Simplify or die

simplify-or-die

Are you paying too much, relative to what you are getting? Are you paying for things you did not order because the account is too complex to understand?

The cost of complexity is not only to the account of the consumer; producers and sellers suffer too.

If we look back fifty years and make a comparison to current times, our access to technology and knowledge is a hundred fold more, yet our lives have never been more complicated. In business, there are few parts where complexity exerts a more painful grip than in the IT arena. The more pervasive and fundamental the IT system, the higher the system complexity, and the more money required to feed the beast. One must ask why we have accepted this state of affairs? Why have we not rebelled? The most obvious answer is that we are overwhelmed by the complexity.

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The easy way out

The easy way out

Human beings are strange creatures in many ways. One of the habits we all have is a tendency to avoid doing a difficult job today in favor of a quicker workaround, despite the fact we know in the long run we would be better off implementing the proper solution at the start. It frustrates me that even though I am hyper aware of this tendency, I still fall victim to it.

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When to put your ERP system in the cloud

ERP-system-in-the-cloud

The other week I was at a friend’s house having a barbeque when his granddaughter ran out of the house clutching my friend’s iPad asking (in a way that only 4 year old girls can) to watch Peppa Pig. My friend’s reaction was to tell her to put the TV on but the demand came back “NO! On my pad, on my pad”.

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Impatience is a virtue

Unless you’ve been living on a desert island for the past 5 years, you shouldn’t have failed to notice that when Apple released the first generation iPad back in 2010 it sparked off a revolution in personal computing terms when it brought to the consumer device market an intuitive, simplistic and easy to use personal computing device.

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The Pros and Cons of ERP Certification

Certification ERP

Just last week, my Dad and I were discussing and debating the value of certifications in the real world – a contentious topic that is widely debated across different professions. Being a civil engineer, my Dad shudders at the idea of hiring a newbie engineer who has achieved a professional qualification without any exposure to applying this knowledge practically. In his industry, practical experience is a requirement.

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Making auditors happy: Business software security and controls

Have you heard the phrase “risk is the new black”? It refers to the fact that what people thought was safe has now changed radically. As a result, organizations are now expected to provide investors, customers and regulators verifiable assurance that there are the necessary controls to manage risk, by ensuring segregation of duties, integrity of operations and auditability.

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