As manufacturing de-silos its back office operations using new and improved software, a user-centric ERP model is taking center stage for more firms. According to ITWeb, this change is being influenced by the high influx of social, mobile, cloud and information management trends entering manufacturing business software.

The news source recently spoke with Jeremy Waterman, and industry expert from Sage, who explained that as manufacturing ERP software has evolved from the 70's and 80's, few vendors have overhauled their solutions. New client/server user interfaces and web-based solutions have been integrated, but the foundation of these solutions is still the same. Waterman states that companies need to consider ERP solutions where the user experience is the center of the design.

"We know that increased competition is forcing every business to be unique and different. So how do businesses increase the relevance of ERP solutions, and how do they use ERP as a foundation for innovation and differentiation? Mobility and cloud are disruptive forces in the market today and the Web has completely disrupted the value chain. Markets are transforming, and organizations have the choice to disrupt or be disrupted. Reacting responsibly to the disruption by investing in purposeful innovation, where customers have flexibility and choice, will give your business a competitive edge," Waterman said.

As the ERP market is disrupted, many firms will have a choice — sink or swim. By adopting high-quality business management software solutions that enable a more user-focused experience, manufacturers can re-center their back office workflows around the tools their employees actually want to use, rather than ones that simply get the job done. This will boost productivity and efficiency while increasing the overall quality of work as well.