“Cloud ERP is a very new principle in the market,” says Mark Chalfen, director at PwC. “The way that I see cloud is all round simplification—simple and standard. It’s a lot more easy than it was five, ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.”

Mark Chalfen, director at PwC, talks about how cloud ERP software can help companies drive innovation, standardization and cost savings.

Speed is not a problem. Speed for the organization is the speed to consume the change. The speed is understanding your roadmap, building that roadmap, understanding what the future holds and then planning that back in.

Overcoming Preconceptions About ERP Software

A true ERP, a SaaS ERP, is an asset. There’s a number of clients I will work with and start to talk with and they see it as a liability. We take them on a journey and the realization changes that actually cloud ERP is an asset. The speed, the innovation, the standardization—all the things that people previously thought an ERP was, the ability to write lots of custom code, those benefits are removed when they see the power of the cloud ERP and the future direction of SAP in cloud ERP.

Now, all of our engagements are with the c-suite—a CFO, a CEO—who understands the power of cloud ERP, understands the power of SaaS. That means that the programs we work on are business-led, truly business-led. They understand the benefit that it provides: standardization, simplification, speed and the cost benefit. Now you have standard process. You get some efficiency and you’ll get some cost savings.

There’s three key areas. Break everything off into small consumable chunks. Build that confidence within the business. ‘Look, we deployed within three months. We deployed within six months.’ You then build that confidence. We then need to focus on the change appetite. You need to plan the change engagement. Followed around that, the actual governance and the ownership of the program—you need strong stakeholder management all the way through.

The Tool Is Not the Issue

The tool is there to help you. The tool is mature, the tool is ready, the tool is not the issue. It’s people and data and change. If you can control all of those three, your program will be successful.