There is strong demand for both social media and environmental management functionality in business software used in manufacturing and other industrial settings, according to a study of ERP trends conducted by third-party research organization for IFS North America.
The study, based on a survey of more than 260 US manufacturing executives found that most manufacturers seem ill-equipped to track their impact on the environment in the areas of carbon footprint, solid waste, air and water pollution, product lifecycle and product end-of-life impacts.
According to the survey, middle-market manufacturers did poorly than did companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, when it comes to the ability to measure environmental impacts. Among companies with between $250m and $999m in revenue, only 20% of respondents said that they were tracking some environmental measures but not others in their enterprise software, while 36% of companies with $1bn or more in revenue said they had this capability.
In the area of social media, a minority of respondents said that they were interested in integrations between ERP and services like Facebook or Twitter. Interest was stronger for back office management systems that mirrored social network functionality. 64% of respondents want their ERP to help them with the shrinking workforce problem by capturing and recording the knowledge of senior experienced engineers and professionals.
Cindy Jaudon, president and CEO of IFS North America, said: “Manufacturers responding to this survey, by a sizable majority, said they want environmental footprint management functionality embedded in their ERP system, and in February of 2009, IFS was first in the market with our eco footprint management tool.”
