The big keynote topic was expanding on this week’s announcement of a batch of new Illuminate Agents, Workday’s term for its agentic AI solutions, and the theme it wishes to push for its next 20 years as a business. These new tools include agents designed for Contingent Sourcing, Contract Intelligence & Negotiation, Document-Driven Accounting, Self-Service and Supplier Contracts. The contract agents in particular got a little extra ‘bump’ on stage from the presence of Jerry Ting, Founder/CEO of Evisort and VP at Workday.

This is because Evisort is a leading AI-native document intelligence platform which Workday acquired last fall as a potential SAP Ariba slayer on the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) front. As of March, Evisort’s tools became available through Workday Contract Intelligence and Workday CLM, and as of this month, Ting is now the Workday VP in charge of all things agentic AI across the Workday organization.

“Agents is the next generation of workers,” Ting declared on stage at the O2 InterContinental London venue, very much convinced that by 2045 Workday will be the ERP tool you use to manage both human and artificial employees. This was a view echoed by Daniel Pell, VP and UKI Country Leader on stage as part of his keynote, and later in a private panel at Workday Elevate London.

Talking to ERP Today, Pell stressed the difference between generative AI and agentic AI, saying that while both have a place in organizations, the agent edge comes from the “immediate reactions” possible with agents.

“[An agent] starts to understand what’s important,” he explained. “Say you’re creating a job description for a very senior executive […] it’s going to keep it confidential and it knows that because of the parameter.”

But with some potential businesses still unsure what agents exactly are as they continue to get their heads around the very notion of AI from a beginner POV, it begs the question of where agents fit into the concept of AI copilots, standalone products that remain available on the GenAI market from some vendors.

Workday Elevate and AI

Last fall, president & chief product officer of Workday rival SAP SuccessFactors, Dan Beck, told ERP Today that you won’t see SAP or its flagship HCM product “marketing a host of different AI agents”, pointing out that AI agents are by nature simply a day-to-day element of what defines an AI copilot.

At the same panel, Prasun Shah, Global CTO & AI Lead, Workforce Consulting for PwC, admitted that some clients using copilots are confused, asking “I’ve got [Microsoft] Copilot – isn’t that agentic?”

“There’s a good and a bad about what Copilot has done. It’s created the buzz around generative AI […] But the big difference between generative AI and agentic is that [the latter] is actually doing work for you inside the enterprise model.”

With one client, Shah cleared the confusion by discussing the ‘pyramid’ of human workers in their company, with those at the bottom level having a lower level of skills but developing their way ‘higher’ through the pyramid.

“The model in future will be interacting with a pyramid of agents […] As you move up the value chain of agents, you have agents with specialisms […] and some higher-order agents I loosely call the ‘headless Hydras’ who are managing a network of agents [which] they’ll orchestrate to run a particular job.”

‘Headless Hydras’ will be managing a network of agents in the pyramid

This goes back to Jerry Ting’s prediction for both the future of Workday and the workforce, especially as IT and HR functions merge ever closer on the business front. It also underlines that in the Workday view, GenAI and copilots are human-led, offering portals for ad hoc creation and app journeys using AI technology. Agentic AI meanwhile is not centered around the spontaneous or the start-up of a system, as it is instead more task-led. The difference in comparison to SAP is that companies like Workday and Salesforce are announcing each new agent on its own terms, rather than as facets of a batch update. Each one gets its moment in the spotlight  – and, handily, helps to highlight a new feature of the expanding Workday family as with the Evisort example from earlier.

At the same panel ERP Today was a Salesforce SVP, in a good reminder of the partnership between WDAY and SFDC. With Salesforce on its side, Workforce has the power to integrate its HCM/financial nature with the huge swathes of CRM data that comes with Salesforce’s formidable market strength.

It’s a canny move that will help Workday and its AI evolve ever further over the next few decades. In addition, the vendor would be wise to consider two other considerations for a fruitful and continued existence. Firstly, concentrating further on the SME sector with its recently announced Workday Go offering. Details have been limited regarding the offering, and at Workday Elevate London it was represented by a quick slide and little else.

Secondly, the HCM side of things was positioned stronger than the financial one in this year’s Elevate keynote. And yet, the most intriguing part of a presentation from AI VP Kathy Pham was a display of Workday’s AI-driven prowess in keeping up with all the latest tariff turbulence, a bread-and-butter-meets-AI financial tool that is vital to businesses now and likely to be for the next 20 years should the world become more turbulent.

This is how Workday should elevate next.

What this means for ERP Insiders

Agentic AI and Strategic Vision: At Workday Elevate London 2025, Workday emphasized its 20th anniversary by outlining its forward-looking strategy centered on agentic AI. The unveiling of new Illuminate Agents — including solutions for contingent sourcing, contract negotiation, and document-driven accounting — signals Workday’s ambition to redefine enterprise automation.

Differentiating Agentic AI from Generative AI: At Elevate, executives from Workday, PwC, and Salesforce drew a clear line between generative AI and agentic AI. The latter focuses on autonomous, context-aware task execution within enterprise systems, positioned by Workday as core functional assets. The vendor highlighted a future where human and artificial, agentic employees are managed within the same ERP framework.

Growth Levers and Market Positioning: Workday continues to invest in its SME footprint with the so-far under-publicized Workday Go and is enhancing its financial tools, such as tariff management capabilities, to match the strength of its HCM offerings. The company’s strategic alliance with Salesforce also boosts its ability to connect HCM and finance functions with CRM data, strengthening its appeal across broader business ecosystems as it looks to scale over the next two decades.

The post Workday turns 20. What now for the HCM giant? appeared first on ERP Today.

Data Integration Challenges

However, the path to leveraging ERP data in cloud analytics platforms like Databricks or Snowflake is often complicated by several prevalent issues that can hinder the realization of advanced financial analytics.

A primary obstacle is the frequent lack of comprehensive, out-of-the-box connectors within Databricks or Snowflake for a wide array of specific ERP systems, particularly for their detailed financial modules. This often necessitates custom scripting and API management, increasing the burden on IT and ERP support teams.

Additionally, financial intelligence rarely resides solely within the ERP. It typically requires a consolidated view, incorporating data from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems like Salesforce, specialized accounting software like QuickBooks, and various proprietary databases. The disparate nature of these systems and their data models makes achieving a unified financial perspective complex.

The dynamic nature of financial markets and business operations also necessitates access to current data. FP&A teams require information that reflects the latest transactions and financial state to ensure the relevance and accuracy of their analysis. Delivering this from traditional ERP architectures to cloud platforms in near real-time poses a considerable technical challenge.

The example of a financial firm, while focused on Microsoft Fabric, illustrates a relevant principle: effectively integrating siloed financial data significantly enhances analytical capabilities and business agility. This underscores the importance of overcoming data integration hurdles.

Addressing ERP Integration with CData

Data integration solutions from providers like CData are emerging to address these challenges, offering a streamlined approach to connect ERP systems with platforms such as Databricks and Snowflake. Its capabilities include:

• Broad system connectivity: CData provides an extensive suite of connectors designed for direct, real-time access to a multitude of data sources, including a wide range of ERPs, CRMs, and accounting systems. These tools facilitate easier access to specific financial data structures required by FP&A within Databricks or Snowflake.
• Change data capture (CDC) for timeliness: CData incorporates CDC capabilities that allow changes in source systems, such as an ERP, to be efficiently identified and replicated to Databricks or Snowflake, enabling FP&A to work with up-to-date information.
• Semantic data harmonization: Beyond data movement, these solutions can aid in correlating data from diverse financial systems, enabling a more unified and coherent view for analysis within the target analytics platform.
• Emphasis on security and governance: Recognizing the sensitivity of financial information, CData’s solutions incorporate enterprise-grade security and governance features that protect data during transit and storage.
• Predictable pricing models: To assist with budget management, CData utilizes a predictable pricing structure, which can help organizations avoid unexpected costs often associated with data integration and transfer.

Technical Architecture Overview

CData solutions can be integrated into Databricks or Snowflake architectures in several ways.

Tools such as CData Sync or CData Arc are designed for replicating data from ERPs and other sources into Databricks Delta Lake or Snowflake tables. This method supports the development of centralized financial data warehouses or lakehouses optimized for analytics. Connection setup typically involves selecting the source and destination and configuring secure data transfer schedules.

For scenarios requiring direct queries to source systems without data replication, CData’s JDBC drivers enable Databricks Spark engine or Snowflake compute resources to interact with ERP data in real-time, offering flexibility for specific analytical tasks.

Finally, by addressing the data integration bottleneck, organizations can better empower their FP&A teams, potentially leading to improved insights, faster decision-making, and a more robust financial strategy.

What This Means for ERP Insiders

Enhanced operational efficiency for ERP teams. Modern integration tools like CData’s solutions significantly boost efficiency by providing pre-built, standardized connectors for numerous ERP and financial applications. This approach reduces the need for extensive, time-consuming custom coding and scripting traditionally associated with data integration projects. Consequently, ERP teams can deploy data pipelines faster, allocate resources more effectively, and reduce the ongoing maintenance burden.

Improved data utility and decision-making for FP&A. Supplying finance teams with near real-time, consolidated data from the ERP and interconnected systems is essential for high-quality financial analysis. This comprehensive and timely data allows FP&A professionals to move beyond static reporting to perform more accurate forecasting, dynamic resource allocation, proactive risk identification and mitigation, and develop more precise revenue projections, ultimately leading to more informed and agile strategic business decisions.

Upholding stringent security and compliance standards. The integration of sensitive financial data from ERP systems into analytics platforms necessitates a robust security framework. This involves implementing comprehensive security measures such as end-to-end encryption, granular access controls based on user roles and permissions, and detailed audit trails to track data access and modifications. Adherence to these protocols ensures compliance with industry regulations and mitigates risks associated with data breaches or non-compliance.

The post How Advanced Data Integration Bridges ERP Systems with Modern Analytics appeared first on ERP Today.

Built natively into Salesforce Financial Services Cloud, Agentforce represents a strategic bet on “digital labor”—an intelligent layer of AI automation embedded directly into customer-facing workflows. Whether it’s preparing an investment review, reversing a fee, guiding a borrower through loan discovery, or escalating complex cases, Agentforce operates in the background to ensure that humans can focus on what matters: meaningful client engagement.

The timing is no accident. According to McKinsey, the financial services industry is facing a looming talent shortfall, with over 100,000 financial advisor roles projected to go unfilled by 2034 and half of the insurance workforce expected to retire within 15 years. Meanwhile, customer expectations are surging: Salesforce’s own research found that only 21% of consumers are satisfied with personalization from their financial providers, while 35% say they feel treated “like a number.”

That’s the friction Agentforce is designed to remove.

“AI shouldn’t replace the human connection—it should scale it,” said Eran Agrios, SVP and GM of Financial Services at Salesforce. “With Agentforce, financial institutions can tap into digital labor built on a deeply unified platform to help their human teams boost productivity, efficiency, and revenue while still delivering the trusted, personalized experiences their clients expect.”

Agentforce comes with pre-built templates for various financial services roles:

• Financial Advisor & Banker Agents automate meeting prep and post-call wrap-ups by surfacing portfolio insights, life event triggers, and action items—all drawn from unified CRM, transactional, and behavioral data.
• Banking and Insurance Service Agents handle high-volume service tasks like fee reversals, card cancellations, and insurance coverage queries. These agents streamline the repetitive and free up human reps for complex resolution.
• Digital Loan Officer Agents guide borrowers through loan discovery 24/7, analyzing income and credit score data to suggest relevant loan products—all while escalating exceptions to human officers for final review.

Each agent comes with embedded compliance guardrails: audit trails, approval workflows, and legal disclosures are baked into every digital interaction. No code is required to deploy, customize, or extend agents—opening the door for rapid configuration across unique workflows and jurisdictions.

Leading institutions are already validating the model. CaixaBank, Spain’s largest bank, plans to use Agentforce to personalize banking at scale for over 20 million customers. “Agentforce will enable us to provide faster and more accurate responses to customer inquiries,” the bank shared. “It will also enhance the employee experience by providing personalized advice.”

Other early adopters have also seen measurable gains.

• Nexo reports a 20% increase in chat deflection and 10,000 additional chats resolved autonomously in Q1.
• Cumberland Mutual is expanding Agentforce to claims and procurement.
• Absa Relationship Banking achieved an 88% faster resolution rate on fraud inquiries.
• Groupe Hueber Assurances is scaling personalized client support while cutting administrative overhead.

Together, these results show how digital labor isn’t just a technology play—it’s a strategic move to restore trust and efficiency to the frontlines of financial services.

What this means for ERP Insiders

Rethink workforce planning with embedded digital labor. Enterprise tech leaders must anticipate that digital labor will fill the gap left by retiring professionals and surging service demands. With Agentforce, Salesforce delivers AI agents embedded directly in financial service workflows—not as bolt-ons, but as native team extensions. For ERP strategists, this is a signal: augmenting the human workforce with AI is no longer aspirational—it’s operational.

Integrate AI without compromising compliance. Compliance is non-negotiable in regulated industries. Agentforce ensures every digital task follows built-in regulatory logic—approvals, audit trails, and disclosures included. Unlike general-purpose copilots, Salesforce’s compliance-first architecture makes it safe to scale AI across finance, HR, and customer-facing use cases. This embedded compliance model will become the gold standard as AI pervades ERP stacks.

Drive measurable ROI through pre-built extensibility. Agentforce proves that pre-built AI doesn’t have to mean rigid. With Salesforce’s no-code configurability, firms can customize agents to reflect proprietary processes while still launching fast. ERP leaders should prioritize platforms that offer both speed-to-deployment and extensibility—because in a market demanding agility and precision, speed without control is just risk repackaged.

The post Digital Labor, Real Trust: Salesforce Launches Agentforce to Reinvent Front-Office Financial Services appeared first on ERP Today.

At the heart of that journey: SAP. But for Crounse, this wasn’t a routine ERP upgrade. “This was not just about SAP—it was a digital transformation and simplification mandate,” he says. “We needed a platform that could orchestrate our global supply chain and help us deliver massive $300 million projects on time, or face serious financial penalties.”

Fluence doesn’t manufacture batteries—it orchestrates them. Its business model revolves around designing, delivering, and maintaining utility-scale energy storage systems that stabilize power grids around the world. That requires real-time visibility into a vast, globally distributed supply chain and contract manufacturing network—something Crounse says only SAP could deliver at scale.

After assessing their legacy platforms like NetSuite, Workday, and Salesforce, Fluence determined that they wouldn’t scale to $10 billion in revenue. The team initiated a 13-month SAP implementation covering finance, supply chain, analytics, and sustainability. The result? A 99.7% clean core SAP deployment on Google Cloud via RISE with SAP. “We couldn’t afford custom processes,” Crounse said. “Clean core and standardization were essential to scale at this velocity.”

Speed, in fact, has been a strategic mantra for Crounse. “Speed over perfection,” he says. “In hypergrowth, an MVP mindset is critical. You can’t wait for perfect—you iterate, pivot, and move.”

That mindset also shaped how Fluence approached its implementation partners. While Deloitte handled the front end, Crounse emphasized the importance of transition planning. “I didn’t want to be on the consultant drug forever,” he joked. “We deliberately brought in a boutique partner and built a global delivery model to move from lights-on support to sustainable internal operations.”

Fluence’s SAP footprint is large: it spans S/4HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), Integrated Business Planning (IBP), Sustainability Control Tower, and Signavio. “This wasn’t a finance-only project,” Crounse emphasized. “It was about end-to-end orchestration—from project inception to delivery and long-term asset maintenance.”

With installations across 24 countries and a growing physical presence in strategic markets like India, Germany, and the U.S., Fluence’s localization strategy relies heavily on SAP’s global capabilities. “Made-in-America is part of our strategy, but so is ‘sold-by-Germans-in-Germany’—it’s about being present where sustainability matters most,” Crounse said.

SAP’s role at Fluence also extends into sustainability and AI. As a green energy company, Fluence is exploring SAP Green Ledger and other emerging tools. “We were one of the first to sign up for RISE,” says Crounse. “But I’ve told SAP: I don’t want to be half-in. We need end-to-end cloud-native capabilities, especially as we lean into AI and agent-based operations.”

While Crounse doesn’t foresee AI fundamentally reshaping Fluence’s core engineering work in the short term, he does see operational use cases exploding. “Can I cut my development team by 20% with GenAI? Can we automate testing or generate telemetry insights from our battery systems? These are the questions I’m asking today,” he said.

Fluence’s systems already collect data from thousands of IoT-connected devices, calling home to report temperature changes, performance degradation, or potential safety risks. “Our Battery Management System (BMS) sends alerts like: ‘I’m overheating—turn me down or I’ll shorten my lifespan,’” said Crounse. “This telemetry is where GenAI and SAP tools like AI Core and the Sustainability Control Tower can have real impact.”

The value isn’t just internal. Fluence’s long-term strategy revolves around recurring revenue from post-installation service and maintenance—an area that increasingly relies on smart analytics, AI, and predictive maintenance driven by SAP’s integrated platform capabilities.

For those embarking on similar journeys, Crounse offers straightforward advice: “Keep moving. You won’t hire perfect candidates, you won’t scope perfect processes—but the faster you move, the faster you learn, pivot, and scale. That’s how we’re building Fluence for the long run.”

What this means for ERP insiders

Think clean core for real scale. Fluence’s 99.7% clean core SAP deployment allowed it to grow from $900 million to $4 billion in two years—without tripping over customization bloat. For CIOs facing hypergrowth, clean core isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a requirement. SAP S/4HANA’s standardized processes and modular extensions (like SAP BTP and Signavio) let companies move fast while retaining governance and future-proofing their enterprise stack.

Make your supply chain predictive, not reactive. Fluence treats its global supply chain as a dynamic network, not a linear chain. SAP IBP and SAC provide forward-looking insights that help avoid penalties for late delivery on $300M projects. Tech leaders should invest in predictive analytics and supply chain orchestration platforms that turn data into timely action—especially in capital-intensive industries like energy, aerospace, and automotive.

Lean into sustainability and AI – but don’t get stuck in pilots. From Green Ledger to AI-generated code, Fluence is moving beyond buzzwords. CIOs should evaluate how SAP’s AI Core, Joule, and Sustainability Control Tower integrate with real business scenarios. Don’t pursue AI as a science project—pursue it to reduce headcount where possible, automate processes, and deliver smarter service to customers already demanding accountability and uptime.

The post From SAP Sapphire 2025: Fluence Commits to ‘Speed Over Perfection’ on Hypergrowth Trajectory with SAP appeared first on ERP Today.

“Our previous ERP was over three decades old and simply couldn’t support the complexity and scale of our current manufacturing needs,” said Matt Young, CIO of Structural Group. “Rootstock was chosen for its comprehensive set of capabilities and seamless collaboration with Salesforce Sales Cloud, which we’ve used for years. Rootstock also has a certified Workday integration, which we will leverage as we deploy Workday Financial Management to unify our solutions, ensuring smooth data flow and enhanced efficiency.”

By transitioning to Rootstock ERP, built on the Salesforce platform, the company aimed to unify their operations, from project management to supply chain logistics, under a single, integrated system. The adoption of Rootstock ERP has provided Structural Technologies with:

• Real-Time Visibility: Enhanced tracking of projects, inventory, and financials, enabling proactive decision-making.
• Scalability: A flexible platform that grows with the company’s expanding operations.
• Improved Collaboration: Seamless integration across departments, fostering better communication and efficiency.

“The Rootstock implementation went remarkably well,” added Young. “From the outset, their team took a deep dive into our business challenges, ensuring the ERP was tailored to fit our needs. The go-live was seamless—exactly the kind of smooth transition every company hopes for. Together, we kept our teams engaged and tackled technical challenges head-on. Rootstock’s expertise, responsiveness, and collaborative approach kept this project on track, and we’re excited to build on this strong foundation in the next phase.”

Structural Technologies is now preparing for phase two of its Rootstock ERP implementation, which will expand work order capabilities, enhance overhead cost tracking, and further automate manufacturing processes. This phase will also include the integration between Rootstock ERP and Workforce Financial Management, enabling seamless data flow for deeper financial insights and even greater efficiencies.

What this means for ERP Insiders

Modernize manufacturing without disruption. Tech leaders should recognize that a well-planned ERP implementation doesn’t have to stall operations. Structural Technologies replaced a 30-year-old legacy system with Rootstock ERP—seamlessly. By eliminating manual workflows and integrating a 25-year-old custom engineering system, they gained real-time visibility into forecasts and procurement. The result: more accurate planning, fewer delays, and fully operational work orders. For manufacturers looking to modernize without halting production, Rootstock offers a proven path with agile deployment, minimal disruption, and strong support.

Build a unified, scalable tech stack. ERP should not exist in isolation. Structural Technologies selected Rootstock for its native Salesforce compatibility and certified Workday Financial Management integration. This foundation supports a fully connected enterprise—linking sales, operations, and finance in real time. The Rootstock platform scales with business complexity while minimizing integration overhead. For ERP leaders navigating growth or M&A, prioritizing scalable platforms that unify systems and eliminate data silos is essential to long-term agility and cost control.

Automate for better cost control and decision-making. Rootstock’s cloud-native ERP allowed Structural Technologies to automate labor and material cost calculations with precision—key to understanding true product margins. As they enter phase two, they plan to enhance overhead tracking and deepen manufacturing automation. ERP insiders should view automation not just as a productivity gain, but as a tool for smarter, faster financial decision-making. Rootstock’s real-time data and AI-ready infrastructure put actionable insights into the hands of every decision-maker.

The post Structural Technologies Reinforces Vision with Rootstock ERP appeared first on ERP Today.

Leveraging Platform-Based Strategy

With an ambitious yet focused approach, Inetum is leveraging its platform-based strategy, deep client intimacy, and differentiated delivery model to create meaningful business outcomes across Europe and growing markets. Quashie emphasizes, “From public sector modernization to AI-enabled service innovation, Inetum is positioning itself as a scalable and trusted partner.

“Digital” is a term that’s lost much of its punch through overuse. For Inetum, however, digital transformation isn’t a nebulous aspiration — it’s a defined, data-driven strategy anchored in three principles: cloud-first, data-first, and AI-first.

“When we speak of transformation, it’s about harmonizing technology with business—not just implementing software,” explains Lamba. “We take a platform-centric view, integrating best-in-class solutions like ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft, and across the value chain. That’s where real impact begins.”

This strategy emphasizes seamless integration—from customer acquisition and internal employee experience to backend supply chain and compliance. What sets Inetum apart is its dedication not only to the mid-market and public sector but also to verticalization. We develop industry-specific use cases in areas such as e-health, Industry 4.0, utilities, smart cities, retail, and telecom. This approach ensures that transformation initiatives are not only technical but intimately aligned with industry needs.

Embedding GenAI and Agentic AI

With GenAI and Agentic AI reshaping enterprise value propositions, Inetum has taken a decisive step toward embedding these technologies into its core offerings.

“Innovation is in our DNA,” says Lamba, who also oversees the group’s innovation labs. “We don’t just experiment with GenAI — we’ve built an internal GenAI Hub that is LLM-agnostic and designed to scale. From training to deployment, we help our clients be AI-ready, not just AI-curious.”

The company’s “AI readiness” model begins with robust data foundations, followed by cloud optimization and platform alignment. It’s a pragmatic model that rejects “proof-of-concept fatigue” — a trap many organizations fall into when AI projects stall after initial tests.

“When we speak of transformation, it’s about harmonizing technology with business—not just implementing software. We take a platform-centric view, integrating best-in-class solutions across the value chain.” – Hemant Lamba, CEO of Inetum Solutions

Inetum’s enterprise AI solutions range from predictive analytics and workflow automation to Agentic AI that enables autonomous decision-making within defined business constraints. Its early selection by ServiceNow as one of the top 10 partners to pilot its Agentic AI use cases further underscores Inetum’s credentials.

Focused Market Strategy

Inetum focuses squarely on markets where it can build depth, not just breadth. Nearly 100% of its business is concentrated in Europe, particularly in mid-market enterprises and the public sector.

“We’ve worked closely with regional governments and public institutions,” Quashie notes. “We speak the languages, understand the regulations, and build intimacy at a regional level.”

This intimacy fuels trust—an asset Inetum cultivates deliberately. Its best-shore strategy, a hybrid of nearshore, offshore, and on-site delivery, reflects this client-centric ethos. Whether it’s leveraging SAP expertise from Portugal or deploying ServiceNow talent from Bulgaria and India, the company offers flexibility without compromising cultural relevance or quality.

Culture as a Competitive Differentiator

To Quashie and Lamba, culture is more than a corporate cliché—it’s a competitive differentiator. Both have gathered leadership across geographies to co-create trust-focused team norms, emphasizing trust, accountability, and excellence.

“In a high-trust environment, people are empowered to innovate and take responsibility,” Lamba explains. “Culture isn’t taught—it’s experienced.”

Quashie echoes this sentiment, pointing to Inetum’s strategic bet on the UK and Ireland (UKI) as a proving ground for cultural and operational cohesion. With Inetum’s acquisition of ServiceNow specialist Unifii, the UKI market has become a launchpad for its broader strategy of organic growth in the growing markets.

Disciplined Expansion

Despite operating in a competitive landscape, Inetum’s growth strategy avoids the pitfalls of undisciplined expansion. Instead, it targets high-potential regions like the UK and Ireland, combining local acquisitions with innovation labs and deep partner ecosystems.

Their success in public sector IT has been bolstered by the UK government’s BOS2 framework (RM6285), G-Cloud 14 and DOS 6, giving Inetum direct access to public sector procurement for cloud and hybrid SaaS solutions. These strategic footholds are part of a deliberate plan to replicate their proven European model in newer markets.

“Focus is our superpower,” Quashie notes. “We’re not trying to be everything to everyone. We’re solving real problems in sectors we understand deeply.”

With over 7,000 experts in its Solutions unit and a goal to double its team size in the coming years, Inetum places massive emphasis on capability building. Its 2025 certification strategy aims to ensure 100% of consultants are certified across its four core platforms— ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft.

Centers of Excellence

Regional hubs such as Bulgaria (ServiceNow), Portugal (SAP), and Belgium (Microsoft) are not only delivery centers but also Centers of Excellence. These hubs enable Inetum to execute at scale while retaining regional specificity, a balance few competitors manage well.

“Focus is our superpower. We’re not trying to be everything to everyone. We’re solving real problems in sectors we understand deeply.” – Kathy Quashie, EVP and CEO of Inetum Growing Markets

Moreover, each hub operates with internal academies and innovation labs. We have seven GenAI Hubs across Europe to accelerate learning and product development in tandem.

Overcoming AI Fatigue

Lamba acknowledges the industry-wide fatigue around AI. “There’s too much ‘death by POC,’” he quips. “Everyone is experimenting, but few are scaling. Our approach is grounded—we ask: What is the business case? Are you AI-ready? If not, we get you there.”

Inetum’s GenAI Factory is a cornerstone of this effort, offering enterprises a structured way to develop, deploy, and scale generative and agentic AI solutions across their platforms. This includes industry-specific applications already live in ServiceNow’s marketplace.

Enterprise-First AI Approach

Lamba stresses, “Crucially, Inetum’s AI approach is enterprise-first. Inetum helps clients bridge structured and unstructured data environments, a key hurdle in most GenAI implementations. Whether dealing with legacy databases or real-time cloud services, the goal is to unify and extract value seamlessly”. Security is also paramount. As AI expands, so do the risks. Inetum’s AI roadmap includes a strong focus on zero-trust frameworks and cybersecurity, integrating safety protocols from day one.

Bold Ambitions and Repeatable Playbook

Inetum’s ambitions are bold: to be the uncontested leader in digital transformation for Europe’s upper mid-market and public sector. Yet, it’s the clarity of execution that’s winning clients. Its playbook is repeatable: start with client intimacy, build on trusted platforms, layer in AI and data, and deliver through a blended nearshore/onshore model. It’s a strategy grounded in execution, not hype.

As Lamba puts it, “We’re not interested in being the loudest voice—we want to be the most dependable one.”

Inetum’s story is not one of radical reinvention but one of focused excellence. For C-level leaders navigating a complex landscape of AI promises, hybrid cloud realities, and digital fatigue, Inetum offers a model worth emulating: pragmatic innovation, deeply local engagement, and an uncompromising focus on results. At a time when many digital transformation narratives are fraying under scrutiny, Inetum’s is just beginning to unfold—with clarity, credibility, and a roadmap built not just for growth, but for trust.

What This Means for ERP Insiders

Focus on industry-specific solutions and deep platform integration. Inetum’s competitive advantage lies in its verticalization strategy (developing industry-specific use cases) and its platform-centric approach, integrating best-in-class solutions like ServiceNow, SAP, Salesforce and Microsoft. The company focuses on understanding the unique needs of specific industries like smart cities, e-health or utilities, for example, and ensuring seamless integration of ERP systems within a broader digital ecosystem. As Quashie aptly summarized, “Thus, seeking partners, like Inetum, who not only implement ERP but also possess deep industry knowledge and a proven track record for delivering tangible business outcomes.”

Emphasize client intimacy and a trust-focused culture for true success. Deep client intimacy, particularly within the European mid-market and public sector, leveraging regional understanding and a blended delivery model are some of the hallmarks that have made Inetum successful. As Quashie and Lamba point out, their internal culture emphasizes trust, accountability, and excellence. This underscores the value of prioritizing strong, long-term relationships, understanding regional context and regulations, and fostering a collaborative and trustworthy engagement. All these factors can result in more tailored ERP implementations and ongoing support that aligns with an organization’s specific needs and cultural nuances.

Focus on AI readiness and scalability for pragmatic innovation. Inetum’s approach to innovation, particularly with AI, emphasizes practical application and scalability rather than just experimentation. Their “AI readiness” model, starting with data foundations and cloud optimization, aims to avoid “proof-of-concept fatigue.” This highlights the fact that when organizations seek implementation partners, they must look for one that can guide them through a structured AI adoption journey, ensuring their data and infrastructure are prepared for AI integration. The partner should help the organization focus on solutions that can be scaled for real business impact within their ERP landscape and beyond. This is what Inetum’s mission is all about – to help our customers transform potential into performance.

The post Unlocking Digital Impact: Inetum Redefines Transformation Through Platform Ecosystems and AI Innovation appeared first on ERP Today.

“Winning Gold three years in a row is a tremendous honor—and a reflection of our team’s relentless innovation and focus on customer success,” said Rick Berger, CEO of Rootstock Software. “This Gold Stevie Award is also a tribute to the results our customers have achieved,” added Berger.

ERP As Digital Nervous System

At the heart of Rootstock’s platform is what it calls the “Signal Chain”—a connected framework across demand, supply, and production capacity. It’s a digital nervous system for manufacturers, enabling them to forecast demand, simulate sourcing changes, and fine-tune production with speed and clarity. In an era of trade tension, supply chain disruption, and economic whiplash, that kind of intelligence isn’t just nice to have—it’s survival gear.

Award judges and industry analysts alike praised Rootstock for its rapid release cycles, tight customer feedback loops, and embedded AI. “Rootstock’s financial and transactional enhancements equip finance and operations teams with precise tools to optimize decision-making in complex manufacturing environments,” one judge noted.

With global manufacturing on track to reach $16.6 trillion in 2025 (World Bank and Statista data) and digital transformation spend expected to top $3.4 trillion by 2026 (International Data Corporation), companies are under pressure to modernize fast. Rootstock’s momentum suggests it’s not just keeping up—it’s helping lead the charge.

What This Means for ERP Insiders

Modernization is no longer optional: The triple Gold win underscores a broader shift: legacy ERP systems are increasingly seen as liabilities. Rootstock’s continued recognition reflects a market shift towards AI-native, cloud-first architectures that minimize technical debt and accelerate deployment timelines. That said, the prevailing direction isn’t necessarily full cloud migration for everyone. The most forward-looking organizations are adopting situationally adaptive hybrid models—balancing public cloud, private cloud, and on-prem infrastructure to meet performance, regulatory, and business continuity needs. ERP leaders still managing fully on-prem or heavily customized systems should reevaluate whether their architectures can support dynamic forecasting, scenario planning, or intelligent automation—all of which are quickly becoming essential capabilities.

AI: from hype to business muscle: Rootstock’s customers are translating AI from buzzword to bottom-line results—specifically through predictive AI used in forecasting and inventory simulation. These capabilities power intelligent workflows that support real-time decision-making across production and supply chain functions. In a world where businesses must respond within hours—not weeks—this form of operational AI is becoming the backbone of agility. According to a Rootstock customer case study shared in 2025, a mid-market electronics manufacturer achieved a 40% reduction in demand planning time and a 15% boost in on-time delivery by leveraging Rootstock’s predictive AI tools to flag sourcing risks before they triggered delays.

Velocity is the new differentiator: Rootstock’s focus on customer success isn’t just anecdotal; it’s operationalized. The company has built an ERP solution that allows manufacturers to pivot rapidly in response to tariffs, labor fluctuations, or global disruptions. For ERP decision-makers, the lesson is clear: speed, adaptability, and user empowerment are today’s true differentiators. Rootstock’s modular, cloud-native design enables faster implementation and continuous configuration—qualities that leading manufacturers now consider essential to staying competitive in a volatile market. Companies embracing this kind of composable, business-led approach are seeing measurable gains in deployment speed and cost efficiency—not in theory, but in practice.

The post Rootstock Grabs Gold—Again: Cloud ERP With Staying Power appeared first on ERP Today.

“What’s new is that you cannot predict your input costs, which is a huge portion of any kind of manufacturing profitability,” Raj Badarinath, Chief Product & Marketing Officer at Rootstock, tells ERP Today.

He notes that while policy and politics are factors beyond direct control, technology offers tangible solutions. “As a modern ERP, we are absolutely keeping our eyes on how can we help manufacturers to track landing costs, manage planning and budgeting, and find alternate local suppliers that bring costs back in line,” he says.

Born in the Cloud, Built for Resilience

A core tenet of Rootstock’s approach is its cloud-native architecture. Unlike many legacy ERP systems retrofitted for the cloud, Rootstock was designed from the ground up on the Salesforce platform. Badarinath argues that this distinction is crucial for agility and resilience.

He shares a stark example: The warehouse of one of Rootstock’s customers, a mid-sized chemical manufacturer, shockingly caught fire during ERP implementation, and everything burned down. While the physical loss was significant, their software transformation remained largely unscathed. “Because they were going with Rootstock, which is cloud-based, they were able to recover with the software transformation that they were going through almost immediately,” Badarinath recalls. “They could use distribution resource planning (DRP) to get back on track within days of the fire.” This real-world crisis highlights that cloud infrastructure is not just a modern trend but a vital component of business continuity.

Being built on the Salesforce platform also provides Rootstock with inherent advantages in configurability and usability. “If anybody’s used Salesforce, guess what? Rootstock ERP is that easy to use,” Badarinath asserts, contrasting it with older systems whose interfaces often resemble outdated technology.

Cutting Through Complexity

In a crowded ERP market, Rootstock differentiates itself with a clear philosophy: unify critical business signals on a single platform. “If you want to bring together demand, supply, and capacity in one platform, it is important that, from an ERP standpoint, all of these are on the same cloud,” Badarinath states. The goal is to minimize complex and failure-prone integrations.

Rootstock calls this unified approach the “Signal Chain.” He explains that manufacturers gain a seamless front-office-to-back-office view by keeping CRM (demand source, often Salesforce itself), ERP (supply and capacity management), and financials on the same platform. Crucially, this integration “sets the foundation for clean, consistent data, which can drive AI,” he says.

Recognizing that manufacturing ERP can be inherently complex, Rootstock is heavily investing in user experience (UX), with new features announced during its Spring ’25 release. “Manufacturing ERP is complex because there hasn’t been a real investment in simplification. But we believe it can be simplified,” Badarinath says, noting that the aim is an intuitive design where a user knows exactly what they are doing with a few clicks.

AI That Matters for Manufacturing

“Rootstock’s annual survey has found that “82% of manufacturers are going to be investing in AI technology in some way,” notes Badarinath. The company is channeling this demand into its “AIRS” (AI from Rootstock) initiative, built upon Salesforce’s Agentforce platform.

In contrast to generic AI, AIRS focuses on specific, high-value manufacturing use cases through dedicated AI agents. “Why not have an agent that actually looks at your entire data set and can determine how to help the business in a much more active way?” Badarinath explains, referencing a potential Tariff Agent that is built into AIRS for manufacturers—other planned agents target engineering, planning, production, and finance.

According to Badarinath, the company’s vision for AIRS incorporates three key concepts:

• Atomic: Modular, composable ERP functions
• Touchless: Voice-based, conversational interaction using large language models (LLMs)
• Agentic: Autonomous, intelligent agents providing foresight and decision support

Together, these concepts “create a touchless ERP paradigm where you can talk to your ERP, and you don’t necessarily need to click on things,” he suggests.

Bridging the Skills Gap with Technology

Perhaps one of the most pressing challenges is the manufacturing labor shortage—“The Evergreen challenge,” as Badarinath calls it, with potentially 2.1 million jobs unfilled. Compounding this is the generational skills gap between experienced plant veterans and tech-savvy newcomers. Badarinath notes that AI, within the Rootstock framework, offers a bridge.

“It’ll be tough to do [reshoring and bridging the gap] without AI,” Badarinath states plainly. With this in mind. Rootstock aims to build AI capabilities that help manufacturers do more with less, capturing veteran knowledge in machine learning models and using AI co-pilots and agents to guide the new workforce. “We want to have the idea of having a conversation with your ERP versus having to have a traditional training process,” he concludes, seeing conversational AI as key to faster onboarding and upskilling.

Finally, by focusing on resilience, integration, intuitive design, and targeted AI, Rootstock aims to equip discrete and project-based manufacturers to not only survive the current volatility but also build a more intelligent, agile, and future-proof operation.

What This Means for ERP Insiders

Market trends favor industry-specific cloud ERPs like Rootstock. Manufacturing is the largest adopter of ERP systems, representing 47% of the market, according to industry reports. Recent studies also indicate that around 65% of organizations opt for cloud-based ERP, with some projections anticipating over 85% of organizations may adopt a cloud-first strategy. Within the cloud, SaaS is a preferred model, and there’s growing demand for industry-specific cloud platforms – with over half of enterprise businesses forecast to rely on these industry clouds by 2028. Rootstock’s focus on complex discrete manufacturers, particularly in verticals like Industrial Equipment & Machinery, High-Tech, Aerospace & Defense, Medical Devices, and project-based environments aligns with these developments. Manufacturers in these sectors are increasingly choosing cloud ERPs built for their specific needs by evaluating vendors based on their vertical expertise and ability to deliver relevant functionality, minimizing customization and leveraging platform strengths like Rootstock’s use of Salesforce.

Ongoing geopolitical uncertainty means tariffs continue to impact input costs. Manufacturers should expect their ERP providers to offer robust tools for accurate landed cost calculation, real-time visibility, scenario planning, and potentially AI-driven alternative sourcing suggestions to overcome these challenges. When considering a hybrid cloud strategy, key decision criteria must include identifying which applications gain most from cloud versus on-prem, ensuring seamless data integration and workflow orchestration between environments, evaluating security protocols across boundaries, and understanding the total cost of ownership, including managing the hybrid complexity. An organization’s ERP strategy must directly address tariff volatility with advanced cost tracking and supply chain visibility tools.

Focus on quantifiable results and futureproofing with AI and integration. Rootstock customers like Matouk, Unionwear and Boston Dynamics have reported specific results such as 98% improvements in inventory accuracy, a 15% increase in on-time delivery rates, and streamlined processes like quote-to-cash, respectively. These examples show that manufacturers must evaluate ERP solutions not just on current features but on their ability to deliver measurable business improvements and their vision for leveraging AI and seamless data integration to address future challenges like labor shortages and increasing operational complexity.

The post Navigating the Manufacturing Maze with Rootstock’s Cloud ERP appeared first on ERP Today.

Harmonizing data across these systems is a foundational step manufacturers must cover before they can implement the type of sophisticated predictive analytics, supply chain optimization and sales forecasting that contribute to the success of the world’s largest manufacturers. Yet, fewer than half of manufacturing data teams assess themselves as successful in achieving this.

Large manufacturing companies must efficiently blend data across multiple ecosystems, across on-premises systems and the cloud, to establish a data foundation capable of powering enterprise AI initiatives.

A global pharmaceutical manufacturer with an extensive network of facilities, including two chemical plants, seven manufacturing plants, and numerous R&D and distribution centers worldwide, faced this challenge. When effective decision-making requires data that is sourced from multiple systems and platforms, how can this data be efficiently blended to drive the business forward?

The Challenge: Connecting disparate ecosystems

The company’s Business Intelligence (BI) team faced a daunting challenge: They needed to replicate critical financial, operational, and CRM data from various systems, including SAP, Salesforce, Power BI Cloud, and SQL Server. However, the integration process was complicated due to:

• A mix of cloud and on-premises environments, requiring seamless connectivity.
• Reliance on Salesforce for CRM and Power BI for analytics, which needed real-time data access to existing SAP systems.
• Manual SSIS-based data pipelines, which were labor-intensive and inefficient for large-scale data transfers.

The organization’s three-person BI team struggled to keep up with data demands, as manually creating pipelines for Salesforce and Microsoft data integration took days or even weeks, limiting their ability to provide real-time insights that drive robust decisions from organizational leadership.

CData Sync for ERP integration with Microsoft and Salesforce ecosystems

To overcome these integration hurdles, the pharma company turned to CData Sync, a powerful, automated data replication tool that seamlessly integrates Microsoft and Salesforce platforms with existing ERP systems like SAP. By implementing this solution, it achieved:

• Automated, real-time data replication between Salesforce, Power BI Cloud, and SQL Server.
• Improved analytics capabilities, allowing data from their CRM (Salesforce) and ERP (SAP) to be visualized in Power BI effortlessly.
• Efficient handling of 1.5 billion rows of data monthly, ensuring scalability and reliability.
• A hybrid integration approach, connecting on-premises SQL Server databases with cloud platforms like Power BI and Salesforce.

CData Sync allowed the business to integrate Microsoft SQL Server and Salesforce with SAP by creating a seamless, automated data pipeline. This eliminated the need for manual coding and maintenance of SSIS pipelines, enabling real-time synchronization of CRM, financial, and supply chain data across platforms.

Additionally, the integration ensured that Power BI reports reflect the latest insights, empowering decision-makers with accurate, timely data.

“With CData Sync, we’ve eliminated manual data transfers and now have a fully automated integration between Salesforce, SQL Server, and Power BI,” the BI team’s manager said.

The results? Optimized data integration has contributed to Recordati’s 31% annual revenue growth, empowering 3,500 global data users all the way up to the C-Suite to make informed, data-driven decisions about production, inventory and the broader supply chain.

Expanding data integration capabilities

Building on this success, the company now plans to further expand its Salesforce and Microsoft integrations by:

• Incorporating additional data sources into its analytics ecosystem.
• Replacing more SSIS pipelines with CData Sync’s automated processes.
• Enhancing cross-platform reporting capabilities to further optimize business intelligence.

What this means for ERP Insiders

Automating ERP data preparation contributes to a more agile, competitive business. Organizations using CData Sync have reported a 90% reduction in time-to-value for data integration. This means that operational data is more readily available to decision-makers across the organization – for the pharma company, reports that previously took days to compile are now available seven times faster, enabling it to react swiftly to market changes. This agility ultimately contributed to 31% year-over-year growth for the business.

Enhance operational efficiency through real-time ERP data integration with analytics platforms. ERP users eliminate manual pipeline development and reduce operational overhead by unifying their data. For organizations leveraging Microsoft, Salesforce and a variety of other ecosystems, products like CData Sync provide a robust solution for real-time data integration, automation, and analytics enablement – supporting reporting platforms like PowerBI, Tableau, and SAP Analytics Cloud This means that business users can more easily access high-quality data that is ready for analytics, enhancing their efficiency and insight.

Seamless cross-platform connectivity enables deeper, more meaningful analytics. By providing the ability to harmonize data across operational systems like ERPs, CRMs, databases, etc., solutions like CData Sync ensure a unified view of the supply chain, sales, production processes, etc. Users can utilize these solutions to easily connect data across ecosystems like Microsoft, SAP, NetSuite, and Salesforce to develop end-to-end visibility and analytics across your organization’s operations.

The post Turning manufacturing data into competitive advantage with CData appeared first on ERP Today.

This move aims to enhance manufacturing, improve supply chain visibility, and bolster reporting capabilities for AIRSYS.

“Selecting Rootstock ERP is a strategic step in the modernization and consolidation of our enterprise solutions, enabling us to effectively scale for exponential growth over the next three to five years,” said Yunshui Chen, CEO of AIRSYS. “We operate in rapidly evolving industries, including AI semiconductors and medical imaging, and need a modern, scalable ERP solution to support our global supply chain. Since Rootstock is built on the same platform as Salesforce Sales Cloud and Propel Software, we can create an interconnected technology stack.”

With 30 years of history rooted in China, AIRSYS has become a global enterprise at the forefront of innovation. The company is expanding into critical areas like AI server cooling, driven by the increasing demand for artificial intelligence technologies.

Previously, AIRSYS relied on a legacy ERP system. However, Rootstock ERP will provide real-time visibility, automate processes, and improve decision-making across AIRSYS’ global operations.

“Rootstock ERP’s modern capabilities and native integration with Salesforce will empower AIRSYS to streamline its operations, scale globally, and continue delivering exceptional value to its customers,” said Rick Berger, CEO of Rootstock Software.

The Rootstock implementation will begin with AIRSYS’ manufacturing operations, targeting a Q1 2025 go-live date. This phase will be integrated with Propel PLM and their existing Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud deployments.

Subsequent phases will migrate AIRSYS’ US operations from their legacy ERP to Rootstock, ensuring global alignment.

Nagarro, the key systems integration partner, will play a critical role in implementing Rootstock.

What This Means for ERP Insiders

AIRSYS will strengthen the customer experience through Salesforce integration.  A 2023 report by Salesforce emphasizes the benefits of connected systems, suggesting that companies with integrated CRM and ERP see double-digit improvements in sales productivity and customer satisfaction. Similar research indicates that best-in-class companies (those with tight CRM-ERP integration) achieve higher customer retention rates and improved sales cycle times. For example, best-in-class companies achieve a 12% greater year-over-year increase in customer satisfaction. Thus, tight integration, like the one Rootstock offers with Salesforce, benefits end users who seek to enhance their customers’ overall experience.

A cloud-native architecture will allow AIRSYS to scale growth.  Studies show that cloud ERP adoption is growing, with a significant percentage of mid-sized and large enterprises moving to cloud-based solutions to support global expansion. SAPinsider research also suggests that cloud ERP deployments can lead to faster time-to-value and reduced IT infrastructure costs, which are crucial for scaling businesses. Moreover, Rootstock is built on the Salesforce platform, a cloud-native environment known for scalability. This architecture allows Rootstock to handle large volumes of data and transactions and to easily add users and resources as a business grows.

Industry-specific functionality is a must for successful ERP implementation.  While AIRSYS’s specific industry needs are unique, the concept of industry-specific ERP is widely recognized. Studies indicate that many ERP implementations fail due to a lack of fit with the specific industry requirements. Rootstock’s flexibility and configurability, allowing for integration with PLM systems like Propel and adaptation to particular manufacturing processes, address this need.

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