FREE online courses on Business Needs and ERP - BPR and ERP
Simultaneously module-by-module. Why reinvent the wheel? Why
not adopt proven world-class business practices, as a part of ERP solutions? Why
copy a best-in-class practice of the same industry, when each enterprise has a
different market segment, customer expectations and overall unique business
within the same industry? Why not copy best practices of other industries?
(e.g., copy best distribution process of paint manufacturer for a detergent
manufacturer).
Why aim for major changes (both BPR or ERP) which a company
cannot sustain and risk failure (as clear from many not-so-successful
implementations of both BPR and ERP)? Can we afford a long and time consuming
process of implementation (2-4 years) to face the 3C Crisis?
However, with time, BPR has become more and more dependent
upon the availability of ICT; on the other hand, ERP has been upgrading itself
in terms of adapting various proven good business processes in the industries.
Many of the business ‘transformations' are possible because of availability of
ERP with high ICT. Similarly, many of the good proven industry-wise
‘transformed' business processes have been built in as business templates in ERP
solutions.
Since all the arguments and counter-arguments are justified
to some extent, there may not be one best answer to the problem of making the
right choice for the top management. However, if the main consideration for top
management is ‘Time' and the ‘Cost' resource for implementation, it would be
wiser to go in for a Big Bang approach (Choice 2). This is because of the
following reasons:
a)
The present state of ERP solutions, if honestly supported by
the top management, with the help of business modelers and a good seasoned
vendor can be implemented in a ‘short duration' of 5 to 7 months.
b)
The explicit and implicit benefits of ERP solutions start
getting realized immediately.
c)
Most of the reputed ERP solutions are quite flexible and
support ability to adopt any reengineered process quickly. Therefore, as
processes are being reengineered, those can be adopted as and when finalized,
without having to change the ERP much.
d)
Although adaptation to the accepted best-in-class practices may
not be the best for the unique requirement (and positioning) of the enterprise,
if chosen judiciously, many of those accepted processes as a base may help to
get the benefits faster. The process of BPR, however, can continue process by
process, depending upon the criticality and urgency of the process.
e)
Having gained experience in business modelers, best-in-class
processes and ERP implementation, the organization may not require external
consultants for reengineering the processes. It may be done by internal trained
resources.
Thus, this approach (Choice 2) can take advantage of both
time and cost and generally be more effective. It must be reiterated here that
in order to meet the 3C crisis, the enterprises have to take benefits of both
ERP and BPR. They have to view these as complementary to each other rather than
conflicting with each other. But what is most critical in all this is that, in
overselling both BPR and ERP, top management should not overlook their
limitations. Both BPR and ERP only help the tactical decision on ‘how' to do
their business, rather than helping strategic decision on what business to do.
