ERP IMPLEMENTATION IN INDUSTRIES

Abstract

In present day context, ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning has become the way of doing business. The biggest benefit of ERP is th0at it provides a centralised approach to organisation such that one can have instant access to data and information from any department within the organisation. Thus such high level of transparency and information content contributes in doing efficient business. The known big players of ERP are SAP, Oracle, Baan, etc whose enterprise solutions contain industry best management practices. However, when it comes to actual implementation, organisations, which migrate to ERP, have to suffer through increasing overhead money and time overruns and in most cases its total failure. What's the reason behind it? However, if small players are considered, the Extended Add-ons provided by them usually are able to fulfill their specific requirements like Process Management, Chemical Supply Chain, and Aerospace Management etc. What's there in this Extended ERP? Though ERP is implemented in organisations to make the work simpler and easier for business, it fails to do so, because of lack in providing adequate essential ingredients. The essential operations for any ERP are customisation, upgrade and integration. While the big players are able to provide a fairly generalised package, they fail to provide the niche services provided by small vendors like JDA, Wam Systems, Manugistics, etc. Thus, big players lack on extensive customisation and hence their upgrade and integration (with small players) are also impacted. Extended ERP has high degree of customisation made for specific industries like Pharmaceuticals, Transportation, Chemical, Retail, Aerospace, etc. Hence, they also provide increased flexibility as the packages are based on business intelligence to cater to the needs of the specific industries. Further, small players are able to provide quick solutions and at low cost vis a vis bigger players.