Overview

Hi Friends..

       Sorry For posting this Topic a little late..

       Was Kinda Busy with Routine work and new projects...

       Well Today Lets Discuss About the Overview of ERP System...

        Feel free to post your comments and In case If you have some doubts, 

            Please ask / post  I will be so happy to answer them..

Some organizations — typically those with sufficient in-house IT skills to integrate multiple software products — choose to implement only portions of an ERP system and develop an external interface to other ERP or stand-alone systems for their other application needs. For example, one may choose to use human resource management system from one vendor, and the financial systems from another, and perform the integration between the systems themselves.

This is very common in the retail sector, where even a mid-sized retailer will have a discrete Point-of-Sale (POS) product and financials application, then a series of specialized applications to handle business requirements such as warehouse management, staff roistering, merchandising and logistics.

Ideally, ERP delivers a single database that contains all data for the software modules, which would include:

Manufacturing 

Engineering, Bills of Material, Scheduling, Capacity, Workflow Management, Quality Control, Cost Management, Manufacturing Process, Manufacturing Projects, Manufacturing Flow

Supply Chain Management 

Order to cash, Inventory, Order Entry, Purchasing, Product Configuration, Supply Chain Planning, Supplier Scheduling, Inspection of goods, Claim Processing, Commission Calculation etc

Financials 

General Ledger, Cash Management, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets

Projects 

Costing, Billing, Time and Expense, Activity Management

Human Resources 

Human Resources, Payroll, Training, Time & Attendance, Roistering, Benefits

Customer Relationship Management 

Sales and Marketing, Commissions, Service, Customer Contact and Call Center support

Data Warehouse 

And various Self-Service interfaces for Customers, Suppliers, and Employees

Enterprise Resource Planning is a term originally derived from manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) that followed material requirements planning (MRP). MRP evolved into ERP when "routings" became a major part of the software architecture and a company's capacity planning activity also became a part of the standard software activity. ERP systems typically handle the manufacturing, logistics, and distribution, inventory, shipping, invoicing, and accounting for a company. Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software can aid in the control of many business activities, like sales, marketing, delivery, billing, production, inventory management, quality management, and human resource management.

ERP systems saw a large boost in sales in the 1990s as companies faced the Y2K problem in their legacy systems. Many companies took this opportunity to replace their legacy information systems with ERP systems. This rapid growth in sales was followed by a slump in 1999, at which time most companies had already implemented their Y2K solution.

ERPs are often incorrectly called back office systems indicating that customers and the general public are not directly involved. This is contrasted with front office systems like customer relationship management (CRM) systems that deal directly with the customers, or the eBusiness systems such as eCommerce, eGovernment, eTelecom, and eFinance, or supplier relationship management (SRM) systems.

ERPs are cross-functional and enterprise wide. All functional departments that are involved in operations or production are integrated in one system. In addition to manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and information technology, this would include accounting, resources, marketing, and strategic management.

ERP II means open ERP architecture of components. The older, monolithic ERP systems became component oriented.

EAS — Enterprise Application Suite is a new name for formerly developed ERP systems which include (almost) all segments of business, using ordinary Internet browsers as thin clients.

 Most of us are thinking that ERP solutions are much complicated or they are not user friendly or it needs to be operated by techie's only..

   NO a BIG NO...

In my Professional Experience of 3 Years, I had Implemented ERP Solutions in Three Sites and the Latest one being very complicated with 

One Corporate Head Office

One Factory

Two Warehouses (Both being at Different Places)

20 Retail Stores (Across India)

The Complete Business process is to monitored and steered from the corporate Head Office and we have to do the Sales projection every month and have to send Stocks to each Store accordingly..

The Store Employee's Maximum Educational Qualification was 10th Standard and he has to work with the POS (Point Of Sale) at the retail store to generate the Bill and has to receive the Invoice for the New Stocks, while the documents are transferred electronically and the Physical Quantity will be sent by Goods Transports from the warehouse.

Believe It or Not...

It Took me exactly 3 Days to Train them with the basic operations and Once after they were comfortable with the operations of Billing they were trained to maintain sale reports and daily stock maintenance reports in the system and they learnt quickly..

On the Whole it took just 10 days to train them...

Thus ERP solutions are much user friendly and with Proper Understanding and Planning, Successful Implementation is Possible in any Project site, no matter whatever the hinderances are...

In case if you facing  some problem in your Project Implementation, Feel free to Discuss here..

Lemme also Learn some more.. I love to Learn...

 

Origin of the term and Overview

The initials ERP originated as an extension of MRP(material requirements planning, and thenmanufacturing resource planning) and CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing) and was introduced by research and analysis firm Gartner. ERP systems now attempt to cover all basic functions of an enterprise, regardless of the organization's business or charter. Non-manufacturing businesses, non-profit organizations and governments now all use ERP systems.

To be considered an ERP system, a software package must provide the function of at least two systems.

 For example, a software package that provides both payroll and accounting functions could technically be considered an ERP software package.

However, the term is typically reserved for larger, more broadly based applications. The introduction of an ERP system to replace two or more independent applications eliminates the need for external interfaces previously required between systems, and provides additional benefits ranging from standardization and lower maintenance (one system instead of two or more) to easier and/or greater reporting capabilities (as all data is typically kept in one database).

Examples of modules in an ERP which formerly would have been stand-alone applications include:

Manufacturing, 

Supply Chain,

 Financials, 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM),

 Human Resources, Warehouse Management and

 Decision Support System.

Most of the ERP Software Packages have multiple modules and when new modules or Additional Functionalities are required by the client, the Software Providers can offer these optional upgrades as required.

Let us consider a Scenario, A Company has a ERP Software to monitor all the operations in their Corporate Office, Branch Offices and Factory but they want a new module to monitor and find out the actual time taken for Transportation of Raw Materials from Warehouse to Factory, Hence they request for a New Module, With which they can Monitor the Average time taken.

Now, The new module is designed in such a way that Whenever a Material Request Form is raised from the Factory, The Software Generates a Order Form From the Factory (Production Manager to Make the Request and General Manager to Authorize the Request), which will be Electronically transfered to the Central Server and a Copy of the same is delivered at the WareHouse.

The Warehouse Manager authorizes the Goods Transfer and generates a Goods Transfer Note from Factory and enters the exact time when the container leaves the factory, the GTN is electronically transfered to the Central server and the Factory and Once when the container reaches there, the Store Keeper, Enters the Goods Receipt Note and Will Key in the Actual Delivery time and this document will also be saved and Electronically sent to The central Server which will calculate the total time taken and after some "N" times of Observation the Management may take the appropriate action to either speedup the Delivery or alternate methods to save time.

Thus These are the Options available to Customize according to the Needs of the End User

ERP - What is ERP?

Friends

               I will post an article daily about ERP and its various types of Modules and its advantages.

               ERP is a booming IT product which can get you a high paid, well respected job.

               I have been working with ERP packages as a Functional & Technical Consultant for more than 3 years and have completed Three projects in Export and Retail sectors and I really love working with the ERP solutions since it never says NO to any thing.

              With the latest technology of OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) Technology we can analyze reports in a very different unique and a very special manner.

              Today I have posted just a simple introduction about ERP.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the planning of how business resources (materials,inventory,employees, customers etc.) are acquired and moved from one state to another.

An ERP system is a business support system that maintains in a single database the data needed for a variety of business functions such as Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management, Financials, Projects, Human Resources and Customer Relationship Management.

An ERP system is based on a common database and a modular software design. The common database can allow every department of a business to store and retrieve information in real-time. The information should be reliable, accessible, and easily shared. The modular software design should mean a business can select the modules they need, mix and match modules from different vendors, and add new modules of their own to improve business performance.

Simply speaking the front end of the Software has form like modules where you can key in the data in their respective fields for example, In CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Module of ERP, lets consider the case of new customer detail is being added / uploaded.

Add New Customer Module

Customer Name:                                       D.O.B: 

Address for Communication:

Contact Number:      Landline:                         Mobile:

E-mail Address:

All the above fields when filled in by the one who uses the module, will be like shown below:

Customer Name:  Frank Martin                            D.O.B: 09.08.1978

Address for Communication: 141, Rocks Lane, Newark, USA

Contact Number:      Landline: 510- 541-4141         Mobile: N/A

E-mail Address: Frankmartin@transporter.com

So once after all these data are collected, the system asks about saving the data, When clicked OK

The saved data is posted into the tables designed and designated for the details - the new customer details and is stored. Whenever the user needs to know about the particular customer, his merchandise, his frequency of purchases, high value purchase or low value purchase whether he pays by credit card or debit card or by cash etc etc can be analyzed and tabulated using the ERP system.

Ideally, the data for the various business functions are integrated. In practice the ERP system may comprise a set of discrete applications, each maintaining a discrete data store within one physical database.

Thus is what you have to know about the ERP basically and from tomorrow onwards lets discuss in depth about the concepts...

Tomorrow's Topic:

           " Origin of the Term and Overview"