The integration of the various business processes enables people and their departments to work effectively in their silos. To further enhance integration of business processes, the integration of on premise and cloud based systems are becoming more important as well. For example, the integration of cloud based CRM systems like Salesforce and on premise legacy ERP systems, can help increase the efficiency of a sales or marketing user. The ERP system integration market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9% from now until 2019.
Having to deal with working with existing legacy ERP systems can also create problems for companies by limiting them from being able to adopt new modern capabilities that could help enterprise organizations. As a result, integration tools offered from companies like Adeptia, Atos, Coupa, and Mulesoft that make it easy to integrate on premise applications with cloud applications, have become popular. One new technology, that falls into this example and that can impact the effectiveness of ERP systems is machine learning. For example, machine learning can be applied to different departments and can use historical data to make predictions about future needs. It could make, for example, use historical data to make periodic sales predictions, which in one way as a result, could help in the material planning process. Machine Learning could also collect data points and give feedback on how effectively users are following custom workflows, allowing for custom workflows to become more efficient.
Sources:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/3-ways-machine-learning-improves-erp-71051
http://www.supplychaindive.com/news/erp-tech-dependence-innovation/430482/