Organizations should not wait for an embarrassing and potentially devastating event to find out that security controls in their ERP systems are inadequate. To overcome this risk organizations need to implement an appropriate access strategy.
As businesses grow, information systems support whole communities of users like customers, suppliers, partners and employees, who all count on the secure exchange of a wide variety of information to place orders, pay bills and keep records up to date.
Customers, vendors, partners and employees all need access to the right ERP information at the right time and, increasingly, from anywhere. Yet these users work on many different systems and access data from multiple locations. All have different passwords and authorizations.
Organizations must not only manage the security issues of your own employees, but also increasingly those of customers, suppliers and other business partners.
eresource ERP addresses your security needs in authentication, access control and user management. An integrated solution identifies the user, determines what the user can do, determine the level of trust the user should receive, protects your data.
Our ERP security specialists have the expertise, tools and methodologies to make sure that your eresource ERP system includes a cost-effective security approach that dovetails with your firewall, virus scanner, spam control and tape backup systems.
User Interface (UI) is all the things arranged in an information device from where a end user may interact. The UI is an essential part of an ERP system. This the part where the end users will communicate regularly. An inappropriate UI can back off your work process and even produce opposition of end user towards the ERP system.
Fortunately, UI can be modified anytime in an ERP system and with appropriate planning, you can have UI which will help in gaining efficiency in your business as well as suitable for the user.
One thing to keep in mind is how well the user interface responds. The system should be user friendly under most circumstances. You have to ensure your servers and your work areas are sufficiently effective to give you smart reaction. Think about the energy of your fundamental PC, server, system and capacity in outlining your system. It’s inappropriate to spare cash on the equipment if it will cost you in profitability. Expecting your ERP system is sufficiently quick and your database is appropriately tuned, you have to look to the UI itself.
You have to provide enough information for the end user in sensible parts. The information on the screen must be reasonable, easy to relate and not overcrowded. Also, represent the screen in such a way that the user is attracted to the most essential data on the system.
You can also represent the screen with different colors to help arrange the screen, but in small quantities. Strong colors will distract the user rather than being helpful. Even while using graphical content, keep it informative and understandable.
Attempt to keep up flexible design over the screens to make it simple for the end user. While designing the system, test it on the end user. Take their recommendation or grievances, if any, and note it down. Make sure to include those point in the design to make the system more smooth.
Planning a workable ERP system interface takes some time and hard work. While arranging the ERP system UI, just ensure that it is helpful and user friendly for the user.
ERP Training and Education – All users of the ERP system should be trained properly in using the system to its fullest. Different groups of people in the company will have different training needs. Managers need more focus on the decision-making and analysis features of the system while the clerical staff need more focus on how to perform their jobs. But all the users must be trained in the ERP basics, overview of the system and its working, how an action by an employee triggers a host of events throughout the organization, how automation will help, what processes are changed and so on.
Educate everyone so that they understand what is going to be achieved with the new system. Additional education should include total quality management and change management strategies. Also the training sessions should be used to gain acceptance for the ERP system by dispelling the myths about ERP. When the employees do not understand what the new system is and what is supposed to do and how to operate it, they will not use it or use it incorrectly. This can lead to failure of the system. Best option is to train department managers in how to use the system and have them train the users.
The value from the ERP investment can be enhanced by taking advantages of a web-based ERP system for your organization. When you make your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution a Web-based interface system, the Internet becomes an enterprise information utility for employees, partners, suppliers and customers.
With the facilitation of an ERP system to a Web-enabled system, all participants – engineering and product design, vendors and suppliers, manufacturing, sales and marketing, distributors and customers – can gain access to the system when they need it for their mutual benefit.
For instance, a retailer can use its ERP system to adjust its charges for shelf space and to better manage inventory levels. Product designers, both for manufacturing and service companies can capture customer information in real-time, refining their products for greater market appeal or customizing them for key customers. In a financial services company, a product designer can capture information about customers’ investment habits, which will help to develop new investment packages. By making the ERP system a Web-enabled interface, you can integrate the supply chain, speeding time to market and gaining manufacturing efficiencies.
Success of ERP performance is directly proportional to the adherence to standard operating procedures. However, we find that very common complaint against ERP is its rigid structure and disciplined standard operating procedures. Often there are ridiculous demands and expectations from users, which are conflicting with standard operating procedures. Hence ERP is either blamed or made to fail. When the user says he wants flexibility in ERP, actually he wants the official allowance to deviate from standards set for value generation. The repercussions of such flexibility are tremendous, including the loss of value.
For example, here goes a typical style of customer negotiations. The sales people of a manufacturing company arbitrarily fixed unit price and raised sales orders against customers. After physical material dispatches, suddenly the customer started negotiating with sales and the rates were changed. The sales person then wanted to pass these entries in ERP. No good system will support such incongruous requirements. Here, the user wants flexibility in addressing these issues from ERP and also expected that everything should happen automatically. To settle and account for such changes, one has to pass a number of reverse entries in ERP.
Unfortunately, some consulting companies charge extra from clients for automating such absurd provisions. The same thing happened with the above company also and they landed up with ‘auto reverse entry module’ supporting the existing system. More ironically, this feature of ERP system soon became so popular that the company asked a similar module for purchase transactions. The ultimate chaos is always observed in finance and costing modules where multiple figures of profits, inventory values, sales income, taxes, etc. linked to the same transaction are found. Nobody could really gather any meaningful information from such sets of data over a period of time. At the end the user gets flexibility and the organization gets punishment.
There are also some cases where flexibility going to the extent of unethical business practices and in such cases illegal transactions can also be carried out.
Here is one peculiar requirement that once observed from a user. He asked for various options of selecting report sizes (A3 or A4) to use with different printers for printing the same reports. ERP was expected to be flexible enough to accommodate multiple report sizes based on printer selection. The same user never used in his earlier tenure any computerized output and did not even know how to load paper into printer.
The major flexibility expected by Indian ERP users can be summarized as “I want to do transactions any way, later on it should get corrected.” Hence we find demand of provisional entries, temporary databases, notional requirements, etc. The fundamental principle of ERP is doing right things right at first time is not understood and deviations are expected to be regularized. We find many of such cases, ultimately making ERP as unused ornament lying in the bank locker.
Quality Control Management is a way of life for a company. It has to be introduced and led by top management. This is a key point. Attempts to implement Quality Management often fail because top management does not lead and get committed but just delegates and pays lip service.
For the past few years, ERP systems have became one of the most powerful tools for quality control management. The important characteristics of quality control management include customer-driven quality, top management leadership and commitment, continuous improvement, fast response, actions based on facts, employee participation and a quality management culture.
Each part of the company is involved in total quality, operating as a customer to some functions and as a supplier to others. The engineering department is a supplier to downstream function such as manufacturing and field service, and has to treat these internal customers with the same sensitivity and responsiveness as it would external customers.
Commitment and personal involvement is required from top management in creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with the objectives of the company and in creating and deploying well-defined systems, methods and performance measures for achieving those goals.
The main objectives of the quality control module are the construction and maintenance of the filing of the quality control. The control of reception, internal rejections, clients, claims, providers and evaluations of the same corrective actions are related to their follow-up, and are also some of the goals that this module offers. Furthermore, it is also helpful for internal auditory procedures and for the control of auditory providers.
These systems and methods guide all quality activities and encourage participation by all employees. The development and use of performance indicators is linked, directly or indirectly, to customer requirements and satisfaction, and to management and employee remuneration.
With the fast developing of industries and the need for managing procedures and resources, it has become very important to have a tool which can help you coordinate several activities, and the best one is ERP. The advantages of having ERP are many. It gives you the opportunity of integrating every procedure of your business while improving the quality of several areas simultaneously. These areas include human resources, accounting and operations. In addition, ERP helps to increase your production levels and to control your costs more efficiently, and this means that you will be able to control the whole enterprise more efficiently.
A very important facility of the ERP systems is that they increase the availability of the information, helping companies to have information in real time to make decisions and accurate prognostics regarding the organization. It is important to mention that ERP systems are a very powerful tool when it comes to processing and organizing financial data. It improves the development of the commercial activity in the short and long term.
In the enterprise management module you can perform integral strategic planning, keeping an eye on the daily activities and having fluent communication with the investors. The human resources module allows you to make decisions and optimize the company’s investments regarding employees. With all of this one can see that an ERP system brings visible advantages.
Another important consideration to make is that the implementation of ERP takes time and generates deep changes in the way you do business. But the important thing to remember is that every enterprise can see the benefits of the ERP systems, although for the first period it may only seem like an investment. The benefits indeed are really bigger than the costs, and it is very valuable l to invest in an ERP system.
The manufacturing industry first experienced the ERP systems, created with the objective to integrate the details and information, and to organize the different productive processes with MRP.
Improved customer service, efficient distribution system, and reduced operation expenses are some of the other important business imperatives that are driving manufacturing industry to implement ERP solutions.
In today’s aggressive business environment it is essential to be prepared to face a vast and competitive world. In this time of diminishing global economic situation, manufacturers are one of the most worried sectors. They are challenged by the requirement of the customer and compliance mandates, effective management of supplier, costs control and finding new customers to grow the business. It is therefore opinioned by majority of the decision makers that ERP is an important tool to achieve competitive advantage.
Cash Management with ERP – ERP offers two options for making payments. Firstly, the cheque feature allows you to print a cheque for a vendor immediately, but not against a specific bill, which is comparable to the bill centric payment cycle found in accounts payable.
It is possible for you to verify the transaction by attaching a support document. And secondly, it is possible for you to record and post cheque you write through a chequebook. The system can also smoothly handle the transfer of funds from one cash account to another.
You can examine the cash balance report to verify the balances of your account to determine if you need to make a transfer, and you can also check to see if there are sufficient funds.
With the ERP system in place, the received payments can be deposited in two ways. The receipt function records both the receipt of payment and its deposit if you have already deposited the payment.
You may also receive payments, accumulating them in an account for later deposit. At this point you can create a “deposit slip” on the system, which posts the amounts of the deposits
The cost of ERP implementation typically includes costs of hardware, software, training, data conversion and reengineering.
Hardware is a one-time cost. Hardware typically includes computers, servers, peripherals, network cables, hubs etc. The decision makers have to decide on implementing the best and most sophisticated hardware possible, at the same time keeping in balance with the costs so that the investment certainly results in benefits in the long run.
Software includes the range of different ERP packages available in the market. The cost of software would vary great on the ERP brand or vendor, the functionalities it covers, special options available, competitors markets, and so on.
Training cost is not only the cost of training the people to use the software but also the cost of correcting the mistakes while performing the job in ERP. Secondly, the person using ERP has to adapt a whole new process to get used to ERP. Quite often, it takes a year for people to learn this, which may have considerable impact on bottom line of the organization.
Data conversion includes costs in moving corporate information such as customer and supplier records, product design data, etc. from the old system to the new ERP system. These costs will generally be higher for enterprises that haven’t managed their data efficiency and concisely. Most of the time companies prefer to use some middle-level software to append the data into the ERP system. Those costs have to be considered as migration costs.
Reengineering as the name suggests, is a process of engineering everything again. As a result, it comprises a majority of the total cost of implementing ERP. It typically includes consultancy charges, process change costs, costs of removal of old policies and practices.
Costs of ERP should not be viewed as an expense but an investment towards an ability that provides better profitability, market share or customer service through integration and automation.
