| ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Overview covers | | | | understand their business. With ERP software, |
| What is | | | | companies can |
| ERP, Brief history of ERP, Why is it necessary, | | | | standardize business processes and more easily |
| Market | | | | enact best |
| Leaders and the future of ERP.What is | | | | practices. By creating more efficient processes, |
| ERP?Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP is an | | | | companies |
| industry term for | | | | can concentrate their efforts on serving their |
| integrated, multi-module application software | | | | customers and |
| packages that | | | | maximizing profit.Market LeadersThe top five ERP |
| are designed to serve and support multiple business | | | | vendors, SAP, Oracle Corporation, |
| functions. An ERP system can include software for | | | | Peoplesoft, Inc. (now Oracle Corp.), JD Edwards & |
| manufacturing, order entry, accounts receivable and | | | | Company, |
| payable, | | | | and Baan International, account for 64 percent of total |
| general ledger, purchasing, warehousing, transportation | | | | ERP |
| and | | | | market revenue. These vendors continue to play a |
| human resources. Evolving out of the manufacturing | | | | major role |
| industry, | | | | in shaping the landscape of new target markets, with |
| ERP implies the use of packaged software rather | | | | expanded product functionality, and higher penetration |
| than | | | | rates. SAP dominates the $6.7 billion ERP applications |
| proprietary software written by or for one customer. | | | | market in Europe with 39% market share. Oracle and |
| ERP | | | | PeopleSoft come second and third respectively, |
| modules may be able to interface with an | | | | followed by |
| organization's own | | | | SAGE Group and Microsoft Business Solutions.The |
| software with varying degrees of effort, and, | | | | Future of ERPIndustry analysts expect that every |
| depending on | | | | major manufacturing |
| the software, ERP modules may be alterable via the | | | | company will buy the software, which ranges in cost |
| vendor's | | | | -- with |
| proprietary tools as well as proprietary or standard | | | | maintenance and training -- from hundreds of |
| programming languages.Brief History of ERPThe | | | | thousands of |
| focus of manufacturing systems in the 1960's was on | | | | dollars for a small company to millions for a large |
| Inventory control. Most of the software packages | | | | company. |
| then | | | | AMR Research of Boston says consolidation among |
| (usually customized) were designed to handle | | | | the major |
| inventory based | | | | players will continue and intensify. ERP vendors are |
| on traditional inventory concepts. In the 1970's the | | | | expected to put more effort into e-commerce, CRM |
| focus | | | | and SCM |
| shifted to MRP (Material Requirement Planning) | | | | initiatives, with leaders redirecting between 50% and |
| systems that | | | | 75% of |
| translated the Master Schedule built for the end items | | | | their R&D budget to these projects.According to |
| into | | | | Gartner research group, the rapid evolution of |
| time-phased net requirements for the sub-assemblies, | | | | ERP has already lead to a new corporate must-have, |
| components and raw materials planning and | | | | ERP II, |
| procurement.In the 1980's the concept of MRP-II | | | | which is supposed to help businesses gain more |
| (Manufacturing Resources | | | | competitive |
| Planning) evolved which was an extension of MRP to | | | | edge in the future. The major difference is that ERP II |
| shop | | | | involves collaborative commerce, which enables |
| floor and Distribution management activities. In the | | | | business |
| early | | | | partners from multiple companies to exchange |
| 1990's, MRP-II was further extended to cover areas | | | | information |
| like | | | | posted on eCommerce exchanges.In the next tutorial |
| Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Projects | | | | we will talk about popular ERP Products |
| Management | | | | and the Modules and Application related to them.For |
| etc i.e. the complete gamut of activities within any | | | | more visualization of this article along with the screen |
| business enterprise. Hence, the term ERP (Enterprise | | | | shots and more visit with step by step instructions, is a |
| Resource Planning) was coined.Why is it | | | | community of developers specializing in C, C++, C#, |
| Necessary?By becoming the integrated information | | | | Java, J2EE, .NET, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel, Oracle |
| solution across the | | | | Apps., Data warehousing, Oracle/SQL Server/DB2 |
| entire organization, ERP systems allow companies to | | | | and Testing. |
| better | | | | |