FAQs

Lot tracking system records information regarding a batch of product. Lot tracking allows to track several units of a stock item using the same lot or batch number. User can determine what can be purchased or sold by Lot status.

Expiry dates and user defined statuses allow you to further control the stock item. You cannot sell stock items that have reached or passed their expiry date.. You can track items by lot number and serial number – Lot tracked items are where the tracking (Lot) number refers to a specified quantity of the items, serial numbers are applied to individual items.

Lot Control and serialization options are defined at the system level and when one of these options is activated individual items are defined to be controlled by either lot number or serial number or by item number (not lot or serial tracked) on the part master file. When a part is defined as being tracked by lot number or serial number, that tracking is enforced throughout all material transactions for that item and upward through its parent items.
For purchased items lot or serial numbers are required for the full quantity of receipt, and are entered as part of the receiving transaction. For receipts with many serial number tracked items, ranges of numbers may be entered. A running total of items accounted for with lot or serial number assignments are displayed, thereby ensuring that the entire received quantity is properly identified prior to completion of the transaction.

Furthermore, the system checks current inventory to ensure that duplicate numbers are not assigned. On subsequent inventory transactions, lot and serial traceability is enforced upward through the item’s bill of material structure. The lot or serial number and quantity are required on all material issues.

In the first hand you must understand what supply chain management (SCM) is. Traditional SCM used the telephone, fax and regular mail to keep contact between suppliers and customers. It involved lots of time and costs. With theadvent of computer technologies support for supply chain relationship became Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)  systems. But EDI is an inter-organisational process, so business partnerships have been shown to be very important in the adoption and use of EDI.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) in today’s Internet environment, especially the e-business is important to create significant competition advantages to firms and business partners worldwide. Since the objectives and goals are essential factors in the use of supply chain management in the e-business.

ERP being a business tool that manages day-to-day business process and is usually comprised of several modules such as financial module, distribution module, production module and supply chain management module as well as many other modules. Each of these modules share information that is housed within the database structures on which the ERP system was coded. ERP helps to break down barriers between departments within a company.

At a broader context, you must understand that ERP is an integrated system which holds many modules and SCM could be considered as one of the modules.

As you know that not all ERP system costs are the same. It is natural that the big players in the market such as SAP and Microsoft will charge you very high even if your organization falls under the small and medium sized category. But providers like eresource develop ERP system to fit the needs and budget constraints of small businesses. As everyone is aware that eresource ERP is one of the most affordable and effective ERP systems available in the market.

Another factor about the high or prohibitive ERP system is its cost estimates may be based on the option of buying and implementing a complete integrated ERP solution and then hiring an independent IT department to manage and maintain it. With web-based eresource ERP system all the operational methods becomes an easy process and all the technical aspect of the system could be managed efficiently by the users with the proper training and timely assistance from eresource personnel.

This is one of the main misconceptions prevailing among some small and medium sized companies. This is due to the unawareness of the functioning of an ERP system. Mainly what is to be understood is that an ERP system automates business processes across an organization and thus eliminates inefficiency caused by a legacy system.

It is true that there are some big players like SAP in the market that may be taking care of business process of huge organizations. But today, medium and small sized companies are benefited from automation and streamlining of their business process with efficient and affordable web-based ERP solutions like eresource. Both SAP and eresource are ERP systems and designed for large, small and medium sized organizations across every industry.

On the priority basis the first choice should be that the ERP you are selecting must be Product Fit. As you know there are many ERP products on the market and each designed for a particular segment. Therefore, you must ensure the product is aimed at your type of organization. If you are a small, regional discrete manufacturer, then don’t buy a product intended for very big organizations such as oil refineries etc.

Second point is the ERP software must be Process Fit. After doing a rough cut analysis for product fit, it is necessary to look thoroughly at your own needs and match them against the ERP solution you have opted for. Make sure that the software is integrated with all the modules you are looking for and it is well designed to suit your requirement.

You must also check the reliability of the solution providers. Since ERP is a long-term commitment, ongoing support / maintenance are essential. The software firm that you are dealing with must have the resources and technician to carry out the whole operation and further maintenance and training successfully. You must also check that their implementation methodology is efficient and reasonable.

Lastly before you have decided with one of them consider whether the pricing is reasonable and the terms are acceptable. Don’t forget to include ongoing support and maintenance in the price discussion.

In the early years of ERP, the implementation process took more time. In some cases the implantation took years to complete and involved a huge financial investment by the companies. However, with the changing technology scenario the implementation of ERP system also become an easy process. Now the web-based ERP solution such as eresource could complete the implementation within a short period under its guaranteed on-time implementation method. Nowadays the ERP system software has become much cheaper and affordable to any kind of organization within their limited budget. The affordable eresource ERP solution has helped many smaller companies go for ERP solution and started benefiting from its effectiveness in a big way.

Having said that, we would also like to remind all the companies that would be planning an ERP implementation must be careful in their selection of the right ERP solution. An ERP system can also bring negative result due to poor selection process or a poor ERP implementation.

When you think it is the right time that your organization must implement an ERP system and your manager can’t decide as he is not sure about the advantages, first you need to make strong opinion among the your internal personnel in favour of implementing an ERP system. You also need to do some homework and prepare a list of pros and cons from the point of view of each member of your management team.

After this you should talk to each member of management team as well as all head of department one on one and understand their opinion while introducing your proposal. This way you may select management members who are in favor of an ERP. After this step, plan the next step of internal presentation first by yourself and then from a third party who are well-versed with your industry-specific needs. You may also arrange a third party presentation separately for the members in favour, before the presentation for the deciding authorities from the high level  management team. You may make any further changes in your presentation as per the opinion collected from the members in favour before the final presentation to the deciding authorities.

Final presentation must consists of details of advantages and disadvantages of an ERP system, evaluated ERP solutions for your industry, figures in form of estimated time, benefitted users, cost savings, cost of ERP software and implementation cost etc. The presentation should be made effective and your proposal must be fool proof. We feel you will definitely succeed in your mission if you could plan the above strategies in rightful manner and present it well to your deciding authorities. We can assure you that your managers will get fully convinced about the benefit of an ERP system, which obviously help them to implement the system without any doubt.

Search for a suitable ERP system starts when an company decides to implement an ERP system. It is not an easy procedure because there are hundreds of ERP vendors, all claiming to have a system that is suitable for your organization. It is not practically possible to evaluate each every package. Therefore it is better to limit the number of packages that are evaluated to less than five. It is always better to do a thorough and detailed evaluation of a small number of packages, than going a superficial analysis of dozens of packages. Hence, the company should do a pre-evaluation screening to limit the number of packages that are to be evaluated by the committee.

Not all packages are equal – each has its own strengths and weakness. The pre evaluation process should eliminate those packages that are not suitable for the company’s business processes. One can closely screen the few best packages by carefully studying at the product literature, getting proper guidance from professional consultants.

Companies must also look for the packages that are used by companies which are in the same field. While making the pre-evaluation screening it would be a good idea to look at the origins of the different packages.

As there is a wrong conception that a system that was developed initially for manufacturing industry is not capable of catering to the needs of another business. With a proper understanding of the functional method of a particular field and its business process, the developers could make the necessary changes in the system which will obviously cater to the need of the particular industry in a successful way.

ERP database is perhaps one of the most vital assets a company owns. Keeping that ERP database fully protected from threats such as security breaches, performance issues, and technical breakdowns is crucial to ensuring continuity and consistency in most important business activities.

A threat to ERP database can affect all the major operations of a company and management of human resources, production planning, procurement, accounting and finance and other critical back-office function could come to a halt.

There are some measures that can be taken to enhance the security of a company’s ERP database. Role-based IDs and passwords will ensure that users can access only the data they are authorized to view, based on their job function or position within the company. A practice of changing the password on regular basis by the users will be a good habit that could act as a ideal ERP data protection. And, data encryption, firewalls, and other measures can help you keep hackers, cyber-criminals, and other outsiders far away from your ERP database.

Organizations are also to be prepared with other natural disaster recovery management. Today there are few companies that are prepared in the event of a major fire break out or a flooding situation. To face this kind of natural disaster the companies must be occupied with well-designed back-up plan in place. Loss of critical information and database could cost the company millions of rupees and could take the company back to years in terms of business growth.

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.

An organization that has no ERP will be running on many kinds of software that do not allow interaction.  Customization also may be difficult it in some cases. This will negatively affect the optimized functioning of organization’s business activities.

The organization will be facing hardship in many areas of its functions. The engineering design of the software will be needed in order to improve the product, and to follow the client’s behavior and choices since the first contact is quite important. Administration of the different receipts interdependence will be very complex, such as invoices regarding materials purchases, general expenditures or salaries.

All of these things change when an ERP system is implemented. Information flows constantly and allows you to follow a client’s processes at any moment, no matter which part of the process they are going through. Purchases and expenditures are registered in a centralized database which allows you to have close control over these activities.  In this regard ERP helps you to prevent possible abuse.

A powerfully integrated ERP system enables interactions of marketing, sales, quality control, products processes, supply lines, stocks and many other areas and it can be in a single database. This will eliminate the occasional loss of and retyping errors. It integrates all departments and functions across a company in a single computer system that is able to serve all those different department’s particular needs.

An ERP system also automates business processes by placing them into a useful format that is standardized and common for the whole organization. Moreover it could even be used between their suppliers and customers.

It is important to understand the difference between Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

Though many of today’s ERP systems have tightly integrated WMS systems, the earlier version ERP systems had a limited participation for WMS. This may be the reason why many companies installed a WMS software separately to manage their warehouse activities.

An advanced system takes into account the data of the product, status, lot, dates, dimensions, location, area, region, owner and inventory details. For this function, WMS determines which would be the best location to store the recently received product. Some of the ERP package is not supported to determine the proper location. The selection of an ERP system with all these functions must be evaluated thoroughly before implementing it.

An effective ERP package gives the possibility to assign tasks automatically to the staff using rules and parameters previously defined. An intelligently integrated WMS module in an ERP system can give directions to the workers in an organized way.

The answer to this question is case specific. It will be difficult to generalize the theory for it. For big organizations Big Bang theory is the best choice. Mostly decision on this depends on the readiness audit result, available strength of consulting human power – both internal and external – relevance of ERP at various units, timeframe, and the budget.

The drawback of the big bang implementation approach is that the project is often rushed. On this process sometimes details are overlooked, and sudden changes to business processes may affect negatively. Many times the projects that implement an overly aggressive big bang approach are more risky and result in less satisfaction with the system’s abilities to meet important business requirements.

Therefore it is advisable to go for the key modules such as sales order processing, material planning including purchasing and factory management at the first stage. Modules such as human resources, document management, maintenance and even financials can be implemented later. If there is more than one business unit involved it is best to implement in a relatively easy but not untypical unit first then roll out the implementation to the other units.

E-commerce is buying and selling using an electronic medium. It is accepting credit and payments over the net, doing banking transactions using the Internet, selling commodities or information using the World Wide Web and so on.

E-Business in addition to encompassing E-commerce includes both front and back-office applications that form the engine for modern E-commerce. E-business is not just about E-commerce transactions; it’s about re-defining old business models, with the aid of technology to maximize customer value. E-Business is the overall strategy and E-commerce is an extremely important facet of E-Business.

Thus e-business involves not merely setting up the company website and being able to accept credit card payments or being able to sell products or services on time. It involves fundamental re-structuring and streamlining of the business using technology by implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, supply chain management, customer relationship management, data ware housing, data marts, data mining, etc.

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.

ERP is no longer just a competitive advantage. It is an important requirement for every enterprise. It has been undoubtedly proved that ERP is completely necessary to deal with businesses in every nook and corner of the market.

ERP just does not work in only one way. It gets to focus on all the relevant aspects that decision makers need to take into account when they are facing important decisions.

In today’s hypercompetitive markets, small and midsize companies are faced with ever-growing challenges and they could overcome these challenges if only they are fully prepared. Business enterprises must be occupied with the infrastructure, whether it is in the form of man power strength or the software system, which could streamline and handle the workload successfully and help deliver the result in a desired manner.

It is also important that to keep pace with the rivals in the field every organization need to make some smart moves to take their business ahead and help yield a pre-conceived profit. A good resource planning system required to support any smart move to make the desired results.

Therefore it is entirely wrong to classify ERP system as sales solution software. It is much more than that.

When eBusiness is integrated with ERP, the whole extended system provides a vision of business processes that span multiple businesses and enterprises. In the most ideal case companies should be able to connect disparate platforms, applications and data formats across the value chain, including not only suppliers but customers as well. Furthermore, companies should retain the flexibility to change and add functions to applications as business

needs evolve. Companies need to be able to adapt their ERP systems to the emerging world of eBusiness.

The major partners of the supply chain are the suppliers, the organization and the consumers and any other partners involved in the business transactions (like banks, middlemen, etc.). Supply chain refers t the complex network of relationships that organizations maintain with trading partners to procure manufacture and deliver products or services. Supply chain encompasses the facilities where raw materials, intermediate products and finished goods are acquired, transformed, stored and sold.

These facilities are connected by transportation links along which materials and products flow. Supply chain consists of many companies, individuals and institutions. Supply chain management is the coordination of material, information and financial flows between and among all the participants.

The project management team is responsible for conducting the scheduled work, administering the project, communicating with the in-house team and the consultants.

The team members should monitor the implementation team’s progress, assess the amount and quality of the contribution of the team members – both in-house and consultants – and resolve the issues that exist. Since the project management team has the project manager, the consultant team’s head, the vendor team’s head and the work team leaders, most problems could be resolved at this level. If any problems cannot be resolved at this level, then the project manager will escalate it to the executive committee for resolution.

The project management team should also ensure that the company personnel and the consultants are working together as a team and that there is full co-operation between the two groups. They are also responsible for ensuring that the consultants are transferring their knowledge to the in-house team and all the documentation is done properly. The project management team should make sure that even after the external consultants and vendor representatives leave the system will run smoothly.

Before implementing an ERP software the organization needs to analyze current processes, identify non-value adding activities and redesign the process to create value for the customer, and then develop an ERP system package to suit the organizations requirements.

A key contribution of ERP software is the bundled business process knowledge that comes along with ERP software.  These processes have evolved over the past two decades of ERP implementation in some of the most well-managed corporations around the world. By adapting to those processes that have proved successful in some of the finest corporations around the world, an organization implementing ERP would get the advantage of these “best of the breed” practices. That is the reason behind the consultant recommendations.

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.

Different companies have different ERP requirements therefore there are many ways to implement a solution. But collectively the term ERP refers to large applications that replace a multitude of independent applications or legacy system of an organization which caters to the need of all departments.

Some companies limit the scope of their ERP software to a few vital applications that will help them streamline processes or make information more easily available. A company that wanted to just integrate accounting and finance with payroll, for example, also could use an ERP solution.

In such cases, organizations might prefer to use ERP to integrate certain systems and leave legacy systems in place that are better able to handle specific tasks.

The decision-makers of organizations have been fully convinced about the benefits of eresource ERP system. Our officials and technicians have succeeded in convincing and successfully implementing ERP system in most of these organizations which took the morale of the decision-makers and the end users to new height.

Another factor is eresource ERP business application is driven by business goals and not IT goals. This application also making a good communication with the end users in a language they understand well. Another major factor for end users accepting this application is that training and skills to use eresource ERP can be developed quite easily. The above factors all together contributed for the user acceptance of eresource ERP.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is used in almost any type of organization. It doesn’t matter whether it’s large, small or what industry it falls in. The main goal of ERP is to integrate data and processes from all areas of the organization and unify it, to provide ease of access and an efficient work flow. ERP Systems usually accomplish this through one single database that employs multiple software modules.

ERP systems can cover more than two functions and integrate them into one unified Data Base. Human Resources,  Supply Chain Management, Customer Relations Management, Financial, Manufacturing functions and Warehouse Management functions can be found on modern companies under one umbrella – the ERP system.

In today’s competitive business environment ERP is becoming a essential business application for most of the organizations. The reason behind this is, for any business success depends on having the ability to keep pace with rapidly changing customer and industry demands and execute in a short amount of time, the ability to quickly seize new opportunities and the flexibility to achieve sustainable business growth.

In the changing business environment, the time available for an organization to react to the market trend is very short. To survive, the organization must act quickly, gathering and analyzing the data – both internal and external. Any mechanism that will automate this information gathering and analysis process will enhance the chances of the organization to beat the competition.