ERP Operation and Control
The selection of the most suitable management system is it a difficult decision to make, but once it is decided, the next step is the operation and maintenance of ERP. It is necessary to know well all the capacities and abilities in order to exploit the system to its fullest extent. The very first decision that should be made is whether the system will be operated by the employees or by third parties.
The outsourcing means hiring an associate to administrate a technology environment, which is becoming most common nowadays. Many enterprises have been attracted by this option because they do not need to establish a team, invest in training and furthermore suffer the constant replacement of persons. Some managers are worried about the ability to use outsourcing on big scale since Business sector areas could be related.
It is recommendable to take into account the six factors that are involved in the implementation of ERP which are the said system, the culture of the organization, the strategy, the hardware, the processes and all the other management applications that are being used by the company.
ERP is a basic requirement for all the companies. Increasingly, the market is expanding, the frontiers are disappearing and the enterprises are forced to increment their product and service portfolios to satisfy the demand.
The New Important Role of the Enterprise
The companies need technological support in order to administrate efficiently the databases and should have information systems able to identify the present and future situation of their Businesses. This process could be done through the ERPs.
Since the companies need to produce more in a competitive context, the management of the organizations should rely on the available means in order to satisfy the objectives. The means are related to the strategic planning, increase of capital, technology, proper logistic, personnel politic and adequate use of the resources.
The current and future commercial trends force the companies to be more competitive every day. In order to be competitive, it is necessary to have the internal flow of information optimized and integrated with the external commercial relationships. By this way, it is possible to obtain an improvement in productivity, quality, customer service and cost reduction.
For this purpose, it is necessary to cover all the needs of the Business, from the financial operation control and generation of reports, to the customer relationship management, sales and program planning in the long term of the requirements in the production capacity; and in the short term of the production, inventory management and costs control.
The most important factor are the direction and development of the management systems that will allow companies to reach the Business objectives and personal development. In this group, there are complex processes that interfere like the training, remuneration, working conditions, human resources and motivation. In this context, the implantation of ERP is an important issue to prop up the personal development of the workers and consequently improve the productivity of the company.
All the managers face a big challenge: the innovation and redesign of the existing processes of the companies; the way the changes are being handled are important points for the development of the organization, as well as the motivation of the workers to produce the expected results with quality, innovation, satisfaction and compromise.
It is certainly not the same to manage a traditional Business and an electronic platform, since for the second, it is necessary to provide the employers with training, to have suitable technology and creativity. The main challenge would be to learn how to compete not only with regional enterprises, but also with world wide companies.
A Solution for the Needs
One of the possible solutions is the incorporation of ERP presented as one the best support implementations to integrate the enterprises into the e-Business, since by this way it is possible to organize all the flow of information regarding the inventory, purchasing, sales, entry and exit of processes, among others.
Besides, it is useful to concentrate the information provided by all the branches around the world and having ready to generate informative, comparative and graphic reports. ERP allows not only the more efficient manufacturing of products and services, but also to have the necessary information to do the follow-up of a client, giving possibilities to get involved with the same.
Requirements for Every Type of Business
To use a good ERP it is not indispensable that the company is international, but to have the desire to enter into a process of documentation, organization and training that will allow for better knowledge, and to take advantage of the opportunities that the market could present.
One of these opportunities is to have connections with other companies, where the information is shared through ERP. The alliances or clusters are very common nowadays and could entail having services specializing in communications and management of information, which could be very difficult for a company to have separated.
In every type of Business and the different environments and alliances could take place, a company should have a lack of training, help or maintenance of Enterprise Resource Planning. Another fundamental factor in the establishment of ERP is related to the training of the staff to change their culture in regards to the way of handling paperwork and details, to create a consciousness that all the information that is being shared in real time could probably be used by decision makers. There has to be special care in the transmission to avoid the emission of the wrong information.
Therefore, the establishment of the system should be personalized suiting the needs of each and every department. For new Businesses, it is difficult to think on the implementation of ERP, but not impossible. There are other alternative modules to prepare the company for the installation.
However, gradually the changes can take place with the purchase of appropriate hardware and telecommunication tools. It is always recommendable at the time of implementation to build a parallel system to allow for performance and the generation of profit.
ERP is an adaptable technology that has shown a great solution for the management of information demand, having the benefit of technology. This allows for the integration of providers, associates, inventory departments, production, purchasing, etc. The investment in technology an training is very important because it helps in the documentation and standardization of processes.
Another characteristic is that of the selection of the system without taking care of the investment. It could be chosen in order to be flexible in future. Nowadays, there are options for software that give simple options like “plug and play" (PnP). Besides, not only should ERP applications be easy to use, but they should also be able to integrate the chain of value with the supply chain and combine with the customer relationship management.
The integration of systems has become more simple every day, but it is required to have enough processing capacity, storing capacity and communication through the net. Likewise, it should comply with the standards of communication between applications. Consequently, some of the main requirements to establishing the electronic system of management and planning of resources is to make the decision to manage the Business by this way.
There will not be any obstacle to stop the analysis and organization of the information, which will lead into getting to know the details of every part of the process where the enterprise is involved. It could also be controlled the access to the same, taking into account the users and pass keys.
In order to maintain the grade of compromise and effort, the enterprises should learn to assess the cooperation of the members, establishing mechanisms that permit a motivated working power for translating the results into an efficient performance and the satisfaction of the members.
The proper organization of the information will allow organizations to arrange a control board of the company. This control, through indicators, will alert the evolution of Business, whether it is producing profit or wasting money. Enterprise Resource Planning systems are relevant for having a huge database to share for all the organization.
At the same time, this information is integrating into the enterprise. It is important to remember that the system is capable of integrating the information, but only for the persons that integrate the organization.
