Adoption of Cloud computing in ERP systems
Considering adopting cloud computing in your ERP system? Let’s delve into the benefits and disadvantages.
Cloud computing enables the delivery of high-demand computing services over an internet-enabled connection, including but not limited to networking, data analysis, servers, software, and storage to deliver lowered costs, more advanced resources, and innovative technology.
Categorically cloud computing offers four services namely infrastructure, platform, software and serverless computing. There is an observation that cloud computing is being adopted by various sectors so this article studies the advantages and disadvantages of the adoption of cloud computing by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems.
An ERP System is a software used to manage a company’s integral business processes, such as finance, supply, operations, analysis, manufacturing, and human resources.
Cloud Computing can be integrated in ERP for its impressive characteristics such as collaboration, efficiency, and security etc.
The following are the advantages of cloud computing in ERP:
Security: ERP systems deal with reporting of real-time data to enhance accurate and complete reporting and help companies adequately plan and communicate the state of operations to the stakeholders. Data may be subject to breach but with the innovate security that cloud computing provides, data risk is reduced.
Remote access: ERP systems facilitates collaboration and sharing of expertise. Cloud computing offers remote access to users so they can log in from anywhere in the world and work alongside teammates.
Reduced Cost: Cloud computing reduces the costs of purchasing hardware and software, as well as the costs of building and running on-site datacenters, stable electricity for power and cooling, and experts to manage the infrastructure.
The following are the disadvantages of cloud computing in ERP:
Lack of flexibility: According to (Roberts, 2021) you may not be able to tailor your ERP system to the required specifications you desire if you move it to the cloud. Most ERP systems customize their software with a personal approach and this may not be possible because cloud services only allow for communication with the user interface as everything is already provided .
Lack of Control: As the system is left in the control of your cloud services provider, this makes it subject to unwanted upgrades. Unwanted updates may lead to downtime as users may not be trained on how to deal with the upgrade.
