A practitioner's manual

D. Murali

Is ERP software or system or more? Get the full picture with this book.

This is not just another ERP book, quips the author in the preface.
It happened in a popular software company. "More than 30 separate systems
supported the company's finance, operations, and human resource groups. Based on
divergent platforms, the systems communicated through a complex series of costly
custom interfaces. Batch processes moved information among systems, but as the
company grew, the window required to run the batch grew as well - to more than 12
hours."

This is the tale of Microsoft, dating back to the mid-1990s.

"Microsoft executives realised that the corporation needed a new global and
integrated core business solution.

Such a solution would help in reducing internal operating costs and improve
manager's access to decision-making information," narrates Jagan Nathan Vaman in
ERP in Practice, from Tata McGraw-Hill (www.tatamcgrawhill.com) . Microsoft began
implementing SAP R/3 in right earnest, and the results were tangible.

Nearly two-dozen human resource systems were replaced, and more than 25 systems
interfaces were eliminated. Also, `simple Internet-based, bolt-on tools that link
directly to R/3' could help save more than $20 million annually.

Another case study in the book is about MBF Australia, a health insurer, which
moved from COBOL to Oracle Financials, and reaped the benefits of E-Business
Intelligence and Oracle Balanced Scorecard. "Managers were able to drill down
through the data and analyse problems by divisions, by state, and by product. They
no longer needed to call up the CFO to ask what is going on."

Yet another story is about Procter & Gamble's CDSN (consumer-driven supply
network), which helps the company produce `what is actually selling, not what is
forecast to sell'.

This is not just another ERP book, quips the author in the preface. "It is a
practitioner's manual with concepts, principles, practices and programs that are
`in practice'."

For starters, ERP (enterprise resource planning) is "a set of applications for
core business operations and back-office management."

ERP is often misunderstood and confused with software tools and implementation,
notes Vaman. "It is actually a management system for continuous improvement."

ERP's predecessors are MRP (materials requirement planning) systems (I and II) of
the 1970s and the 1980s.

"ERP is a massive software engine that seeks to provide a single seamless

interface to all departments, systems, and existing data within an organisation.
This helps each department understand how it fits within the organisation's
macrostructure and how it impacts that macrostructure." As a result, ERP systems
are unlike any other software systems, points out Vaman. "They don't merely change
the look and feel of an employee's computer screens, they reinvent the way a
company and its people operate."
ERP is today CEA (comprehensive enterprise application) says the author. And, in a
chapter on `future directions', he asks, `What is the next ERP wave?'

ERP has a new name, EAP (enterprise applications). "ERP is not dead but the three-
letter-acronym is becoming dated, as the top four vendors - SAP, Oracle,
PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards - have all become EAPs. In addition, all four have
incorporated SCM (supply chain management) and CRM (customer relationship
management) into their ERP suites."

Also, EPAs are gaining strength over BoB (best-of-breed) products, one learns,
continuing the journey through an alphabet soup.

"Putting a BoB suite is difficult. Keeping it up and functioning is even harder -

consuming as much as 75 per cent of the IT budget. As ERP vendors become EAPs with
fuller offerings, it becomes harder to justify BoB suites."

Recommended read for IT professionals, and more importantly, the users.

http://www.blonnet.com/ew/2007/03/26/stories/2007032600100200.htm