Organizations today confront new markets, new competition and increasing customer expectations. Thus today's organizations have to constantly re-engineer their business practices and procedures to be more and more responsive to customers and competition. In the 1990's Information technology and Business Process re-engineering, used in conjunction with each other, have emerged as important tools which give organizations the leading edge. The efficiency of an enterprise depends on the quick flow of information across the complete supply chain i.e. from the customer to manufacturers to supplier. ERP (Enterprise resource planning) systems, have been a major information technology that has been used by businesses today, in hopes of gaining a competitive advantage. But this advantage seems only plausible if the implementation is coupled with process re-engineering, as well.

ERP is an enterprise wide system that integrates primary business applications, including all areas and levels of an organization. All the applications in an ERP suite share a common set of data that is stored in a central database. It aims to serve as a backbone for your whole computing business, integrating key bu

Thus a proper implementation of the system will provide a competitive advantage, based on the company integrating the system with its own processes to make it unique, and the cost and time put in will be offset by the benefits of the system. The first step in a successful implementation project is gaining a solid understanding of ERP systems and benefits in relation to your own business expectations. Now it is up to the company to take the implementation to the extent of fitting in with their business processes. Many competitors will have an ERP system but it is useless if it is not integrated with the company's business processes. Its like any tool, you must know how to utilize it for it to be an asset, but first you must evaluate the tool to see if it will fit in with your business, as every business is unique. Some important points to be kept in mind while evaluating an ERP software include: 1) Functional fit with the Company's business processes 2) Degree of integration between the various components of the ERP system 3) Flexibility and scalability 4) Complexity; user friendliness 5) Quick implementation; shortened ROI period 6) Ability to support multi-site planning and control 7) Technology; client/server capabilities, database independence, security 8) Availability of regular upgrades 9) Amount of customization required 10) Local support infrastructure 11) Availability of reference sites 12) Total costs, including cost of license, training, implementation, maintenance, customization and hardware requirements.

ERP systems are great for automating well-understood functions and processes. An ERP system helps you offload the development and maintenance of the more mundane IS functions. In theory, this gives you more time to focus on the cutting-edge, bet-your-company applications. It forms the critical backbone of E-commerce, but companies must look beyond implementing an ERP solution if they really want to build value and sustain their competitive advantage. Although implementing ERP suites can improve and update corporate resource management, managers must also be aware of the challenges involved in an ERP project. Even small ERP projects can cost millions of dollars. Nevertheless, the payback is high: ERP systems can provide companies the reliable, integrated data infrastructure they need to more easily access corporate data and, consequently, manage their business more effectively. Companies must plan their ERP implementations carefully and devote adequate resources to the project!

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