by Nestell & Associates | Dec 2, 2020 | Private Equity ERP Organizational Change
Understanding Motivation Improves Performance
What we know is that many unique knowledge, organizational, and motivational influences exist that can have a significant impact on ERP organizational change success. Understanding organizational as well as individual motivation, or lack thereof, is critical to any large-scale ERP organizational change effort. What we also know is that through research-based principles and strategies relating to motivation theory specifically, organizations can enhance learning and performance.
Applying Proper Motivational Strategy
Clark and Saxberg (2019) state a crucial notion regarding motivational influences: “Yet managers are often at a loss as to how to effectively motivate uninspired employees. Our review of research on motivation indicates that the key is for managers to first accurately identify the reason for an employee’s lack of motivation and then apply a targeted strategy.” Clark and Saxberg (2019) then add, “Applying the wrong strategy (say, urging an employee to work harder, when the reason is that they’re convinced they can’t do it) can actually backfire, causing motivation to falter further.”
Definition of Motivation
Clark and Estes (2008) describe knowledge as what one knows and how one does things while motivation initiates and keeps one engaged. Clark and Estes describe motivation as consisting of three indexes: active choice, persistence, and mental effort. Active choice is where intention is replaced by action, persistence is where one continues amongst distractions, and mental effort is where one works smarter and develops novel ideas and solutions (Clark & Estes, 2008). Understanding motivation and motivational influences is needed because it energizes and guides behavior towards successful performance outcomes (Sansone & Harackiewicz, 2000). In upcoming posts, we will take a closer look and examine some motivation theories, and research-based principles, that affect stakeholder learning, development, and performance as it relates to ERP organizational change.
The application of sound research-based motivational principles can have a direct and significant impact on practice.
“Motivational Traps” (as defined and described by Clark and Saxberg, 2019)
Gilley and colleagues (2009) stated that the behaviors of organizational leadership have a direct effect in advocating for an environment of organizational change. This means that an organization’s ability to properly understand, assess, and then take action needs to be carefully considered. Understanding motivational principle research, theory, and principles allow organizational leaders to better advocate for proper motivation and guide how best to address motivational gaps. In their article, “4 Reasons Good Employees Lose Their Motivation”, Richard E. Clark and Bror Saxberg list the following four “Motivational Traps” and strategies founded in principle to address each. The “motivational traps” include:
“Trap 1, Values Mismatch: I don’t care enough to do this
Trap 2, Lack of Self-Efficacy: I don’t think I’m able to do this.
Trap 3, Disruptive Emotions: I’m too upset to do this.
Trap 4, Attribution Errors: I don’t know what went wrong with this.”
Learn more here: https://hpttreasures.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/clark-saxberg-motivation-hbr-2019.pdf
Article by Dr. Jack G. Nestell
Additional Information:
Interested in even more? Please check out this link with articles and papers from Dr. Richard Clark. Our friend of N&A and colleague, Dr. Richard Clark is Emeritus Professor of Educational Psychology and Technology in the Rossier School of Education and Emeritus Clinical Research Professor of Surgery in the Keck School of Medicine: https://hpttreasures.wordpress.com/from-others/richard-e-clark-resources/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-2
Get our blog posts and podcast episodes (coming January 2021) right in your inbox! Nestell & Associates News https://mailchi.mp/8c7a8b2a4f9f/nestell-associates-news
REFERENCES:
Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2008). Turning research into results: A guide to selecting the right performance solutions. Information Age.
Clark, R. E. & Saxberg, B. (March 13, 2019). 4 Reasons Good Employees Lose Their Motivation. Harvard Business Review.
Gilley, A., Gilley, J. W., & McMillan, H. S. (2009). Organizational change: Motivation, communication, and leadership effectiveness. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 21(4), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.1002/piq.20039
Sansone, C., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (Eds.). (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance. Elsevier.
by Nestell & Associates | Nov 30, 2020 | Private Equity ERP Organizational Change
There Is No Free Pass to Success
The absence of significant challenges is not a prerequisite to ERP organizational change success. The diligent and detailed preparation and management of all aspects of ERP organizational change (organizational culture, process, and technology) greatly reduce risk as well as save considerable time, money, and effort. However, unforeseen and substantial challenges are inherent in organizational transformation. Although clearly critical, the proactive attempt to completely eliminate potentially significant and substantial challenges is certainly not the only precursor to success. Nor is the proactive attempt to counter and eliminate any/all significant and substantial challenges a reality or a truth. This is perhaps because, by default and by definition of large-scale ERP organization change, preventing any/all significant and substantial challenges is nearly impossible.
A Common Theme to Success
There is something else that may help explain why organizations are successful enough to be considered promising practices despite significant challenges. (A promising practice organization is one which has realized success and perhaps can offer up suggestions for others to learn from). That is, successful ERP organizational change certainly was not due to the complete prevention of any/all significant challenges. Some research suggests that organizations that realize great progress and ultimate success are not successful because they can prevent all significant and substantial challenges. Organizations are often successful due to other factors and influences that determine how they approach and address those potentially significant issues when they do occur. Perhaps, ERP success is as much about the response as it is about the prevention.
Besides the complete prevention of significant challenges, many other influences may explain why ERP organizational change success occurs. ERP success does not occur solely due to the prevention of substantial and significant issues. ERP organizational change success also occurs based on how the organization decides to maneuver through those challenges when they do occur. That is, they recognize and accept the unexpected, or expected, challenges and not just attempt to prevent them in the first place. The successful organization recognizes the realities and sets honest expectations, and then collectively they are able to navigate through significant challenges. Some companies excel at navigating through significant change and challenges and some organizations fall short. What allows organizations to navigate significant challenges, especially the unexpected, successfully?
One thing that seems clear as suggested by research-based evidence; the absence of significant challenges is not a prerequisite to ERP success. Perhaps the glue is through transformational leadership? Transformational leadership begets transformational culture. Perhaps the glue that holds success together is an organizational culture that advocates for communication, managed risk-taking, organizational learning, shares a common vision, and is aware and honest of the endeavor realities is equally important as solely trying to prevent challenges and issues in the first place? This is one reason why as a part of your ERP organizational change effort, your culture needs to be understood. Did you know that culture “temperature” can be measured?
By Dr. Jack G. Nestell
Want more on Organizational Culture? Here is an interesting article: http://www.denisonconsulting.com/transform/merger_acquisitions_strategy/
Learn more about Nestell & Associates: https://nestellassociates.com/
by Nestell & Associates | Nov 24, 2020 | Private Equity ERP Organizational Change
By Dr. Jack G. Nestell with contribution from Dr. Justin Goldston
Private Equity Often Implies Transformation
Private Equity firms don’t invest resources into an organization to remain static and stagnant. Organizational leaders of these firms understand that learning and creative and innovative thinking is required to stay competitive. Transformational leadership is key.
As mentioned in a previous Nestell & Associates article (https://nestellassociates.com/what-do-private-equity-and-erp-organizational-change-research-have-in-common/), a high-level definition of private equity would be: to build healthy and vibrant organizations with organizational cultures oriented towards teamwork, organizational learning, innovation, and creativity while providing customers with exceptional value through quality products and service. And, often to build healthy and vibrant organizations requires significant transformational change.
The act of organizational performance improvement requires some level of change, and sometimes this change can be rather significant. We are confident that all PE firms will tell you that a positive and sustainable performance outcome only occurs when organizational culture continues to transform. To transform, it requires the development and the support of the people, processes, and technology that are well-aligned with the organization’s mission, vision, and values. That goal is often easier said than done. This goal also requires a purpose-driven transformational culture lead by a transformational mindset.
Leadership Styles
If years of the anecdotal case study and sound objective research is any indication, transformational leadership should be a concept known to all organizational leadership teams. Organizational leaders consist of many different characteristics, attributes, and styles and all leaders are certainly not alike. Moreover, not all leaders are best suited for significant organizational change.
In his book, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Dr. Northouse describes that leadership styles “consist of the behavior pattern of a person who attempts to influence others” (p. 94). Dr. Northouse describes several leadership styles, including transactional leadership, transformational leadership, authentic leadership, servant leadership, and adaptive Leadership. Leadership styles (individual and as teams) come in many forms. While all leadership styles are beneficial for organizational leadership teams to understand, in this article, we will focus on transformational leadership specifically. There are many different leadership styles that can be identified, observed, and measured. As in our own independent studies, along with many others, the authors of this article would argue that during large scale ERP organizational change, transformational leadership is a critical success factor of an organization.
Transformational Leadership Defined
Organizational change literature suggests that executive teams and leaders who tend to have real -not perceived, assumed, or desired- transformational leadership qualities may benefit from a known ERP organizational change critical success factor. In his book, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Dr. Northouse, describes transformation leadership as “a process that changes and transfers people. It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long term goals” (p. 161). Dr. Northouse goes on to add that transformational leadership involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. Furthermore, Northouse (2016) describes transformational leadership as the consistent act of engaging with others and connecting in a way that increases motivation and morality, being perceptive to needs and motives, and helping followers reach their greatest potential. In their book, Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, Bolan and Deal (2016) describe the central idea of transformational leadership as one in which “transformational leaders use inspiration, idealized influence, and the like to generate followers’ trust, respect, and willingness to go above and beyond” (p. 341). Those leaders who are more satisfying to their followers and who are more effective as leaders are more transformational and less transactional (Avolio & Bass, 1991). Additionally, transformational leadership enhances commitment, involvement, loyalty, and performance of followers and helps deal with stress among followers (Bass, 1998).
The Organization Needs a Culture of Transformational Leadership
The concept of transformational leadership is a recurring theme in ERP organizational change research. Transformational leaders inspire and motivate, are intellectual in their approach, and are intellectually considerate of employees. These attributes are signs of a transformational leader in comparison to transactional leaders who practice a contingent reinforcement style of leadership (Bass, 1999). Transformational leadership advocates for an organizational culture that transitions employees beyond self-interests, creates a highly motivated culture, promotes a strong learning environment, and is highly considerate of others’ well-being. Transformational leaders are well suited for ERP organizational change through encouraging, inspiring, and establishing trust in order to best accomplish a successful implementation (Goldston, 2020; Nestell, 2020). Research suggests that transformational leaders are strong advocates of the organizational change process through the creation of team decision making while being mindful of and managing and behavior with empathy and understanding.
Transformational Leadership Value and ERP Organizational Change
Organizations may benefit from recognizing the value and application of transformational leadership during ERP organizational change. As ERP organizational change agents, it is important to understand, assess, and be honest about leadership styles and their strengths and weaknesses. ERP organizational change efforts often consist of:
- An iterative process of improvement
- Business process re-engineering
- Increased demands on internal time and effort
- Diversity in terms of experience, perspectives, opinions, and knowledge
- Organizational change mitigation strategies
In other words, ERP organizational change can be quite disruptive to the norm and require significant organizational resources (time, money, effort). Burns and colleagues (2013) further describe that transformational leaders possess organizational cultural characteristics such as strategic vision, celebrating successes, employee support, innovation, goal setting, and organizational culture orientations and identification that exceed some of the cultural orientations of transactional leadership. Burns et al. also suggested that in times of crisis and significant organizational challenge, transformational leaders may be best oriented to provide, promote, and develop a more adaptive organizational culture. Bass and Avolio (1990) state that transformational leaders can stay in tune with the desires of employees but also maintain alignment of realities and expectations that would be required for a successful ERP organizational change.
Strong transformational leadership tendencies drive the organization to outperform expectations, work through difficult situations, and adapt to change. As a result, transformational leadership is a significant cultural influence on the success of ERP organizational change.
Successful ERP Organizational Change is Dependent Upon Transformational Leadership
Three highly relevant principles contribute to the notion that successful ERP organizational change is dependent on transformational leadership. The first principle is that those leaders who are more satisfying to their followers and who are more effective as leaders are more transformational and less transactional (Avolio & Bass, 1991). Second, transformational leadership enhances commitment, involvement, loyalty, and performance of followers and helps deal with stress among followers (Bass, 1998). And third, there are strong links between aspects of transformational leadership and work performance (Lowe et al., 1996). These principles suggest that executive stakeholders would benefit from furthering understanding, and not assuming, their leadership abilities, characteristics, weaknesses, and strengths. Furthermore, these principles would also suggest that executive stakeholders understand the different categories of leadership characteristics and that their leadership style be identified. Accordingly, the recommendation is that the executive team take a survey to determine leadership style and then participate in educational sessions to discuss results as well as the value of transformational leadership during an ERP organizational change effort.
Transformational Leadership: Learning From Others
- Shao and colleagues (2012) presented one of the first studies that examined the triad of transformational leadership, organizational culture, and knowledge sharing in the context of ERP success. They collected and analyzed data from 115 information systems executives and 413 ERP system end-users across 115 organizations. Results indicate that transformational leadership is indirectly related to, but critical to, ERP organizational change success. Furthermore, Shao and colleagues suggest that the research can be beneficial in guiding executive stakeholders in promoting organizational culture in a way that facilitates ERP organizational change success.
- Elkhani and colleagues (2014) suggested that transformational leadership and ERP system self-efficacy are critical success factors for ERP assimilation. Elkhani and colleagues deployed a survey with 151 usable responses in which their findings suggest that transformational leadership can directly impact the recognition and understood usefulness via the utilization and understanding of self-efficacy application and measures. The work of Elkhani and colleagues has practical implications because transformational leadership development programs would encourage ERP organizational change methodology that could increase assimilation and application of self-efficacy when deploying and utilizing ERP systems. Elkhani and colleagues contribute a better understanding of how ERP practitioners can leverage transformational leadership knowledge and behavior to motivate and promote employee self-efficacy for the achievement of ERP assimilation.
Summary in A Sentence
Transformational leadership begets transformational culture. What is your leadership style? How do you know that?
References:
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing Organizations Artistry, Choice and Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. https://www.amazon.com/Reframing-Organizations-Artistry-Choice-Leadership/dp/1118573331
Elkhani, N., Soltani, S., & Ahmad, M. N. (2014). The effects of transformational leadership and ERP system self-efficacy on ERP system usage. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 27(6), 759-785.
Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications. https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Practice-Peter-G-Northouse/dp/1483317536
by Nestell & Associates | Nov 2, 2020 | Private Equity ERP Organizational Change
Artificial Intelligence and the future of ERP organizational change is an interesting topic. In terms of artificial intelligence (AI) in general, here is a thought-provoking, interesting, and maybe provocative, quote for you.
“I can visualize a time in the future when we will be to robots as dogs are to humans.”
-Claude Shannon (Taken from “Mind, Machines and Human Consciousness”, Dr. Robert L. Nadeau, 1991)
As we discussed in a previous post, “Technology and the Future of ERP Organizational Change”, 10/27/20, Nestell & Associates will be further examining and discussing advanced and emerging technologies. While the team here spends a great deal of time discussing, researching, learning, and sharing information on emerging technologies specifically in the context of ERP organizational change and ERP solutions, we are certainly not “mind” and “consciousness” experts. While there have been many articles, opinions, and thoughts on this specific topic (AI and human consciousness), this specific quote shared out to our team from a book Dr. Nestell read nearly 30 years ago…well, catches your attention.
While it is a dated book (especially within the field of AI it is antiquated), it is an educational read for anyone interested in learning more about artificial intelligence and human consciousness ideas, notions, and evolution of the field. This book by Dr. Nadeau is worth the read in order to provide some historical context and insight into the evolution and advancement of AI. Combined with an understanding of the current status of AI, this book will help provide retrospect and context as to how much AI has advanced. And, understanding where AI was and where AI currently is, will help understand where it could potentially be going. Over the next several weeks in our posts and in our podcast, “The ERP Organizational Change Journal”, we will continue to examine AI in the context of ERP systems and ERP organizational change specifically.
The below is taken from http://www.robertlnadeau.com/books-amazon/?currentPage=3
“Mind, Machines and Human Consciousness (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1991). This book evaluates the present state of artificial intelligence computing in an effort to assess the efficacy of the claim by many cognitive scientists that consciousness is evolving on artificial substrates. The book predicts that a computer will be able to pass the Turing test in the foreseeable future and effectively simulate the cognitive and emotional processes of a conscious human being. But the case is also made that a proper understanding of the prior conditions of human consciousness in a quantum mechanical universe will force us to conclude that a conscious computer cannot be viewed as conscious in the same sense that human beings are conscious.”
The below is taken from http://www.robertlnadeau.com/
“Dr Robert Nadeau, Professor Emeritus at George Mason University, has attempted throughout his career to bridge the knowledge gap between what British physicist and novelist C. P. Snow termed the two-cultures of humanists-social scientists and scientists-engineers. Nadeau created and directed four academic departments and programs that specialize in interdisciplinary studies and has published ten books that deal with a wide variety of subject fields on both sides of the two-culture divide.”
Please stay tuned for more on Artificial Intelligence and the future of ERP organizational change.
Learn More about Nestell & Associates: https://nestellassociates.com/
by Nestell & Associates | Oct 29, 2020 | Private Equity ERP Organizational Change
Identifying ERP Organizational Change Influences
“Many organizations have focused primarily on the psychological state of their employees. After all, this is the desired result- engaged employees who are committed, satisfied, and productive. But focusing only on these desired outcomes misses the most important point: What organizational conditions are the causes for these effects?” (“Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations”, p. 43, Dr. Daniel Denison, Dr. Robert Hooijberg, Nancy Lane, Colleen Lief).
The main idea in this quote is to intentionally consider, reflect, identify, and address the root organizational influences that may help promote and advocate for engaged, committed, satisfied, and productive team members. Naturally inherent in ERP organizational change are influences that are often misunderstood, unrecognized, abstract, and difficult to measure. These influences can be organizational, motivation, or knowledge-based influences (Clark & Estes, 2008). Moreover, these influences should be considered and examined as they may directly and significantly impact ERP organizational change performance.
The Influences
Broadly,
- Knowledge Influences: Stakeholder knowledge needs to be carefully examined in order to determine whether the stakeholders know how to achieve a performance objective. This knowledge can be in the form of factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive (Krathwohl, 2002).
- Motivational Influences: Generally speaking, motivation can be defined as the inner desire that steers and propels people to accomplish personal and organizational goals (Lindner, 2019). An individual’s choice to reflect on goal achievement, the desire to accomplish the goal, and the mental effort to accomplish the goal are examples of motivational influences (Clark & Estes, 2008). Rueda (2011) describes motivational concepts such as self-efficacy, attributions, values, and goals that can be considered when analyzing organizational performance gaps.
- Organizational Influences: Work processes, resources, and workplace culture are examples of organizational influences that may impact stakeholder performance (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Each of these influences needs to be considered and addressed both at an individual and organizational level. Knowledge, motivation, and organizational influence can have a real and significant impact on success, or failure. We will be discussing these influences further and in-depth in upcoming posts and in our podcast series, “The ERP Organizational Change Journal”. Please stay tuned…
Learn More:
Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2008). Turning research into results: A guide to selecting the right performance solutions. Information Age.
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy: An overview. Theory into Practice, 41(4), 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2
Lindner, J. R. (2019). Understanding employee motivation. Journal of Extension, 36(3).
Rueda, R. (2011). The 3 dimensions of improving student performance: Finding the right solutions to the right problems. Teachers College Press.
by Nestell & Associates | Oct 27, 2020 | Private Equity ERP Organizational Change
The ERP Organizational Change Triad: Technology, People, and Processes
One thing is certain, ERP organizational change is a dynamic and complex interplay of people (or organizational culture), process, and technology. There has been a great deal of discussion, formal and informal research, and many articles (opinions, research-based, journal, case studies, etc) regarding this “triad”. And, there are plenty of views, perspectives, experiences, opinions, and questions around each one of these triad factors.
Triad Questions
- Which triad factor is the most significant towards successful ERP organizational change?
- Which triad factor is the most difficult to manage?
- Which triad factor presents the greatest challenges?
- Which triad factor presents the greatest risks?
- Which triad factor requires the most training, preparation, and organizational learning?
- How do advancements in the management of one factor impact the other two?
- Which triad factor delivers the greatest ROI during an ERP organizational change endeavor?
- Which triad factor allows the greatest flexibility and margin for error during an ERP organizational change endeavor?
- How much does appropriate technology (system selection) make up for poor processes or poor culture?
- How much does adequate culture and process make up for poor or inadequate technology?
- How much does excelling at the process part of the triad makeup for poor organizational change culture and/or improper systems selection (etc etc)?
- What other organizational, knowledge or motivational influences impact the triad interplay in general?
- What other organizational, knowledge or motivational influences impact each triad factor specifically?
As 1) illustrated by the known challenges of ERP organization change and 2) as demonstrated by ERP organizational change research; these are legitimate and real questions that need to be explored in an effort to contribute to ERP organizational change success. An ERP organizational change plan needs to consider people, process, and technology holistically. It also needs to be mindful of this dynamic interplay of the”triad” by utilizing an ERP organizational change process that effectively implements the most appropriate technology that best supports the business processes that best advocate sustained organizational performance by supporting its people.
There Are Two Exciting Key Questions to Be Asking In Terms of Advancements in Technology
We know that the field of ERP organizational change is advancing with contributions for example from; enhancements in industry “best practice”, implementation of new ideas around business process management, implementing new approaches in project management, improved understanding and value of organizational culture, learning, and leadership, and of course advanced and emerging technology. The future of ERP organizational change, and the ERP solutions themselves, in terms of technology is exciting. In particular, there are two interesting questions to keep an eye on as researchers and practitioners.
Key Question #1: How Will Technology Change the Triad?
If you really think about this, this is a fascinating question. If you look at the historical advancements technology brought to ERP organizational change, this is a significant, legitimate, and frankly, fun question. What will emerging technology do for your ERP organizational change success? Ultimately, if technology doesn’t really contribute or factor into your ERP organizational change mission and success, how valuable is the technology then?
Can, or how will, technology make up for gaps, challenges, and risks within the people and process factors of ERP organizational change triad?
What will be fun to examine over the coming years is whether or not the shift in how this dynamic and complex relationship between people, processes, and technology changes. While it is unlikely that all ERP organizational change challenges will be solved by software or emerging technologies alone, let’s take a closer look at this question. What will emerging technologies (as well as those that have been around but have taken a while to be adapted) prove to contribute to successful ERP/business systems organizational change?
Key Question #2: How Will Technology Impact “True Differentiators”?
What will emerging technologies contribute to ERP vendors and their platforms in terms of what Nestell & Associates calls “true differentiators”? We’ve written a post about the value of system selection explaining that there is “only one right fit for each and every organization”. In our 12/23/2019 post “Private Equity Portfolio ERP Success: The Value of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) True Differentiators” we discuss how there is one best ERP solution for each and every unique organization. In this article, we emphasized how research strongly suggests that ERP systems and technology selection is a critical influence for a successful ERP organizational change project.
ERP vendors and Vendor Solutions
- Some ERP solutions cater to specific industries while some cater across industries.
- Some come with industry-specific configurations and have hundreds of preconfigured business processes.
- Some cater to specific niches with little configuration.
- Some have been around since the beginning of the ERP era and some that we don’t know about yet but will bring to the market new and exciting products with creativity and innovation.
- ERP solutions utilize different models and often cater to different business needs.
- Some have all the bells and whistles and try to be everything to everyone. Others are very industry-specific and cater to a niche market.
- They often employ technology differently and have different approaches to functionality and business modeling.
- They have different competitive differentiators that drive how they advertise and approach the market.
- There are free and open-source ERP and there are propriety ERP vendors.
- And there are ERP vendors that focus on add-ons only.
ERP solutions and vendors all have unique tangible and intangible benefits, advantages, disadvantages, and costs. Some of them have truly unique differentiators, some don’t, and some say they do. What matters, is not just the ERP vendor ads, commercials, or sales pitches, but what really makes for an organization’s success is being mindful of how critical the triad (people, process, and technology) and hence the true differentiators that ERP solutions and vendors bring or don’t bring to the table.
Advancements in technology and emerging technologies will certainly reset the table, but how exactly? And, what does it mean to your organization?
Let’s Have Fun and Discuss the Trends, Possibilities, and Future of ERP As a Result of Technology
So we’ve established that two key (and fun) questions are how will the technology factor of the triad 1) improve and advance the world of ERP organizational change success, and 2) impact the “true differentiators” between ERP vendors. So, let’s explore further.
In our upcoming posts and in our podcast, “The ERP Organizational Change Journal”, we will continue to discuss this topic with professional researchers, authors, practitioners in emerging technologies, ERP manufacturer executives, and project management researchers and experts. Where is ERP systems today in terms of technological advances and where will it be in 5,10, 20 years? Moreover, where is ERP organizational change today in terms of technological advances and where will it be in 5,10, 20 years?
In the meantime, check out this list of technologies that we will be discussing. Let’s have fun and explore all technological advances and emerging technologies in the context of ERP organizational change. How, will, can, or should the following technologies eventually add value to your organization?
The Technologies
You may have heard of these technologies, or you may not have heard of these technologies. But over time in our posts and in our podcast, we will discuss each technology, define it, and discuss potential or current integration into ERP/business systems. The evolution and role that technology has played on ERP organizational change obviously have been significant. But, where are we heading?
We will continue to provide information, context, research and development, and deployments of these emerging technologies.
What Role Do You Think These Technologies Play?
What role do you think these technologies are, or will, play in supporting ERP organizational change success? We’ll have fun exploring each of these and understanding what impact each will, or will not have, on the future of ERP organizational change. Some of these are pretty cool technologies that are highly relevant to ERP. Some of these maybe not as relevant, but let’s discuss anyway! Over time in our posts and our podcast, we will explore each. Also note that some vendors are even starting to brand, package, and market their “next-generation ERP” and “transformation software”. In general, ERP vendors are using “next-generation” to mean the integration of emerging and advanced technology coupled with industry best practice. We’ll take a look at some of these vendor-specific “packages”. ERP vendors are doing some pretty exciting stuff that we would like to share out as well!
Stay tuned as we discuss and explore these specific technologies further in terms of, and specifically, its relevance to business systems and ERP organizational change:
Technologies Deserving of Discussion
3D Printing
5G
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS)
Augmented Reality
Biotechnology
Bitcoin
Big Data
Blockchain
Brain-Computer Interfaces
Cloud and Edge computing
Computer Vision
Cryptocurrency
Cyber Security Advances
Digital Operations Platforms
Digital Twins
Facial Recognition
High-Temperature Superconductors
Intelligent Automation
Intelligent Spaces
Internet of Things
Machine Learning
Machine Creativity and Augmented Design
Nanotechnology
Natural Language Processing
Quantum Computing
Re-decentralizing Corporate Information Infrastructures
RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification)
Robotic Process Automation
Silicone versus Carbon Based Computing Systems
Tactile Virtual Reality
Ultracapacitors
Virtual Reality
Voice Interfaces
Wearable Technology
Authored by Dr. Jack G. Nestell
Here’s a fun link for emerging technologies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emerging_technologies
Learn more about Nestell & Associates:https://nestellassociates.com/
