Nexer: Why Integrated ERPs are Crucial to Today's Operations

John Knight's role is split into two halves. Fifty-percent of the time he works as a supply chain consultant, while the rest of his time is spent leading the wider team consultancy team. 

Having worked with ERP products for 25 years, John joined the Nexer Enterprise Applications division of Nexer Group in 2021. Nexer specialises in ERP, customer relationship management (CRM) and Power Platform technologies, and its team members are experts in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

“I work across the breadth of supply chain operations, but my specialist area is production and planning – working with manufacturing companies in particular," John explains. 

"It's an interesting role and I enjoy helping clients to solve problems and improve their operations – seeing the business benefits of technology come to fruition.”

Here, John speaks to Supply Chain Digital to discuss the importance of integrated ERPs in today’s supply chain operations.

Why are integrated ERPs so important in today’s supply chain operations?

From the pandemic and Brexit to the Suez Canal and Red Sea crises, we’ve seen a raft of socioeconomic and geopolitical circumstances compromise global supply chains in recent years. In tandem, we’ve seen customer demands only getting more stringent – today’s consumer wants quality products, and fast – meaning supply chain operations need to be watertight. As such, having the agility to navigate shifting, volatile landscapes and fulfil customer needs on time is critical to a successful business operation today.

Up-to-date tech systems can provide the foresight and intel to predict the impact of external scenarios on operations – and enable leaders to plan effective mitigations. While supply chains are, by nature, complex, integrated ERP systems can help consolidate the many moving parts. What’s more, cloud-based ecosystems like Microsoft Dynamics 365 can provide end-to-end visibility across an entire operation, enabling all stakeholders to access the intel they need in real time – wherever they are. This means that if external circumstances hit one part of the chain, everyone knows about it quickly and can shift operations in response – shielding the customer from the impact in turn.

What are the risks associated with building new features on top of legacy systems?

Building on top of legacy IT systems and adding new features on top of old ones can actually do more damage than good, becoming a costly and complicated risk.

If one part of the operation fails, there is a risk that the whole ecosystem could come crashing down at once. And even if a full breakdown doesn’t take place, having lots of different systems can slow you down – and we all know that in business, time is money. IT operations that span different providers and vary in terms of how up-to-date they are can also hold you back commercially; it may not be possible to reap the reward of new features being introduced, offering business benefits in turn.

Ultimately, building on top of legacy systems, rather than investing in long-term integration, can not only hinder performance – it can inhibit growth.

What are the benefits of implementing systems like Microsoft Dynamics 365?

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is designed to be flexible and easy to use. It provides access to insights and intelligent data visualisation that can turn complex figures from different areas of operation into meaningful graphs in very little time, meaning decision-making becomes easier – not to mention far quicker.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is also subject to regular updates and the introduction of emerging features, helping businesses to maintain and even improve competitiveness in an increasingly digitalised business world. For example, AI has taken the world by storm and Microsoft CoPilot’s integrated nature means that employees can improve their productivity without needing additional training and time to learn how to use new software. More broadly, as Microsoft is an integrated, global tech giant, many people are already familiar with its established technology.

To what extent is AI helping to maintain usability and competitiveness?

I’d say very much so. In manufacturing, for example, machine data can feed into production plans and forecasting to improve accuracy. AI’s learning ability can also result in less defective material, optimising production over time.

However, there is a security element to consider. Much has been made of how AI learns from information and goes on to use it. Microsoft CoPilot is a great example of software designed to protect the customer – it doesn’t learn from a business’ data and share it with other customers.

Of course, there are still learnings when it comes to AI, but this type of technology will only become increasingly smarter and more sophisticated. From where I stand, the possibilities are vast.

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