ERP Software Suppliers

The ERP market has continued to grow over the last 10 years. While it was once only the domain of Fortune 1000 companies, Enterprise Resource Planning has now caught the attention of small to medium sized companies. The growth rate of Enterprise Resource Planning has reached over 30% since the end of the 1990s.

Because this tool has become so important for a large number of companies and organizations, it is important to understand the suppliers who make it available to them. The foundation for ERP technology was introduced in the early 1970s. An organization called SAP was created by engineers who had worked for IBM, and it became one of the largest ERP vendors in the world.

The software created by SAP is R/3, and it was created for the purpose of assisting companies with their logistics and accounting processes. In addition to this, SAP also offered a number of tools that dealt with human resources. Over time, SAP has extended its services to include supply chain maintenance and data warehousing solutions. The second most popular ERP software company was PeopleSoft. The area where this company became most prominent was human resources. It eventually placed an emphasis on tailoring its products to the service sector, and they wanted to help organizations deal with their costs and expenses. One reason why SAP and PeopleSoft had a great deal of success is because they extended their product line to suit the needs of a changing market.

There are a number of other suppliers that have made important contributions to the ERP industry. Some of these companies are J.D. Edwards and Oracle. Oracle has sold ERP tools since the late 1980s, and these tools were designed to work with their databases. Oracle has focused on selling their products to consumer goods firms and manufacturing companies. Because of this, they have become a formidable adversary to companies such as SAP. However, Oracle has had a number of problems over the years. Many of these problems are a result of reorganizing the structure of the company as well as the uncertainty of their newer products.

Another ERP supplier that has become quite popular is Baan. Baan is a company based in the Netherlands that sells ERP logistics tools to companies that wish to avoid doing business with SAP. They have spent a great deal of effort focusing on software suppliers that are relatively small. One of the most powerful advantages of this strategy is that a broader variety of products were introduced. The firm called J.D. Edwards is a company that has sold software for many years. However, they did not officially become a public company until the 1990s. When the launched the OneWorld ERP tool, they became a powerful force in the market, and they have earned billions of dollars in profits.

There are the four ERP vendors that have made a tremendous impact on the industry. However, it should be noted that there are a host of smaller companies. Because the largest vendors have placed an emphasis on working with Fortune 500 to Fortune 1000 companies, this has left open a market that was not tapped for many years. The smaller ERP vendors are catering their services to smaller businesses. Some of the companies which have done well in this area are Infinium Software, QAD, and PowerCerv. The software sold by these companies will require a great deal of customization if they are to be used properly.

However, they have assisted these smaller businesses by offering their products at a much lower cost. In addition to this, the software can be implemented within a short time frame.

Source: www.exforsys.com

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Oracle Applications (Oracle E-business Suite) Customizations: What Is It?

Oracle Applications Customizations is a major issue in many companies that have implemented it. Oracle recommends every company that installs Oracle Applications to avoid any customization, but I have not seen any company that utilizes it and have not done any customization.

There are two types of Customizations: Extensions and Modifications.

• Extensions are components developed by customer, using the development features provided by Oracle within the E-business Suite. Oracle has provided guidelines and standards for creating extensions. It is extremely recommended that those are followed; it will certify that the new objects (extensions) are kept separate from standard E-business components.

• Modifications are changes done in the standard E-business suite objects or code. For example, a customer gets a database trigger from Oracle Applications database and makes some changes in the code. When customers follow this approach it is very difficult to identify the changes that have been done in the Oracle Applications, and this will affect future upgrades.

There are some common extensions on Oracle Applications Suite:

• Alert: Oracle Alerts facilitates the flow of information within a customer’s organization. Oracle workflow is used to develop new alerts.

• Database Objects: when the functionality is not available in Oracle Applications, it is possible to create a set of database objects. If the creation is necessary, it has to be done carefully, once it could impact the performance and the integrity of the system.

• File System and Custom Directory: always use the standard Oracle Flexible Architecture (OFA). This helps you to standardize installation and maintenance procedures. Create a new directory ($CUSTOM_TOP) and store all the customization in there.

• Forms: provides a way of populating custom tables. Oracle has provided a guideline for its implementation that must be followed. It has to be coded and tested properly; otherwise it can compromise the data integrity.

• Reports: Oracle provides the most usual reports and every company has to develop to their specific formats. Oracle Reports builder is the tool to be used and there are some risks in case of an upgrade, once that the schema of the objects used by Reports and Oracle eBusiness Suite can be changed in future releases.

Customization is a need at any company that has implemented Oracle Applications. Oracle is frequently advising everyone to avoid any kind customization. I agree in some part with Oracle, I would just change this advice to “Extend but not modify”.

Author: Andrew Karasev

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The Current State of Enterprise Resource Planning

To analyze the future trends of Enterprise Resource Planning, it is first important to look at the current state of this industry. While this tool was originally used for manufacturing and human resources, it is now being used in areas such as customer services, sales automation, and supply chain maintenance. At the moment, it seems that ERP vendors are expanding the capability of their ERP products, and many of them are catering to smaller businesses instead of just Fortune 500 companies.

The advent of the Internet has played an important role in the evolution of Enterprise Resource Planning.
A number of companies are combining their supply chain maintenance functions with the internet so that suppliers can also have easy access to the information. When the supplier is given access to this crucial information, they will be able to understand the needs of their clients. They will have a good understanding of how much they should produce, and they will also become familiar with manufacturing issues. In addition to integrating the processes within a company, ERP vendors are working to merge the collaboration of suppliers, customers, and the companies that work with them. In addition to doing this on a domestic level, these vendors are working on an international level as well.

A number of experts have said that they feel the future of ERP may be in danger. There are a number of reasons why they voice these concerns. First, many ERP vendors have already catered to the needs of large companies. Most, if not all large companies are now using some type of Enterprise Resource Planning system. What this means is that the market for ERP is decreasing with Fortune 500 and 1000 companies. Even though a vendor can expect to make millions off the sale of a system, they will not make any more money beyond this, and once a company has implemented a ERP system, there is little they need from the vendor.

To solve these problems, a number of vendors are focusing on small to medium sized businesses. They are tailoring their products to these companies by reducing the size, cost, and complexity of implementing them. If an ERP vendor wants to survive in this ever changing market, there are a number of things they will need to do. They will first want to pay attention to processes that are not connected to a generic system. They will want to look at things such as customer support and the ability of their clients to make decisions. The last thing they will need to do is target their products towards smaller companies. If an ERP vendor wants to succeed, they must understand the needs of their customers. Their customer service must be superior in quality, and the prices must be decent, especially for small to medium sized businesses.

If a vendor does these things successfully, they can compete in the global market. The business world continues to change, and ERP vendors must be able to adapt to these changes if they wish to remain competitive. As we move further into the 21st century, it will become more important for organizations to integrate both their processes and information. It is critically important for manufacturers and customers to work at a higher level of understanding and coordination. In addition to this, the company must be able to effectively work with suppliers. Overall, ERP is a strategic resource that will allow companies to synchronize processes that would otherwise be disconnected.

Source: www.exforsys.com

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