Enterprise Resource Planning Software
What Has the Internet Done to Change the Face of ERP Systems?
Thomas Kay
`Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a company-wide computer software system used to manage and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of a business from shared data stores. Anenterprise resource planningsystem has a service-oriented architecture with modular hardware and software units or "services" that communicate on a local area network. The modular design allows a business to add or reconfigure modules (perhaps from different vendors) while preserving data integrity in one shared database that may be centralized or distributed. An ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING system is technically any system that can handle two unique enterprise functions.For example, a software package that provides both payroll and accounting functions could technically be considered an enterprise resource planning software package.Examples of modules in an enterprise resource planning system which formerly would have been stand-alone applications include: Product lifecycle management, Supply chain management (e.g. Purchasing, Manufacturing and Distribution), Warehouse Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Order Processing, Online Sales, Financials, Human Resources, and Decision Support System.`
`In the absence of an enterprise resource planningsystem, a large manufacturer may find itself with many software applications that neither talk to each other nor interface effectively.ERPS can be a significant advantage to a company including: design engineering (how to best make the product); order tracking, from acceptance through fulfillment (and some even come interfaced with direct billing to outside shipping companies to invoice your packaging and track them all real-time on one system); the revenue cycle, from invoice through cash receipt; managing inter-dependencies of complex processes bill of materials; tracking the three-way...