Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Enterprise Resource Planning [ERP]


Enterprise Resource Planning [ERP]

What is ERP?
(the concept of erp)

E
nterprise Resource Planning or the ERP is a strategic tool which helps organisation to achieve an competitive advantage over its competitors by helping in streamlining & integrating its key business processes, operations, systems and people, and thus improving overall efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation to satisfy its customers profitably.

ERP is an enterprise wide set of strategic management tool that helps organisation to achieve its goal, by employing set of softwares & hardwares, and thus achieving an integration between its different business processes, operations, systems and people."

The goal of ERP, is to achieve an competitive advantage over business competitors' by employing a management system which helps to achieve efficiency in operations, and being effective in satisfying customers' needs in profitable way.

ERP is basically a concept where each business processes are streamlined with others using a common system by integrating its various activities. The integration of business process thus improves co-ordination between different departments, streamlines work flows and processes and benefits the business in terms of satisfying customers by delivering their orders just in time. ERP thus keeps business customers well informed about their order's status rather than keeping them waiting for just a small piece of information. At the same time it helps business owners to take informed decision & enables them to gain better control over business operations.

Enterprise Resource Planning is originally derived from Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) which followed Material Resource Planning (MRP). ERP system typically handles the manufacturing, logistics, distribution, inventory, shipping, invoicing, accounting, human resources, marketing, and strategic requirements of the business.

ERP as a System

ERP systems attempts to integrate all data
and processes of an organisation into a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a unified database to store data for the various system modules. It is this "unified database" which serves as the backbone of ERP systems. This enables ERP systems for greater integration & reporting capabilities.

Below are the various definitions of the ERP, along with its source...

ERP (Enterprise Resource planning) covers the technique and concepts employed for the integrated management of business as a whole, from the viewpoint of the effectiveness use of management resources, to improve the efficiency of an enterprise. ERP packages are integrated software packages that support the above ERP concepts.
(Source: http://www.management-hub.com/marketing-erp.html)

Enterprise resource planning, a business management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing.
(Source: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/ERP.html)

Is ERP just a software?

We often think, erp as just a bundle of software & hardware, because many marketer market erp packages as just a bundle of softwares which is made up from different modules, formulating business operations. But in reality, enterprise resource planning is an attempt to achieve enterprise wide integration to removes business bottlenecks and to improve business key functions to achieve effective integration of key business operations.

Thinking ERP just as a bundle of software & hardware, narrows the perspective of ERP Systems. ERP package is just a product or a software which support ERP concept. Thus, organisation attempts to implement ERP through the use of erp software package, a package in this case is just a small tool.

Read more.


What you'll find here in coming days... regarding ERP.
  • What is ERP?
  • Is ERP just a bundle of Software?
  • How ERP evolved?
  • What are the different modules of ERP?
  • What ERP can do for businesses?
  • How ERP can transform the businesses?
  • Why ERP is crucial to businesses for long term success?
  • How to implement ERP? What are its stages?
  • How it affects the various stake holders of the business?
  • How to optimize ERP for better results?
  • How to measure the success of ERP?
  • Why ERP implementation fails?
  • How to plan to make ERP implementation successful?


Kindly provide your comments/suggestions/critics...