Social collaboration: increasing importance for ERP

Greatly appreciated

According to this, more than half of the 200 ERP users surveyed in Germany consider the use of social media technologies within the context of ERP to be important or very important. Not even one in twenty on the other hand considered social collaboration to be less relevant as a part of ERP.

Optimising customer communication

Providing information to customers and partners and keeping them up to date – this could possibly be carried out far more efficiently and more quickly by using social collaboration tools and social media as an integral component of the ERP system. Accordingly every third user wants an ERP system with precisely these highly efficient tools. Almost half envisage as a result better cooperation with their partners. More than 40 per cent see the most significant potential for their company resulting from the use of simpler and more direct communication with suppliers. 54 percent of those surveyed see the greatest advantage, however, in direct contact with customers.

Act in a more flexible manner – evaluate decisions

In addition more than a third of those surveyed stress as a matter of principle the need to make management and value creation more flexible. The use of social media technologies within the context of ERP would enable the making of important management decisions on a broader information base and allow quicker reactions to market requirements.

200 users surveyed in Germany

With some 1,500 participants globally and 200 ERP users who were involved in the study in Germany, the data material is certainly not to be regarded as representative, but one thing can be drawn from the study in each case: a snapshot indicating a potentially significant trend.