White Collar Productivity
ERP systems evolved into integrated suites handling the mundane – blue collar - tasks of Finance (G/L), Budgeting, Receivables (A/R), Payables (A/P), Inventory, Time & Expense, Distribution, Invoicing, Purchasing, etc. all in one integrated package or suite, replacing best-of-breed point solutions.
Integration provided “blue collar” productivity improvement that made ERP the superior offering and was the key driver behind the ERP-revolution in the 1990´s and the increased efficiency throughout the production industries.
Knowledge workers in the creative part of the service industries did not see the same “white collar” productivity improvement. Yes, they captured time and expenses more accurately and got more control of the financial part of budgeting for projects – in other words all the structured information.
Unstructured information – i.e. project scope changes, contract amendments and the like – and necessary collaboration between corporate silos were lacking, too formal and not timely. AND lacking not just because of culture differences between the corporate silos of Finance, Legal and Creative groups but because available tools were cumbersome, inadequate and non-intuitive.
cBrains new product line, ”The Knowledge Worker Desktop”, is developed to fulfil the demand within white collar industries, where increased productivity of knowledge work and more efficient knowledge sharing is crucial for organizations in order to increase competitiveness and bottom line results.
The figure below illustrates how “Integration” is the key driver behind a software paradigm shift:
Figure: Integration is the foundation for more effective tools
Best-of-Breed Integrated Packages
Blue Collar Point Solutions: -------> ERP: Integrated
Financial and Financial and
Production Packages Production Packages
White Collar Point Solutions: ------> Knowledge Worker
Personal Productivity and Desktop
Information Management