Today’s IT world has become truly hybrid. Businesses are now needing to manage a blend of on- premise and cloud-based assets, being delivered and supported by a multitude of providers.
New enterprise-grade applications are fast replacing old ERP systems as companies move to become more flexible and more mobile. These new applications can be integrated with traditional ERP software into ‘hybrid ERP’ systems to enable specific functions such as human resources, supplier management, and e-commerce to operate with greater agility and independence.
Companies looking to implement such systems must consider them in the context of their business needs, focusing specifically on benefits such as greater customer and employee engagement and faster implementation, as well as lower costs. The key to successfully designing and implementing a hybrid ERP system is to focus on the actual business value it will generate.
But before abandoning your traditional solution and being swept away by the wave of cloud-based apps, a more frugal approach may be a combination of cloud with traditional software.
The hybrid approach allows businesses to embrace the benefits of cloud ERP initially with non-mission-critical applications. An option for those companies that prefer to keep their data inside their walls could be private cloud deployment, which combines the scalability and flexibility of cloud ERP with the security and data ownership benefits of on-premises software.
The proverbial ‘one size fits all’ doesn’t apply when it comes to hybrid solutions. There are multiple factors to consider that include your industry vertical, type of business, company size, culture, etc.
What’s important to remember is that in a hybrid IT environment, people need to work in multi-party, multi-vendor ecosystems. You need individuals with a collaborative mind set who can look inside and outside the organization and draw on resources that aren’t necessarily on your payroll or balance sheet. It’s no longer about integrating systems, it’s about integrating ecosystems.
