During the past two decades, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems became the big dog in many corporate data centers. By providing integrated suites encompassing everything from financial operations to sales and marketing to manufacturing—with all the elements sharing a common database and a consistent user interface—ERP suites managed to displace many best-of-breed point solutions.
Despite the ERP suites’ many benefits, however, not every component provides the top-level visibility and control required in today’s fragmented supply chain, where brand owners are working with multiple trading partners.
