The promise of the end-to-end, fully integrated ERP (enterprise resource planning) system for omnichannel retail was never fully realised; too long to implement, too expensive to run, and too rigid to adapt to rapidly changing business and consumer demands - a jack of all trades, but master of none.
Instead, retailers are increasingly adopting a more composable, best-of-breed approach to their operations; implementing a range of systems using cloud-native, headless and API technologies and SaaS/software as a service solutions far better suited to the specific needs of their business
This approach brings many benefits including improved business performance and the flexibility to add, or swap out, solutions as companies grow and evolve, and new digital capabilities emerge.
Composable Commerce - Not Without Its Own Set of Challenges
Whilst the shift from traditional ERP systems to composable commerce solutions offers many benefits, it has its challenges. The biggest challenges of a plug-and-play approach are the need to integrate and share data across multiple systems and applications, and the difficulty of establishing a unified view of customers, sales and inventory.
The more systems and applications involved, the more challenging this becomes. And tech stacks today can be massive! For example, in its 2024 SaaS Management Index report, Zylo found the average organization has 269 applications. For the average small business with 500 or fewer employees, the figure is 162. Mid-market companies with between 501 and 2,500 employees have 245 apps on average, and large enterprises with more than 10,000 employees have 650 apps on average.
If data is not well-orchestrated, it increases the risk of siloed and incomparable data, with source data from different systems using different data structures, formats and processes. In turn, this creates gaps and inconsistencies in data. Plus, limitations in plug-and-play reporting capabilities can result in a huge amount of unproductive time spent extracting and manipulating data. Time that is far better spent on actioning data insights.
When integrated well, a composable approach enables businesses to realise the same benefits of an ERP system with a more flexible and agile architecture, including:
a single source of truth across the whole business - customers, sales and stock
streamlined data management and increased automation
advanced analytics and enhanced reporting capabilities with real-time information
a 360° view of the customer for more personalised experiences
optimised tech stacks
scalability to support business growth and changing consumer and business demands.
Seamlessly orchestrating data across multiple systems requires a holistic approach to data management and integration.
How Datitude Helps Orchestrate Composable Commerce!
Datitude's managed data platform pulls everything together; putting an integration and data layer at the heart of your tech ecosystem, streamlining data flows, eliminating data lags and making it easier to monitor, manage and keep up-to-date. Data exchanges are simplified and streamlined, and provide the “single source of truth” for immediate visibility of business performance, reports and analysis.
By combining an integration hub, data lakehouse and analytics services, Datitude's platform provides retailers and brands with everything they need to connect, integrate and unify data in a single solution.
1. Integration Hub - Data Exchange
Datitude’s integration hub pulls data from various source systems and loads normalised and enriched data into the data lakehouse through ETL processes, while also ensuring data that needs to be shared is pushed to the relevant systems.
2. Data Lakehouse - Data Repository
All data is stored in the data lakehouse, a petascale cloud-based service built on AWS (Amazon Web Services) technology. One of the many benefits of a data lakehouse is a complete data history, no matter how many times a solution is replaced.
3. Reports and Analytics - A “Single Source of Truth”
With Datitude, data stored in the lakehouse becomes the “single source of truth” and everyone is accessing the same curated data. Reports and analytics provide a complete, accurate and up-to-the-minute view of the business and customer - automatically produced and disseminated with a suite of tools to enable further interrogation as needed.
About Datitude
Datitude is transforming how businesses connect, integrate, and unify their data. Our data platform and service provide the unifying framework to enable businesses to get what they need from their data, when they want it, in the format they need. A true single source of truth. No silos.
Datitude’s award-winning platform is proven to deliver and is trusted equally by mighty retailers and ambitious, fast-scaling, brands who need better access to their data, and valuable intelligence and actionable insights they can rely on.
If you're struggling to integrate, access or understand your data and need expert help, call us on +44 (0)20 3003 5000 or email hello@datitude.co.uk.