Visit the online magazine CIO.com and conduct a search on ERP. Choose an example of an ERP and write a memo to your instructor describing the procedure. Make comments as to area in which the company could have improved its implementation.The purpose of this memorandum is to recommend the use of an ERP system for the company to be able to upgrade and help the company to become more efficient, effective and productive. Specifically, the Enterprise 21 ERP System, an ERP system design for the needs of small – to – medium size company, is recommended to be adopted or purchased by the company.
This ERP system provides support for sales order management and inventory control, warehouse, procurement and manufacturing management, forecasting, planning and financial management, CRM, business intelligence, provision for e-commerce and accounting. This system is capable of catering the needs of top managers, middle managers, frontline employees as well as its customers. This ERP system has the capability to be configured to the specific needs of the company and its design is made such that existing hardware available in the company can be used.
In addition to the features of the ERP, product support is great since it is directly implemented by its vendor, giving first hand support t its customers.
Since the company us a mid-ranged company without fully where some departments are merged to function several duties, the flexibility and customarily feature of the software is a good thing to consider and request the company to customized such ERP to meet the needs of the company according to the functions of the department and the functions of each employee in its organizational structure. Furthermore, it would be good to bank and make further study on the extent of product support they can give the company, since, we know that the company does not have a full IT support.
It is hoped that the above recommendations for Enterprise 21 ERP System be considered for adoption. For inquiries and suggestions, you can send them at .
What specific needs do you think a small to midsized company has in selecting an ERP vendor? How do these needs differ from those of large companies?
Although large and small to midsized business (SMB) may have the same household tasks, it is a fact that there is a big difference in each of the companies organization. SMBs could have a department that functions or does the tasks of three or four departments in a large company. This results in having a larger number of in-house resources for the large company compared to the SMB. For example, the IT department could have several employees responsible for different tasks in a large company and a 3 – man team for a small company who merges their tasks. Manpower, specifically, technical manpower available for the company must be considered when an SMB decides to purchase an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP).
Since SMBs lack the in-house resources, they must also consider the kind of relationship they could get from their vendor. They must look for vendors that could be capable of providing help and continuous support services to them. It is good to look for a vendor who has the same company qualities and culture with them. Does the vendor have any experience installing ERP packages for SMBs and how active are they in providing support services? SMBs must also check for the manpower requirements of the ERP system they want to purchase to be prepared.
Another thing to consider when purchasing is the money and resources available. Usually, large companies could afford the cost of implementing an ERP system while SMBs could find it costly to purchase and implement one because aside from the software itself, the hardware requirements must be also considered. Are the equipments already available in the company or does it need a new set of hardware? Purchasing a new set of hardware could mean more money out for the company (Metasystems.com, 2012).
The last but one of the most important factor that should be considered by SMBs when buying ERP is the functional fitness of the software to the needs of the company. The company should not buy an ERP system that is not capable of tailoring it to their needs or one that requires it to change their existing business process to suit to ERP. SMBs usually has more specialized needs as compared to large companies so when selecting vendors, they should consider vendors that could “verticalized” or customized the ERP to suit the particular company requirements (Metasystems.com, 2011).
Although, ERPs are considered one of the prerequisites of companies today, it does not mean that all ERP implementations are successful. There are ERP purchases put to waste because of so many reasons. There must be full support from management to be able to implement ERPs successfully. Careful planning is also a must to be able to successfully implement such and flexibility. Poor ERP package selection could also spoil the successful ERP implementation since it would not be capable of meeting the needs of the company
If your ERP vendor is bought by another, what challenges might you face in terms of your ERP systems?
There are a lot of challenges that could occur if ERP Vendor is bought by another or a bigger ERP vendor which is by far the current trend in the ERP industry today. Several ERP vendors mostly catering Small to Medium sized companies have been acquired by bigger companies like PeopleSoft which has been acquired by Oracle. One big question for the company if its ERP vendor is bought by another is the amount of support it could get from the new management. Will the support continue or increase or they will decrease their support to the company’s customers? Another challenge is if the new owner would continuously support the original software or decides to come up with another software package. Will there be continuous improvement for the ERP you bought or will they company stop there? The maintenance cost for the software would also be a challenge because there may be increased maintenance cost (Bartholomew, 2005).
Another challenge could be if the current ERP system would be phased-out and the new owner offers a new package for them, would it be compatible to the new ERP or do they have to start all over again. Although most of the functions of ERP systems are the same, it differs on the specific platforms these companies use in developing them.
Define application service provider. Do some research on the web about current opinions of using ASPs. Try to find some example of success and failure stories. Under what circumstances do you think using an ASP makes sense?
Application service provider or ASP is a kind of business model that mainly utilizes the Web to create software and software services used by companies to sell and distribute. This is specifically used by SMBs because it provides low cost to them compared to the purchased of and ERP system. ASPs are used by several industries nowadays. Companies find it cheaper to them to utilize already available ASPs on the market rather than having to design their own software that is solely or customized to their needs because its cost is way above the cost of utilizing ASPs. Companies only need to pay a minimal monthly fee, in addition to have reduced the bother of operating and maintaining the servers the houses the application. This means, reducing maintenance costs. Another important feature of ASPs is that it is internet based, meaning, it is accessible anywhere and anytime.
By using ASPs, the company is removed from the burden of maintaining the database and updating both hardware and software components as these are left to the provider to do. Several big companies like Google, Amazon and Ebay utilizes ASPs for their data storage and transactions online. Simple forms of ASPs includes web hosting services and email providers. However, some challenges in ASP is the security of the data since the ASP is in control of the data instead of the company controlling it (Technopedia.com, 2009)
References
Technopedia.com (2012). Application Service Provider (ASP). Retrieved from http://www.techopedia.com/definition/2476/application-service-provider-asp
Burns, Michael (2012). How to Select and Implement and ERP System. Retrieved from http://www.180systems.com/ERPWhitePaper.pdf
Metasystems.com (2012). ERP for Small / Medium Size Business. Retrieved from http://www.metasystems.com/Download/White-Papers/ERP-for-Small-revised2.pdf
Metasystems.com (2011). Selecting an ERP Software Package for Small and Midsize Manufacturers. Retrieved from http://www.metasystems.com/Download/White-Papers/ERP-Selection-whitepaper.pdf
Bartholomew, Dough (2005). ERP Vendors: Big Getting Bigger. Retrieved from http://www.nnicolian.com/MIS%20480%20-%20Fall%2009-10/ERP%20Vendors.pdf
Mont, Ellen F and Wagner, Bret J. (2009) Concepts In Enterprise Resource Planning. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=pG94WAknOF8C&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=%22If+your+ERP+vendor+is+bought+by+another,+what+challenges+might+you+face+in+terms+of+your+ERP+systems?%22&source=bl&ots=6BnEPWBJzb&sig=1fq6t8FRDShbMGRF0afQ29lMmlY&hl=fil&sa=X&ei=hezsT7-fFMbQmAWxt83XDQ&ved=0CE4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22If%20your%20ERP%20vendor%20is%20bought%20by%20another%2C%20what%20challenges%20might%20you%20face%20in%20terms%20of%20your%20ERP%20systems%3F%22&f=false
