I have already passed comment on ERP in Dennis Howlett?s excellent article (The ERP mess we?re in). Yes a costly mess but treated as a general ledger to keep the "bean counters" happy it does a job. Use your ERP investment but move on to build applications where it matters in the arena where People create information. I have followed Workday and whilst they undoubtedly have a smarter offering are they really moving on to offer business what they need? I do not think that is clear, as promoting a financial suite is hardly an operational business issue where the new imperative lies.
What I have seen is not dissimilar in technology terms except the objects are oriented around work/task types ? there are only 10 work types needed to cover any business eventuality (including the user interface). Like Workday and all contained in memory in a data centric environment and includes today?s essentials such rules, workflow state and calculation engines and can build any application which just requires business knowledge to build by business analysts.
At the application level there is no such thing as ?enterprise software? ? it is not how people work who are the source of all information and work individually or collectively (and now with external collaboration) in relatively small teams to achieve their goals. This is where the focus now lies ? quicker cheaper more agile applications that the business specifies how to run their business. Financial suites are recording history and do not need the same characteristics?
What is for sure at last the old ways of inflexible boxed apps or unreliable ?tyranny? of block coding is coming to an end.
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