How Machine Learning Could Revolutionize the ERP Space

A topic that has been top of mind for many in the tech industry is machine learning. If you haven’t been keeping up, here’s a little refresher.

Machine Learning is when a computer program learns how you perform your processes. You go about your day as normal, carrying out your day to day tasks, inputting data into your regular systems, nothing out of the ordinary. The kicker is your jobs are being tracked.

Paying attention

Tracking your daily workflow allows a program to notice when you do something out of the ordinary. Say every time you carry out a transaction, you go through the same 5 steps. You do this consistently for months and months but one day, you miss step 4. At this point your software, because it has learned the processes you have performed over and over says, “Wait a minute, are you sure you want to skip step 4? You’ve never done that before.” You get a little warning and catch yourself before you make a mistake that can probably be undone but would be a huge waste of your time.

Now, this technology has been around for quite a while. The term Machine Learning was coined in 1959 by Arthur Samuel, a game design and AI pioneer at IBM. Now while video games and other various fields have been using this technology for years, it has just started to explode within the last decade in places not seen before, the most exciting to us being the ERP space.

The future of ERP

Financials are the lifeblood of your business. An accounting error could prove to be not only bothersome but could cause a ripple effect throughout your organization. Make a keying error? The customer notices. That customer either calls the accounting department or their salesperson and complains. Now you have an issue to correct, a customer to calm, and a coworker to reconcile with. Now throw in machine learning before the mistake is made and all of this could be prevented, saving you time and headache.

Problem-solving is also greatly improved with the new systems. By collecting error reports, the program can help you identify and provide solutions for new issues based on previous occurrences. Technicians jobs are made easier. Now they can fix issues with greater accuracy and precision in less time than it would take going in blind.

How do we move forward?

This is the easy answer, invest. Make a commitment to change your current processes and move into the future with software that makes you more efficient. This is a small glimpse into the possibilities of Machine Learning in the ERP space. The possibilities are endless and are being developed at a rapid rate. Get in on the ground floor. Call us at Alta Vista Technology today for a free consultation and let us help you transition into the future. Why waste time?