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ERP Books

ERPandMore is pleased to announce the opening of our new ERP Bookstore. Containing the latest books on Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Product Lifecycle Management, and Process Improvement topics, this new bookstore is your resource to finding the information you need to successfully navigate a project.

You can find this new bookstore off of our home page by clicking “Books” or by going directly to:

http://www.erpandmore.com/books/

We hope you find this a valuable information resource!

The Future of ERP

The Future of ERP
November 15, 2006
By James Maguire

The dream of enterprise resource planning systems is that a single application can track and monitor all of a businessâ€™s functions. In a perfect world, a manager opens a single ERP app to find data about any aspect of the business, from financials to HR to distribution schedules.

Alas, weâ€™re not there yet â€“ or at least most companies arenâ€™t.

Looking at the ERP landscape, â€œthere still tends to be a lot of disparate components, that are either homegrown or older packages,â€ says Forrester analyst Paul Hamerman.

Moreover, there are still a lot of gaps in ERP systems, particularly in industries where ERP functionality has grown up from its historic origins in manufacturing. There are even gaps in core ERP areas, Hamerman tells Datamation, â€œwhere they just havenâ€™t done a particularly good job, in areas like budgeting, and recruitmentâ€¦where the vast majority of customer use something other than their ERP vendor.â€

But despite the challenges, the movement toward a global ERP system is a key factor shaping the future of enterprise resource planning.

â€œItâ€™s a trend that’s going on, and most companies are going in this direction: Read more about The Future of ERP

What is your ERP interface?

Being techno-enthusiasts, how ERP vendors are pushing the envelope to develop new and easier ways for people to process their business data has fascinated us. But we often forget the end-user, who simply has to work with an ERP Software tool day-in and day-out.

Recently we participated in a series of demonstrations that included SAP MySAP, Oracle EBusiness Suite, Microsoft Dynamics AX, IFS, and JD Edwards Enterprise One. The interesting outcome of this demonstration series was that the users gravitated towards the systems that had “old fashioned” grey data form. They were confused by the Web Based Portals and any other non-traditional form. MySAP even showed a great interface from Adobe Forms, but that confused the team even more.

Bottom line, the team was looking at the systems from the current frame of reference that they all possessed, which was a Windows-like form that was easy to understand. It was interesting in how little they grasped that was outside of what they were familiar with. Even with great explanations on how this could help them, if it didn’t make sense, it didn’t register.

Lesson learned: keep the discussion within the frame of reference within the users and introduce the new interface options in small easy to understand sessions. Do not give the latest and greatest to a group that cannot conceptualize it.

An ERP who owns who

If you have been around even a short time in the ERP software business as either a user or a provider, you are sure to know of the latest acquisitions. The big ones of course are all the companies Infor bought as well as the Oracle mega mergers of PeopleSoft/JDE. Here is a website dedicated to tracking these acquisitions, called fittingly enough The ERP Graveyard.

The ERP Graveyard has a spreadsheet of acquisitions going back to the 1990’s. So if you are interested in what happened to so-and-so software, you might find your answer to dead ERPs here.

The top 20 ERP implementation tips

Stumbling through various ERP websites, we came across this article that shows some of the key factors for doing an implementation correctly. You should probably read this one…

The top 20 ERP implementation tips
By Jan Stafford, Site Editor
22 Jun 2005 | SearchOpenSource.com

An enterprise resource planning ERP software project can be daunting for first-timers or veterans handling a migration. Get started on the right foot with the top 20 ERP implementation tips from Linux users, consultants and vendors.The top 20 ERP implementation tips

Challenge Of ERP Implementation Q & A

This is a good commentary on the challenges of an ERP Implementation. It can be summed up in that it is a technological, financial and human challenge that requires extensive change management.

Challenge Of ERP Implementation Q & A
Rick Maurer
Question: ERPs seem like a good idea, so why is return on investment so low?

Answer: Resistance often kills many of these new systems. Even though the promise of what an ERP can do is high, the planners often fail to look at how the users are likely to view this ‘improvement.’ ERPs take away the old tried-and-true ways of working. Even though some of these cobbled together systems aren’t all that good, people understand them. When they are asked to give up what they know and what they can rely on, you often get resistance to using a new software system.

ERPs also threaten the fragile balance of power and control. The old system allows departments and some individuals to
control the type of information that gets out – and control the way data gets disseminated. The new system destroys all of that and that can be threatening.
One manufacturing plant has spent millions on an ERP, and kept throwing money at the technical parts of project, with no success. What they failed to Read more…

About the Author:
Rick Maurer is an advisor to organizations on ways to lead Change without Migraines. He is author of many books on change including Beyond the Wall of Resistance. His web site offers over 100 free tips and tools for leading change successfully. www.beyondresistance.com

ERP Software Solution: A Closer Look at What It Is

ERP Software Solution: A Closer Look at What It Is
Mike Piotrowski
ERP Solution

Information technology has not only transformed the way we live in modern society, but also the way in which we do business. Enterprise Resource Planning, often referred to as ERP, is becoming one of the most commonly used software systems in several industries and organizations. The object of this article is to provide pertinent highlights about exactly what ERP is.

The definition of Enterprise Resource Planning refers to not only software but also the business strategies employed as part of the implementation of ERP systems. This implementation makes use of various software applications in order to improve the performances of organizations in resource planning, control of operations, and control of management.

ERP software contains several software modules that work to integrate vital activities across operating departments. An ERP System not only includes the ERP Software but also the business processes and hardware that make this system work. These systems are more than the sums of their parts as the many components work together in order to achieve one common objective-to provide an organization with a greatly improved and streamlined business process.

History of ERP

ERP has been well over 20 years in the making. This system is the result of the trial, error, and growth of Manufacturing Requirements Planning (MRP) during the 80’s. MRP was the evolution of Inventory Management and Control, which was conceived during the 1960’s. ERP has grown beyond the coordination of manufacturing processes into the integration of back end processing on very large scales. From its origins as a legacy implementation ERP has morphed into a new and improved client-server architecture.

Benefits of ERP

This software attempts to bring all aspects of the business into one single enterprise-wide database or information system. This allows instantaneous information and communications to be shared between multiple departments. The primary benefit of this is a greatly improved efficiency in business operations. Implementing this system will not only help communications between departments but in day-to-day management functions as well. ERP is an ambitious design that also supports the resource planning part of corporate planning as this is often the weakest link in strategic planning as the result of the inadequate integration of ERP software with Decision Support Systems.

ERP Failures

It would be quite rude to conclude without at least mentioning the fact that failures in this system are occasionally reported in one of the four components of an ERP System. These systems are: ERP software, Business processes supported by the ERP System, Users of the ERP Systems, and the hardware and/or operating systems upon which the ERP applications are actually run. The failure of one or more of these components has the potential to cause the entire ERP project to fail.
Ontech Systems of Milwaukee Wisconsin, is committed to making a difference in your business through the productive use of computers, networks, software and the vast array of products and services we offer. Contact Mike Piotrowski, President of Ontech Systems to discuss a new ERP business solution for your company today.
Provided By: Computers and Technology

ERP Packages Feature Comparison

There is an interesting ERP comparison article on ITToolbox. It is however skewed in the applications considered. The author compared Oracle and SAP against Microsoft Great Plains (Dynamics GP). This is an unfair comparison since the more powerful ERP application from Microsoft is Axapta (Dynamics AX). Great Plains plays in a different market space.

Further, one of the compared products is Seibel. The title is ERP packages, yet Seibel is a CRM product. To make this more confusing, the comparison included PeopleSoft Enterprise 8.8 and 8.9 and EnterpriseOne 8.11. EnterpriseOne is the JD Edwards product, but there was no distinction in the article as to which PeopleSoft application was being compared for specific features.

Despite these shortcomings, the article brings up a lot of very good points about the various applications. The seven application criteria mentioned in the article are good items to consider in any larger system implementation. Whether or not they make any difference in the small to midsize business is a question to consider. For example, Web Services may not be really important to a manufacturer who is simply trying to get control of their inventory.

In the ERP market, it is often difficult to compare apples-to-apples, however it still looks as if people are trying to compare apples, oranges, and pears…

Take a read and let us know your thoughts!
ERP Packages Feature Comparison

ERP Packages Feature Comparison