Rizing Evolution – The Future Proofed Enterprise Podcast
Episode 8 Transcript: Modernizing Your ERP – the Cost of Doing Nothing
(Editors note: this transcript was machine generated then lightly edited. You can read a summary, watch the original episode or see the list of all podcast episodes.)
Bonnie Graham
Hold on. Let me hit. Go live. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. All right, here’s what I say to all my guests. On all my shows, I’m looking at you, ash. Weenie and Len and Angel and Justin and Sherry. Behave yourselves. Thank you, Jordan. OK, I said it. I’m talking to all of you. Let’s do this.
Narrator
Perspective on business technology, this rising evolution. The future proofed enterprise presented by rising a Wipro company, you’ll hear from business and technology innovators who know how to use the latest technologies and business strategies to transform industries and importantly, how these technologies and strategies can be shaped to your business needs in your way. Help your organization move in exciting new directions. Now here’s your host and moderator. Bonnie D Graham.
Bonnie Graham
Bonnie D in the house. Thank you, lady. We don’t know what your name is, but we like what you said. This rising evolution. The future proofed enterprise. I’m here with a full panel. A full House of very interesting people. And we have a hot topic for you. Have you ever thought of the idea of you turn the light on and off? It’s a zero or one. You know, binary numbers. Well, doing nothing costs. So let’s talk about what our topic is. I’ve prepared a little verse you all know I do my opening monologues with ChatGPT. It’s the AI. I’m still human. I’ve been. I had a I had a CAT scan in my brain and they told me there’s a brain in there. So I’m still. So it’s a combination of human and AI. And let me read my opening and then you’ll understand what we’re talking about. Today. So here we go in the realm where businesses evolve and thrive. A tale of ERP modernization comes alive. Bonnie Dee, our guide, so keen, leads the conversation where insights convene. I hope you’re all liking this so far. A drive to the cloud, a future proofed embrace. But ERT investments, weight needs justified grace very poetic costs measured. Benefits weighed in the light, a journey where decisions demand smart. Foresight. Inactions cost unforeseen tolls, a quest for growth where the future unfolds. Our roundtable today welcomes a panel wise. Raise your hand when I call you Justin. Ladenburger. There he is. Ladenburger. And we have Len Harms. Hello, Len. And we have Angel Cruz Parrilla. Hello. And we have ash. We need Dayal and we have. Sherri Ann Meyer from Rising, who invited me to do this show, and I’m going to finish the rhyme there because a panel wise they’ll a prize. See join the discourse. A Symphony of thought. Modernizing your ERP. The cost of doing nothing. We’re here for lessons sought. Welcome to rising evolution, the future proofed enterprise. OK, kids, gotta get a thumbs up on the poem. What do you think? Anybody. Len you like? Oh, if Len liked it then. Yeah, that’s. I’m sorry. That’s my toughest critic there. So we are talking about modernizing ERP. Popular topic. What is it doing for your organization? Are you standing on the sidelines? We used to call them laggards. Are you doing nothing? Are you doing a little bit of almost nothing or a little bit of not enough of too much? We’re going to. Talk about that. So let’s go around the table and let’s get some introductions here. Justin Ladenburger, so happy to have you here. Would you please do us about a three minute bio of everything you want to tell us about who you are and Justin, you’ve got to convince our listeners and our viewers around the world why you’re very smart on this topic. What does it mean to you? What’s your passion? Welcome, Justin.
Justin Ladenburger
Yeah, thanks. And I’m happy to be here. Yes. So I’m Justin Ladenburger, an executive with over 20 years combined experience in industry and consulting. In my current position, I’m responsible for presales and customer engagement with the goal of maximizing value for our customers throughout their transformation journey. Early on in my career, I was able to work for a large telecommunication company where profit was king and then a public utility that was on the other side of the spectrum. It was enlightening to experience both. Of course, there was a fast and furious approach to achieving goals and objectives for the former, and the latter being very slow with many start stop iterations on initiatives. In the consulting field, I was able to work with many companies and deliver integrated ERP, GIS and mobile solutions across a variety of industries in several countries. This allowed me to expand on those experiences and really gain a good understanding on how different types of organizations run their business and the decisions and the decision-making process that goes into evaluating and implementing solutions. One thing I’ve learned is that business transformation is not just about technology, but the very important human factor. And of course, the continuous change management required to make it successful. And as for this topic, when it comes to investing in an ERP solution, especially public cloud, I enjoy working with companies to guide them on why to move forward.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much. I enjoyed your bio. It was a, it was very well done, very nicely read. Thank you. Thank you, Justin. Let’s move around the table. Len Harms Len worked with me on a show from a different I did a show called Ready Set Transform with Rise with SAP about a year ago. And Len was one of my guests. He reminded me. So he’s here today. Is rising Len. Let’s hear from you. Who are you and what’s your passion for this topic?
Len Harms
Thank you, Bonnie. I may not be as eloquent as Justin. So I’m the CXO for Rizing and the X is whatever my boss wants it to be at any given time and right now it’s running mid-market and as the color of the hair indicates, it’s not just light reflection, it’s gray and white. I point that out because I’ve had 25 years of experience in SAP and before that I was running logistics and operations for a manufacturing company and at that point, I didn’t even know how to turn on my computer. So part of my journey has moved from this business expertise into a system and it’s one of the things that really drew me to SAP and doing implementations was that I could take my business experience and apply it to a system and bring them together for clients. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 25 years, bringing system and process together with my clients helping them get value from the solution. As I mentioned right now, my responsibility is running our mid-market practice and in that context we see some of the principles coming out like best practice. And I’m sure, Bonnie, I don’t want to take anything away from you, but I’m, you know, thinking maybe that might come into our discussion. So we got this approach of standardization, best practice along with this new infrastructure that’s been enabled, which is cloud and so bringing those two together is what I’m really enjoying right now and helping our clients absorb both this architectural change but keeping it real for the buses. So thank you for having us.
Bonnie Graham
Delighted to have you. I love the word, Len. The word I like the best in your bio-other than your smile was the word enjoying. You’re enjoying helping clients. We call them companies here, enjoying helping companies. And that’s the positive. That’s the optimistic. That’s the. Why are we even talking about this? Because it needs to happen. OK. Thank you very much. One more move around the table and we’re going to Angel Cruz Parilla happy to see you. Would you please introduce yourself?
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Absolutely. Going first, of course. Thank you for having me and I’m glad to be here. Great to be invited. As you said in your cruise I’m connecting with you from the mountains of colorful Colorado or I shall say, snowy Colorado these days and my background is basically around 22 years of experience with ERP solutions catching up with plan, not there yet, but I’ve got there soon and for the last six I’ve been working for ACT, I’ve been working. Focus on our SaaS cloud ERP solution. My current title is Vice President in the product marketing. We recently changed the name of the team and my day really varies from day-to-day. It’s just very I guess the common theme is that I get to work with customers and partners on a daily basis to make sure that the value proposition that we have for our SaaS, cloud, ERP. Guests to digital, to the digital transformation journeys and it also gets to their customers. And I’m also lucky enough to get to work with a very smart group of people inside SAP to do go to market strategy, solution packaging and pricing and some marketing activities as well. And you asked about my passion and I don’t know if I’m smart, as you said to be here. I cannot justify that, but I’m certainly interested and every time that I hear the words Claudia spoke my mind goes to a standard processes and solution adoption change management, those type of things and my day-to-day is really focused on the customers adopting our value proposition and making sure they run the best they can be with those standards. So when we talk about the cost of doing nothing, I want to make sure that I bring my thought about this what you’re missing and this what your company should be, your client and customer should be taking, taking advantage of. And of course, I’m happy to be here also because I want to hear what our accomplished guests have to think. I have to share about this topic. I’m working with you Bonnie – I’ve been following you for a while you’re incredible. As I said, you’re a legend that looking for me and get the best out of your guests and I’m looking forward to seeing what we today.
Bonnie Graham
I’m blessed. You’re very kind. Thank you very much. I didn’t know you were following me in the old days. If somebody told you that you’d say, OK, we you know. But I’m saying thank you very much. Appreciate that we’re delighted to have you. Ash. We need Dayal. We’re so happy to have you as well. You’re one of the smart ones. They share. You’re going to give a bio after us. Weenie. Ashwini, I’m putting you on speaker. Have to speaker view Ashwini we’d love to know who you are and what’s your passion for this topic. Go ahead.
Ashwini Dayal
Thank you so much for inviting me, Bonnie. Much appreciated. I too have actually heard a lot of your show, so do enjoy them. My name is Ashwin Dayal. I am the general manager in micromanaging the SAP partnership between Wipro and SAP. And that basically involves looking at, you know, the overall 360° relationship between our two organizations. I’ve had over 20 years of experience working in the in the IT industry with SAP since 2005 and done a variety of roles. All related in some shape or form to how we help customers or companies in their journey of their ERP adoption and the modernization of their systems and processes in that process. In the current role I have a team of. Of folks who manage the partnership across regions and we basically work between SAP and US. To help guide our joint customers, the companies that we both service in, how they go on to the next set of modernizing their ERP systems, looking at all the new technology that’s available to us and you know how we can help. And guide customers enjoy this. All the new stuff that’s available to them right in actually meeting their own objectives. The important thing is how we help meet the objectives of these companies. In the same in the same process. Have fun in doing that as well. So that’s a little bit about me.
Bonnie Graham
Oh my goodness. We went from enjoy to have fun. How dare we? We’re talking business. Technology. We’re talking high level stuff for big companies around the world doing business and we’re having fun and enjoy. Well, you know something, that’s a good thing. And I applaud that Sherry Meyer, we’ve known each other for years. We did shows together when I was at SA. I was at SAP from 2000, 2010, 2019 by the way, so I know that world very, very well and that’s where I started my business, radio career, Sherry Meyer, we all want to know why are you here and tell us a little bit about your background and what are you doing at Rizing these days? Come on.
Sherry Meyer
At Rizing these days, I’m head of corporate communications, but my career with SAP started in 1999. I think when I was clocked out of the business area and dumped in the SAP implementation team. And I’ve loved it ever since. I always said I would never do technology, but SAP has given me the chance to see what real creativity can do, and I think we’re seeing more and more of that today with the cloud and with AI and these gentlemen, I’m all happy to have on the show today. They’re all people I admire and it’s a topic I love. It was actually my idea that when we were on premise, we never did updates all the time regularly and there was a cost to that. People were like well, it costs money to do the updates. Yeah, but then it cost a lot more money later when you’re not up to date. So I’m very eager to hear everyone’s thoughts today. Thanks for joining.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you for joining us. I appreciate that. So here’s the deal. I’ve asked you each to send me a quote, fictional character, movie or TV series or a song lyric that has nothing to do with technology or business or companies or Oh my goodness, any of that stuff, and you’re going to, creatively, prosaically, poetically, however you choose. Relate the quote to our topic today, modernizing your ERP. The cost of doing. OK, I like to whisper once in a while cause the mic picks it up and it’s very dramatic. Right, Len. OK. So Justin Ladenburger, you have picked a quote from. I hope I can pronounce as Lord Corlys Velaryon played by Steven Toussant in the House of the Dragon American fantasy drama TV series from 2022. Very recent. Ongoing based in parts on George RR Martin’s 2018 book Fire and Blood, it begins 100 years after the Seven Kingdoms are united by the Targaryen conquest, 200 years before the events of the Game of Thrones. That’s all I can manage to read here. Here’s the quote very. Interesting to elude a storm, you can either sail into it or around it, but you must never wait. It’s coming. Well, that’s a deep quote, Justin. What does this have to do with our topic? Go ahead. 2-2 minutes.
Sherry Meyer
This very deep.
Justin Ladenburger
Yeah. Wow. That was a pretty good background there, Bonnie.
Bonnie Graham
Pretty heavy. Go ahead. Go ahead, Justin.
Justin Ladenburger
I haven’t seen this series, but I do like Game of Thrones and that kind of genre, but I like this quote because it highlights the decision-making process. I mean, typically bigger the decision, you know, more decisive person can get. It’s easy to find reasons not to make an important or strategic decision. Vision and I think this relates well in whether or not to invest in an ERP system. You know it’s of course a big decision that will have an impact on your business. And companies can, you know, get caught up in, in why they shouldn’t invest. You know, where the cost of software and services are too high, the size of the company is too small. Internal effort required to implement solutions seems too great. And you know, just unable to get, you know, the visibility they need to effectively operate their, you know, their business. Of course, having the right information at the right time, both internally and externally would make it much easier, but there are ways to create this type of data-driven environment within a modern. Year peace solution. And that’s a great way to start. You know, one thing is for certain, given the fast-paced, never changing environment we live in, there will always be these critical decisions that that need to be made to ensure, you know long term business viability which requires an approach that provides that visibility needed to help mitigate future risks. He kind of helped illustrate this point and did some research out there and just wanted to share some insights. So according to this research, approximately 20% of businesses fell in the first year, 48% fell after five years and 65% fell after 10 years. And Mackenzie believes in 2027 that 75% of the companies. Currently quoted on the S&P 500 will have disappeared, so I thought that was pretty interesting.
Bonnie Graham
I’ve heard that quote updated that statistic over the years, and it’s always very interesting to see. We went through the financial whatever it was in 2008, we’ve gone through COVID and all the supply chain issues the past couple of years. So the question of why start a company in this modern time? What are your chances of surviving? Thank you, Justin. I appreciate that. Let me go on to Len Harms. Len has picked a scene, not just a quote, and the scene is from the Stripes. The 1981 American military comedy film. I always get a kick out of military and comedy together as a genre land. Excuse me. And the two characters are Sergeant Hulka, played by Warren Oates. I don’t know. Him to John Winger, played by Bill Murray, who doesn’t love Bill Murray. So Sergeant Hulka says we got a full day ahead of us. We’re gonna start out with a five mile run. And the soldiers. Go and winger says. I know that I’m speaking for the entire platoon when I say this one should be postponed until this platoon is better rested and Hulka says, well, I tell you what, soldier. Let’s make it 10 miles, Len. I hope I did justice to that. Go ahead.
Len Harms
Yeah, you definitely see a theme around age 1981, man. I remember watching that movie, and yet 81 to 24 just sounds really big difference there.
Bonnie Graham
Enough, Len. Don’t do any more math, please. You’ll hurt us all. Go ahead. What does this have to do with our topic today?
Len Harms
In this in this movie, as you mentioned, a comedy. And if you look at the character here and our characters are like and he’s accidentally joined the army. And what he’s trying to accomplish is a delay or a pause to this extra physical work. But in trying to delay and pause in fact adds more work. And as we look at what businesses are faced with now. We’ve got a lot of on Prem on premise, sorry on premise systems and we now have this advent of cloud based systems and. There’s really good value that comes out of those cloud based systems and by the way, just if you want to hear more about this, I know Bonnie’s got some topics on that. So you know please go look at some of her other shows to hear more about the value. But if we look at this today, we’re talking about well, what’s the cost of not going there and there is a cost and just like in this movie. Where we have our characters trying to delay it. Not only did they not do it, but it cost them more. And that is what we are looking at now as an organization. A pause in looking at cloud, a pause in moving to that infrastructure is going to cost. And we can categorize them. It’s going to be, it’s going to vary by company depending upon the systems you’re in and the situation you’re in the business, but there is. A cost so. I use that quote to just highlight sometimes what might seem like a good idea in fact ends up costing.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much. Very well played and I like the quote. I like the scene. More and more people are sending me scene quotes Len. So I appreciate that. Let’s go to Angel Cruz Parilla. You have picked a quote from Commander Jeffrey. We’ve got a lot of military here. Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, played by Michael O’Hare, Babylon 5 Americas American space Opera TV series 1994 to 98. For five seasons and the main story occurs between the years 2257 and 2262 a future where Earth has a unified Earth government, Oh my, and has gained the technology for faster than light travel using jump gates, a wormhole technology allowing transport through the alternate dimensions of hyperspace. The colonies within the solar system and beyond make up the Earth alliance, which has established contact with other far faring. Space faring species. Here’s the Quote Angel has picked from Sinclair. Sooner or later, everyone comes to Babylon five.
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Very dramatic, Bonnie. Thank you for reading the quote so nicely. So first let me start saying that I really loved Babylon five. I didn’t say life. I saw it afterwards. I’m obviously a lot younger than that. But what is important is that I like it for three main things. The first thing is it’s storytelling, right? It’s just you said about. Benchmark for future sci-fi shows to come and I didn’t. I haven’t found anything like it. The second one is I love traveling. Faster than light traveling time traveling. I mean it doesn’t get any better than that. And the third one, of course, is that it’s backed up by science and by facts. And if you can see that those three things, they both apply the three of them apply to our Claudia peace time to value storytelling and facts based. So you would ask why do I pick that particular quote well, as you just said already, but it really moves a little bit the question from should you apply or should you take advantage of the Claudia peak qualities? Because those companies that do not exist do not acquire, those qualities will actually cease to exist. Those, as Justin said, disappeared. In the first. Three years, but it also moved it to. When do you want to take advantage of those qualities? How much longer can you afford to take those qualities and bring them into your competitive advantages? Because if you will run a parallel. How long did you wait until you started using the Internet when it became available to you? Or how long are you gonna wait to use AI or chatGTP now there is available to you so at some point it’s a matter of when it’s not a matter of if you are not doing nothing right now.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much. Also eloquently done and let’s go. One more seat around the table to Ashwini Dayal and this a three word quote. We all know it and we love it. The Terminator played by Arnold 1984. We’re going back in time again here. Len I have Len on some of my other shows. Guests are now quoting Gone With The Wind and the Wizard of Oz. OK, 1984 sci-fi action film and this the catch phrase I think I should have you all say it with me associated with Arnold made famous in the 1984 film. It was ranked #37 Ashwini on the American Film Institute’s 100 years 100 movie quotes back in 2005, and Arnold has used it in many of his other. Movies. Here’s the quote. Everybody want to join me? 3 words starts with Al 1/2. Three. I’ll be back. OK, I’ll be. Back OK, Sherry. Did you say it for me, Sherry? You want to?
Sherry Meyer
I’ll be back.
Bonnie Graham
There you go. OK, Ashwini, you win. You win. The easiest to quote of the day. Ashwini, what does this have to do with our topic? Go ahead.
Ashwini Dayal
Well, two reasons why I chose this right. The first reason is well. Modernizing well, I’ll be back. It’s like what customers have to do, right? The ERP system will always come back and ask you to take care of it. I’ll be back. I’ll be back. I’ll be back if you don’t take care of it. You know you know the Terminator does. Only one thing, it terminates. So if you don’t take care of it, it will terminate. So that was one reason. The other reason was I also use this as a bit of a way of my own life, right? So. I like to be actings I continue to fraud and continue to push and that’s how I also engage with companies, right? I keep going back to them and telling them why they should be doing what they should be doing. What’s the right course of action for them? And so from my perspective as well, it’s about helping, guiding, giving my experience whatever I have learned and you know, going back to customers with that right. So I’ll be back is also, how I do things so that’s why I chose that particular code.
Bonnie Graham
I love it. It’s always nice to have an Arnold quote, Sherry, even though you weren’t technically part of the panel. I’m giving you a line from a famous movie to apply because I think you’re going to like it. Let’s talk about Colonel Nathan R Jessup in a few good men. Jack Nicholson. You can handle the truth. Sherry, can you briefly address that with the cost of doing nothing? Go ahead. I’m going to bring it on here.
Sherry Meyer
Oh my God.
Bonnie Graham
She’ll love me anyway. Go ahead.
Sherry Meyer
Business leaders can’t handle the truth. I mean, we are so scared by ChatGPT coming on the wing last year and already having updates to it, everything being AI and wondering how to meet all those things. The truth about AI has been around for years, and we’ve been closing our eyes to it. It’s here now and that’s what you have to prepare for with technology. You have to be in the latest and greatest in order to take advantage and hop on it quickly so. Stop closing your eyes, everybody.
Bonnie Graham
And it’s time to modernize your ERP. And if you can’t do that, you can’t handle the truth, right? The cost of doing nothing is the truth. It will cost you. OK, so we’ve established that. Thank you all for the quotes. I appreciate that. Let’s move on to the next part of the show. You’ve each sent me 4 discussion statements. I’m going to pick one from each of you. I’ll read it. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go looking. And take about two to three minutes. Justin, I’m going to read statement #3. I’ll read it in a second. And then if anybody has anything to say around the table. I think you’ve all got 10 fingers. We get mine in there. Any of the nice, nice fingers. You just wiggle a finger at me. I’ll see you and I’ll call you if you want to agree or disagree with what Justin is saying. So just Justin, let’s make this. Oh, you know, Mac, just put into the new Sonoma operating system. All kinds of things. If you put two thumbs. Up let me see if I can balance this. You can make it rain. You can make Thunder and lightning. You can make fireworks go off. I’m not in front of my screen enough here. Anyway. I did it with my son the other day. And it’s amazing. All the effects you can get. Forgive me. Reactions. OK, so here we go. Statement #3. Justin. Without a clean data strategy. And system that can support it, making strategic business decisions is better with no data than with bad. Yeah, I thought that was really interesting because everybody wants to talk about data today. So Justin, go ahead take about two minutes and tell us your position and we’ll see what everybody has to say. Go ahead.
Justin Ladenburger
3rd, we’re talking about data is nothing new. You know, as it should be. One of the key pillars to any successful company, but it’s always bewildering to me to see how the same mistakes keep happening. You know, companies move from paper-based processes to spreadsheets, siloed applications and sometimes make it to integrated systems. You know, there’s typically an initial emphasis on keeping data clean during these transitions, you know, but eventually most end up right where they started with redundant and dirty data, you know, which leads to doubts on the accuracy of the data when making decisions. Of course, it’s not easy to implement a clean data strategy. There’s a lot to it, but it’s not a nice to have. It’s a must have. To overcome these challenges that clean data initiative you know must be LED business LED to ensure alignment between the organization, processes and technology. This incorporates a vision where data is the key enabler to business success. There’s an ongoing investment and improvement activities, a well-established data governance framework and using metrics to monitor performance. You know, but without a modern ERP solution that can enable this success is pretty unlikely. As well, without reliable data trying to advance business analytics with data science to become more predictive, it’s like putting lipstick on a pig. You know, at the end of the day, data is more than just a byproduct of business processes.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Very interesting. Anybody want to challenge that land or Angel or Sherry or Ashwini? Anybody. Oh, Angel. You want to want to say a yes to that? Go ahead.
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Yeah, I totally agree with Justin. I’m I work for a for a technology company and a software company. But at the core we are a process company and processes do not run without data. So you can have the right technology and the right software, but your data is not right at the moment. You start now that we have live reporting. And you’re just running on what is happening right now. If that data is incorrect, your decisions are going to be correct as well.
Bonnie Graham
Is there such a thing as a data cleaning department and companies? Today we talk about clean data or not, who I’m just gonna ask this. Yeah, there should. Who? Who does the cleaning to say this good data. This bad data. This data from the swamp, the ocean, the zoo. The river. The pollution. And this great data. Let’s use this. Who is able to ascertain? Justin, this was your point. You want to.
Sherry Meyer
There should be.
Bonnie Graham
Just enlighten me please for just a minute.
Justin Ladenburger
Well, yeah. Well, that’s sometimes the problem. I mean, there is no, there is no data organization really internally that manages monitors and makes sure data is clean. So that’s yeah, that’s why these initiatives are so important. And there’s, you know, and there’s ways to implement it. And yeah, there’s an initial hump to get over it, but once you can get that, that mindset. Of you know that you’re going to track this and. And try to make not only data reliable but also other uses for data you know data as an asset. Being able to generate new revenue off of that. And there’s just many ways you can go about this. So putting that effort in initially will have you can reap the wards later on.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much anybody. Len, go ahead. I see you.
Len Harms
Yeah, two things I would add to this, as Justin talks about the data, couldn’t agree more. As we implement and work with our customers and organizations, reporting is always one of the topics always, always, always. We don’t have enough reports. We need more reports. We need more need more. And what that really means is we need good data. Because it’s relatively straightforward to generate a report if you If you don’t have good It’s hard, and so you know, it comes back to what Justin was talking about. I couldn’t agree more. And this mentality and I’ll call it a mentality and I’ll connected actually one of the other questions you asked about, you know, does this exist in organizations? You actually need this mentality of data governance, governance. As a whole, like just take that word, disciplined governance. That mentality is one that as an organization, if as you move to cloud that is a must cloud in the way that you operate those systems because as soon as you start to lose that governance, you will start to lose the value. And the way that it operates.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much. Any other comments before I move on? We all good? Oh, yes. Ashwini, go ahead please.
Ashwini Dayal
Just kind of adding that point to what Len said, right? Good data is actually about good discipline. Discipline is what we need in, in customers, in the people who use those systems and that’s how you actually. Good data leads to good decision making and that is only coming through from good discipline. So that’s what, at least when we speak to customers, it’s always about you need to inculcate discipline in your users about how to use the data and what do you feed and because what you feed is what you will ultimately use to make your decisions.
Bonnie Graham
Does anybody remember the phrase GIGO?
Sherry Meyer
Garbage. Garbage out.
Bonnie Graham
That’s it. I was a programmer analyst back in the day when you were a programmer and an analyst. You did your own analysis and then you wrote the code and then you produced the reports, reports, reports, reports. Yes. And I still have my green bar paper. Don’t even ask me. But it was fun. Cobalt handbook too. Let’s move on. Len Harms. I’m looking at. That your statement #2, which goes ties in directly to our topic, modernizing your ERP, the cluster doing nothing. So here’s something. Let’s talk about what that cost is and we haven’t covered that yet. So you say the cost of not modernizing can be found in the risk of system instability, the increased cost of support and the limitation new function. So let’s get down and dirty on what this. Actually means to the companies that are listening and hopefully being inspired. Today, Len, 2 minutes, go ahead.
Len Harms
Certainly you might have to bring all those three points back to me, so I’ll start with. The. First one, the innovation as you look at where the software innovations are coming up, you heard earlier, you know discussion around AI that AI capability being embedded into the solution that’s coming through these cloud solutions. So if you’re looking at leveraging some of the newer innovations and leverage them inside your business process, it means moving to. Upgrade. Most upgrades are taking place inside the cloud now and so again that modernization is required if you want to use this innovation because your competitors are going to do that, they will be using that modernization. They will be finding how to use these tools to make their business either more efficient or open up a new business opportunity. So that’s number one, number two.
Bonnie Graham
I put it in the chat for you. I put it in the.
Len Harms
You put it in the chat for me, so watch me. Just click on the chat here, hopefully without losing my place. There we go. Thank you. System instability. This what happens when you don’t take your system and upgrade it, and I’ll. I’ll call on Ashwini talked about. I’ll be back. That’s what happens. The system comes back and it says I need to be upgraded. You need to be upgraded and as soon as you stop. Right. You’ll get to a point where you can’t do anything with it, and now you get instability and all of a sudden your systems are dropping or you’re getting unreliable results, or you’re getting inconsistent results because the system starts becoming unstable. Many people, I should say that, but there are people might not be aware that that software actually atrophies. If you don’t do something with it, it will atrophy. It does, and so that upgrade is really important, not only from a standpoint of leveraging the capability, getting some of the innovations, but it brings stability to the environment. So something to definitely keep aware of. And then also as you look. Not support. Is supporting an older environment starts becoming more difficult because people leave the old technology. And businesses ultimately will say, you know, we’re coming to the end of life on a particular software or whatever. Every software company does that they don’t support it indefinitely. So once you come to that end, now you’re looking at third party companies. And even if you look at third party companies to maintain your system, what you will find is there’s very few people who want to be. In old technology. Who wants to be an old technology so? You start to increase costs because the people available to support it are getting smaller and smaller and smaller. So there is a real cost and you can take these and quantify them again based on your organization based on where you’re at in your system and the number of systems you have, you can actually put a cost to this. You put real numbers to these areas.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Well done. It’s like up. It’s like taking care of a house. Right then the infrastructure of the house. You’re going to update the heating, the HVAC. You going to update the windows? Whatever it is that’s keeping your house, your domicile running if you wait. Too long you won’t be able to get anybody to repair it or the parts won’t be there and you have to replace it. And maybe you could have done it anyway. Speaking from experience, anybody have any comments for what Len said about the actual cost? I, Angel, you go first, then Justin. Go ahead.
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Yes, I tend to agree with land even when he’s wrong. But he’s right in this case, so it’s easier. That I think this new technologies have been in the latest and greatest as we were saying, it really allows the mindset to shift and that’s going to be taking the reactive to proactive, right. So we are not guarding our core processes. So the processes aren’t stable anymore. We are actually we are able to look forward. What is the next release that is coming? What are the new functionalities that come? To us, what is the in our case by annual upgrades, monthly updates rather than upgrading your system every few years, I’m going through a full project, so it’s a whole different mindset that allows you to take advantage always of the greatest and latest technologies that are and that are to come.
Bonnie Graham
Justin, join us.
Justin Ladenburger
Yeah, no, I agree. I think to add on it’s I think more and more companies are looking to move away from kind of that build mindset. So building applications, building systems which obviously leads to customizations and that sort of thing just being able to consume technology quickly. So just the whole idea of faster time to enable and consume technology, especially the. You know the latest greatest that that we’ve been talking about.
Bonnie Graham
And look at the new subscription models and then I’ll get you. Second, the subscription models to things like Photoshop, I pay something like 10 bucks a month and it’s always current. It’s always the right version. It’s always got the bells and whistles. So the consumer mindset is bring me the latest, bring me the latest and I’ll just keep paying you and you’ll keep bringing me the latest. So anyway, sidebar, Len, go ahead.
Len Harms
Yeah, just Justin, I love your point because one of the other aspects you start to consider here that I hadn’t initially thought of is that as we make this shift, right, right from the build. Right. You need to start looking at skill sets that bring about the change and allow your company to absorb it. So you’re shifting this cost from building it all the time, leaving it to others to do that and you start to get your emphasis on absorption, taking it, putting in that governance, that discipline. So I really like that point.
Justin Ladenburger
Agreed.
Bonnie Graham
You meet interesting people with interesting points of view on these shows, don’t you? That’s why I like the round table because we’re sharing. Ideas. And you’re meeting opportunities to be inspired, Ashley. Need anything you want to say? Because I’m ready to move on? Good.
Ashwini Dayal
Ohh I like that point that you said Bonnie about. It’s like a house because yeah, you don’t maintain your house on a regular basis. Something is going to break at the wrong time. It’s always the wrong time. When things break down. And you don’t want a heater broken on a cold winter day, and you have to go out and meet somebody and you’re caught in a cold shower. So you don’t want that in your house. You don’t want that in your with your ERP system because. ERP’s run the blood and they’re the nervous system of the organization. They don’t. That doesn’t work it everything breaks. Down.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Breakdown avoid the, but is there a song about breakdown and we’re not going to sing that one? OK. Thank you all. That was a great point. And thank you, Len. So let’s move on. I have statement #3 from. Let’s see, we’re up to Angel and this an interesting one. This a personal anecdote, shall we say the way he phrased this? Yeah. Angel says sometimes I step into a room and someone says they want me to help them move to the cloud let’s get real. Tell me about your challenges, whether it’s rising business costs, supply chain chaos or a shortage of hands on deck. Only once we nail down the issues, then I can recommend the right tech to remove those big rocks out of your way. Let’s talk a little bit about the pros. This of modernizing Angel 2 to 3 minutes and then. We’ll go around the table. Go ahead.
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Absolutely. Thank you, Bonnie. So and I understand today’s topic is the cost of doing nothing, but which is very relevant, but it got me thinking about the cost of doing the wrong thing, you know, and sometimes you will hear this more often than you think that you want. And it really is like going into a doctor and insisting on getting surgery without telling them the symptoms. Right. At some point Yes, I can help you, but It’s not that I don’t want to help you, but I really want to know what your problem is here is are to design and tell you what the right technology I believe is to fix those issues. To me, the technology the player is not a business goal. To me it is an enabler. And a cloud ERP, of course. It enables companies to be more agile, more efficient, more scalable and more resilient. And today nowadays with AI well, it’s going to have. Your training, your processes and. Made all your processes and that’s going to boost your growth and make your digital transformation more stable and predictable. But at the end of the day, yes, maybe for actually for most of the company that I talked to that cloud app jumping on that train is going to be the right solution for them, but they need to understand that. It’s not a one stop shop. It’s not gonna be overnight. And there’s gonna be multiple stops. And also that is the business who has to be on riding the train because we are trying to solve business problems, not technology. So the cost of doing nothing, which is what we are discussing bringing it back to the topic, even though I went a little bit far away is, well, a company that’s less agile, less scalable, less resilient than their competitors will end up losing their competitive advantage and then taking over. So it’s that’s important.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. They say the smartest person in the room is the one who knows how to ask the right questions, not the one who has all the answers, right? Anybody, Sherry you want to jump in here or anything you want to say about this before? I go around the rest of the table.
Sherry Meyer
I have so much I want to say about this, and my head’s been exploding over here. I love the analogy to the home, but I also really, really loved what Angel brought up, that what is it that you want people used to come to me all the time when I was doing technology and say I want this as in I want the cloud or I want recruiting. And I’d be like, OK, what’s the problem that you’re trying to solve? Because that alone is not going to fix everything for you. So I think that’s a really, really important point to keep in mind.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Let’s go around the table. From what food. Yeah, go ahead, Ashwini.
Ashwini Dayal
Yeah, I think that’s the key thing, right. I think the what’s the objective that you’re trying to meet, I think. Getting to a solution without having your objectives clear is just. Absolutely the wrong way of going about that. Right and. There is no silver bullet answer for things. It’s always about based on what your objective is. What should you be doing? Even though you know we can say or at a broad level, yes. It might be moving. Moving your ERP system to the cloud, but it’s. There’s a lot more nuance to that. It’s not straightforward. It’s not that that simple an aspect, right? So it’s really about having your objective clear and having your path, which is relevant for you to meet your object.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Other comments around the table, Justin, please.
Justin Ladenburger
Yeah. I just come to mind I. Mean. You know with if you if you do have a modern European solution, you know one of the key goals I think is that it allows you to experiment with new ideas, you know, test and validate them quickly and then scale them when ready. And so, you know, and this and this, of course, you’ll have the ability to measure performance in real time. So this, you know, this continuous innovation can help you stay ahead of competition ahead of the competition.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. We haven’t talked about competition, but that’s a whole other show. Angel, please go ahead.
Justin Ladenburger
Go ahead.
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Just need to add. I think overall I think the mindset to switch a little bit from it to the business touch base on that again because we’re not setting up servers anymore, but we are not designing blueprints, these cloudier piece. They come in great role. They are provisioning 2 days. They come with sample data. They are they want your operating ratio test and in a few weeks they are ready to use. So I think the focus should be should move to different work streams which are just you’re saying data is a key integrations in this multi cloud environment. Is another one the business change management is another one to make sure that there is adoption and use and to put the business up and drain. Let them design the business. They got the project objectives, take the key decisions and get them involved from day one on the way to go live.
Bonnie Graham
You don’t know it, Angel Cruz Parilla, but you just gave me a perfect segue into the statement from Ashwini that I was about to choose. You basically used part of it, but I’m gonna forgive you for that. No, that means it’s something we need to talk about. Thank you. Let me go to statement #3. As when you say as individuals and professionals in the IT industry, we can all continue to grow and prosper. If we’re seen as people who can add value to an in their environment. Businesses today need the guidance and lead from it to tell them how they can make things better. If we’re not doing that, we’re not doing our jobs well enough and we will become redundant. So as professionals looking to grow, we need to lead our stakeholders toward continuous improvement and that cannot be done by sitting still. Is in doing nothing Ashwini go ahead 3 minutes.
Ashwini Dayal
Yeah. I mean, that’s really a critical thing, right? I mean, we’re all individuals. We all want to grow. We all want to do the best for ourselves, best for who we are responsible for. And just sitting on the sidelines and watching isn’t the best thing to do, especially in the IT industry. I mean, we’ve got. Things have been, you know, changing so, so rapidly and. Without us telling our business stakeholders. What is it that they can actually gain out of? What technology is, you know, doing out there? It’s not doing justice to our organization or to our companies and customers. So looking at, you know, going back to my previous point as well, what the objective is for the organization, what’s available today for you to solve your problems and to meet your objectives, we have to constantly go and share that with our stakeholders of how those objectives. And those business problems can be resolved, or even if they don’t have any those problems. How can things be improved? Right. Continuous improvement is sometimes just thinking about what’s possible. The out of possible right. So I think looking at that is a critical component in, in the kind of mentality that I think we all need to carry so that we can actually help our stakeholders internal external in how we improve things, right and that’s that’s important. And what that journey for the customer of. The company is so that that. My input.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you. Let’s go around the table comments. OK, Angel, hand up. Go ahead.
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Well, I think as we need just touch on and a great point right, we have like you were saying earlier with the app on your phone, we want it on the greatest, but the is the user experience is key. So now we need solutions like this cloudy app there are. Easy to use, easy to learn and they actually help the user do their job. Focus on things that add value right? So and if we don’t help them answer the question, what’s in it for me? They didn’t see the value. So I think that’s a great point after 20 points.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much. Justin. Anything you want to add to this? We’ve got a few more minutes. Go ahead.
Justin Ladenburger
Well, I, you know, I think, yeah, what’s in it for it? What’s in it for, you know, for a company? I mean it even when you look at like improving processes or process efficiency, you know companies are looking to minimize waste and reduce costs. But how do they, you know, how do they know where to start, especially with within a silent working environment? You know, are they using metrics and KPIs or is it just a, you know a gut feeling? And so yeah, being able to be. You know, provide you know for these end to end processes being able to model those and gain those insights. You know there’s just another enabler to really provide them benefit and just more visibility and to how they operate.
Bonnie Graham
Sounds to me like working in this environment is a learning curve and it’s a journey for everybody who’s involved. Who’s and a question I have for all of you, and it’s a totally different topic, but related is whose objectives are they anywhere? Are there? We talked about objectives, right as we need and having them aligned well, which who’s deciding which objective it is, are they being shared at the right levels of the company? Before you ask the questions and decide what you need and what the problem is. Who gets to speak the loudest about what the problem is that needs to be solved? That modernizing the RP will I’m just throwing that out because it dawned on me that Tower of Babel, you know, everybody’s talking. Well, we need this. We need that. We need that Shari’s nodding Sherry. You want to make a comment? This this an HR issue? Go ahead.
Sherry Meyer
You’re speaking to my heart. You HR definitely. It was definitely an issue there, but I think it’s an issue across all of business areas who’s making those decisions and the company I worked for previously was the person who had been there the longest and spoke the loudest and carried the biggest stick. Perhaps.
Bonnie Graham
That was the point I was trying to get to was, whose objections are they anyway, Len, you want to add comment here? We got a couple of minutes left. 3-2 minutes. Go ahead.
Len Harms
I actually want to come back to the discussion from Sweeney because immediately what came to mind for me was I had a boss who would stand at the back of the room and if you were making a comment or making a presentation. He would hold it this big sign that said, So what? And the point was exactly what Ashwini was talking about. As we go forward in, in IT and systems and we’re having these discussions with the client specifically around modernization. There has to be a value proposition that goes into it as well. I mean, I know that we’ve been talking about the cost of doing nothing, but there is also a value and a benefit of doing. It’s going to come through the process as you heard wrong and hell, it’s going to come through governance on data. As you heard from Justin and meeting the specifics as you heard from Ashley. So all of these things really do come together into a single view and presentation that. We need to make sure we keep bringing forward to our clients.
Bonnie Graham
Then I remember being in meetings. I think it was my early days at SAP and somebody was talking about value props, value propositions and the technique was it wasn’t nasty or cruel or sarcastic. So what? So until you could get past the so what and answer the yes. What you didn’t have the distillation of that proposition and you couldn’t use it. Angel, you want to say something? We’ve got about two minutes left. Angel. Go ahead. Take one minute, please.
Angel Cruz Parrilla
Absolutely yes to that, to a language saying to me them online is are you trying to fix a little thing that’s not working well in your company or are you trying to get to the future company that you want to? Depending on if you’re looking for that very short, narrow fixing mentality or you’re going to, where do you want to be? Where do you see yourself in five years? Who are you?
Angel Cruz Parrilla
That’s what trying to drive your actions and to share his point, the louder shouldn’t necessarily be the one who’s driving.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you very much. We just got the sign. We’ve got 2 minutes left. I’m saying, OK, to Jordan, our engineer, I want to wrap up and say thank you to our wonderful panelist. Sherry. Thanks for dropping in at my invitation and being here. I always appreciate your point of view. And your collegiality, I think that’s a word. Thank you very much, Justin Ladenburger. Pleasure to meet you. Len Harms. Wonderful to see you again, Angel Cruz Parilla. I hope I did justice to your name. Thank you so much. And Ashwini Dayal as well. And I have a little exercise for you. I all want you all to put your hand up and on the can of three you’re going to say no, no, no. I do this on my technology. Revolution show. Get ready. The question is, people say the future is already here and our answer is come on. Join me with A123. No, no, no, no, no, no. And that’s because the future didn’t happen yet and we’re working our hardest, our best, our most sincerely to make it a better one. And our topic today was modernizing your ERP. The cost of doing nothing. Everybody waved goodbye, Bonnie Dee signing off. Thank you to Jordan, our engineer. Don’t go away. We’ll talk in a minute. Bye. Bye. Are we done? Jordan, are we out?
Justin Ladenburger
All clear, great show.
Bonnie Graham
Thank you.