Category: ERP Software

General ERP Software information

Are IT managers worried about cloud computing?

There is a new survey out that shows that IT Managers are not sold on the benefits of cloud computing. The primary reason is that these IT Managers view cloud computing as risky. The article portrays these IT leaders as being risk adverse and so they are careful not to expose their company’s data to all the potentials of being on the Internet.

Is it possible though, that they are avoiding the loss of control and the potential of losing their jobs, once executives realize that they can pay a lower monthly cost for a secure outsourced cloud computing solution? Many IT Managers like to be in control. They have the keys to the kingdom and are the gatekeepers to the most valuable asset in a corporation, the data. Giving up this control would require a tremendous change to their thinking.

Further, many may believe that they are best suited to protect this data asset. The ironic thing is that, in the article linked above, it points out that “Beyond the topic of cloud computing, the survey also found that employees often engage in behavior that puts their company at risk. Half of IT professionals said workers don’t adequately protect confidential documents and 32 percent said workers use software and online services that were not authorized.” This just goes to prove that these IT Managers see themselves as the best ones for guarding the kingdom.

Alternatively, major SAAS players such as Salesforce.com implement carrier-level security such as Access control (including biometric scanning for access) and Physical Security, Environmental Controls, Power Management (including redundant generators), Network security (such as redundant networks) and Fire detection and Suppression. Additionally, all transactions are encrypted. These are strongly protected data stores. Only larger corporations maintain these levels of security. Further, many SAAS providers have dedicated security teams that maintain the highest level of security. Can a mid-sized company IT Manager say the same?

As such, it is probably more likely that privately these managers realize this and are actually fearing the loss of their job as more and more of their infrastructure is moved to the cloud. Just as moving from mainframes to PCs, it will be interesting to watch the transition from internal PC networks to cloud computing.

We are interested in knowing what you think on this topic. Please post your comments.

ERP Implementation Strategies – Survey Results

Recently, Huston Neal, a fellow ERP blogger, performed a survey to find out what ERP implementation strategies are most popular and successful. The results are very interesting. He wanted to know which of the strategies people used and which ones were successful. The strategies he focused on were:

  • Big bang – Implementation happens in a single instance. All users move to the new system on a given date.
  • Phased rollout – Changeover occurs in phases over an extended period of time. Users move onto new system in a series of steps.
  • Parallel adoption – Both the legacy and new ERP system run at the same time. Users learn the new system while working on the old.

Many companies take a Big Bang approach or “let’s turn off the old and start with the new on a target day” method. Others take a more cautious approach and go with a few modules such as the financial modules while linking them back to the legacy system. This usually takes more work to integrate and it usually costs more in terms of consulting and internal team hours. The Parallel adoption is often very difficult as the two systems usually take a different approach to gathering and summarizing the data. It requires double data entry as well, so the employees feel a lot more pressure. This is seen less-and-less nowadays.

We would have thought that Big Bang would be the more frequently used approach and yet the results show that it is almost even with a Phased Approach. Fortunately only a few companies went with Parallel processing. This is often the most painful approach.

The results of the survey are here. It is a fair representation of how people approach implementing a company-wide software. It would be interesting to see how people implement add on systems to ERP such as a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).

ERP Survey – Please Participate

A fellow ERP blogger is running a survey on his blog about ERP implementation strategies. Specifically, which implementation strategy (big bang, phased roll-out, or parallel adoption) has the best success rate.

Please help by completing the survey found in an article at: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/erp-implementation-strategies-1031101/

Microsoft Dynamics for Manufacturing – Understanding the Difference Between GP, NAV, SL and AX

In establishing its foothold in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market, Microsoft has acquired no less than thirteen companies. Now Microsoft – and their prospects – face the challenge of sorting through the various applications in the Microsoft Dynamics family.

With the recent launch of our ERP software service, we decided to shed some light on the Dynamics product family. For starters, here is a chart that shows the target market for each product. Industries are down the side, business sizes are across the top, products lie in the middle. Click on the image for an expanded view.

Read entire post at: http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/manufacturing/understanding-the-difference-between-gp-nav-sl-ax-1111709/

Is SaaS for You?

We often get the question is SaaS a tool we should use. This is a broad topic, so we did some research and came up with a set of answers to this query:

SaaS is software that’s delivered as a service, from a ‘cloud’ which could be a data centre based anywhere. Much like water comes to the home or office. You open the tap, the water pours out, you pay for what you use. You don’t own the reservoir or the pipes that bring the water to you. Will this model in the case of software?

The phenomenon of information growing exponentially affects all businesses, from SMEs to large enterprises. Operating environment becomes more complex with new sets of risks associated with managing and sharing large amounts of information.

Today’s fast, targeted, silent threats take advantage of the open network and new technologies that support an increasingly mobile workforce. Organizations need innovative approaches to protect the web, email servers and endpoint. The challenge is to find an easy-to-implement solution that avoid the cost and upheaval involved in installing new network infrastructure.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the next evolution in how companies use and pay for software. Some say it’s the next step in the fulfillment of the technology “dialtone.” Executives and business managers want to understand the impact of SaaS to their bottom line, business model structure, and real-time operation requirements.

SaaS 100 Success Secrets: How Companies Successfully Buy, Manage, Host and Deliver Software as a Service (SaaS)

Dr. Timothy Chou was an early pioneer in delivering SaaS when he launched Oracle’s efforts in 1999. Over the past 10 years he has written several books, including The End of Software. He has also lectured and advised numerous companies on this significant shift in the software business. Most recently, he authored the book Seven, which discusses seven fundamental business models from the traditional to the Internet. Chou shares with Inner Circle readers his opinion on SaaS and its potential impact on how companies do business — today and in the future.

Dr. Timothy Chou (TC): Cost is certainly an executive concern. No matter what industry you’re in, your IT budget is dominated not by the cost of computers but by the cost of people — people who are managing the performance, availability, security, and maintenance of the software you’ve purchased. As a general rule, if you take your software purchase price and multiply it by four, that’s what you’ll spend to manage that software, per year. This translates to easily 75 percent of your budget being tied up in managing existing software systems.

http://www.sun.com/emrkt/innercircle/newsletter/1008/index.html

There’s no consensus on the term quite yet, even though the concept is sufficiently proven by now that it ranks as a legitimate alternative to licensed applications that are typically deployed inhouse and managed with internal IT staff. Software as a service, or SaaS, seems to have a slight edge in the name game, so we’ll go with that.

There are a couple of technology basics associated with SaaS. The first is that in most cases the system you access remotely will be available over an ultra-high-speed, secure Internet connection (or, alternatively, via a virtual private network, which for all intents and purposes amounts to the same thing).

One of the biggest technology benefits of a hosted solution is that it can inherently provide a platform for a “services-oriented architecture,” or SOA. This is a way to enhance the functionality of a system using external “services” available via the Internet, rather than coding all system functions internally. There is no direct relationship between SaaS and SOA, but if your SaaS solution is designed to take advantage of it, that can be a benefit in providing add-on functionality.

http://multichannelmerchant.com/opsandfulfillment/saas/

Meet Your ERP Implementation Goals and Objectives?

Why try to implement your ERP implementation with a phased approach? Why not just install the system and then educate the end-users in how to use it? The reason is that an ERP implementation is a huge undertaking. If done correctly, your company will benefit greatly. If done incorrectly, your company can throw away millions of dollars. Why do we say this?

via » Meet Your ERP Implementation Goals and Objectives Free Articles Directory About Business.

Glovia and Salesforce.com Bring ERP to Cloud Computing

Glovia International, a subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited and a leading provider of extended ERP solutions for engineer-to-order and high volume manufacturers, and salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, today announced the availability of glovia.com Order Management on Force.com. Built on salesforce.com’s Force.com platform, glovia.com Order Management provides complete visibility into all sales orders and quotes as well as the inventory, fulfillment and invoicing required to complete transactions. With glovia.com Order Management on Force.com, customers can now harness the power of cloud computing to deploy ERP applications to manage and run their businesses.

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