Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 24 | Page 47

FEATURE: ERP “With Dynamics 365, we reinvented the ERP in this one product.” organisation to do their job better; thirdly to optimise the internal processes for cost-saving, for better collaboration inside the organisation; and lastly to provide a better end product to the customer so that they compete better in the market. Dynamics 365 helps in all those four main points. What should CIOs looking to commission an ERP look for? In the past all CIOs cared about was functionality. I believe all ERP vendors, including Microsoft, have matured the product to provide all functionalities in one package. I think CIOs today are looking for innovation, simplicity, integration, lowering the cost of maintaining systems and providing a better customer experience. This is where Microsoft comes in with a set of intuitive applications, fully integrated, that reduce the cost of integration. All of them are mobile ready and leverage the power of the cloud in www.intelligentcio.com “With Dynamics 365 we gathered inspiration from our Office tools. The application will be familiar to the user. If you know how to use Excel or Word, you can easily navigate and used the tool.” the simplest possible way which brings a great deal of added value. Is your system suitable for any vertical? We focus on five main verticals. ERP, in general, is a horizontal offering where all financial packages, supply chain, warehouse management, manufacturing are there, like any other ERP. I believe one of our top focuses is retail. We provide end-to-end retail applications that starts from the point of sales to the back office, the whole offering is within Dynamics 365 unlike most of our competitors who have built a point-of-sale system that they integrate with the back office. We also cater for manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, service industries and the public sector. We have a whole vertical for the public sector to cater for the way they do their accounting, their budgeting and their operations. of the consumers are becoming higher and higher. Today, if I want to go and visit a retail outlet, I’m looking for a certain item and I’d like to know if they have my exact size and colour. It becomes about catering for both the back office and the front office, both the CRM and the ERP. The question becomes how can I provide a service for any consumer whether through a mobile app or website to give them that insight. For manufacturers are the main advantages of an ERP for that you could keep track of your stock in warehouses and through the distribution process? I would definitely say this is the case, without it you cannot run your business. If we’re also talking about enhancing products through customer feedback with Dynamics 365, you have the ability to send surveys, feedback to customers. They tell you what would they like to have in your product or what is missing or how you can enhance it. Salespeople or customer service can feed this into the system, it can go automatically to the manufacturing department. They can change the product, enhance it with the least possible cost option and provide more varieties to consumers. I would say, this agility and flexibility within the tool and the integration between the front end, which is customer facing, and the back office gives our system a unique offering in the market. What are the benefits of an ERP to a company’s employees? Isn’t it going to make their jobs easier? What could a retailer get from an ERP? User adoption becomes the top challenge of any customer who’s implementing an ERP. With Dynamics 365 we gathered inspiration from our Office tools. One step forward is multi-channel and e-commerce. I believe all retailers are very challenged and the expectations The application will be familiar to the user. If you know how to use Excel or Word, you can easily navigate and used the tool. INTELLIGENTCIO 47