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ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning conceptually emerged out of sheer necessity to have an integrated data processing tool. This was the starting point to have seamless communication amongst various departments/functions of a business.
Prior to ERP era, companies worked on disparate software on multiple platforms and that too offered by different vendors. This gave rise to:
- Abnormal time lag between occurrence of event and its reporting for action.
- Duplication of data entry and processing.
- At times differences in figures reported by different managers.
Lot of software products were developed by very active involvement of user who usually sat next to the developer and got the job done the way he wanted – or the way he has been doing that job for number of years. Probably that was not the best way of doing the job. Since user restricted himself to only his own job/department, he lost sight of a bigger picture: How to make best use of power of software for the company as whole – may be in few cases at the cost of little extra work on his part.
So these are all the issues that ERP sought to address and it did so successfully in many cases.
As the ERP theme progressed over years it has not remained the transaction processing and integration tool only. The ever increasing greed and hunger of power users of ERP threw lot of challenges for ERP to handle e.g. why have separate software for Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management(CRM), Compliance with ISO, Data Mining, Data Warehousing, Visual Presentation of data for controlling e.g. Dash Boards for Managers?
Most of the new age ERPs are moving in the direction where they will provide all these features as built-in. So the line between core ERP and other specialized software products that sit on top of ERP or as stand alone, is becoming thinner day by day. This is another feather of success for ERP and a 'dream come true' for ERP users.
The process of mergers and consolidations in the ERP industry is another boon for ERP users as they are likely to get better - products, service, cost and assurance of support.
ERP is undoubtedly a boon if following issues are addressed very pragmatically:
- Effective 'Change Management' – adopting best business practices.
- Ensuring 'Rule based Work'.
- Concentrate more on automation of work flows.
ERP is a precious tool – irrespective of the fact whether it is in-house developed or licensed from vendors. Current trend of course is to have a licensed one as the company can concentrate more on its own core competence and leave the ERP development/implementation to respective experts.
So it is the right time for those companies - small or big - who have so far not yet gone in for ERP to move in quickly and experience the magic of 'ERP'.
For those who are experiencing this magic for some time now - there is a second wave that is unveiling – replacement of ERP with next generation ERP.
Keep ERPing !!!
Author : Anand
e-mail : aerp@vsnl.com
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