In a scenario marked by the acceleration of digital transformation, the systems of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) consolidate as strategic foundations to boost operational efficiency. More than management tools, these platforms evolve into intelligent ecosystems, integrating disruptive technologies such as cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to respond to the demands of a hyperconnected market.

Initially focused on transactional stability and data integrity, ERP has become a strategic element, shaping the digital transformation journey of companies.In a combined scenario of historical robustness and with new analytical capabilities, embedded intelligence and automation journeys, ERP becomes a cog for innovation, making room for a new approach to services.

Transition to cloud-based ERP

Migration to models cloud-based gartner data indicates that 85% of large enterprises will adopt cloud ERP by the end of 2025, driven by advantages such as dynamic scalability, reduced operating costs and continuous upgrades. Eliminating hardware investments and ensuring remote access with integrated disaster recovery transforms business agility, enabling organizations of all sizes to adapt to market fluctuations in real time.

Universal mobile access

Demand for ubiquitous access requires ERPs to transcend physical boundaries.Rugged mobile features, with intuitive interfaces similar to consumer-grade applications, allow employees to approve production orders, track financial metrics, or manage supply chains directly from smartphones. This portability not only eliminates logistical bottlenecks, but also synchronizes critical decisions with the speed of modern business.

Embedded Business Intelligence

The era of intuition-based decision-making is gradually coming to an end. Contemporary ERP platforms incorporate predictive analytics and interactive dashboards, consolidating as single sources of truthby integrating data visualizations and self-service reports, they eliminate fragmentation between systems and deliver actionable insights from cost optimizations to demand forecasts. According to Grand View Research, this move will contribute to the ERP market reaching US$ 64.83 billion by 2025, with annual growth of 11.7%.

AI and Machine Learning in process autonomy

Machine learning algorithms are rewriting the logic of ERPs. By analyzing historical and behavioral patterns, these solutions not only automate repetitive tasks, but anticipate failures in production lines, customize workflows, and refine tax forecasts with increasing accuracy.Forbes projects that by 2025, more than 90% of enterprise applications will integrate AI, a leap that redefines human-machine interaction, transferring reactive functions to cognitive systems.

Connecting smart businesses with IoT

The convergence between ERP and Internet of Things materializes the vision of smart enterprisesensors embedded in physical assets, from industrial machines to logistics vehicles, feed systems with real-time data, allowing algorithms to detect anomalies, adjust delivery routes or optimize energy consumption autonomously. This interaction between physical and digital worlds not only eliminates manual intermediaries, but creates virtuous cycles where each operation generates intelligence for the next.

The future is already contextual

Even with all the benefits, ERP transformation still presents a key challenge, which is perceived cost x delivered value. There are still challenges of perception about return on investment (ROI), especially for companies that adopt migration in a partial or conservative way.

Looking ahead, the tools that support the upgrade with the growing maturity and consolidation of practices such as clean core and cloud-first strategy, the scenario becomes more promising for companies that decide to move forward.

While traditional ERPs were limited to recording transactions, the new generations of these systems act as digital orchestratorsthe combination of cloud computing, ubiquitous mobility and prescriptive analytics draws a picture where efficiency ceases to be metric to become a continuous, adaptive, proactive and, above all, invisible process. For companies that aim for digital maturity, the message is clear: integrate or lag behind.

The image of a company goes beyond a mere logo or slogan. Certainly, you know some business that became famous and represented by some CEO, founder or professional, who become “a face of the company” 0 as occurred with Apple, Tesla, and many others. This personification, however natural and often inevitable to occur, is not always something 100% positive to the parties, something that deserves to be looked at with greater attention in order to avoid image risks that harm operations.

There are several ways in which a corporate personification can take place, either by representing the culture and values of the brand in a particular professional (something more directed from the door inside), or in a more marketable aspect, where customers recognize a certain person as someone influential in commercial agreements, who solves the problems or with whom they accept to relate in the acquisition of the products or services offered.

For the business community, having this personification can be advantageous to some extent, considering their power of influence before a greater representation in the market, increased sales and partnerships signed. However, negatively, end up at the mercy of this talent for various operational issues, with a high risk of suffering large losses if this professional resigns.

In the long run, this is a concern that needs to be on the radar of companies, being able to make key turns along their journey through a solidified culture that does not depend on one or a few people to thrive.

Looking at the Tesla scenario, as an example, as much as electric cars are taking over Europe, sales of the American company fell 45% in January this year, compared to the same month of 2024, according to the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA). The reason for this is mainly due to the political position of Elon Musk, the great embodiment of the brand, which has generated a series of disagreements that not only triggered protests, but also caused Tesla shares to plummet more than 25% in the last month.

This situation reflects the dangers that a professional who has the “cara of the company” can cause, not only for the organization itself, but for the talent itself. After all, if you want to disconnect from the business and follow a different path, how will you eliminate this association in a new opportunity and detach, without there being any reflection or influence of your previous experience to another brand?

The impacts of personalization can reach companies of all sizes and segments, as well as all professionals in different chairs. A huge challenge to be overcome that does not have a cake recipe as a response to mitigate any obstacles, being something that needs to be followed with maximum care at all times by all involved, seeking not to centralize this image and responsibility in only one professional.

It is essential that companies have this concern with corporate prosperity, considering, of course, the satisfaction and growth of their teams, but prevailing the competitive prominence of the brand, protecting its culture and shielding itself against an extremely influential personification. Thus, the chances of suffering a movement that brings something abrupt to either side are minimized, valuing the best possible business performance and its good reputation in the segment.

In a survey conducted in 2023 by Sebrae, it was found that Brazil and therefore Brazilians are one of the people who most seek to undertake. We occupy the 8th position in the global ranking of entrepreneurs, with 30.1% of the adult population involved with the business world.In 2024, according to another study by GEM, this number rose to 33.4%, representing a third of our population. These data show that the growing desire and attempt to undertake of Brazilians is remarkable. However, several end up performing their actions without a direction, which impacts the very negative growth, of form, the very negative growth of these companies. 

Although it is interesting to reflect on the reasons that lead this number to be so high in Brazil, we need to strengthen attention in the analysis of the mortality rate within the sector. In a study conducted by IBGE in 2022, as an example, 60% of companies in Brazil do not survive after five years of activities. A very alarming fact for all who seek to open their businesses: although Brazilians have a very strong entrepreneurial spirit, many are disappointed with the results and have no outlets other than to announce the bankruptcy of the business. But why does this happen? 

According to another study conducted by Sebrae, based on RFB data and field research conducted between 2018 and 2021, the three main factors that cause business failure are: poor personal preparation, poor business planning and poor business management. 

On the one hand, Brazilians seek to undertake, and this should be praised. However, the creation of enterprises without proper planning and personal preparation only results, in most cases, in money being thrown away. 

Analyzing most companies through the marketing perspective, many have no differential, and it is necessary to understand that having one or several differentials, currently, is essential to even start walking this “road of the entrepreneur”.  

To illustrate, imagine that a possible customer is looking for a shirt. Between two companies, one of them has differentials in their values, payment methods and even in actions aimed at the environment. On the other hand, the second company was recently created, has no differentials and, in addition, presents forms of payment more rigid than the competitor. It is evident that the final consumer will definitely choose the first option. 

Brands that do not have differentials will be treated as commodities. These are only different places that sell the same “arroz and” beans, without competitive differential, without attractiveness.This was also proven in another study conducted by Think Consumer Goods and released by Google, which found that 64% of Brazilians do not have preferred brands and take into account factors such as price and personal values to make their product choices.  

In Generation Z (GenZ), formed by born from 1995, brand infidelity reaches 65%, still according to the research. It can be inferred from this research that Brazilians, especially this generation, will look for brands that align with their values, and may stop buying in large chains to go in a small venture that presents interesting differentials in the eyes of the consumer.  

This scenario shows that if you do not have differentials, potential customers will stop buying in your trade to go to the competitor that has these points of individualization. The market today has become complex and, because of this, brands that think about selling products as commodities will not be able to thrive.  

While some sell a shoe, others sell a Nike running shoe, in a chain of stores that has a commitment to sustainability, solidarity and social responsibility actions, focus on customer experience, appreciation of human values, digital engagement with purpose, etc. Everything will depend on how you position yourself and differentiate from those who do the same as your business. 

That Brazil is a huge barn for cybercrime, and more and more companies suffer from ransomware.WE already know. But what can organizations do to face this complex scenario? The general context is alarming, and requires organizations to invest in adopting a proactive stance when it comes to cybersecurity. And it is in this sense that threat intelligence, or Threat Intelligence can be used to prevent possible attacks.

Recent statistics show an exponential increase in the number of attacks, with cybercriminals employing increasingly sophisticated techniques to exploit vulnerabilities.These attacks involve encrypting critical company data, followed by a ransom demand to restore access.However, simple data recovery is not the only problem; disruption of operations, loss of customer trust and possible legal repercussions are equally devastating.

And there is another problem: the events themselves, although they cause a shock to the victim IO are always the same. If you are a security manager, I am sure you know two or three cases of ransomware with subsequent data hijacking in which the criminals had one modus operandi the problem is that most criminals work with the idea that IT managers still consider that this will not happen to them.

Threat intelligence enables security teams to collect, monitor, and process information regarding potential active threats to the security of the organization. The information collected includes details about cyber attack plans, methods, malicious groups that pose a threat, possible weaknesses in the organization's current security infrastructure, and others.By collecting information and conducting data analysis, Intel Threat tools can help companies proactively identify, understand, and defend against attacks.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning in war

Intel Threat platforms can also utilize Artificial Intelligence and machine learning with automated correlation processing to identify specific cyber breach occurrences and map behavior patterns across all instances. Behavioural analysis techniques are often employed to understand the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) of attackers. For example, by analyzing botnet communications patterns or specific methods of data exfiltration, analysts can predict future attacks and develop effective countermeasures.

Sharing threat intelligence across different organizations and government entities significantly extends the reach of Intel Threat platforms, meaning companies in similar industries can share information about specific incidents as well as mitigation strategies.

Threat Intelligence systems also help security analysts prioritize patching and updating to mitigate vulnerabilities exploited by ransomware attackers, and also to configure more efficient intrusion detection and response systems that can identify and neutralize early-stage attacks.

Strategic for the C-Level

For top management, threat intelligence offers a strategic vision that goes beyond simple data protection. These systems enable the most efficient allocation of security resources, ensuring that investments are targeted to the areas of greatest risk.In addition, the integration of Threat Intelligence with the business continuity and disaster recovery plan ensures a coordinated and effective response to incidents, minimizing downtime and financial impacts.

Implementing a Threat Intelligence solution, however, is not without challenges. The accuracy of the data collected is very important, as incorrect information can lead to false alarms or a sense of false security. Adapting organizations to the constant changes in the threat landscape also requires a robust cybersecurity culture and continuous staff training.In addition, managing large volumes of data and integrating different sources can be complex and require an advanced technological infrastructure.

However, the benefits far outweigh the challenges.The ability to predict and counteract ransomware attacks before they occur ensures a significant competitive advantage. Enterprises that take a proactive, Threat Intelligence-based approach not only protect their digital assets, but also ensure the continued trust of customers and stakeholders.By integrating threat intelligence into the core of security strategy, businesses can not only respond faster, but also anticipate and neutralize future attacks, ensuring long-term continuity and success.