Components of a true ERP

 

Flexibility

 

Enabling organizations to respond quickly by leveraging changes to their advantage, letting them concentrate on strategically expanding to address new products and markets.

 

Comprehensive

 

Across all sizes, functions and industries should have in-depth features in accounting and controlling, production and materials management, quality management and plant maintenance, sales and distribution, human resource management and project management. Should also have information and early warning systems for each function and enterprise wide business intelligence system for informed decision making at all levels.

 

Open and Modular

 

Should embrace an architecture that supports components or modules, which can be used individually, expandable in stages to meet the specific requirements of the business, including industry specific functionalities. Should be technology independent and mesh smoothly with in-house/third-party applications, solutions and services including the Web.

 

Integrated

 

Should overcome the limitations of traditional hierarchical and function-oriented structures. Functions like sales and material planning, production planning, warehouse management, financial accounting and human resource management should be integrated into a workflow of business events and processes across departments and functional areas, enabling workers to receive the right information and documents at the right time at their desktops across organizational and geographical boundaries.

 

Beyond the Company

 

Should support and enable inter-enterprise business process with customers, suppliers, banks, government and business partners and create complete logistical chains covering the entire route from supply to delivery, across multiple geographies, currencies and country specific business rules.

 

Best Business Practices

 

The software should enable integration of all business operations in an overall system for planning, controlling and monitoring and offer a choice of multiple ready-made business processes including best business practices that reflect the experiences, suggestions and requirements of leading companies across industries. In other words, it should intrinsically have a rich wealth of business and organizational knowledge base.

 

New Technologies

 

Should incorporate cutting-edge and future-proof technologies such as object orientation into product development and ensure seamless inter-operability with the Internet and other emerging technologies.