Interview with Marcel Siegenthaler: "Think broadly" when selecting software

If it's up to the makers of this established meeting of the Swiss business software industry (see our report here), the pulse of digitization will once again beat very high this year. But this is not yet felt everywhere in the same way, as Marcel Siegenthaler, Senior Consultant & Partner at topsoft, reveals in an interview.

So the next topsoft is now just around the corner: What will be the dominant theme of the trade fair?

Marcel Siegenthaler: Even more so than last year, these will be topics from the field of Industry 4.0, especially IoT. In terms of volume, the classic ERP topics will continue to dominate. This is also of interest, because many companies have a backlog demand for IT support in their processes. From CRM to project and document management to financial accounting, there is often still a lot to be done to enable meaningful business cases with IoT. topsoft is about IT projects, about digitization as a concrete business. We don't offer an entertainment festival, but rather know-how transfer for decision-makers who want to advance their company with the possibilities of IT.

It can be observed that ERP solutions increasingly seem to extend the core "Enterprise Resource Planning" and increasingly focus on the customer, i.e. incorporate CRM functions. What is your assessment?

Business processes do not end at the company boundaries. On both the customer and supplier side, ERP systems offer many possibilities that go very much beyond the former address management. Fully integrated webshops, for example, make it possible to eliminate media discontinuities - and thus a major source of errors - while at the same time still leaving tasks that were previously performed internally to the customers. For companies that are active in the service business, there are immense opportunities here in that the devices that are in use at the customers are maintained in the ERP. At this point, the networking of these devices with IoT in the ERP system will soon become interesting.

What does this mean for the evaluation of an ERP system? Will it become even more complex than it already is?

Even more than before, it makes sense to think "broadly" when making a selection. Looking in isolation for software for accounting or time recording, for example, is not enough. Individual solutions promote a fragmented IT landscape that is also disproportionately expensive. Smaller companies in particular should therefore consider without bias what is possible with IT. Understandably, however, the necessary know-how is lacking; after all, this is not normally part of the core business. This is where the trade show and personal consulting can help.

To what extent is knowledge of the "customer journey" more important than ever in the procurement of business software?

The customer journey is part of the business processes that you want to cover with IT. However, the processes start much earlier, e.g. with the planning of the product portfolio, the design, with marketing campaigns and end after the actual customer contact with topics such as post calculation, annual financial statements, etc. We see the ERP as a powerful management tool at all hierarchical levels. However, it can only play out this characteristic if the data is recorded in sufficient quality across the entire range of business processes.

Digital document management is also on the rise. Which is more advisable: a separate solution or a DMS integrated directly into the ERP system?

For many companies, relatively rudimentary options in the DMS are fully sufficient - they can get by with the document management systems that are sometimes already available. If higher demands are made, for example on the versioning of documents due to legal requirements, then on closer inspection only the professional DMSs offer these services. Most ERP providers also see it this way and therefore often offer a good integration of one of the leading DMS into their ERP.

Data is the new currency, it is said everywhere. What should be considered when procuring a new ERP solution with regard to data quality?

This discussion often focuses on data about customers. The internal company data, in order to use the ERP as a management tool - as already mentioned - is at least as important. This data is generated continuously in the process, provided that the opportunity is created. Mobile devices lower the inhibition threshold to record operating data, project times, stock movements, etc. correctly and also at the right moment. Every detour via paper notes lowers the data quality. The possibilities of recording with mobile devices must therefore be taken into account when selecting software. Often, individual screens are needed that are intuitively understandable and focus on the few functions that make sense at the time. If the data are complete and good, then their evaluation is also a pleasure. The times are over when you have to rely on accounting for every piece of information and only receive evaluations related to the past. With modern ERP, filled with good data, a meaningful look into the near future is possible.

What is the current status of artificial intelligence in the field of business software?

AI is only very sparsely represented directly in ERP. Often, the need is simply not there, for example, to use "sentiment analysis" to find out whether the customer is now happy or dissatisfied. However, the integration of speech recognition is already present in some ERP systems for practical and efficient use. Dictating service notes or mails directly into ERP is possible because these cloud services are provided by major software vendors. On the other hand, I see interesting possibilities in "machine learning" as a subarea of artificial intelligence. However, I doubt whether this will revolutionize production planning in the medium term. And if it does, it will be for companies with very large production volumes and not for the typical Swiss SME. But if you look at how IoT could interact with ERP, the sensible use of machine learning is not far away in order to obtain useful information instead of a huge amount of data.

"The Internet of Things is going mainstream" is also a much-heard trend. What is reality and what is (still) wishful thinking?

At the Software Contest on April 17 in Bern, I used the example of a 200-year-old spinning wheel to show how IoT can work with ERP. We will also have this venerable IoT device at the trade fair. This example is intended to show how little is actually necessary - even if, in this case, we are not talking about a fully developed solution suitable for industrial use. Technically, everything is actually available; what is missing are the business cases. In the service sector, these would be plentiful. But as long as orders simply arrive anyway, there is no demand for further development. We see that the hunger for digitization is not really there to this extent. Personally, I see this as a dangerous attitude, because there are enough companies abroad that can put many an established Swiss company in a bind with IoT deployment and a clever business model.

You offer consulting services - not only at topsoft - "so that the solution and the provider fit". How difficult is "matchmaking" among the more than 300 providers of business software?

We usually start with the process analysis and try to define as comprehensive a process as possible together with the people involved. In line with this, computer support must be defined for each activity in this process. This not only produces the tender documents, but also serves as a common language between the supplier of the new software and the user during implementation. The difficulty lies in teasing out the really tricky requirements for the software, rather than describing in epic breadth features that are included in almost all software systems anyway. This makes finding the most suitable partner work quite well. In the case of particularly rare or unusual projects, we have successfully pulled the very large fish net through the ocean of software providers on several occasions. Then we are no longer talking about 300 providers, but several thousand. In addition to the technical requirements, many other aspects are important, first and foremost the provider's ability to adequately support the user.

Finally: Your personal recommendation to companies that want to "digitize" further?

Start now! At the latest by visiting the trade fair on August 28 and 29 in Zurich. And there, open your fan wide and take a look at what's possible in terms of business software. Maybe there will be ideas that can be implemented with the existing IT without monstrous budgets.

More information: www.topsoft.ch