shares the same application and database instance. This constrains the ability of the customer to configure their application instances. However, this approach is cost effective.

2. Multitenancy with single application instance and tenant specific database instance: This option may cost higher than option one above, but provides operational flexibility.

3. Tenant specific application and database instances: This is technically not Multitenancy. This can be called a 'Multi Instance Architecture'. This is similar to the traditional hosted model. This option is the most expensive.

Design Considerations in Multitenancy

Affinity:

This refers to the application instances that handle tenant request. There could be four different type of affinity:

No affinity (Non-affine): In this case, a request from a tenant can be handled by any server where the application instance is installed.

Full affinity (Affine): Here different application instances are dedicated to the Tenant. A request from the customer can be handled only by the assigned server.

Cluster affine: A group of customers are assigned a cluster of servers in which the same application instance is installed. The Tenant request can be handled by any of the server in the cluster.

Inter-cluster affine: In this case a set of requests from the tenant are handled by servers in one cluster and other set of requests are handled by servers belonging to another cluster.

Performance Isolation:

One of the challenges in Multitenancy is called the 'Noisy Neighbor', where performance of one tenant is impacted if another tenant with a high workload. There are three types of performance isolation:

Performance isolated: In this case every the cloud vendor meets the performance SLAs of every tenant irrespective of the workload of other tenants. The high load of another tenant may impact performance of another tenant, but stays within the SLA limits.
Weak isolated: In weak isolated environments, every tenant is subject to an upper limit of resource usage. This ensures that no single tenant overuses the server resources. However, it is possible that many tenants may try to fully use the limit provided and this may lead to performance impact across the board.
Non-isolated: There is no control. Tenants working within their SLAs will be negatively impacted by Tenants hogging the resources.

Customization

This is the ability of a multitenant architecture to handle tenant specific configurations and requirements. This can be handled in two ways.

Configurable architecture: Each Tenant is allowed to configure the application to meet their specific requirements. The server maintains configuration files of each tenant
Code extensions: In this case each tenant has access to the application code base and has the freedom to modify the code to develop bolt-on extensions to handle their specific requirements.

Benefits of Multitenant architecture

Cost reduction: Multitenancy helps customers to share resources and hence gain from economies of scale.
Scalability: Multitenancy enables temporary scalability to handle unexpected heavy loads. This is enabled because it helps the Cloud Computing vendor to redirect the load with no extra cost to the customer
Efficiency: Multitenancy is more efficient as it streamlines the load on infrastructure.
Lower entry cost
Easier release management: Since all the tenants are on the same server, any application or database upgrade has to be done one time, thus making release management easier.

Challenges of Multitenancy

Potential security risks: It is possible that the data corruption or application bugs generated in one customer instance could spread to other customers who share the same instance.
Compliance Issues: Some country regulations do not allow storing a company data in a shared server.
'Noisy Neighbor Effect': Excessive use of resources by one customer (to handle peak load demand) could impact the performance of other customers that share the same resources.
Risky release management: Since a single release update of an application can impact multiple customers, any bug in the release will impact many customers. This adds a risk to any new releases.
Increased testing frequency: Since the customer has to do extensive testing of every release, this adds an unnecessary load on the customer.
Challenging transition from On-premise to Cloud: Customers who has worked on dedicated on-premise or hosted application will find the controls imposed by a multitenant architecture challenging.

References

What is Blockchain?

2021-01-11T18:38:00.007+05:30

This is the seventh of a series of articles on 'technologies for the coming decade that I am writing in my blog. I intend to cover 21 technologies / ideas. Here is my publishing history.

Introduction to Blockchain

Let us look at a scenario where four people are sitting at their home and playing a game over Zoom. The game is simple. Each participant will issue a virtual coin worth 1000 rupees into the game. Once every player has deposited the coins, a lottery identifies the winner who takes home all the four coins. The other participants transfer 1000 rupees each into her bank account.

There is no central authority monitoring this game. Each participant maintains a sequential record of all the transactions in the game. If anyone wants to manipulate the game (they want to say they added currency without actually adding it, for example), then they have to update the records maintained by all the four participants.

Each individual transaction as well as the sequence of transactions is transparent. There is no central authority to control and monitor. Everyone knows that Bhavana released her virtual coin after Anita did and Cindy followed Bhavana and that Dia won the lottery. Everyone agrees that the game is fair. Every participant trusts the results because the game is transparent.

Distributed data, lack of central monitoring (decentralized trust), transparency of transactions, consensus, security, traceability....

Friends, I give you Blockchain.

Definition of Blockchain

As per Blockchain Council, Blockchain is digital, decentralized technology, which maintains a record of all the transactions that happen over a peer-to-peer network. These records are stored in decentralized systems that are interconnected.

In simple words, Blockchain is a digital database, also called a 'ledger of transactions'. A network of computers verifies each transactions and then groups similar transactions into 'Digital Block'. Latest encryption technology is used to encrypt this 'block'. The last step is to link this block to the Blockchain. When added to the chain, this block not only holds the transaction information, it also holds the information about the previous block in the chain.

As you can see, Blockchain uses a single ledger, and this feature makes it simple and flatter.

How does Blockchain Work?

The diagram below explains the working of Blockchain at a high level.

The process starts when someone requests a new transaction. A Peer-to-Peer network (P2P Network), which is a network of computers each of which is a 'node', picks up this transaction and verifies it. P2P network verifies two things, the details of the transactions and the status of the user who created this transaction.

After an algorithm verifies the transaction, the transaction is bundled with other similar transactions to create a 'Block'. The algorithm attaches this block to the Blockchain. This latest block contains information that links it with the previous transaction in the chain. This connectivity makes the block of information permanent and immutable (unchangeable).

This completes the transaction.

Four Characteristics / Attributes of Blockchain

First attribute is Consensus. Before adding a new block to the chain (adding a new transaction to the chain) majority of participants (nodes) in the block chain must verify and approve. This ensures consensus across the participants in the chain.

Next attribute is data security. Blockchain data is immutable. It is impossible to modify data entered in a chain since the system uses Cryptographic Hash Functions (SHA-256). While I do not want to go deeper into the technology, in simple terms, Hash Function converts every input into a 256 bits long output. This immutability is the power of Blockchain.

In addition, three more security features make Blockchain secure.

One is that it requires 51% of participants to agree to modify any transaction. This is not feasible to achieve. In addition, the feature of 'decentralized data base' means that any modification in one block must update that block in all the user instances of the decentralized database. Finally, since there is a link between a block and its previous one, modifying data in any block means modifying the entire Blockchain in all the user instances.

Provenance is the third attribute. One benefit of linking every block in the chain is that traceability becomes extensible upstream till the start of the chain. This way Blockchain ensures end-to-end traceability (Global Traceability). This feature is very useful in many industries, especially Pharma and Food Processing Industries.

One of the key benefits of Blockchain is that it leads to distributed trust. Every node in the chain is responsible for building trust. Decentralized trust means that you do not have to depend on certifications from a single authority.

Why Blockchain

As per McKinsey, Blockchain has not been able to move beyond pioneering stage of a Product Life Cycle. There are simpler technologies available that can handle most of the Blockchain use cases. The section 'Challenges of Blockchain' below discusses a few more reasons.

So why are customers adopting Blockchain? Customers are adopting Blockchain because it provides three different values to the customers.

Some companies adopt Blockchain because it supports niche solutions that add real value. There are tried and tested niche solutions in Banking and Insurance industries where Blockchain is the best fit. Same is the case with FMCG industries especially esoteric products with discerning customers. For example, the producers of exotic wines are using Blockchain to expose the provenance of the ingredients to their customers by having the customers as a node in the chain.

Other companies use Blockchain as a starting point in their digital strategy. Their digital transformation begins with small Blockchain initiatives.

A few companies want to showcase Blockchain to their shareholders as a 'proof of intent' to invest in digitization and technology. In these cases, Blockchain may stay at a POC stage.

Benefits of Blockchain

A key benefit is the increased transparency and trust in transactions. Since every participant in the chain has visibility to all the transactions in the chain, it builds transparency and trust in the process

Since any act of fraud will need support from 51% or more of the participants and that is difficult to achieve. Blockchain design helps reduce fraud. This also leads to trust in the process.

Blockchain leads to reduction in transaction layers and the necessary oversight to monitor those layers. Less oversight leads to lowering of oversight costs. Flatter layers also lead to faster transaction processing.

Another benefit of Blockchain is that it enables fractional ownership. This helps consolidation of fractional assets to a larger asset blocks.

Since Blockchain is a technology built on distributed trust, it works best in a low trust environment by building trust

Faster transactions process is another benefit of Blockchain

Finally, the Provenance attribute of Blockchain ensures Global Traceability. Tracing of transactions up and down the chain becomes easy

Challenges of Blockchain

The initial investment in Blockchain is a challenge. Since the chain could potentially help their competitors, companies may be reluctant to make large investments in Blockchain, especially if it involves their competitors.

Yet another challenge is data sharing. Being in a Blockchain means exposing one's data to other participants in the chain some of who may be competitors. Companies will not want that level of data exposure.

One more challenge is that the other technologies are rapidly evolving and simpler options to replace Blockchain are appearing all the time. For example, many Banks are moving out of Blockchain to simpler and cheaper payment gateways that meet their transactional requirements of speed and trust.

Since Blockchain will reduce transactional layers, there is a fear of job losses, which is generating resistance to its wider adoption.

A technical challenge is that since each node must contain details of all the transactions, the capacity of the chain is constrained by the number of transactions that a single node in the chain can handle.

The concept of 'Decentralized Trust' means that the certifying authorities may feel loss of power (centralized trust) and those powerful agencies may resist the adoption.

Business Use Cases

1. Smart Contracts: This is the ubiquitous Blockchain use cases. It refers to conditional contracts with multiple options that are triggered by different events tracked using Blockchain.

2. Tracking the provenance of products: Customers want to be sure that the production is ethical and do not employ of child labour or use bad working conditions. In some cases, customers use Blockchain for Global Traceability. Providing customers with access to the Blockchain addresses these concerns.

3. Tamper proof online voting is one of the most promising use cases of Blockchain. By verifying the voter details and the voting transaction, Blockchain can make voting, extensive, inclusive, easy and tamper-proof.

4. By storing patient's data on secure Blockchain, doctors can easily access the data and improve the quality of healthcare. The potential is explosive when the patient is fitted with IIOT enabled devices.

5. Land records, confirmation of ownership and transactions: By putting land records on Blockchain, governments can protect property ownership

6. Consolidation of smaller landholdings to larger land banks to generate economies of scale in agriculture. Small holding on Blockchain will not only protect ownership as mentioned in point five above, it will also ensure equitable distribution of profits from sale of agri produces.

7. Food is another promising use case of Blockchain. Farm origination details stored in Blockchain can improve transparency and trust.

8. Smart metering of energy is another use case. Blockchain can smooth transactions in the energy market by enabling a small householder sell the excess solar energy he produces into the grid. Blockchain enables tracking and payments at a micro-unit level.

References

What is Cloud Computing?

2020-12-31T19:47:00.011+05:30

This is the sixth of a series of articles that I am writing in my blog. I intend to cover 21 technologies / ideas. Here is my publishing history.

Introduction to Cloud Computing

Let us look at GMail for a moment. All of us use it. All your emails are stored on the Google Server. You access the mail through a browser, read it and respond to it. You are not maintaining any hardware or software on your computer. Through a browser (or App) you access your data stored in a server on the internet and perform computing actions (reply, delete, move it to another folder etc) on it and log out of the system. Assume that you pay only for the time you logged in to the email.

Expand that to your business applications. Your payables applications is on the internet. You login and create and invoice, make a payment and download a few reports and log out. And pay only for the time that you used the application.

Assume a Small Business that want to go digital. They do not have the wherewithal to invest in platforms, networks, servers, operating system, storage space or database. Today they can get all these on subscription model from Cloud Vendor and start their digital journey quickly and without any hassle.

That is Cloud Computing in a nutshell. Let us define it formally.

Cloud Computing: A Formal Definition

As per NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), "Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

Cloud computing consists of five characteristics, four deployment models and three service models"

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider.
Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through different devices like mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations.
Resource pooling.The provider’s computing resources like storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth are pooled to serve multiple consumers through virtual dynamic assignment.
Rapid elasticity. Ability to scale up or down resources rapidly. This gives an impression of unlimited resource availability thus boosting customer confidence.
Measured service. Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Cloud Computing Deployment Models

Private cloud. The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises.
Community cloud.The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a specific community of consumers. It may be owned, managed, and operated by one or more of the organizations in the community, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises.
Public cloud. The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business, academic, or government organization, or some combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider.
Hybrid cloud. This consists of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology.
Multi-Cloud: This is not a deployment model as per NIST definition. Multi-cloud means the same customer running different applications on different cloud service providers. You could have a few applications running on AWS, and a few on Azure with the AI and ML Services from Google Cloud being used for analytics. (I call this 'Appification', where customer's IT landscape will look like a Mobile Screen with different Apps serving different purposes and none talking to each other. Sooner or later, the customer's IT Landscape is going to be cluttered just like the screen of your mobile phone)

Cloud Computing Service Models

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This provides the maximum control to the customer. Customer is provided the Cloud Infrastructure where they can provision
processing, storage and other computing resources. The customer is free to deploy their Operating Systems and Custom Applications in the infrastructure provided by the Cloud Vendor. Please note that customer do not manage the cloud infrastructure.
Platform as a Service (PaaS). This provides more control to the customer. Customer can deploy their custom applications onto the cloud infrastructure. These application must be created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. Customer has no control over the cloud infrastructure but can deploy a few custom applications.
Serverless Computing: This is a variant of PaaS where the customer only focuses on developing applications. The server and infrastructure management is done by the cloud vendor. This helps customer focus on developing applications without the hassle of server provisioning and scaling.
Software as a Service (SaaS). In this model, the customer accesses the provider's applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The customer has no control on the underlying cloud infrastructure or the applications. The customer has limited flexibility to configure the applications to suit their specific requirements. An example of SAAS offering is Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP Application (or even Gmail).

Cloud Computing Architecture

Cloud computing architecture has the following characteristics

Simultaneous Provisioning
Scalable
On-demand service
Instant sharing of resources

As shown in the diagram, Cloud Architecture consists of two parts. In the 'Front End', we have the user machines, Thin Clients that access the resources that are installed on the Cloud Servers. These servers are known as the 'Back End' and the customer accesses them through the internet. The resources are Applications, Operating Systems, Storage, Database, AI, Analytics, Security etc.

Reference: https://www.educba.com/cloud-computing-architecture/

Cloud Computing Vendors

The main Cloud Vendors are:

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud
IBM Cloud
Alibaba Cloud
Oracle Fusion Cloud

All the vendors offer some or all of the following services

Storage
Operating System
Database
Network
Software (SAAS)
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning.
Analytics

Reference: https://www.zdnet.com/article/top-cloud-providers-2019-aws-microsoft-azure-google-cloud-ibm-makes-hybrid-move-salesforce-dominates-saas/

Business Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud Storage: No need to store data in hard drives and tapes.
Faster disaster recovery
Multiple ways to achieve cost savings. Customer do not have to maintain a fat IT Infrastructure and Team. Attrition costs are reduced. World class talent to solve issues means that cost due to delay is getting solutions to issues is reduced. Pay-as-use model ensures that the customer gets value for money. Finally, in a public cloud, the vendor is able to distribute economies of scale to the customers thus reducing their costs.
Regular software and applications upgrade means that even the smallest customer will enjoy the benefit of the latest advances in technology.
Cloud democratizes technology by making it available to every customer, big and small.
By ensuring world-class disaster recovery, cloud vendors ensure business continuity for its customers. Unplanned outages are minimized.
Cloud services can be scaled up or down quickly. This helps customers respond effectively to demand elasticity.
Leading cloud vendors offer top of the line data security by offering features like encryption, access control etc.

Challenges of Cloud Computing

Dependence on Network Connectivity: In case of network outage, the customer cannot access the cloud resources
Loss of control: The client becomes dependent on the service provider to ensure adequate security to the data. The loss of control even extends to maintenance. The customer becomes dependent on the Cloud Vendor to speed up the maintenance activities. In addition, the client has less control over the maintenance schedules.
More attractive to hackers: Since the cloud servers contain data of many customers, they become an attractive target for hackers.
Fake Clouds: Cloud computing is more than remote access to a data centre. It includes maintenance, security, availability and reliability. In addition, it will involve data redundancy and disaster recovery. However there are many cloud vendors who just make their application available on a cloud server and claim to be 'Cloud Enabled'.
Limits customization options: Cloud computing works like a quick service restaurant. The Cloud Vendor offers a limited set of services that are delivered efficiently.
Legal restrictions on location of data: Different countries have different rules relating to where data can be stored. For example, EU GDPR restricts data of European Customers to reside within Europe. This could be a challenge when evaluating second tier cloud vendors.

Use Cases of Cloud Computing

Create Cloud Applications: Quickly build, deploy and scale web, mobile and API applications. This can be done by using cloud technologies like containers, Kubernets, Microservices and DevOps
Store, backup and recover huge amount of data.
Stream audio and video to connect with audience anywhere, any time (Youtube live)
Reduce testing lead time
Data Analysis by using advanced technologies like AI and ML

References

https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-cloud-computing-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-cloud/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-the-cloud-wars-forced-ibm-to-buy-red-hat-for-34-billion/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/moving-to-the-cloud-some-advice-to-consider/
https://in.pcmag.com/networking-communications-software/38970/what-is-cloud-computing
https://www.infoworld.com/article/2683784/what-is-cloud-computing.html
https://www.ibm.com/in-en/cloud/learn/cloud-computing
https://www.salesforce.com/in/learning-centre/tech/cloudcomputing/
https://www.accenture.com/in-en/insights/cloud-computing-index
https://www.techiexpert.com/what-is-cloud-computing-with-example/
https://www.edureka.co/blog/what-is-cloud-computing/
https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/cloud/what-is-the-cloud/
https://netcov.com/what-is-cloud-computing/
What is the Cloud? Beginner's Guide to Cloud Computing Concepts
The Adaptive Network: A Framework for Understanding the Networking Implications of the Edge Cloud - Ciena
What is cloud computing? A beginner’s guide | Microsoft Azure
Cloud Computing Definition
What is Cloud Computing
Cloud computing - Wikipedia
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-145.pdf
https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-cloud-computing-817770
https://builtin.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing-examples

What is Industrial Internet of Things(IIOT)?

2020-12-17T17:13:00.002+05:30

This is the fifth of a series of articles that I am writing in my blog. I intend to cover 21 technologies / ideas. Here is my publishing history.

1. Artificial Intelligence

2. Machine Learning

3. Deep Learning

4. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

What is Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT)?

Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) is a subset of 'Internet of Things', a term coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999. While the term IoT refers to connected devises that make the individual life fun and exciting, the term IIOT refers to the way

industrial machines and products and networks communicate with each other.

IIOT refers to a large number of industrial devices like manufacturing equipments, air craft engines, trucks on the road etc that are fitted with sensors and other devices that collect data and push it to cloud storage devices through different networks. The sensors and other connected instruments send large amount of data that enables the company to take quick decisions regarding the data.

IIOT also helps industrial devices to communicate with each other. For example a sensor can sense an increasing temperature in the engine and request the coolant supplying machine for additional coolant. This communication is automatic. Based on the non-availability of coolant, the coolant machine can request shut down of the engine and send notification to all concerned.

IIOT Architecture

The conceptual architecture of IIOT is shown in the diagram below

The sensors and devices will continuously send data to the edge gateway.

The edge gateway preprocesses this data and filters it. It may either initiate a response based on a predetermined threshold or send the filtered data to a database over the cloud.

Internet (Cloud) acts as a connectivity layer between edge gateway and the databases residing in the remote server. Availability of cloud enables device mobility. No matter which part of the world the device at any point in time, it can continue to send data to the database. This has far reaching implications as it helps integrate with Blockchain technologies like Distributed Ledger.

Once the data is received in the database, it further processed and necessary actions are initiated based on business logic, workflow, AI and analytics

IIOT: Why now?

Three different factors have contributed to the explosion of IIOT.

Cheap technology, software and hardware: All the components of technology has become cheaper and more manageable. Processors have become smaller, more powerful and more accessible.
Internet speeds have become highly scalable and cloud computing has become readily available.
Adoption of IPv6: Existing IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) can accommodate only around 4 billion computers (2^32). When it was designed in 1978, it was assumed that the number of computers in the world will not exceed that number. However with population of the world being 7 billion and with huge number of 'things' connecting to the internet, the IPv4 was inadequate and acted as a bottleneck to the adoption of IOT. However, IPv6 with 128 bites explodes the potential number of IP Addresses and has accelerated the adoption of IOT.

IIOT Market

Tech analyst company IDC predicts that in total there will be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by 2025, or "things." It also suggests industrial and automotive equipment represent the largest opportunity of connected "things,", but it also sees strong adoption of smart home and wearable devices in the near term.

Industrial IoT is growing rapidly. Estimates suggest that the industrial IoT market will be worth over $992 billion by 2025. Accenture has predicted that IIoT will add over $14 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Gartner predicts that the enterprise and automotive sectors will account for 5.8 billion devices in 2020, up almost a quarter on 2019. Utilities will be the highest user of IoT, thanks to the continuing rollout of smart meters. Security devices, in the form of intruder detection and web cameras will be the second biggest use of IoT devices. Building automation – like connected lighting – will be the fastest growing sector, followed by automotive (connected cars) and healthcare (monitoring of chronic conditions).

Features of an IIOT Platform

Since each sensor or tracking devise acting as a single endpoint, IIOT increases both technical and management complexity in an Organization. A full scale IIOT platform will be a part of the overall digital footprint of the organization and will help integrate machines with people, and systems.

The best IIoT platforms provides capabilities including:

Management of devices and sensors including provisioning, data capture and business logic
Integrating data with existing systems and applications
Managing machine to machine and machine to systems messaging based on workflow, threshold configuration and business logic.
Managing the interactions between various 'players' in the ecosystem including men, machines and systems
Real-time data analytics to generate actionable intelligence.
Management and security of the network and cloud applications that store and use data

Benefits

Better asset utilization since IIOT provides ability to track asset performance and identify trends in real-time
Increased productivity due to better streamlining of activities of various resources
Cost reduction due to saving in energy bills, reduction in breakdown maintenance etc.
Continuous improvement in product quality since companies can capture user feedback in real-time
Waste reduction through better inventory management and tracking over the entire supply chain process including shop floor, warehouses and vehicles.
IIOT can help generate new revenue sources. Manufacturers can to offer new business models like remote support, predictive maintenance etc to their customers

Challenges

Security is the biggest challenge for wider rollout of IIOT. With many endpoints including mobile endpoints it becomes easy for hackers to enter Organization's network and steal sensitive data. Security is the key concern why pharma industry is slow to adopt IIOT
Concern for data privacy goes hand in hand with security. With many devices collecting personal data, IIOT should be designed to maintain data privacy.
Lack of IIOT standards is another concern. There are many standards being used which prevent portability.
IIOT sensors deliver a large amount of data. Handling large volume of data and generating actionable intelligence out of this is another challenge.
Deciding between cloud and on-premise deployment models is yet another challenge. On-premise models provide better control over data. Recently cloud vendors have started offering best in class security that should allay some of the concerns.
Interoperability between devices that follow different protocols are another challenge. The root cause is that there is no single universal standard for IIOT (Point 2 above)

Use cases

Predictive maintenance: Sensors attached to devices and products will track the usage and the trend and identify the need for changing, replacing or repairing a component of the device or product. This helps in eliminating costly breakdowns and helps increase customer satisfaction.
Facilities management: Facilities mangers can use IOT to reduce energy consumption, space utilization and even to improve the health of the tenants by monitoring the quality of air inside the building.
Proactive replenishment: Sensors installed in warehouses provide real-time alerts about the requirement for replenishment. This leads to inventory optimization and reduction in carrying costs.
Operations and production: IIOT adoption started from the shop floors. IIOT helps in every aspect of operations and production including predictive analytics, just in time inventory, real-time replenishment and inventory optimization at shop floor to name a few use cases.
Pervasive visibility: This refers to the visibility of your entire network so as to prevent any network breaches. This is more relevant in IIOT scenario with its large number of end points connecting to the network.
Fleet management: By attaching sensors to your fleet you can track and optimally manage your fleet leading to improved fleet utilization.
Improved field service: Sensors can predict potential product issue. This information is automatically sent to the field executives who can proactively resolve the issues before any breakdown happens. The executives can even use smart glasses that will help them interact with the experts in the factory to resolve issues.

References

1. Establishing a Supply Chain Focused IOT Platform - By Mark Morley of Opentext.com

2. How IOT Technology Can Enhance Facilities Management - By Banyanhills blog

3. Pervasive Visibility: Key to Data Security - By Dennis Reilly of Gigamon.com blog

4. The Ledger of Things: IoT and Distributed Ledger Technology

5. What is the IoT? Everything you need to know about the Internet of Things right now | ZDNet

6. What is IIoT? - Industrial internet of things - OpenText Blogs

7. What is IIoT? | Inductive Automation

8. What is the IIoT? Everything you need to know about the Industrial Internet of Things | ZDNet

9. Industrial internet of things - Wikipedia

10. Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) - Definition - Trend Micro USA

11. What is the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)? – Enterprise IT Definitions | HPE India