As more firms invest in manufacturing ERP software to optimize back office management, other IT demands, such as infrastructure design and data storage, are also evolving. New approaches to workflow applications for accounting, inventory management and other processes are met head on by the increased demand for data availability, security and management, as well as optimized network and system infrastructure to streamline access and ensure flexibility of these systems. The ends result is a number of investments, rather than a solitary one, that firms need to adapt for.

Jamie Thomas, the general manager of software defined systems and storage at IBM, recently noted that the need is there to address a new generation of applications and workloads, fundamentally changing infrastructure needs in modern enterprises, according to Silicon Angle.

"Over the last 19 months more of our clients have been capturing unstructured data around social and mobile," Thomas explained. "They need a different way of deploying infrastructure. This capability allows them to achieve both flexibility and economics around those deployments."

These trends present critical risks in manufacturing, especially as firms develop their own mobile apps and turn to the cloud and other emerging resource. It isn't just data storage or accessibility that is affected, however, but the the demands on the business management software itself. In order to adapt and overcome, firms will need to focus their efforts on improving the software acting as the glue holding their back office processes together.

Even beyond administrative processes, firms need to take into consideration the capabilities of their other systems to align new ERP investments with current operations. Legacy systems, site-specific issues, inventory control and other factors, some of which may change regularly, all have to factor in for as stable, beneficial deployment. With growth as the end goal for every business, investing in the right manufacturing business software is critical the first time around, and taking evolving IT needs into consideration first will help companies ensure they make the right decision.