We haven’t done an industry roundup post in quite a bit now and it’s time to see what’s going on in the outside world. Here are a few news items worth absorbing.
Money in the cloud
Traditionally, one of the industries among those that affect a business which resist the most against change is the finances/accounting department. It has been clinging to the on-site ERP model for a long time but CFOs now shift towards the cloud as well. Companies such as Workday (recently many financial extensions went live), Adaptive Planning (which acquired business intelligence reporting MyDials) and NetSuite (driving its billing module sales without ads) have all been making moves to invest on the cloud.
The cloud is green
Karin Wilson of Software ThinkTank points out another excellent argument why cloud ERP makes more sense than traditional hosted solutions – it’s greener! Based on a study, having less infrastructure in-house (servers etc) not only means less money on energy bills but also a reduced carbon footprint. So if the environment is a priority for you, there’s a another reason to go to the cloud!
Let the Games begin
Network World has a nice – but lengthy – piece on our favourite latest trend by which business software is becoming increasingly more consumer-like – think using an inventory management service that’s as intuitive and user-friendly as using Facebook. Only the piece takes it one step further: forget consumerisation, it’s about gamification! Soon doing work on your business software will have similar features as playing a game – keeping score, earning badges, involvement of virtual goods and currencies, etc. Can’t wait for the game to start?
Have you found any bits of news worth sharing? Share them in the comments below or on Twitter @megaventory.