Companies are obviously bought or absorbed into larger companies for all sorts of reasons, but there are some deals that carry with them an immediate benefit, whether or not this is the overriding one. As always, your ERP manufacturing software can help you put these changes into perspective, especially when the change is poised to bring with it a brand new side to your business.

One incredibly high-profile deal that is inescapable in the news right now is the recent move Google made to buy Boston Dynamics, a well-known robotics firm, for an undisclosed sum. While speculation is running wild about the various uses, good or "evil," that any Googlebots might have, another concern is what this does to a business that now needs to manufacture more complex products without losing any of its previous productivity.

It all depends, of course, on how the company decides to use these newfound abilities, and whether they do so to their complete advantage. The more they decide to capitalize on robots, the more services they could perhaps open up.

Forbes writer Robert Hof mentioned that there's a sense of freedom in whatever Google decides to do next.

"Whether robots or self-driving cars or wearable computers become significant businesses for Google is less important than the fact that today, it's willing to spend the big bucks to push forward in these seemingly unrelated areas," Hof writes. "One of them may well turn out to evolve into something that helps Google's current business or redefines it in a coherent, profitable way. But we can't know yet."

Even though we can't, this can serve as a model for how manufacturing inventory management software can help update a business' image of what it has at its disposal.