Johani Marais, HansaWorld

With the dramatic emergence of tablet computing into the corporate workspace, enterprise resource vendors have a new frontier to consider: do their applications extend to these devices, and if not, can they stay competitive?

It’s no trivial question. The force of the ‘bring-your-own-device’ (BYOD) trend has seen a multiplicity of new platforms and devices enter the workplace. The users of these gadgets represent a new generation of workers, for whom choice and convenience are valuable criteria in determining job satisfaction.

Where other ERP vendors may find the demands of iOS, Android and the emerging Windows Mobile environments somewhat intimidating (or they may even ignore them altogether), others have always embraced multiple platforms.

With applications available for the iPhone since 2009, and on the iPad since its inception, the rise of Android and now Microsoft Phone don’t present challenges. They present additional opportunities to extend ERP right into the palms of executives around the world.

The Microsoft ecosystem, built around the Windows Phone mobile operating system, and the release of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet, is in its infancy. However, a great many CIOs are waiting for devices with a full Microsoft software stack. It will provide them with the necessary control and governance expected of a business.

It is and always has been a multiplatform world. While in the past, ERP vendors could get away with addressing only one sector of the market, today it is the end-user who is setting the agenda; by providing applications which work regardless of the choice of platform, those end-users will be kept happy, productive and loyal to the company.

About the author: Johani Marais is country manager of HansaWorld South Africa.