ERP on Tablet PCs

ERP on Tablet PCs is Now!

ERP on Tablet PCs is here now. Earlier we did an article on ERP on the iPad. With the amazing pace of technology, people can now use mobile platforms for accessing their corporate data. For some people, the iPad is a great tool, but others may have different views on using the iPad. Now there is an alternative. Small form factor Tablet PCs are available. Some of these are Windows-based and others are Android OS-based.

Imagine being a salesperson on the road and being able to review a customer account before the big meeting right from your car. Or during the meeting, being able to check stock on a particular item for the client right in their office! These are now completely realistic scenarios. Allowing the ERP on Tablet PCs to be a reality today.

Of course, it will have to gain support of the IT departments who are holding security as one of the highest priorities. Issues such as security will need to be addressed on a company-by-company basis to ensure that the corporate data is still well protected. But many companies are providing this data already on a web enabled portal, which would be perfect for ERP on a Tablet PC scenario.

We are seeing a lot of iPhone and Android apps being made for the phones, but these apps will also run ERP on Table PCs as well. So within a few years we should see a lot more of these apps available from all the major ERP vendors.

Here is a video review of the ViewSonic ViewPad 7 that will give you an idea of how powerful these technologies are now and it will give you an idea of how you will soon see ERP on the Tablet PCs.

ERP on Tablet PCs – ViewSonic Video Review

Click on the video to find out more information.

File as: ERP on Tablet PCs

Erp Popularity And Need in Heath Care Industry

The scope of implementing ERP in healthcare industry has been increased fairly as more and more hospitals are coming up with the growing population and critical diseases causing to the mankind. Nowadays treating patient is no more just a service, the whole hospital sector has become hospital industry. As number of hospitals are coming up, so every one is looking for better professionalism and better service from the concerned department.

These days patients are more demanding. With so many medical facilities they get and they invest money just to ensure they get the best of treatment so naturally they want the best return of their hard earned money. So this health care industry is developing at a great speed with the two major factors namely business and service. So now the situation has come that hospitals can’t continue with their old practices and technologies where service are not up to the mark and yet charge huge bill to the patients. Therefore it is mandatory for hospitals to go for the latest trends of technology and ensure the best service to the customer or patients. So there is a need of implement an ERP solution which has been specially designed and developed for the health care industry. Every hospital has their basic set up in terms of equipments and necessary instruments, devices to give treatment to the patients. Also they hire best doctors, nurses and other clinical and surgical staffs in order to maintain the reputation of the hospital.

So the focus here is to manage the whole operation smoothly and in more professional way, so that the patients can be really satisfied by the service of the hospital. The main focus of the ERP in health care Industry is from the point of view of patients’ satisfaction. The key factors which one has to keep in mind while implementing the software are as follows – 1. Patients should not wait in queue for long to visit a doctor of their choice. 2. There should be option for booking in advance for the specific doctor. 3. All the bills can be paid online by the patient party in case of emergency. 4. Availability of choice of beds should be there in case of admission. 5. Discharge procedure should not be long. 6. Medi claim facilities and procedure should be fast and should be directly with the insurance company. The hospital authority should also focus on that type of software which can give a proper track of the following. 1. Doctors’ schedule with date and time. 2. Proper intimation to the dashboard when specific doctors are not available on some said days. 3. Daily entry of patients list. 4. Proper billing methods for surgical treatments, and medical treatments along with diagnosis reports. 5. Regular update for the stock of medicines. 6. Regular attendance of the staffs of the hospital. 7. Stock updates of laundry and kitchen materials.

These should be the basic features of the ERP in health care industry. It can reduce hospital overheads as it helps to integrate all functions namely accounts, finance, human resources and bring them under one roof or one common database. In hospitals connectivity is most important, because every time the information has to be circulated ion various departments in order to maintain a chain of events. Like a chain of events happen when a patient got admitted for certain operation. So keeping a track from admission to discharge is very important. So for hospital industry there is a need of developing specialized ERP software that can take care of every aspect that has been mentioned above.

About Author
Read review on Aplicor ERP Software. Also find information about Small Scale Industries in India. Read information on Importance of E-Commerce.

Your 7 Step Guide to ERP Failure

So you want an ERP failure and you want it to be of epic proportions? Okay, here are your top ways to assure you go down in flames in the most spectacular way.

Key things to ensure ERP Failure

1. Select the Software at face value based on the Vendor’s Promises. In fact, the best thing you can do is to buy the software right there at the trade show.

2. Don’t even consider the business processes. Fully adopt the software the way it works out of the box. Process ERP Failure.

3. Only include the users at the last minute and then for minimal training. Use Mushroom Management to keep the users at bay. People ERP Failure.

4. Pick an ERP Software on an operating platform to which IT has no knowledge. For example select an ERP running on Unix and put it into a Windows environment. Technical ERP Failure.

5. Keep executive level management out of the process and out of the project. Use upward mushroom management** with executives about the status of the project. Avoid their support at all costs.

6. Avoid data cleanup. In fact, push the data over to the new system with no review. Forget any field type changes or consideration of system differences.

7. Only use the standard reports. Those are good enough for your users.

**Mushroom management: noun, a method of “keeping them in the dark and feeding them lots of Sh!&”

Congratulations you are now on a path to ERP Hell! Enjoy the ride.

Avoiding ERP Failure

In all seriousness, here are some resources to help you in you avoid ERP Failure:

Why New Systems Fail: An Insider’s Guide to Successful IT Projects

ERP Software Selection Tools

ERP Project Management Articles

Project Manager Templates

ERP Implementation Articles

ERP Failure

ERP System

“ERP System” is a way of describing Enterprise Resource Planning. An ERP System is a set of people, process and technology that enable an business to optimize and fully utilize all of their resources. So often people think of an ERP System as simply a software package. But it is much more. Let’s look at some of the aspects of a true ERP System.

ERP System Explained

If you consider all of the aspects of an ERP System, you must look at the parts of the business from a process perspective. Take for example a process of “Order-to-Cash”. This process follows the concept of taking an order for a product, checking and requisitioning inventory, preparing it for shipment, and shipping it out. Then it is invoiced, and ultimately the invoice is paid.

If you map out the Order-to-Cash process in your organization, you will likely find a lot of inefficiencies. You don’t want to automate these inefficiencies. That would only make the inefficiencies faster. So you should first look at the system of people, processes and then ultimately automate it with technology.

So your ERP System is all of the inputs and outputs to the process of taking an order and processing it through until your receive payment for that order. Take for example the Order process. The input is the order itself. The output may be the printed order or the picklist for pulling the inventory. This order is input and processed by an order entry clerk. You can see in this simple example the process of taking the order (input) and generating a picklist (output) as the first step in your order-to-cash processs.

Where possible an ERP System drives data inputs to their source. That is why Internet-based shopping carts and order systems are becoming essential. The customer is the source of the data, so they should be the source of the input into the system. You can see the beginning of a supply chain where the customer pulls inventory from the company, who then pulls inventory from a supplier. This customer, processor, supplier model repeats again and again, in both a micro level and a macro level. The order entry station is the micro level processor in the above example, and the distribution company is the macro level processor in the larger picture. You can take any process and look at the input (or the customer pull) and see what makes up the transaction, and who is the supplier for the process.

The ERP System is a many operational and financial processes that are run by people to fulfill the supply and demand of the process and ultimately streamlined and enabled by technology

Steps to improving your ERP System before automating

There are a number of things you can do, but the obvious first thing is to identify your processes and systems. Tools such as Lean Enterprise (or Lean Manufacturing) can help you reduce and eliminate waste in your processes. Based on the Toyota Production system, Lean is a very effective way to reduce wasted efforts, reduce costs, and improve your throughput.

Another area to look at is improving quality. Quality methods and tools can greatly increase your bottom line when properly applied. ISO9000 and similar certifications are both effective at communicating a message internally and externally, that only high quality products and services will be tolerated.

Scaling these two system improvements upon a well matched business software system will create a world-class organization. Key to finding a software to support your ERP System is matching your processes and key functions to an ERP Software solution.

Resources for Improving your ERP System

The first thing you should check out is ERPandmore.com’s free ERP System Tools that you can download. These can help you better define functions within an ERP system, Vendor Evaluations, and compare competing solutions.

Some other resources you should look to include the American Production and Inventory Control Society and the Quality Management Institute. These two organizations have a lot of publications and information about business process improvement.

With regards to the software for your ERP System, you can find a multitude of vendors in our ERP Software Directory. You can also find ERP Vendor reviews and get price quotes from SoftwareAdvice.com.

ERP System

ERP Software automates renewal management.

ERP Software automates renewal management.
NetSuite Software Company Edition serves software companies that need to manage array of varying revenue models, including complex processes for supporting recurring revenue management streams. It brings automation and real-time visibility to management of renewals, billing, and contract management. In addition to unifying these processes, software delivers uplift and discount management as well …

ERP investments to slow in 2011

According to analyst group Forrester, ERP investments will continue to slow in 2011, despite growth in IT spending. Almost three quarters of those surveyed said that they would not be investing in ERP this year. That is troublesome for the industry and even ERP giants such as Oracle are being conservative this year.

You can read the full article here.

We would like to see what your plans are, please comment on this article and let us know if you are seeing any ERP investments in your company.

Adding Value to your ERP Requirements

ERP Requirements Refinement

When you start a system selection, you first need to determine which business process are the “value add” processes. In other words, which processes in the business add to the value of the service or product you are providing to the market. The customer is only willing to pay for those activities that help you produce, ensure quality, or account for your product or service. All other activities are waste.
ERP Requirements

When defining your ERP requirements, you need to be cognizant of these “value add” activities. These are the activities that should be captured in your requirements. Non-value-add activities should not be included in your ERP requirements. These do not produce results that create additional value to the product/service and these are only distractions when it comes down to the actual implementation.

ERP Requirements and Lean

All of this comes from Lean Manufacturing or the Toyota Production method. Essentially, as stated above, you want to eliminate “Muda” or waste in the process. Many firms have successfully implemented this in their manufacturing processes, but a smaller group have implemented this Lean system in their business office processes.

Consider this example. When defining your ERP Requirements you determine that there is an accounting process that has people spending 2 man days per month reconciling the cost of keeping track of the tools used in manufacturing. Does this process add any value to the actual production of the product? Possibly, but it sounds like this process can be reworked and possibly using the new ERP system you can eliminate this process and drive the data down to the actual transactions on the shop floor. You don’t need accountants researching the transactions. What you might need is a system that tracks the tools and their usage as part of the production process and can give a report on what these transactions cost. These transaction costs can then be factored into the pricing of the product, without the overhead of 2 man days of reconciliation.

The time when you are defining your new ERP Requirements is the perfect time to start looking critically at your processes and keying in on what brings value to the process. Then you can design your new system (both process and software) around those items that bring value to not only the customer but also the bottom line.

Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated

Mapping your ERP requirements

When you are cataloging all of your ERP Requirements, you should write down all of your requirements (perhaps on a spreadsheet) and then give them an identifying number (such as R1, R2, R3, etc.) You can then evaluate each of these requirements with the business team to determine if the requirement is one that you want to carry forward into your deliverable of requirements that will be provided to the ERP software vendors. There is an excellent article on how to do this mapping, by author Brett Beaubouef, that describes this process.

He advocates that “Starting with the desired business results ensures that we drive to only those requirements that directly support true business value. First, it is an exercise that really puts into perspective the purpose of a business model (results). This exercise is not only useful to the project team but also the business stakeholders. Second, it is an approach that can help you justify why certain existing business activities are not being carried forward in the new business solution. Third, taking a business results oriented approach enables your project team to be more successful at focusing on the right business requirements and not wasting time on capturing requirements for non-value-add activities. ”

Another useful article that you may want to examine is the article 7 Ways to Fail in an ERP Selection

Keep in mind that some ERP Requirements that you identify may not seem valuable at first, but you need to review these requirements with the functional user team to ensure that key processes are not eliminated by mistake. There may be requirements that are a requirement because of a legal concern or perhaps a health and safety issue.

In the end, if you have successfully mapped out your business processes and defined these in your ERP Requirement list, then you will be a lot closer to selecting a system that actually functions in a way that brings value to everyone.

We hope that this will aid you in better defining your ERP Requirements.

ERP Disaster Recovery

One of the most critical plans you can make is to prepare for the worst, especially when it comes to your enterprise software system and the database of all of the company’s critical information. A proper disaster recovery plan is essential, if you are running an ERP system, as it touches all aspects of the company. The plan can be as simple as a backup and recovery strategy, or as extensive as a global hot site fail-over plan. In either case, you need to prepare and test your plan.
ERP disaster recovery
Testing the plan is often where people fail. You often plan for the eventuality of a hard drive crash (and thus you use a RAID array), or you plan for the possibility of natural disaster, but what if you have a hidden hardware problem that is corrupting the database a little at a time?

That happened with one company we worked with. A failing motherboard caused problems with the email virus scanner, which in turn corrupted the email store a little at a time, so that it was unrecoverable. What do you do then? Well, in that case it was restore to the point in time that the email store database was usable. So the net impact was a few weeks of data loss. That is one illustration, but what happens if something like that occurs in your ERP database? Again the key is backups.

If backups are so critical, then why do people choose not to bother with testing and restoring them? This is a key concept in ERP Disaster Recovery. Many people happily back up night after night, but never try to restore a data file or much less a database. Is it too expensive to have a test server? The real question is it too expensive to not have your ERP data after a disaster? What is the company worth? Millions? A few thousand dollars for a test environment seems like a reasonable investment.

Key ERP Disaster Recovery Priorities

Here are some of the things you need to think through when planning for ERP Disaster Recovery:

1. Backups and Recovery procedures
2. Off-site storage of backup media
3. Security of backup media
4. Remote site backups (In a disaster, can you get the business up if the server site is destroyed?)
5. Personnel (In a disaster, can the right people be there to recover?)
6. Priority levels and potential downtime acceptability
7. Costs

ERP Disaster Recovery Resources

There are some excellent disaster recovery resources on the web on this topic. One article that we liked was on making proper backups for your ERP system. We would suggest that you invest the time to learn more about this topic before it bites you. Remember that disaster always strikes at the most inconvenient time, so make the time now.

ERP Disaster Recovery