Oracle E-Business Suite – Is It Really Possible To Support It Remotely?

Well, let’s begin from philosophical introduction. It is probably moving into this direction, all the recent talks about offshore development, remote support, customization project outsourcing, BPO (business processes outsourcing). And the final result will be so-called radical compromise, meaning it is not a regular compromise, but rather something we do not know about. In order to predict the future form of Oracle Applications/Fusion support we have to look at the trends.

• Market Trends. When we see that traditional manufacturing is now outsourced to China, India, Brazil, Latin America, Mexico, South East Asia – we should question if traditional ERP support will stay in the local framework and model, when consultants go onsite, sit the day with corporate IT, CEO, Controller and key AR/AP people to design the MRP model. In fact – communication channel advances allow you to be present in the conference virtually and do not feel strong disadvantages of not being able to shake opponent hands. If you are in USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand – do you really care if get phone/skype/websession support, not peer-to-peer?

• Step-by-Step. Well, we have to be conservative in order to be profitable and mutually beneficial. Let’s start from small - assume that remote support and outsourcing are for Oracle E-Business Suite Extensions & Customizations, Oracle Report Builder design & development, plus typical customer support cases, when you as a client are OK to call 800 number

• International Challenge. This is when Oracle Applications has to be supported in their localized (multicurrency, local and regional taxation and language: Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Russian). This is definitely the obstacle, however we see more examples when company has employees from Argentina, Brazil, Haiti, Montreal, China sitting in the same office…

• Conclusion. Probably the most likely scenario will be the one when you will have to accept the conception of virtual reality.

Author: Andrew Karasev

Read more ...

ERP/Accounting Selection: Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, SAP – Expansion To Europe

This article is targeted at US-based mid-size and large companies, planning the expansion and opening branches in Europe. It is for IT director, who is nowadays responsible for ERP/MRP platform selection and following implementation. The format of the article doesn’t allow us to come up with detail specs comparison, we will be rather giving you highlights for further research and checklist of things that you should not miss at the consideration. We will begin with the specific of the market and then point out to the solutions available.

• Multiple Languages. Continental Europe doesn’t speak on English language natively – documentation is in German, French, Italian or whichever country you consider. It is not just a question of finding English speaking and writing accounting personnel – as you will see, reading further

• Taxation. Now it is becoming more standardized, however you should now that in Europe you have to deal with VAT (Value Added Tax), in comparison to Sales Tax in the US. VAT should be paid not only by end consumer, but also by resellers, distributors, etc. Also it is common practice when Services are taxable in European countries.

• Government Reporting. In the USA you report on the federal and state levels and usually IRS and the states don’t care about the accounting system you use. In Europe, again depending on the country and probably this tendency is more applicable when you move Eastward, the government might have more involvement in the ERP brands selection, recommending several systems as approved, certified, localized, etc.

• Accounting Procedures. In some countries (France, Russia) you may encounter with the situation, when government wants you to use recommended chart of accounts, usually generalized and geared toward manufacturing accounting, which might be a nightmare in the case if you are service-oriented business. Considering innovative nature of US businesses in expansion mode – this issue should be addressed

Now we will give you solutions highlights:

• Local ERP. The specific legislation and conditions of the country you chose for your European penetration probably produced several locally originated ERPs. As a tendency – these systems typically deal with government reporting and available in local language only. If you decide to implement such a solution, please understand the trade-ins – you can not find US/international managers who could efficiently take the control over when needed.

• Microsoft Dynamics. Microsoft Business Solutions these systems for continental Europe: Navision, Axapta – Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics AX (Microsoft Great Plains/Microsoft Dynamics GP will be pulled out from France, Germany and Holland, where it currently has some market presence). Navision & Axapta are both localized and “approved”

• SAP Business One. Assuming that you represent mid-size business – this system has all-in-one and the named user license includes all the modules (you can have CRM-only client for your sales people at ½ of the price). SAP Business One was designed with the ideas of the Multilanguage, flexible reporting and object-oriented tax engine. Plus SAP Business One has transaction integration to mySAP.

• Oracle Financials/E-Business Suite. This solution, coming from Oracle, also referred as Oracle Applications should be considered as very efficient and reliable. It is also localized and has very long market presence history in Europe. Oracle comes with J2EE/EJB/Java customization & development

• IBM Lotus Notes/Domino. It is not an ERP – it is rather the platform, Lotus is very popular in Europe and you should consider and respect it if you purchase existing company, using Lotus for document workflow

• Integration, Customization & Reporting. You should consider European branch ERP integration ability to your corporate ERP in the USA and management reporting compliance.

Author: Andrew Karasev

Read more ...

The Effect of ERP on Mid Market Companies

When Enterprise Resource Planning was first introduced, very few companies could actually afford it. In most cases, the only companies that could afford this technology were Fortune 1000 firms. However, like many forms of technology, the cost involved with ERP would eventually be reduced, allowing small to medium sized businesses to afford it.

While ERP has been around for little more than a decade, more companies are now seeing the benefits of using it. Many companies in the Middle East and Africa have failed to utilize the benefits of ERP, and the reason for this deals with procedure rather than cost. Many of these companies have used the same methods for many years, and are unwilling to switch to something new.

ERP vendors had a tendency to focus on companies that had very deep pockets. At the same time, many of these companies made the mistake of viewing ERP as simply being a new technological tool that they could use to increase their profits. They failed to look at the implementation issues surrounding this technology, and many of them lost substantial amounts of money. In some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars were lost when a company failed to properly implement an ERP system. It should be noted that many companies learned from their mistakes and those of their contemporaries, and they were effectively able to install and utilize ERP systems. While this has allowed ERP vendors to gain billions of dollars in profits, a number of issues have occured in the last few years.

First, many large companies have already implemented ERP, and this means they are not in need of another system. This means vendors must look for othe markets in order to generate revenues. The next logical market would be the small to medium sized business market. Companies which are designated as "mid market" are those that have no more than 500 workers and maintains a turnover of no more than $100 million. There are a number of things that separate these companies from their larger counterparts, and these differences extend beyond their revenues. Many mid market businesses have to deal with tough economic issues as well as fierce competition from smaller countries. Because of this, these companies will be looking to utilize every form of technology they can get their hands on.

In addition to this, mid market companies must be able to optimize their businesses. This includes things such as supply maintenance and accounting. While Fortune 1000 companies would spend millions of dollars implementing an ERP system in the 1990s, mid market business can now implement the same technology for about $100,000. This has allowed Enterprise Resource Planning to become a low cost solution for companies who are looking to utilize it. Before a mid market company decides to utilize ERP, it may be a good idea to look at their larger counterparts to learn from them. They should view their successes as well as their failures. Most importantly, they should understand how to avoid failure while simultaneously reaching for success.

The results of studies connected on companies that have utilized ERP show a number of things. It should first be noted that firms that utilized ERP technologies how surpassed their competitors by 20%. This means that Enterprise Resource Planning is a powerful technology that can give companies an edge in the marketplace.

This also demonstrates that small companies can achieve the same feats. A number of companies have failed when attempting to use ERP, and much of this rests on their own actions rather than the actions of the technology.

A company must make strategic plans before purchasing ERP systems. It is not a matter of just installing the system and letting it run. A number of things must be done to insure the system will work properly. The goal of ERP is to integrate the many processes of a company, and this technology should only be used by companies that are willing to do this. They must work closely with the vendor to ensure everything is implemented correctly. If this is not done, it will be very difficult for the company to succeed. There are a number of companies that fail for this exact reason.

Source: www.exforsys.com

Read more ...