Australian manufacturers are clinging to legacy ERP platforms and failing to keep pace with international rivals in terms of modern technology deployment...
The Australian manufacturing industry – already facing the challenge of rising international competition and a strong Australian dollar – has now been accused of failing to keep pace with international rivals in terms of technology adoption. Shaun Butler, general manager of ERP software company Syspro for Asia Pacific, said, “It’s not a case of not having an ERP system; it’s a case of having not kept it up to date.”
Older manufacturers he said often had ERP systems which were one, two or even three generations old – which made it harder to compete with the efficiencies that regional greenfields manufacturers could achieve with more modern ERP platforms.
He said that manufacturing and distribution businesses needed systems that could deliver real-time information directly to end users – especially when they were part of an online supply chain – and that “legacy systems are not able to provide that”.
Phil Duff, Syspro founder and CEO, who is currently visiting Australia to herald the company’s latest Syspro 7 release, which offers an improved user interface, and also Syspro Espresso which allows ERP data to be accessed from mobile devices, said that improving efficiency through technological innovation is vital for Australian businesses to stay competitive.
So far just six Australian businesses have signed up to use the beta version of Syspro 7 which has been deployed in 130 organisations worldwide and is scheduled for general release in the first quarter of 2014. Syspro boasts 15,000 users of its systems worldwide.
While Syspro can be deployed on premise, or as a private cloud – Duff described the software as “hosting agnostic” – he said that the company had no plans to offer Syspro-as-a-Service to its clients. “If you look at the number of our customers who want to be on cloud it’s 10, 15 or 20 percent.” While he said cloud is not a “fad” neither is it a priority for Syspro’s customer base.
He said that the approach also helped Syspro’s resellers to make their margins. “We are not looking to go into the cloud. We are a software house and have provided software for the last 35 years. That’s something we’d rather not break. We don’t find the need.”
