MySQL disclaims interest in the ERP market

In the ERP world, there are three database platforms that ERP software companies focus around: Oracle, MS SQL, and Progress. The up and coming database in the Open Source world is MySQL. According the the linked article, Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL has spoken up about his database and ERP, essentially saying that SAP will run MySQL.

It is interesting that most open source ERP applications are using Oracle or Postgresql. Compeire and TinyERP for example use these databases, but not MySQL. They for some reason have chosen not to go that route. So if SAP is getting behind MySQL, it will be interesting to see how that will change the market of ERP, especially open source ERP systems.

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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 business’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, we’re not there yet – or at least most companies aren’t.

Looking at the ERP landscape, “there still tends to be a lot of disparate components, that are either homegrown or older packages,” 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, “where they just haven’t done a particularly good job, in areas like budgeting, and recruitment…where the vast majority of customer use something other than their ERP vendor.”

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

“It’s a trend that’s going on, and most companies are going in this direction: Read more about The Future of ERP

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.

Get More From Your ERP Investment

Most companies want to know what they will get out of an ERP system. What is the ROI on the ERP investment. This article deals with some of these issues…

Get More From Your ERP Investment
Robert D. Kugel

Ventana Research recently completed a research study titled ‘ERP Innovation’. When we speak of innovation in using enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, we mean to suggest going beyond the first-generation objective of increasing efficiency through automation. We believe companies can achieve more today with this software than ever before. They can attain a higher return on their substantial investment in this critical enterprise software. Our study was designed to determine to what extent companies have taken advantage of these enhanced capabilities. Overall, we find that innovative companies have taken the lead in more completely utilizing their ERP systems. Our research indicates that these achievements are the result of using capabilities that already exist and that others can implement. … Read More…

Manufacturers Don’t User Most of Their ERP Software’s Features, Says Aberdeen

Manufacturers Don’t User Most of Their ERP Software’s Features, Says Aberdeen

Published: September 18, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Based on a detailed report put together by Aberdeen Group and commissioned by a bunch of ERP software suppliers, companies with ERP software don’t use most of the features that have been painstakingly woven into their software.

Aberdeen based its analysis on a study of more than 1,000 manufacturers. The study was underwritten by Infor, Lawson Software, Plexus Systems, QAD, and SoftBrands, and presumably they provided some of the customers that Aberdeen talked to as well as the cash to do the survey and report that resulted from it. Aberdeen also talked to customers using other ERP suites, including those who have deployed Oracle and SAP suites.

According to the study, called “The ERP in Manufacturing Benchmark,” two thirds of the manufacturers surveyed said that they make their choice of which ERP software to use based on features and functionality, but then, on average, they use only … Read More

5 Minute Guide to ERP

Information technology has transformed the way we live and the way we do business. ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning, is one of most widely implemented business software systems in a wide variety of industries and organizations. In this short article, well try to concisely explain the basic yet important concepts relevant to ERP.

What is ERP – ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP definition refers to both ERP software and business strategies that implement ERP systems. ERP implementation utilizes various ERP software applications to improve the performance of organizations for 1) resource planning, 2) management control and 3) operational control. ERP software consists of multiple software modules that integrates activities across functional departments – from product planning, parts purchasing, inventory control, product distribution, to order tracking. Most ERP software systems include application modules to support common business activities – finance, accounting and human resources.

ERP Systems – ERP is much more than a piece of computer software. A ERP System includes ERP Software, Business Processes, Users and Hardware that run the ERP software. An ERP system is more than the sum of its parts or components. Those components interact together to achieve a common goal – streamline and improve organizations business processes.

History of ERP – The history of ERP has been more than 20 years. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the evolution of Manufacturing Requirements Planning (MRP) II in 1980s, while MRP is the evolution of Inventory Management & Control conceived in 1960s. ERP has expanded from coordination of manufacturing processes to the integration of enterprise-wide backend processes. In terms of technology, ERP has evolved from legacy implementation to more flexible tiered client-server architecture.

Benefits of ERP – ERP software attempts to integrate business processes across departments onto a single enterprise-wide information system. The major ERP benefits are improved coordination across functional departments and increased efficiencies of doing business. The implementation of ERP systems help facilitate day-to-day management as well. ERP software systems is originally and ambitiously designed to support resource planning portion of strategic planning. In reality, resource planning has been the weakest link in ERP practice due to the complexity of strategic planning and lack of adequate integration of ERP with Decision Support Systems (DSS).

ERP Failures – We couldnt conclude our brief guide to ERP without mentioning ERP failures. The failure of multi-million dollar ERP projects are reported once in a while even after 20 years of ERP implementation. We have identified the four components of an ERP System – 1) ERP software, 2) Business Processes that ERP software supports, 3) Users of ERP systems, and 4) Hardware and Operating Systems that run ERP applications. The failures in one or more of those four components could cause the failure of an ERP project.

Natalie Aranda writes about business and information technology.

ERP at a Pharma Company

Here is an interesting case study of ERP at a Pharmacutical company. The interesting thing is like so many companies, they migrated from a Foxpro system to SAP. From home grown to world class…

ERP at a pharma company

Kemwell has been able to gain better insights into its manufacturing processes through an ERP deployment. Tighter control on costing is a big benefit, says Abhinav Singh.... Read More