SECTOR & STREAM ROUNDUP
"Things have changed and thinking around critical decisions and investments may need to change too."
HOWARE COMPANIES THINKINGMORE CREATIVELY, GENERALLY? We work with a manufacturing organisation who know they need to
HAVE YOU SEENANY IMPACTSON INVESTMENT? It feels like investment in new systems is being put on the back burner for a lot of organisations because of the other challenges that they're dealing with around COVID-19 and Brexit. As COVID-19 recedes slightly,
replace some of their machinery as it’s been
The sectors where we have seen these investments recently include food manufacturing and food distribution. These sectors have seen higher demand over the past year or so and companies may have identified some stresses and strains as a result. Many have brought forward plans to replace ERP systems and infrastructure and make their tech more resilient.
This particularly applies in the hotels and leisure sectors where it’s not going to be a good time to replace a finance system, for example. Where we are seeing some movement is in the shift to cloud operations. In fact, many of these programmes have probably been escalated and prioritised. Due to the remote working environment, it makes sense to move things to a cloud infrastructure.
running hot for some time. COVID-19 has actually had an impact on how they use that machinery because demand has dropped, so they are thinking about different ways to use it going forward. Should they replace the equipment like-for-like; modernise it; or adapt it to do something different? Companies like this no longer have, say, a million pounds to put towards new equipment. They are having to be more creative around funding. Ideas they are generating include: X an operating lease X selling or part-exchanging old equipment X getting part funding from the customer base There are many different ways of doing things, if you’re able to think outside the box. That’s the mark of a resilient and agile organisation.
we're uncovering some challenges as a result of Brexit and the impact it’s
having on global supply chain. Companies need to solve this, so they can keep fulfilling customer orders. Another factor is that with people working from home, it’s not the typical environment in which to launch a new system. It’s quite a large technological change while everybody's working in a very different environment, and it adds an extra layer of complexity. I think that's put some organisations off. Plus, then you couple that with the spend. Businesses are asking: “Do we want to rush in and spend loads of money on new software when we don't know where we're going to be from a sector perspective?”
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