ERP

In just 20 years, Amazon has grown from an online startup focusing on selling books, to a devastating multi-platform, multi-industry technological disruptor, predicted to be worth $3 trillion by 2026.

Last week I made the (very) long return trip to Melbourne, Australia to deliver a keynote presentation at the SMART Supply Chain conference at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. I also had the pleasure of being asked to sit on a panel of experts and senior business leaders discussing the impact of technology in the supply chain.

Back in 2004, a famous, and somewhat confrontational, Harvard Business Review article was published by Nicholas G Carr, called ‘Does IT Matter?’ In this, he suggested that organisations are wrong to continue to make large scale investments in software like ERP, as the availability of this software has resulted in it becoming ubiquitous, something that every organisation can own. He therefore reasons that as every organisation can own these tools, they cannot provide competitive advantage.