iPad and ERP, Revolution or Evolution?
The jury is still out on whether or not the iPad will be the revolution that Steve Jobs claims. For photos, email and browsing the web it has great potential but what about its impact on ERP?
My iPad is on order and will be here at the end of April (I’m waiting for the 3G version). As I anxiously await my new gadget, I can’t help but share my thoughts on how it will impact the ERP industry.
First and most obvious executives will be able to have their reports, dashboards, Active Roles, etc. while on the road. At EVS we have various iPhone widgets that run MAS 500 on an iPhone but the problem with some of them is the lack of real estate. The iPad will solve that problem nicely and will enable executives to easily dial into their MAS 500 system, run reports or look at dashboards and take action if necessary. Since it’s smaller and more portable than a laptop, an executive can easily add an iPad to their briefcase. In my opinion, every executive should have an iPad.
Another obvious use is that salespeople will see huge benefits from an iPad. Salespeople usually live and die by their CRM (if yours don’t, we need to talk). A laptop is clunky and and iPhone doesn’t have enough real estate if they need to see account history, open payments, etc. They may be able to show their Power Point slides from the iPad as well. No need to lug around a laptop.
The less obvious change could be within the four walls of the organization. If an employee has to get out of their seat they are immediately disconnected from their ERP data. If an inventory manager has to go to the floor and check on the inventory level of an item (and they don’t have O2 Mobile) they would either have to think ahead and print a report or write down what they found then compare it to the ERP when they get back to their desk. With an iPad they can have ERP data with them at all times. If they need to make an inventory adjustment or a quick journal entry, they can do it on-the-fly.
Think of revolutionizing the group meeting experience. What if everyone came to the meeting with their iPad, on each one is the meeting agenda and hyperlinks to the various reports or ERP screens applicable for the meeting. In a production scheduling meeting, for example, immediate changes could be made to the schedule and and the repercussions of the changes known right away.
As with any new technology, there will be early adopters but I believe with a little vision and experimentation the function of the iPad (or any other tablet) could be a paradigm shift for organizations; always connected to your ERP.
Apple has done a tremendous job of jump-starting innovation by introducing new platforms. Just think for a minute about how many companies, entrepreneurs, and jobs were created by the Appstore and iPhone?
With the iPad, most people are asking “what am I supposed to do with this thing” because they are trying to fit their current applications onto this new platform. It is up to the development community to make sense of this thing. It makes the most sense now as a thin (RDP or web) client. I think the first generation of useful business apps will be designed to display on an iPad-like device, and deployed with a web or RDP technology.
Nathan Brown
March 26, 2010 at 10:43 am