ERP Vendor Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

ERP Providers and Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Pros and Cons of ERP Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Companies With ERP Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Enterprise Resource Planning – An Overview

Enterprise Resource Planning systems are a new type of business management computing systems that integrate all the facets of a business including planning, marketing, sales, and manufacturing. ERP systems were originally used to serve the information need of manufacturing companies. Over time they have grown to serve many other industries such as health care, financial services, and the consumer goods sector. The first ERP systems ran on mainframe computers. They then migrated to the more popular client/server systems and today they are moving towards a web based network system that includes numerous applications. These web-based ERP systems help automate a company’s business process by employing an integrated user interface, and

When selecting potential vendors functionality becomes an important aspect. That is why ERP systems have developed into these best-of-breed solutions. Basically, the vendor can adapt its system to meet the necessary needs of the organization while no dependence is needed on a single system. To ensure the validity of using an ERP system can be overcome by allocating the costs throughout the organization. By doing this, you spread out your liabilities and this could lead to immediate savings and streamlining of operations. However, it is crucial that responsibility and accountability be identified throughout the organization. In addition, identify the vendors after sale customer service and maintain policies. If companies do not have a clear written explanation and partnership with its vendor’s upcoming problems could have the organization forced to allocate additional costs that could undermine the cost savings and the long-term stability of the system. A vendor should possess several similar features that coincide with the companies operations. A vendor should be experienced in leading similar organizational projects like that of the company, having a pro-active approach to technical issues that may arise, knowledge of trends within that sector of the companies industry, understanding of how one change in the companies system can impact another, and experience with developing strategies to deal with re-evaluation processes. This can be a difficult process, but many companies are moving to a pay as you go philosophy in order to drive out potential long-term failures with vendors.

Today, ERP systems software lies at the heart of any large enterprise’s computing activity. ERP software integrates all the information used by an organization’s many different departments and other cross functional groups into a unified computing system. This software enables everyone within the company to access information from the same database. Information such as employee records, customer data, purchase orders, and inventory can all be stored and accessed within the same network.

integrated data set, and an integrated code set.

The return from the enterprise resource planning software is also something to consider when adopting a new system. For some companies the pros may outweigh the cons, but for others it may not be the same. Several companies can afford to purchase and install an ERP system and reap the benefits. Many companies cannot afford to purchase an ERP system nor do they need to. ERP systems are not designed for every company. If the company has several manufacturing plants and several distributions centers it could probably benefit from an ERP system. On the other hand if the company is very centralized it may not benefit from an expensive system that may not improve its business. All of these factors should be looked at when deciding to adopt an enterprise resource system.

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