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“Companies run on systems,” bellowed Capt. Obvious.
For a while now, that has meant subscribing to a slew of SaaS apps. The average company has 131 of them, with no indication of a downward trend anywhere on the horizon. Enterprise Resource Planning apps, or ERPs, are the big kahunas of such ecosystems. They sit at the heart, interacting with dozens of other apps to fulfill functions from managing payroll to securing data to tracking projects. To get the most out of their tech stack, many companies find themselves adopting solutions to optimize their ERP throughout its lifecycle. Such apps test and, God willing, improve critical systems.
There’s many such aids out there, for many different purposes. The broadest categorical delineations of these, though, are “point-based” and “platform” solutions.
Learn more Opkey’s ERP Lifecycle Optimization Platform
What’s point-based?
Point-based solutions, as the name suggests, address an issue at one point in the continuum that is your ERP and greater SaaS ecosystem. They are precise, tactical, and affordable, taking an easy inroad to solve a specific problem. They can be deployed swiftly, and bring measurable value quickly.
“Cheap” and “easy” aren’t exactly the sourest words in business, so why would a company look for a different approach?
Well, despite good intentions, customers often regret the point strategy. In the IT-rich, enterprise software space, what can happen is a problem we’ve dubbed “SaaS mess.” A customer, concerned with the cost and complexity of deploying high-ticket platform solutions, adopts a point-based solution to solve a niche issue. The gizmo does the trick, and the problem is solved. A few months down the road, though, another niche issue arises in a different part of your ERP. You slap on another point solution. Solved again.
Before you know it, you’ve executed an inadvertent “rinse and repeat” a dozen times over. Hey presto! SaaS mess: a convoluted amalgamation of apps, and a dozen point-based solutions to manage them. Though it’s well-intended to fix problems for your ERP swiftly and cheaply, the SaaS mess that eventuates is anything but. Instead, you get higher costs and lower clarity.
So what’s this platform thing all about?
In contrast to a point-based solution, a “platform” solution will address multiple issues across an ERP, or even across an entire SaaS ecosystem.
Platform solutions are not only simpler to manage and more cost-effective, but also effect significantly better results in the long run. Why? Well, platform solutions are purpose-built to tackle the complex SaaS ecosystem in which ERPs sit. Platform solutions have the capability to see intra-system dataflows inside ERPs, and inter-system interactions between ERP and other apps.
They see the whole board, so they can solve a greater scope of problems for less money.
What does a platform solution look like in the ERP space?
There’s no SaaS app as complex, sprawling, and critical to your business as your ERP. Opkey streamlines those operations, using auto-generating tests to optimize ERP systems like Oracle Fusion and Workday. We assist with deployment of new systems and major system updates, and we offer repeatable, automated testing that simplifies and sweetens the lives of IT teams, executives, and line-of-business employees alike. From configuration needs to improving training and support, Opkey’s platform neutralizes IT issues throughout your ERP’s lifecycle.
Our offerings have addressed ERPs and adjacent apps for a while now, but recently we’ve made what we offer even better. We leveraged years of functional data to build an AI-powered platform for ERP optimization. This means intelligent, swift assistance at every turn of the lifecycle of your ERP and SaaS ecosystem. With a human-in-the-loop approach, you retain the power of the human touch, while gaining speed and scale only possible with AI.
Our agentic AI-powered platform understands how various workflows and apps interact with one another in the context of the greater ERP ecosystem. It delivers on the promise of the platform solution so you can optimize your business operations, supercharged with AI.
Point vs. Platform for your ERP: The Conclusion
There’s nothing wrong with a point-based solution, per se. If you have a dire need to solve a specific, lone pain point in your ERP, you should go for a point-based solution. As long you beware the tribulations of SaaS mess, point-based gadgets are relatively easy to build into your tech stack, and they will cause minimal upfront disruption.
If, however, you want built-in, long-term assurance that will help you augment the functionality of your critical systems, pick the platform. With a platform solution, you’re planning ahead. You’ll avoid a snowballing SaaS mess and getting more efficiency and greater functionality for less.
As gleaned from the honorable naval officer at the start of the blog, companies run on systems. What is less obvious, though, is that business leaders seldom regret taking the time and resources to deploy platform management upfront when they watch their less-judicious compatriots suffer from expensive (and infuriatingly-avoidable) IT problems down the line.
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