Further Thoughts on “Digital ERP”
Expanding on a previous post, I wanted to unwrap the discussion of "Digital ERP” a bit. I likened the maturation of the Web business - from a disparate silo of business and technical functions, to a set of standardized business processes and tools acting in concert – to the rise of the ERP. What gave rise to the ERP was the need for the business to bring business processes under control (read: standardization), to coordinate planning and execution of operations into a more centralized view, reduce complexities and disconnects from business and system integration challenges, and ultimately, to encourage the elimination (or reduction) of business and technical silos.
I see remarkable similarities in evolution of the Web business. Think about the silos that exist in the vast majority of organizations:
- Infrastructure/IT
• Web Servers/ Databases
• Hosting
• Security
• Storage
• Integration
While these three sample focus areas have a great degree of similar interests they are often owned very distinctly within large enterprises. In some sense this is done because of practicality but also because there are no solutions available in the marketplace that help an organization holistically deliver digital advertising-eCommerce-Infrastructure in a cohesive fashion. The ‘Digital ERP’ would seek to address this deficiency. See a high level view of this type of solution below:
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About domc
I am responsible for eCommerce and cross-channel retailing for Microsoft’s Retail Industry Team. In this capacity, I have worked with many global retailers to assess eCommerce and cross-channel retailing strategies and how technology and business processes can be used to accomplish strategic initiatives.
I leverage my background in retail supply chain and consumer experience technology to align retailers’ customer facing application portfolios with the realities of retail enterprise applications and enterprise data paradigms.
Prior to joining Microsoft, I held positions at Oracle Retail, Retek, and Accenture. At Oracle Retail, I was a product manager responsible for supply chain execution systems. While at Retek I held functional architecture responsibilities for Retek’s supply chain execution systems, including integration with other ERP functional areas such as merchandising, financials, order management and point-of-sale. In my role at Accenture, I was responsible for leading custom development and implementation teams for large retail ERP projects, including direct-to-consumer operations. I have been quoted in industry publications and have lectured at a variety of venues.
My retail solutions experience includes verticals such as hypermarket, grocery, specialty, soft lines, C-store and hard lines. This experience included traditional brick-and-mortar as well as multi-channel fulfillment models.
