Journey to the Cloud: Modernizing ERP

The journey to the cloud has become a priority agenda within organizations. Today, the question to be asked is not if the company will go to the cloud, but when. According to a recent study by the Global Cloud Computing Scorecard, Brazil is the largest investor in cloud services in Latin America. And, according to data from the Association of Software Companies (ABES), the cloud market in Brazil should reach the amount of US$ 2.3 billion in 2020 and, until 2022, it is estimated that it will grow 35.5% per year.

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are responsible for supplying the vast majority of business management tools in Brazil. That is why it is so important that these companies are aligned with new trends, so that they are in fact at the forefront of digital transformation.

How to start the journey to the cloud?

The first step is to identify a need. The vast majority of management tools were designed in client-server environments, in which the company needed to acquire a server to place on its premises, in order to then connect all the clients installed in the users' workstations.

Since the introduction of various cloud-based services charged per use, there has been a great deal of pressure from corporate customers for equivalent solutions in their business tools. Migration to the cloud has become more than necessary, as this model eliminates all hardware from the companies' premises, providing access to the software through web interfaces accessible with a browser. In this way, it is possible to have access to sophisticated resource orchestration mechanisms, facilitating the management of environments in a safer way.

Now in the cloud, developers are no longer limited to hardware and a series of new resources can be explored, such as security tools, storage, analysis tools and a multitude of other resources that can be incorporated into the original application, improving performance. and application security, in addition to reducing the cost of operation.

The evolution of ERP on the journey to the cloud

The second opportunity offered by the cloud is to change the paradigm of core ERP evolution . As there is no longer a need to write new modules using the original hardware constraints, the ISV can develop a small layer of programmatic interfaces with APIs through which new modules developed outside the ERP can communicate, maintaining a highly integrated yet decoupled system. .

This approach allows new modules to be developed on new cloud-native technologies using the most modern development tools. In addition, it preserves all the investment already spent on ERP development and allows the ISV to determine the pace at which its software can transform and evolve.

The challenge of external integrations

Despite already having a modern evolution format, ISVs still face the challenge of meeting their customers' demand for integrations with external software. This is a trend that has gained increasing relevance in the digital transformation agenda of companies. Every day, a huge number of extremely creative and disruptive B2B solutions emerge that can be used by different corporate segments.  

They are e-commerce, CRM, marketing, financial, tax, analytical solutions, among others. However, in most cases, they are solutions that make sense when interconnected with company information, both to extract data and to insert insights or information. This is where ERP plays a key role and is often required to integrate.  

The current market integration model was designed to meet the demands of large companies. An integration of an ERP, with CRM for example, can cost a few tens of thousands of reais. In addition, it requires a company team, which defines the scope of the integration and the effort takes several months and will be used by only one company. This is not the model that the SME market can afford.  

This software integration process with external solution providers needs to happen in a scalable way, so that the integration becomes available to everyone who owns this software combination. As these are replicable integrations, the cost of the project is highly diluted. Through modern protocols and data flow monitoring, ERPs can easily connect to a world of solutions that add high value to data and allow companies to implement highly sophisticated digital solutions without losing connection with their current management tools. .  

The idea is to benefit the entire ecosystem: external solution providers, ERP manufacturers and end customers. Sky.One 's role in this journey is to support our partners through tools that modernize the software and allow the reinvention of their business models, offering training, education and sharing the vision in order to gain relevance in this market. Do you already know our solutions? Go here and find out how we can help you on your journey to the cloud!