Lumenia ERP HEADtoHEAD™ Guest Blog from Mark Reddy, Global Director of Growth at OneAdvanced
For years, the ERP conversation has largely focused on functionality: what can the system do, which business processes can it support, and how much can it automate? Those questions still matter, but as technology evolves and AI becomes part of almost every software conversation, I think there’s a more important question you should be asking: what is that technology actually doing for your people?
Too often, people still spend their days navigating multiple systems, searching for information, moving data between applications, and working out what needs to happen next. We’ve digitised a huge amount of work, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve made work simpler. My view is that your people shouldn’t have to struggle with software; software should be doing the heavy lifting for your people.
More technology isn’t necessarily the answer
Most organisations don’t have a shortage of technology. Years of investment has created increasingly complex estates spanning ERP, finance, procurement, HR, workforce management, and specialist applications. Each system may perform its own function perfectly well, but when the data and workflows between them don’t connect, people are left to make those connections themselves.
AI has enormous potential to change that, but simply adding AI to a fragmented tech stack doesn’t suddenly make it intelligent. To create meaningful value, AI needs context. It needs access to trusted data and an understanding of the workflows, policies, and rules that determine how an organisation actually operates. That’s where I believe the ERP conversation needs to go next.
From ERP to an Intelligent System of Work
At OneAdvanced, we’re approaching that challenge through IQ: The Intelligent System of Work. IQ brings people, data, workflows, and AI together so intelligence can sit within the flow of work, rather than employees having to sift through various applications to find that intelligence.
Think about what that means in practice. A finance leader shouldn’t have to search across multiple systems to understand what’s driving performance. An operations leader shouldn’t have to wait for information to be manually consolidated before they can act. Employees shouldn’t need to understand the complexity of the tech infrastructure behind the scenes simply to get their jobs done.
Instead, technology should be able to surface the right information at the right moment, automate routine activity, and help people make faster, more confident decisions. That’s a very different ambition from simply digitising or automating a existing, standalone process.
Intelligent. Connected. Trusted.
There are three principles behind that ambition:
- Intelligent means embedding AI-driven insight and automation directly into the flow of work, where it can make a meaningful difference.
- Connected means bringing workflows, teams, and data together so information and context can move across the organisation rather than remaining trapped within siloes.
- And Trusted means ensuring that, as AI plays a greater role in how work gets done, security, governance, resilience, and data sovereignty remain fundamental priorities.
That combination is particularly important for the UK and Irish mid-market. These organisations need sophisticated technology and enterprise-level outcomes, but they shouldn’t have to accept the cost, complexity, and lengthy transformation programmes traditionally associated with large enterprise ERP. They need technology that understands their market, their sector, and the realities of how they operate, while giving them the confidence to adopt AI at a pace that works for their business.
Don’t recreate the technology estate you already have
There’s a question I think every organisation considering its next ERP investment should ask: if you were choosing your technology estate today, would you recreate the one you already have?
For many businesses, I suspect the answer is no. But that doesn’t mean everything has to be ripped out and replaced. A more pragmatic approach is to connect what works, modernise what doesn’t, and create an environment where data, workflows, and intelligence can move across the organisation. IQ’s platform and integration approach is designed to connect with existing applications and third-party tools, rather than assuming transformation has to begin with a blank sheet of paper.
That’s why I think the next ERP decision needs to be about more than replacing one system with another. It should be an opportunity to rethink how work gets done and how technology can play a more active role in making the organisation more productive, connected, and responsive.
At OneAdvanced, that’s what we mean by an Intelligent System of Work: technology that doesn’t just give your people another job to do but increasingly works on their behalf.
I’ll be exploring this topic further at ERP HEADtoHEAD™ Dublin (13th-14th October). Come and meet the OneAdvanced team and discover what moving beyond traditional ERP could look like for your organisation.
