ERP = User experience and technology

The ERP landscape has significantly changed during the last few years and the market is flooded with new players offering an increasing variety of products. So, the inevitable question is what is more important after all: user experience or technology in itself? This is a valid dilemma since those aspiring to acquire an ERP solution tend to prefer one over the other. A quick reply, which could serve as the basis for a discussion, is that user experience should not prevail over technology, or the other way around, since both live in a symbiotic relationship. But, let us analyze this a bit further.

Technology is the means to have access to information and functionalities. Technology is directly related to the specific skills each business possesses and which are extremely difficult to manage. As new technologies evolve, they resemble all these new gadgets we desire to have as long as they come with a familiar user experience. Quite often, technology is one step ahead of user experience, but in the end it is through experience that people are using technology and integrate it in their daily activities. This is the symbiotic relationship we referred to earlier.

In particular, many businesses have the ability to develop an application that will run on a new device or a new operating system, or even develop a new technology. Nevertheless, unless they also possess the experience to integrate the necessary functionality -which comes as a result of developing business applications for many years- the results will not be the expected ones. Experience means wisdom. Every time you deploy an ERP system, you essentially deploy a solution. It is not just about an application or a technology. You need to learn to think of the deployment process as a whole, so that technology is perfectly combined with functionality and experience. In its turn, this means that a solution that is state-of-the-art when it comes to technology but does not offer the business functionality that comes as a result of multi-year experience, will be nothing more than mediocre and ineffective in the long run.

Obviously, the same argument works the other way around: accepting that an “experienced” solution can be effective without using modern technology would simply show lack of understanding. The valuable lesson in this case is that, under no circumstances, should you sacrifice one these two necessary factors, as the results will be immediately evident and adverse.