Guest Contributors

Manufacturing worker in a yellow hard hat and safety glasses operating a control panel alongside a translucent AI humanoid agent, both reviewing a holographic ERP and production dashboard on a factory floor, illustrating manufacturing AI execution and human-agent collaboration
Analytics and AI
How Midmarket Manufacturers Are Moving AI From Experimentation Into Execution
Robert Kramer of KramerERP examines how QAD, Redzone and ChampionAI are helping midmarket manufacturers move AI from experimentation into execution, with customer results ranging from a 93% changeover reduction at Sauder to a 90% cut in RFQ creation time at KION.
Analytics and AI
Agentic AI in Finance: Why Autonomy Must Be a Risk Decision
Agentic AI promises to move finance beyond scripted automation, but greater autonomy does not automatically mean better outcomes. Finance leaders need to assess where agents can act independently, when humans should intervene, and how every decision can be governed and explained.
Neon highway sign reading "AI Adoption Speed: Unlimited" over a digital motorway, symbolizing Infor forward-deployed engineering accelerating AI into ERP execution
Analytics and AI
Infor Uses Forward-Deployed Engineering To Move AI Into ERP Execution
Infor is pairing forward-deployed engineering with its AI Adoption Hub to move AI from feature availability into ERP execution. The four-week deployment claim gets attention, but reuse, governance and measurable operating improvement will decide whether the model scales.
Hangzhou East Railway Station in China, illustrating the rise of Chinese AI models in enterprise ERP.
Analytics and AI
Chinese AI Models Are Changing the Economics of AI in ERP
Chinese AI models such as DeepSeek, Qwen, and Kimi are giving European enterprises lower-cost, open-weight alternatives to US providers. Their rise could change the economics of embedding AI into ERP while increasing pressure on vendors to support more flexible, multi-model strategies.
Carbon-fiber server enclosure projecting a holographic dashboard of neural networks, vector waveforms, and analytics charts, illustrating in-database AI and enterprise RAG running directly on an Oracle EBS core without cloud migration.
Data and Data Management
The Oracle EBS Paradox: Why Bringing AI to the Core Doesn’t Require a SaaS Migration
For a decade, executives have been sold a singular narrative: innovation lives exclusively in the cloud. To unlock machine learning and agentic AI, the argument goes, an enterprise must abandon its on-premise ERP and migrate to SaaS. For mature enterprises...
Financial Management
Why Finance’s AI Advantage Depends on Governance, Evaluation, and Control
AI adoption is accelerating across finance, but deploying more tools does not automatically improve financial control. Sustainable advantage depends on continuous evaluation, explainability, human oversight, and governance infrastructure that can detect failures, model drift, and emerging risks as AI scales.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance
The Two-Year Materiality Cycle Is Quietly Becoming a Liability
Two-year materiality cycles can leave companies working from outdated assumptions. Novisto’s Nick Sanscartier explains how connected, technology-enabled materiality workflows can make ESG assessments more continuous, traceable and audit-ready without replacing human judgment.
Analytics and AI
Why Frontline Trust Will Determine the Success of UK Government AI
Civiteq Managing Director Edward Pearson argues that UK government AI will succeed only if public sector leaders make frontline trust, adoption and change management central to transformation.
Mawared MENA: Portal for local sourcing across the MENA region for humanitairan, charity and health agencies.
Spend Management and Procurement
ERP Transformed Organizations. Can Procurement Technology Transform Markets?
ERP systems transformed procurement execution, but market visibility remains a challenge. Mawared MENA demonstrates how shared procurement infrastructure can help organizations discover suppliers, strengthen local sourcing, improve resilience, and create healthier supplier ecosystems before a purchase order is ever issued.
AI is doing more than making enterprise systems smarter. It is exposing weak data, disconnected processes and unclear ownership that were already there.
Automation
AI Reveals Vulnerabilities in the Enterprise Operating Model
Enterprise AI is not held back only by technology. ERP, supply chain, data, security, and people need to work together in a connected operating model that turns trusted context into controlled action.
ERP Strategy and Planning
The Mid-Flight ERP Decision: What to Do When the Platform Changes Before Go-Live
Cloud ERP vendors continuously release new capabilities, creating a challenge many organizations never anticipated when they approved their business case. This article explores how ERP leaders should respond when a platform changes before go-live and offers a practical framework for balancing customization, standardization, governance, and long-term value.
Boardroom Decision Debt
ERP Strategy and Planning
Decision Debt: The Hidden ERP Liability No Dashboard Tracks
Most ERP programs measure budgets, milestones, testing progress, and deployment readiness. Few measure the hidden liability created by unresolved business decisions. As AI compresses implementation timelines, decision debt may become one of the most expensive risks in enterprise transformation.
SAP agentic AI manufacturing Hannover Messe 2026
Governance, Risk, and Compliance
Q&A: Tirumala Rao Chimpiri on Why ERP Modernization Fails After Go-Live
Organizations often struggle with ERP modernization post-go-live due to inadequate focus on operational discipline, governance, and continuous improvement, where successful implementation doesn’t guarantee that workflows and processes have meaningfully changed or improved.
Manufacturing Systems and Automation
Organizations Must Confront the AI-ERP Reality Gap
The enterprise landscape is facing disruption as AI agents automate tasks and support decisions, but many organizations struggle to implement AI effectively due to outdated and fragmented ERP systems, necessitating a transformation that integrates AI and ERP capabilities.
Governance, Risk, and Compliance
The Impact of the Sovereignty Gap in Enterprise Architecture
Recent power outages and data center disruptions have challenged the assumption that cloud infrastructure is resilient, highlighting the necessity for enterprises to develop data sovereignty.
ERP Strategy and Planning
‘The Real ERP Gap Isn’t Data or AI—It’s Decision Flow’: Tirumala Rao Chimpiri
Tirumala Rao Chimpiri, a senior ERP professional and Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Long Island Section, discusses in his article the persistent intelligence-to-action gap in ERP systems, arguing that structural issues—rather than lacking data or analytics—hinder organizations from effectively translating insights into coordinated actions.
Enterprise Architecture
Fixing Construction’s Margin Visibility Problem With ERP
The construction sector is grappling with economic challenges and operational inefficiencies, driven by material costs and supply chain issues, necessitating the adoption of construction-specific ERP platforms to enhance visibility and control over project costs.
ERP Strategy and Planning
Why Late Change Management Dooms ERP Transformation Projects
Despite substantial investments in ERP and transformation programs across the public sector, a significant majority are predicted to fail in achieving their original business goals due to a lack of readiness for operational change, highlighting the need for organizations to integrate behavior change and process standardization.
Manufacturing Systems and Automation
The Role of an ERP Implementation Partner

Modern ERP systems are crucial for business decision-making and fiscal success, making the selection of a capable implementation partner vital for effective planning, deployment and long-term support across the organization.
ERP Strategy and Planning
Automating SAP Batch Genealogy, Material Certificates Through EDI Integration
Manufacturing organizations face challenges in managing material certification documents and batch genealogy across multiple plants, leading to delays and errors; however, by automating these processes one global manufacturer significantly improved operational efficiency, reducing manual effort by 4,000 hours annually and enhancing compliance response times.
Earnings
Financial Management
Designing Finance for Scale: Why Charts of Accounts and Dimensions Matter More Than ERP Features
ERP projects often face significant challenges not during implementation but years later due to underlying financial architecture decisions—including chart of accounts and entity structures—being overlooked in favor of immediate functionality, which can hinder scalability and complicate management reporting as business complexities evolve.
Application Development and Integration
Choosing the Right Integration Strategy and Framework for Manufacturers
Manufacturers face integration challenges as their systems become increasingly complex and interdependent, necessitating a strategic shift from point-to-point connections to a more cohesive approach like integration platform as a service (iPaaS) to effectively manage growth, change, and operational efficiency.
Tax Compliance
How GenAI Fixed Withholding Tax at Scale, Improved Processes
A global agribusiness faced inefficiencies in handling withholding tax certificates in Latin America, especially in Argentina, involving time-consuming manual processes; by implementing a hybrid cloud architecture with AI-driven automation, they significantly streamlined data extraction and compliance, reducing manual errors and reclaiming analyst productivity.
ERP Strategy and Planning
Manufacturers Are Rushing ERP Modernization and Paying the Price
Manufacturers' urgency to modernize their ERP systems amid rising AI demands must prioritize careful sequencing over risky big bang implementations, as organizational readiness and data maturity are critical for successful transformation amidst growing complexity.
Cloud Platform and Technology
Cultivating Twin Transformation in Manufacturing
Mid-sized manufacturers must implement Twin Transformation—simultaneously enhancing digital and sustainable practices across their operations—by leveraging SAP S/4HANA, Digital Manufacturing, and Sustainability Footprint Management while integrating principles of strategic planning, resource allocation, and organizational foundation to create cohesive value rather than fragmented initiatives.
Cell and gene therapy manufacturing vials arranged in a controlled lab tray for traceability and processing
ERP Strategy and Planning
Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Exposes the Cost of Delayed Digital Infrastructure
Cell and gene therapy manufacturing is exposing the limits of manual coordination. As programs scale, digital orchestration is becoming essential to ensure traceability, reduce risk, and support operational execution.
Enterprise Architecture
Composable ERP: Architectural Reality or Executive Imperative?
ERP strategy is transforming from long-cycle, capital-intensive systems to a more agile, composable architecture driven by the need for adaptability in response to dynamic market conditions, highlighting the importance of intentional modular evolution, governance frameworks and AI integration.
abstract image | Finance
Financial Management
The CFO’s New Mandate for AI Assurance
AI is transforming finance by automating workflows and enhancing decision-making, but CFOs remain accountable for the integrity and explainability of outcomes, necessitating strong governance and reliable data to ensure compliance.
man on computer with technology graphics in the background
ERP Strategy and Planning
Why Workday Implementations Fail to Deliver ROI—and How to Fix It
Many organizations implement Workday expecting significant operational improvements, yet struggle to realize meaningful return on investment. In this article, Prashanth Paladugula explains why Workday implementations often fall short—and how stronger data governance, process transformation and standard configurations can significantly improve outcomes.
Manufacturing Systems and Automation
Integrating Real-Time Data with ERP Systems Yields Improvements
Advanced technology significantly enhances manufacturing by streamlining processes, improving efficiency, and reducing costs, with a strong emphasis on smart manufacturing initiatives, real-time data integration and closed-loop planning to optimize operations.
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