ERP Systems

Consider an Enterprise Resource Planning System

If you are a small business owner or a CIO in search of ways to combine business and technology to facilitate your company’s back office functions, it may be a good time for you to consider implementing an enterprise resource planning system. Sometimes called an ERP software system or ERP business solution, an enterprise resource planning system may revolutionize your company’s approach to asset management, efficiency and the use of software related business tools.

The earliest form of enterprise resource planning system first came onto the market in the early 1990s. These first systems were designed with manufacturing firms in mind, since manufacturing enterprises were heavily dependent on scheduling and order processing, yet most of them were still using separate software platforms for each of their departments. This meant that departments could not share access to collective databases without complicated software conversions. It also meant that each department handled business functions using systems designed by different developers, so employees moving from one department to another would have to relearn how to interface with the system.

Most important, it meant that order processing, raw material delivery, invoicing, lot tracking and other manufacturing business tasks all had to be carried out separately. But with an enterprise resource planning system in place, all software functions and business tools required by a company could be gathered onto the same platform. A single server architecture could allow all departments to run the same applications, house shared databases, and update the shared data in real time. Some early manufacturing business clients were not able to implement a new enterprise resource planning system successfully, often due to poor planning or insufficient employee training. But the implementations that were successful revolutionized back office functions for these firms, and resulting increases in revenue quickly outpaced the investment involved in installing the new systems.

Even with a small percentage of failures, the enterprise resource planning system model rapidly gained popularity beyond the world of manufacturing, and by the mid 1990s demand for new implementations began to heat up. Since systems were expensive, they were mainly available to firms with large budgets, but these firms included many Fortune 500 companies, government offices and large university systems. As the millennium came to an end, many of these organizations hurried to replace their old isolated software models with integrated ERP business solutions.

At this point, the large enterprise level market has been mostly satisfied, since systems only need to be implemented once in a decade or more. Providers are now turning their attention to finding ways to appeal to small business clients, and they face competition from inexpensive ERP alternatives, like hosting solutions and ERP software suites available over the internet at low or no cost.

Written by :

tracey boxer