Why Use ERP need, function ? (R2I2T)

Reliable Data: To make the right business decisions, you need access to the right information at the right time. With an ERP solution configured to your specific needs, you can rest assured that you are receiving accurate data to make smart decisions. Even if you already have an ERP solution in place, years of minor tweaking and connecting with disparate systems may have turned it into a convoluted mess of obscure information. With a new ERP solution, your business can put its trust in an up to date and reliable system. Transparency: A huge boon to business is being able to identify which products and departments are saving/providing money and which are falling behind. With an ERP solution in place you can pin point exactly which areas need to be addressed accordingly. By being able to quickly decipher where your company's strengths and weaknesses are, you can improve profitability before losing it. Reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): While it may seem like a large investment at the time, the cost-saving benefits of an ERP solution will out- weigh the initial expenditure on the solution. Even if your business already has a legacy system in place, maintaining an outdated ERP solution can cost an indefinite amount of time and resources as well as limit new opportunities. An ERP solution needs to be looked at in terms of eventual return on investment, not it's immediate cost.

Integration with new technologies: With the rise in use of the internet and technology for business, it would severely inhibit a company's ability to advance and grow if their systems did not stay up to date with current tools and trends. Mobile technology and social media is heavily influencing enterprise resource planning these days, so even businesses that already have an ERP system in place will lose out if their solution is unable to integrate with modern applications. Speed and accuracy are always being improved, so being able to update your ERP system to meet these demands is tantamount to staying ahead of your competition. Increase user interaction: One of the big benefits of a modern ERP solution is that they are designed to be used by everyone involved in the implementation. Most legacy ERP systems have been put in place by a specific set of people, which can cause drastic communication issues when other users need access or upgrades. By having a fully integrated modern ERP solution, your business will benefit from company wide interaction and smooth upgrades to newest releases of the software. Those are some of the most important reasons to implement/update an ERP solution for your business. Stick with us for more blogs designed to help you understand the world of ERP and CRM, and contact an ECI representative today to find out more about our ERP solutions!

ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning is an important enterprise application that integrates all the individual department functions into a single software application.

ERP Systems make it easier to track the workflow across various departments. They reduce the operational costs involved in manually tracking and (perhaps) duplicating data using individual & disparate systems. In this article, let us have a look at the advantages and dis- advantages of implementing ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) Software Systems.

Advantages of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) System:

1. Complete visibility into all the important processes, across various departments of an organization (especially for senior management personnel).

2. Automatic and coherent workflow from one department/function to another, to ensure a smooth transition and quicker completion of processes. This also ensures that all the inter- departmental activities are properly tracked and none of them is ‘missed out’.

3. A unified and single reporting system to analyze the statistics/status etc. in real-time, across all functions/departments.

4. Since same (ERP) software is now used across all departments, individual departments having to buy and maintain their own software systems is no longer necessary.

5. Certain ERP vendors can extend their ERP systems to provide Business Intelligence functionalities, that can give overall insights on business processes and identify potential areas of problems/improvements. 6. Advanced e-commerce integration is possible with ERP systems – most of them can handle web-based order tracking/ processing.

7. There are various modules in an ERP system like Finance/Accounts, Human Resource Management, Manufacturing, Marketing/Sales, Supply Chain/Warehouse Management, CRM, Project Management, etc.

8. Since ERP is a modular software system, its possible to implement either a few modules (or) many modules based on the requirements of an organization. If more modules implemented, the integration between various departments may be better.

9. Since a system is implemented on the backend to store all the information required by the ERP system, it enables centralized storage/back-up of all enterprise data.

10. ERP systems are more secure as centralized security policies can be applied to them. All the transactions happening via the ERP systems can be tracked.

11. ERP systems provide better company-wide visibility and hence enable better/faster collaboration across all the departments.

12. It is possible to integrate other systems (like bar-code reader, for example) to the ERP system through an API (Application Programming Interface).

13. ERP systems make it easier for order tracking, inventory tracking, revenue tracking, sales forecasting and related activities.

14. ERP systems are especially helpful for managing globally dispersed enterprise companies, better.

Disadvantages of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems:

1. The cost of ERP Software, planning, customization, configuration, testing, implementation, etc. is too high.

2. ERP deployments are highly time-consuming – projects may take 1-3 years (or more) to get completed and fully functional.

3. Too little customization may not integrate the ERP system with the business process & too much customization may slow down the project and make it difficult to upgrade.

4. The cost savings/payback may not be realized immediately after the ERP implementation & it is quite difficult to measure the same. 5. The participation of users is very important for successful implementation of ERP projects – hence, exhaustive user training and simple user interface might be critical. But ERP systems are generally difficult to learn (and use).

6. There maybe additional indirect costs due to ERP implementation – like new IT infrastructure, upgrading the WAN links, etc.

7. Migration of existing data to the new ERP systems is difficult (or impossible) to achieve. Integrating ERP systems with other stand alone software systems is equally difficult (if possible). These activities may consume a lot of time, money & resources, if attempted.

8. ERP implementations are difficult to achieve in decentralized organizations with disparate business processes and systems.

9. Once an ERP systems is implemented it becomes a single vendor lock-in for further upgrades, customizations etc. Companies are at the discretion of a single vendor and may not be able to negotiate effectively for their services.

10. Evaluation prior to implementation of ERP system is critical. If this step is not done properly and experienced technical/business resources are not available while evaluating, 0ERP implementations can (and have) become a failure.

Function of ERP

1. With ERP, business can better control over its billing to customer and receivables. With the ability to automate processes. It provides better operational, financial and accounting control over its billing operations and receivables. 2. ERP system can be used for accomplish every task by integrating the information system , seamless flow of information across every department . It is helpful to make automation of every business process. 3. Because ERP works on IT's basic rules 'input -process-output ', So it is also using as management information system (MIS ) . 4. ERP treats the organization as single entity and caters to the information needs of the whole organization because information is the key resource of every organization to win the competition . ERP system provides accurate , relevant and timeliness information to all department on one software system . 5. Main function of ERP system and software is to provide information updated and on real time .

6. . In ERP , you can get answer of any query by its powerful query and filtering facility . 7. . Now advance ERP software’s packages are providing the facility to manage import export , tax and fulfilling other legal requirements . 8. Computer aided design can also integrate with ERP software’s for showing design of products on real time and according to the need of customers . 9. . ERP provides also all financial analysis under finance modules and comply with India's and other international accounting standards . 10. ERP system can easily use in Government , healthcare , financial , retail and other service sectors .

Free and open-source ERP software

Last

Platform Software Countries stable Description

technology license of origin released Name ate

Integrated ERP Australia/Ne

Adaxa Suite Java GPL built 2010 w Zealand on

Began as

Adempiere Java GPL a fork of Compi Spain 2014 (3.7.0) ere

GPL/Commer Acquired

Compiere Java USA 2010 (3.3.0) cial by Consona Corporation in Last

Platform Software Countries stable Description

technology license of origin released Name ate

June 2010

For small and medium

Dolibarr PHP, MySQL GPL companies, France 2014 (3.5.4) foundations or freelancers

A framework for

Epesi PHP, MySQL MIT license building ERP Poland, USA 2014 (1.5.6) applications

Based on Python, Zope, 2014

ERP5 GPL unified Worldwide MySQL (0.4.37) model[vague]

ERP for small Python,JavaScript,

ERPNEXT GPL and medium- India 2014 (4.1.0) MySQL size businesses

ERP for Apache

Fedena Ruby, MySQL schools/univers India 2014 (3.1)

License ities Last

Platform Software Countries stable Description

technology license of origin released Name ate

FrontAccount Web 2014

PHP, MySQL GPLv3 ? ing application (2.3.21)

Tools to develop GNU

Python GPLv3 interactive ? 2010

Enterprise database applications

ERP for small and medium- size businesses Austria,Germ

HeliumV Java AGPL (initial focus ? any has been electronic manufacturing)

Began as

iDempiere Java GPLv2 a fork of Ademp Worldwide 2013 (2.0) iere

ERP and CRM

JFire Java, LGPL Germany 2011 (1.2.0) system Last

Platform Software Countries stable Description

technology license of origin released Name ate

Double entry accounting and Distributed 2014

LedgerSMB Perl, PostgreSQL GPL ERP system development (1.3.37) (fork of SQL- Ledger)

ERP and e- commerce suite Apache Java, Apache Apache from the 2014

USA

OFBiz HTTP Server License2.0 Apache (12.04.04) Software Foundation

ERP and Point Java,PostgreSQL,O 1

Openbravo OBPL of Sale (POS) Spain 2013 (3.0) racle software

Renamed Python, from OpenERP 2012 (7.0,

Odoo Javascript,PostgreS AGPLv3 to reflect that is Worldwide 8.0RC in QL more than just 2014) ERP

PHP, Javascript, Expanded from Phreedom GPLv3 USA 2012 (3.4) MySQL Phreebooks Last

Platform Software Countries stable Description

technology license of origin released Name ate

accounting engine

C++, JavaScript, Accounting,

Postbooks CPAL USA 2014 (4.5.0) PostgreSQL CRM and ERP

Double entry

SQL-Ledger Perl, PostgreSQL GPL accounting and Canada 2014 (3.0.6) ERP system

Originally forked from TinyERP, cleaned-up

Tryton Python, GTK+ GPLv3 ? 2014 (3.2) code base with continious update/migratio n path

2013 LAMP-based

WebERP PHP, MySQL GPLv2 ? (4.11.1) system