Business world was running at a F1 speed till the time COVID-19 (Chinees Virus) halted the whole world. It has locked all flying CEOs in their respective drawing rooms, the only people who are on roads are the policemen and the health care team. Now everyone is utilizing this time for Fun, Knowledge enhancement, and Social Media Guru.

For lots of IT professionals, the business is, as usual, the only thing it has changed the working space. In my personal view for other businesses, it is time to take out white sheet and redraw the business model post this pandemic. Draw your process diagrams and try to think loudly on the grey areas in these processes. This is a time to do certain simulations for the new opportunities which going to emerge from new economy.

The world will not be the same, it will change the way office spaces are designed. It will also change the way processes of the supply chain are designed. ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning will help the organizations in redrafting the processes and quick adaption of same. Some of the features which will help organizations are:

Remote working: All most all ERP tools has the capability to work over the cloud which ensure smooth office while working in remote, these clouds are ensured with best of the security features and controls.

Workflow:  Due to strong technical architecture the processes can be redesigned in ERP for the workflows and alerts as per organization SOPs. These alerts/workflows have tight integration with collaborative tools such as Emails, O365, Teams etc. This ensure the business continuity along with streamline communication across platforms.

Mobility: New age ERP ensure that the user has uniform experience across the devices. While working remotely, staff members would like to have the liberty of BYOD. This not only helps organizations for reduced capital investments but also provide freedom to team members on the mode of working.

Business Analytics and AI:  ERP has always provided support for the structured data. This structured data helps in better understanding of the business KPIs. In new model of working, this structured data will help the entrepreneurs in taking quick decisions while working at places far away from the establishments. AI (Artificial Intelligence) will assist in these decision makings to ensure minimum human intervention.

Machine Integration/Automation/IOT: The internet of the things will play a major role in integrating the shop floors and automated manufacturing processes. Organizations will need the integration with the valuable data generated during these processes. ERP with the option of “Machine Operations Center” will further enhance the capability of such automations.  Provisions such as safety stock, minimum maximum Inventory based method of order will be automated through control processes in ERP.

Lot of things going the change the business around us. We need to evaluate and prepare ourselves by implementing the ERP to ensure the business continuity in these conditions. The real winner will the one who walks with the time. The only thing which can be assured is the progress of the time, it will not wait for us. Hence as a ERP professional I believe that this is the right opportunity to implement systems for business continuity.