ERP Systems
From OrgChart.net
Contents |
Overview
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a strategic tool for any organization. ERP integrates the various internal and external key processes of an organization in a seamless manner, thus giving the organization a gaining edge over its competitors. ERP systems automate this activity, centralize data across organizations with an integrated software application and facilitate the flow of information between all business functions. This saves time and expense, and enables and enhances decision making with a low possibility of error.
The Ideal ERP System
ERP systems link various modules like order, manufacturing, human resources, inventory, sales and marketing, and purchase modules in a better way so that accurate, consistent and updated information can be made available at anytime, anywhere within few minutes. To have the best architecture, the following components must be part of an ERP system:
- Finance/Accounting – Finance is the core of all organizations. Irrespective of small scale or large scale, all organizations benefit from the implementation of the ERP Finance module wherein it gathers financial data from various functional departments and generates valuable financial reports. It consists of general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivables, cash management, fixed assets, budgeting and consolidation.
- Human Resources – With a proper ERP Human Resources module in place, any organization will greatly benefit. This module encompasses all details from the application to retirement stage of each employee, processing or payroll and attendance, tracks employee participation in benefits program etc. Apart from that, it is comprised of training, 401K, recruiting, compensation and diversity management.
- Manufacturing - comprising of engineering, bill of materials, work orders, scheduling, capacity, workflow management, quality control, cost management, manufacturing process, manufacturing projects, manufacturing flow, activity based costing and product life-cycle management.
- Supply Chain Management – An ideal and comprehensive ERP system sheds light on matching purchase orders (what has been ordered), inventory receipts (what arrived), and cost (what the vendor invoiced); sales forecasting for inventory optimization; order tracking - from acceptance to fulfillment of orders and other components like order to cash, inventory, order entry, purchasing, product configurator, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, inspection of goods, claim processing, commissions, transportation and distribution.
- Project Management – This is comprised of revenue tracking – from invoice to cash receipt; time cards - allowing salary calculation within minutes, billing performance units, and activity management.
- Customer Relationship Management – Includes sales and marketing, commissions, service, customer contact, call center support.
- Data Warehouse – All information used by the employees, company and customers for their learning and orientation like data services - various interfaces for customers, suppliers and/or employees and access control – management of user privileges for various processes.
ERP Systems Improve Productivity, Speed and Performance
Deploying a well-integrated ERP system across an organization chains all the key functional areas together and leads to an increase in high employee productivity, efficiency and performance, improves customer satisfaction and service, provides a complete overview of enterprise functioning, global decision optimization, speed enhancement and much more.
Integrating an ERP system gives the organization the capability to streamline and synchronize different organizational processes and workflows, facilitates consolidation and standardization of information and data across various segments like finance, service, sales, human resource and manufacturing applications; effortlessly communicates information across various departments; enables standard product naming/coding; provides a comprehensive enterprise view and makes real-time information available to management, anywhere, anytime and protects sensitive data by consolidating multiple security systems into a single structure.
