Brief Notes on Enterprise Resources Planning ERP

Dr.  S.  Maurer,  
MBA Professor

Customisation Services: Customisation is the procëss of extending or changing how the system works by writing new user interfaces and underlying application code.  Such customisations typically reflect local work practices that which are not currently in the core routines of the erp system software.

The length of time to implement an erp system depends on the size of the business,  the scope of the change and willingness of the customer to take ownership for the project.

erp software,  among other things,  combined the data of formerly disparate applications.  This made the worry of keeping employee numbers in synchronization across multiple systems disappear.  it standardised and reduced the number of software specialties required within larger organizations.

SAP and those guys are not serving the mid-market—they provide more functionality than customers need at a price they can't afford, she says,  but open source is meeting the needs.

That makes it easy to adopt open-source software,  since smaller enterprises can often turn to the same independent consultancies that support their other software.

The reality is that the people who do all the work [in erp deployments] are in-house teams or system integrators,  not the commercial software vendors, says Martin Schneider,  senior analyst for enterprise software at The 451 Group market research firm.

Once implemented,  the erp system brings tremendous advantages.  Because all systems are joined together,  all departments can more easily share information.

The Professional Services team is also involved during erp upgrades to ensure that customisations are compatible with the new release.

Consulting Services: The Consulting team is typically responsible for your initial erp implementation and subsequent delivery of work to tailor the system beyond go live.  Typically such tailoring includes additional product training; creation of process triggers and workflow; specialist advice to improve how the erp is used in the business; system optimisation; and assistance writing reports,  complex data extracts or implementing business intelligence.

Employees may also fear for their jobs; since erp makes such radical changes to business processes,  it is not unusual for job descriptions to change or be eliminated altogether.

Flexible Support system: Mid-market CIOs also have to be realistic about support options—and the need to not only manage costs but also keep a few exit doors open in case of trouble.

Retail distribution firm Frilac chose Openbravo to ensure control over the erp system's capabilities when it decided to replace its hodgepodge of disconnected back-office applications with a unified erp suite.

Customizing an erp package can be very expensive and complicated,  because many erp packages are not designed to support customization,  so most businesses implement the best practices embedded in the acquired erp system.

Someone in sales would easily be able to log into a single system to determine the status of a customer order that is still in manufacturing.  All this comes at a cost though; training costs are high because employees must not only learn how to use new software,  they must also learn new processes.

A small project [eg,  a enterprise of less than 100 staff] may be planned and delivered within 3 months; however,  a large,  multi-site or multi-country implementation may take years.