Information technology in global arena & enterprise resource planning

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT & ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

~ Subhajit Bhattacharya

Agenda• Information Technology for Business Globalization• Blends of Enterprise Operations• Enterprise Operations Integration• Information Digitization• Databases & Knowledge Hubs• Business Intelligence• Enterprise Resource Planning: Introduction• ERP Components• ERP Technology Stack & Infrastructure Requirements (SAP, Oracle Apps, Sales Force, JD

Edwards, etc.)• ERP Services – A detailed discussion• Managing ERP Project Life Cycle (Cost-Time-Scope analysis)• Planning & Implementation of ERP Suite• Challenges & Impediments of ERP Implementation & Administration• Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)• ERP as a Service on a Cloud Infrastructure

Information Technology – A Scientific Yoga

Information Technology for Business Globalization• Technology and cheap access to energy have altered the way the world does

business, by reducing the costs in almost every dimension of transaction across the globe

• With the advent of high end technologies, information and related stuffs are available in the finger tips or in the lips (with the help of voice recognition system)

• Distances are no more barrier but it is all about communication at the correct time for the correct product/service through the correct channels

• Monetary transactions have become simple and more secured• Transparency in transaction is now viable and gives an intangible satisfaction to the

end user• Industrial operations are cohesively integrated over a common platform to make sure

the industry should work uniformly across the globe without any hitch or hindrances• Information technology (IT) benefits the global business by allowing organizations to

work more efficiently and to maximize productivity. Faster communication, electronic storage and the protection of records are advantages that IT can have on an enterprise.

Information Technology for Business GlobalizationKey business advantages:• Availability of information for business & individual decisions

– Information are now readily available in the World Wide Web– Search engines are further customized as per user behaviour, so that it may generate knowledge cluster based on the data or

information being searched

– Cloud infrastructure has made the information availability easier as compared to earlier days

• Storing & protecting information– Information technology enables electronic storage systems to protect personal & organization’s valuable records in encrypted form

to make secured from the intruders, hackers, viruses, or Trojans.– Cloud infrastructure has made this possible for much extent.

• Automated processes & workflows– Organization’s autonomous processes are now clubbed together and automated to minimize human interference and thus increase

productivity and throughput and at the same time reducing human error.– Workflows are one of the key components of ERP systems enabling a user to locate the status of his/her request and therefore

appropriate action can be taken proactively.

• Work Remotely– With the advent of Information Technology, it gives a user a feeling of virtual reality. Location doesn’t matter, it is all about

technology that connects organizations and people spread across the globe.– Integrated ERP systems, Web based applications, emails, chat servers, blogs, social sites, etc. have made life easier to connect with

organizations and the people irrespective of the location.

• Communication– IT has made communication easier and quicker. Some of the applications or tools like email, chat server, audio/video conferencing

(IP telephony etc.), database synchronizer, etc. have made communication a child’s game.

Data Information Knowledge Decision

Information Technology for Business GlobalizationKey business advantages:• Efficiency

– Streamlined work flow systems, shared storage and collaborative work spaces can increase efficiency in a business and allow employees to process a greater level of work in a shorter period of time. Information technology systems can be used to automate routine tasks, to make data analysis easier and to store data in a manner that can easily be retrieved for future use. Technology can also be used to answer customer questions through email, in a real-time chat session or through a telephone routing system that connects a customer to an available customer service agent.

• Competitive Advantage– Adoption of information technology resources allows companies to maintain a competitive advantage over their rivals.

Companies using a first-movers strategy can use information technology to create new products, distance their products from the existing market or enhance their customer services. Companies that follow a low-cost product strategy can look to information technology solutions to reduce their costs through increased productivity and reduced need for employee overhead. Businesses can also build-in information technology to their products that makes it difficult for customers to switch platforms or products. Therefore with the virtue of IT, an organization can establish a loyal customer base which in turn uplift company’s brand value.

• Economic Efficiencies– Companies can harness information technology resources to lower their costs. Using IT infrastructure, redundant tasks

can be centralized at one location. For example, a large company could centralize their payroll function at one location to lower employee costs. Economic efficiencies can also be realized by migrating high-cost functions into an online environment. Companies can offer email support for customers that may have a lower cost than a live customer support call. Cost savings could also be found through outsourcing opportunities, remote work options and lower-cost communication options.

• Products/Services Availability– With the help of IT, organizations can display and sale their products and services online. Flip cart, Amazon, eBay,

Snapdeal, Book my show, Yepme, Junglee, Myntra, Jabong, HomeShop18, etc are some of the famous online shopping portals which enable end users to purchase products or services with reasonable discounted rates. Paypal, Zaakpay, Payu, Superpay, Payumoney, etc. are several online payment gateways that supports monetary transactions in synchronization with banks through debit/credit cards.

An evolution of user interface era after another…

User eXperiences (UX) Surface Computing by Microsoft Smart phone technologies

Information Technology for Business Globalization

Graphical User Interfaces

Command interfaces

Information Technology for Business Globalization

• Stand alone application

• Client Server application (Windows based)

• Client Server application (Web based)

• N-tier application

• Grid application

• Cloud application & infrastructure

A quick glance on application type…

Blends of Enterprise Operations

Business Integration & IntelligenceWorkflow ManagerDashboard & MIS

Marketing & SalesEngineering

& Operations

Production & Manufacturing

Inventory & Logistics

FinanceHR

IT

Legal

Blends of Enterprise Operations• An enterprise typically has two operations:

– Line of Business (Primary)– Support functional departments (Secondary)

• In order to run the business smooth and in competitive pace, primary line of businesses should be integrated and then the secondary and last but not least support functional departments

• Once each department is vertically integrated so we plan the horizontal integration

v vVertical

Integration Vertical Integration

Line of Business Secondary Operations

Integration Bus

Enterprise Operations Integration

Business Analyst

Senior Executives

Senior Managers

Project Manager

PMOAdmin IT

HR Finance

Legal

Engineering Team

Manufacturing & Production

Inventory & Warehouse Logistics Stores House

Telly Caller & Lead Generation

Prospected & Existing Customers

Raw Materials

VendorsVendor

Manager

Market Analytics

Business Decision Making & Projects Management

Engineering & Manufacturing

Supply Chain Management

Customer Relationship Management

Procurement & Vendor Management

Supporting Operations

• An enterprise may have different autonomous departments

• Every department performs their own set of tasks

• Input of one department is fed into another to process further to get required outputs

• Enterprise operations integration implies a holistic approach to integrate heterogeneous enterprise operations into a common platform so that the information must be available transparently and on a real time basis at the right time, at the right place and to the right person with minimal cost and effort

• There should be a service driven bus architecture that ensures an integration of operations cohesively on a secured platform

• It majorly implies a common database system that should be capable enough to perform database transactions and a unified application interface to:

– Feed data– Process the data– Display information– Prepare dashboard & reports– Enable decision making capabilities by inheriting the BI capabilities– Show workflows– Push emails and alerts– Apply security and authenticity protocols by assigning roles & responsibilities by virtue of identity management– Generate log reports– Optimize application & database performance

Enterprise Operations Integration

• Digitisation is the process by which physical or manual records such as text, images, video, and audio are converted into digital forms.

• This is of utmost importance when projects need directions based on already established facilities and the implementing agency needs to find the scope for expansion.

• Digitised data offers the following benefits: Long term preservation of documents or images, orderly archiving of documents, easy & customized access to information, easy information dissemination through images & text, cross border accessibility of information within fraction of seconds, etc.

• Digitizing means simply capturing an analogue signal in digital form (0s & 1s).• Analogue Digital Conversion (ADC) algorithm being used to convert he analogue signals to

digital representations• Digitization improves organization’s overall performance by saving data in a digital form

therefore they can be processed easily and so also are available at any point of time and can be shared across the globe. These digitized information can further be processed to prepare information or knowledge bank. No only this, these digital information can be kept for long period in an archive so as to refer them in future even after decades or so. Therefore overall it basically enhances the productivity of an organization.

Information Digitization


POS Database

Regional Databases

Centralized Databases & DWH for archiving Knowledge Report &

Dashboard

Textual Bar Code

POS Executive

Hand Held scanner to convert text into digital form

Point of Sales – Information Digitization

• POS executive scans the textual bar code from the product with the help of a scanner

• Scanner converts the text data into digital data and fetch related information from the database

• Once the payment is done so the invoice is generated and the same is saved in the database along with the product details

• At the end of the day, all the details are get stored into another database located either in the same region or somewhere else in the globe

• The transaction so happened updates the financial journal, inventory, and other databases

• In a weekly or fortnightly basis the data stored in various databases across the globe are collected in a centralized database acting as an archive database

• Senior executives and other key stakeholders make use of this master database to get report and dashboard after processing the digital data into digital information

• Digital information so produced is further processed as per the business need and logic to provide reports and dashboard in order to give certain level of knowledge to make adequate business decisions


Data Entry

Centralized Database to collect all the data across the globe

Database Cluster to store processed data

Data processed: ETL

Data Warehouse to store information

Data Mining

BI Operations on information

Dashboard & report created based on processed information

Business decision made

Information & Technology

• Data processing is "a sequence of operations performed on data to process it further for creating information; which is later more processed to form a knowledge.

• Set of such knowledge is stored in a centralized database to form knowledge base.

• Data processing may involve various processes, including:

Data validation – Ensuring that supplied data is "clean, correct and useful." Sorting – "arranging items in some sequence and/or in different sets." Data summarization Data aggregation – combining multiple pieces of data. Statistical analysis – the "collection, organization, analysis, interpretation and

presentation of data.". Reporting – list detail or summary data or computed information.Raw

DataProce

ssProcessed Data

Business Logic

Information

Information Segregation

& Refinement

Knowledge

Business intelligen

ce

Decision Enablem

ent

Reports & Dashboard

Data Processing

DATABASES

• A database is an organized collection of data. The data is typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality (for example, the availability of chairs in a theatre), in a way that supports processes requiring this information (for example, finding the correct chair to book it).

• A database-management system (DBMS) is a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs to access those data.

• Database management systems (DBMSs) are specially designed applications that interact with the user, other applications, and the database itself to capture and analyze data. A general-purpose database management system (DBMS) is a software system designed to allow the definition, creation, querying, update, and administration of databases.

• To access information from a database, you need a database management system (DBMS). This is a collection of programs that enables you to enter, organize, and select data in a database.

A database is any collection of related data. A database is a persistent, logically coherent collection of inherently meaningful data, relevant

to some aspects of the real world.

Databases

• A database-management system (DBMS) is a collection of interrelated data and a set of programs to access those data.

• Database management systems provide several functions in addition to simple file management:

– Allow concurrency– Control security– Maintain data integrity– Provide for backup and recovery– Control redundancy– Allow data independence– Provide non-procedural query language– Perform automatic query optimization

Databases

• ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) is a set of properties that guarantee that database transactions are processed reliably. In the context of databases, a single logical operation on the data is called a transaction.

• Atomicity

– Atomicity requires that each transaction is "all or nothing": if one part of the transaction fails, the entire transaction fails, and the database state is left unchanged. An atomic system must guarantee atomicity in each and every situation, including power failures, errors, and crashes. To the outside world, a committed transaction appears (by its effects on the database) to be indivisible ("atomic"), and an aborted transaction does not happen.

• Consistency

– The consistency property ensures that any transaction will bring the database from one valid state to another. Any data written to the database must be valid according to all defined rules, including but not limited to constraints, cascades, triggers, and any combination thereof. This does not guarantee correctness of the transaction in all ways the application programmer might have wanted (that is the responsibility of application-level code) but merely that any programming errors do not violate any defined rules.

ACID Rule

• Isolation

– The isolation property ensures that the concurrent execution of transactions results in a system state that would be obtained if transactions were executed serially, i.e. one after the other. Providing isolation is the main goal of concurrency control. Depending on concurrency control method, the effects of an incomplete transaction might not even be visible to another transaction.

• Durability

– Durability means that once a transaction has been committed, it will remain so, even in the event of power loss, crashes, or errors. In a relational database, for instance, once a group of SQL statements execute, the results need to be stored permanently (even if the database crashes immediately thereafter). To defend against power loss, transactions (or their effects) must be recorded in a non-volatile memory.

ACID Rule

• A database system provides a data definition language to specify the database schema and a data manipulation language to express database queries and updates.

• Data Definition Table:

– We specify a database schema by a set of definitions expressed by a special language called a data-definition language (DDL).

– create table account (account-number char(10), balance integer)

– Execution of the above DDL statement creates the account table. In addition, it updates a special set of tables called the data dictionary or data directory.

– A data dictionary contains metadata—that is, data about data. The schema of a table is an example of metadata. A database system consults the data dictionary before reading or modifying actual data.

– We specify the storage structure and access methods used by the database system by a set of statements in a special type of DDL called a data storage and definition language. These statements define the implementation details of the database schemas, which are usually hidden from the business users but accessible to DBAs.

Database Languages

Network structure: Similar to hierarchical, network structures also organizes data using nodes and branches. But, unlike hierarchical, each child node can be linked to multiple, higher parent nodes.

Hierarchical structure: Organizes data in a series of levels, hence why it is called hierarchical. Its top to bottom like structure consists of nodes and branches; each child node has branches and is only linked to one higher level parent node.

Relational structure: Unlike network and hierarchical, a relational database organizes its data in a series of related tables. This gives flexibility as relationships between the tables are built.

A B

C

Database Structures

Object-oriented database management system (OODBMS): sometimes shortened to ODBMS for object database management system), is a database management system (DBMS) that supports the modelling and creation of data as objects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Network-Diagram.PNG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hierachical-Diagram.PNG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Relational-Diagram.PNG

Knowledge Hubs

Heterogeneous data from all possible sources over World Wide Web

Filtering & Processing

Processed Data Bases

Filtering & ProcessingCentralized Information Base Repository

Data/Information CubesOrganization specific BI tool

BI Analytics

Knowledge Bases

Reports & Dashboards

Spider Robot/Web Crawler

Databases – Unprocessed but Segregated Data

• Big data is a popular term used to describe the exponential growth and availability of data, both structured and unstructured.

• Big data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. Challenges include analysis, capture, curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, and information privacy.

• The source of these large datasets could be from various clusters across the globe including the world wide web.

• There are various business intelligence and analytical tools used to extract, filter, purify, transform, segregate these large datasets to prepare meaningful sub datasets.

• These datasets further go through several sets of further processing to get moulded into processed data and further to that useful information.

• These information are generally business or organization specific.• The information so extracted are further passed through various hops of data analytics tools

in the form of cubes to get processed on BI integration and analytical modules• Once the information is processed so it generates a meaningful and decision supportive

reports and dashboards• All these highly processed decision specific information are further tuned in and stored in the

knowledge hub repository for future analysis and to make business judgements holistically.• Knowledge hubs are having huge collection of such highly processed data which can generate

various customized reports and dashboards based on interrelated knowledge areas.

Knowledge Hubs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Network-Diagram.PNG

Client Server Architecture

System Architecture – Quick Glance

Web Based Client Server Architecture

System Architecture – Quick Glance

Request & Response

ERP Server

ERP Application Page on Client

Machine

Source: http://igorportela.com/business-intelligence/

Databases & Knowledge Hubs

• Data warehouse – logical collection of information – gathered from operational databases – used to create business intelligence that supports business analysis activities and decision-making tasks

– Multidimensional– Rows and columns– Multi Layered– Many times called Hypercube

Datawarehouse

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business process management software that allows an organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and automate many back office functions related to technology, services and human resources.

• ERP is an overall concept to integrate individual applications of an enterprise into a one single shell to automate the business operations and thus accelerate the overall productivity. When this is being achieved technically with the help of a software then it is known as ERP application.

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business management software—usually a suite of integrated applications—that a company can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities, including:

– Product planning, cost– Manufacturing or service delivery– Marketing and sales– Inventory management– Shipping and payment

• ERP provides an integrated view of core business processes, often in real-time, using common databases maintained by a database management system. ERP systems track business resources—cash, raw materials, production capacity—and the status of business commitments: orders, purchase orders, and payroll. The applications that make up the system share data across the various departments (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, accounting, etc.) that provide the data.

• ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions, and manages connections to outside stakeholders.

Enterprise Resource Planning: Introduction

• Major benefits (but not limited to) of ERP for businesses:

1. Reduced complexity of maintaining heterogeneous applications and databases for different departments or operations

2. System integration3. Data integration from legacy to destination systems through EAI components4. Highly customizable to fit into business needs5. Quick data accessibility, availability, consistency, integrity, and quality6. Real time information for much extent7. Business Intelligence & Analytics capabilities for rationale business decisions8. Scalability9. Cost efficiency10. Easy to maintain11. Customized reports and dashboards on fly12. Adherence of regulatory compliance13. Optimal operations integration14. Security & identity management15. Virtualization in case of cloud based ERP



Quick glance on ERP

Bit more into ERP…


An Evolution of ERP System

Enterprise Resource Planning: Introduction• Inventory Control System (ICS) is an an

application that automates the process of tracking inventory and related information.

• The kinds of inventory tracked with an inventory control system may include almost every type of tangible good, like food, clothing, books, equipment, and any other item that consumers, retailers, or wholesalers may purchase.

• An inventory control system is a system the encompasses all aspects of managing a company's inventories; purchasing, shipping, receiving, tracking, warehousing and storage, turnover, and reordering.

• It may happen every individual operation is tracked by a distinct application, however IMS plays a crucial role to integrate them and make the data available across all the units in a real time basis.


• Material Requirements Planning (MRP) is a computer-based production planning and inventory control system.

• Material requirements planning (MRP) is a production planning, scheduling, and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes.

• An MRP system is intended to simultaneously meet three objectives:

– Ensure materials are available for production and products are available for delivery to customers.– Maintain the lowest possible material and product levels in store– Plan manufacturing activities, delivery schedules and purchasing activities.

• The basic functions of an MRP system include: inventory control, bill of material processing, and elementary scheduling. MRP helps organizations to maintain low inventory levels. It is used to plan manufacturing, purchasing and delivering activities.

• MRP deals with several areas like What items are required, How many are required, When are they required, etc.

Enterprise Resource Planning: Introduction• Inputs:

– The end item (or items) are created. This is sometimes called Independent Demand, or Level "0" on BOM (Bill of materials).

– Amount required at a time.– Schedule to meet demand.– Shelf life of stored materials.– Inventory status records: Records of net materials available for use already in stock (on hand) and materials on

order from suppliers.– Bills of materials: Details of the materials, components and sub-assemblies required to make each product.– Planning Data: This includes but not limited to all the restraints and directions to produce the end items. This

includes such items as: Routing, Labour and Machine Standards, Quality and Testing Standards, Pull/Work Cell and Push commands, Lot sizing techniques (i.e. Fixed Lot Size, Lot-For-Lot, Economic Order Quantity), Scrap Percentages, and other inputs.

• Outputs:

– Recommended Production Schedule: which lays out a detailed schedule of the required minimum start and completion dates, with quantities, for each step of the Routing and Bill Of Material required to satisfy the demand from the Master Production Schedule (MPS).

– Recommended Purchasing Schedule: This lays out both the dates that the purchased items should be received into the facility AND the dates that the Purchase orders, or Blanket Order Release should occur to match the production schedules.

– Purchase orders Report: An order to a supplier to provide materials.– Reschedule Notices: These recommend cancelling, increasing, delaying or speeding up existing orders.

Enterprise Resource Planning: Introduction• Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) is defined as a method for the effective planning of all resources of a

manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in units, financial planning, and has a simulation capability to answer "what-if" questions and extension of closed-loop MRP.

• This is not exclusively a software function, but the management of people skills, requiring a dedication to database accuracy, and sufficient computer resources. It is a total company management concept for using human and company resources more productively.

• Characteristic basic modules in an MRP II system are:

– Master production schedule (MPS) & Item master data (technical data)– Bill of materials (BOM) (technical data)– Production resources data (manufacturing technical data)– Inventories and orders (inventory control)– Purchasing management– Material requirements planning (MRP)– Shop floor control (SFC) & Capacity planning or capacity requirements planning (CRP)– Standard costing (cost control) &Cost reporting / management (cost control)

• Additional auxiliary systems such as:

– Business planning & Lot traceability– Contract management– Tool management– Engineering change control & Configuration management– Shop floor data collection– Sales analysis and forecasting & Finite capacity scheduling (FCS)

Enterprise Resource Planning: Introduction• Additional systems integrated with MRP (II) are such as:

– General ledger– Accounts payable (purchase ledger)– Accounts receivable (sales ledger)– Sales order management– Distribution requirements planning (DRP)– Automated warehouse management– Project management– Technical records & Estimating tool– Computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM)

• Key Benefits:– Better control of inventories– Improved scheduling– Productive relationships with suppliers

• For design / engineering:– Improved design control– Better quality and quality control

• For financial and costing:– Reduced working capital for inventory– Improved cash flow through quicker deliveries– Accurate inventory records

Enterprise Resource Planning: Introduction• ERP application has evolved gradually as the industries got aware of the necessities of integrating their several

applications into a single unit.

• Initially the objective was to integrate the Inventory Control Systems, Material Management system, Manufacturing resource planning and Finance modules. However later industries have observed the benefits to have the individual departments integrated into one core application.

• ERP systems experienced rapid growth in the 1990s. But because the year 2000 problem and introduction of the euro disrupted legacy systems, many companies took the opportunity to replace their old systems with ERP.

• Initially the focus of ERP systems was to automate the back office functions that did not directly affect customers and the general public, however later Front office functions, such as customer relationship management (CRM), Point of Sales (POS), or e–business systems such as e–commerce, e–government, e–telecom, and e–finance—or supplier relationship management (SRM) got integrated, when the Internet simplified to give a platform to communicate with external stakeholders.

• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems typically include the following characteristics:– An integrated system that operates closely to real time basis – A common backend database system that supports all the integrated/individual applications running for

the industry– A consistent look and feel across modules– A strong security to make the information intact of any threats or loss– Installation of the system with elaborate application/data integration by the Information Technology (IT)

department, provided the implementation is not done in small steps. Basically high degree of customization required on the vanilla version.

Enterprise Resource Planning: Value Chain Model

Every department may have an individual application associated. However ERP tool can make it possible to integrate business functions from various legacy systems to make information available under one roof with common UI in the form of various customized reports and dashboards to take appropriate business decisions.

• Banking & Financial Services

• Construction

• Energy & Utilities

• Government

• Healthcare

• High Tech

• Insurance

• Packaging & Logistics

• Life Sciences & Healthcare

• Manufacturing

• Media & Information Services

• Metals & Mining

• Commodities, Retail & Consumer Products

• Telecom & Wireless

• Travel, Aviation, Transportation & Hospitality

• Education

• Research organization

Types of Industries that ERP Serves

Enterprise Resource Planning Components Transactional database

Management reporting portal/dashboard

Business intelligence system: Integration, Processing, Analytics, Reporting Services

Resource planning and scheduling systems

Resource analytics

EAI components: To integrate with external or legacy sources to collect or integrate the information

In-built search engines

Document management system (EDMS)

Messaging/chat servers

Workflow management system

Integrated Identity Management System for system and information security

Data encryption and compression

ERP Technology Stack & Infrastructure Requirements

ERP Technology Stack & Infrastructure Requirements What is ERP

A Concept A functional flow to integrate business processes & operations A platform to design an application integrate the business functions cohesively over the common architecture

What is ERP as technology When the concept of ERP has been moulded inside the technology framework An application (preferably digital application) having capability to integrate two or more business operations on a common

framework or architecture to communicate, process, and store information Technology may extend to give integration and analytical strength to its users to make business decisions Technology may enable to produce various customized reports for business assessments Technology thus gives flexibilities to make the application user and business friendly and should exhibit certain features and

characteristics to give an essence of an ERP system What is ERP technology stack

The set of ERP applications that are available in the market for business or study or R&D purpose ERP applications may come as Proprietary software, open source, or cloud based Some of the most common ERP applications are: SAP, Oracle Apps, Microsoft Dynamics, Sales Force, JD Edwards, Epicor, IBM

Maximo, Tally ERP 9 , CGI Momentum What is ERP technology infrastructure

For any application to run minimum infrastructure is required therefore to run ERP smoothly proper infrastructure is required

Infrastructure defines the clients, servers (application, database, web, and files), network, storage, load balancers, backup devices, security devices & protocols, routers, datacentres

It is important to understand how ERP infrastructure should be configured optimally to give best of a kind throughput How all these are integrated to each other

What protocol to be used to integrate various applications running in an organization and converge them into one single architecture

How to configure infrastructure and deploy the ERP enterprise suite to get that available to the end users How to administer the performance and server optimization for the best and real time information synchronization and

availability

ERP Technology Stack & Infrastructure Requirements

ERP Services – A detailed discussion

• Designed to support organization-wide process coordination and integration



• Supply Chain Management– Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of the flow of

goods and services. It includes the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption.

– Supply Chain Management is a multidisciplinary programme designed to help an organization to design innovative strategies and deploy differentiated solutions that can help the organisation to serve its customers in an optimal fashion without affecting its quality and enable branding.

– Supply chain management, is the active management of supply chain activities to maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. It represents a holistic effort by the supply chain firms to develop and run supply chains in the most effective & efficient ways possible. Supply chain activities cover everything from product development, sourcing, production, and logistics, as well as the information systems needed to coordinate these activities.


Benefits of Supply Chain Management

ERP Services – A detailed discussion• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a system for managing a company's interactions with

current and future customers. It often involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support.:

• Common features of CRM software include:

• Marketing automation: CRM tools with marketing automation capabilities can automate repetitive tasks to enhance marketing efforts to customers at different points in the lifecycle. For example, as sales prospects come into the system, the system might automatically send them marketing materials, typically via email or social media, with the goal of turning a sales lead into a full-fledged customer.

• Sales force automation: Sales force automation is meant to prevent duplicate efforts between a salesperson and a customer. A CRM system can help achieve this by automatically tracking all contact and follow-ups between both sides.

• Contact centre automation: Designed to reduce tedious aspects of a contact centre agent's job, contact centre automation might include pre-recorded audio that assists in customer problem-solving and information dissemination. Various software tools that integrate with the agent's desktop tools can handle customer requests in order to cut down the time of calls and simplify customer service processes.

• Geolocation technology, or location-based services: Some CRM systems include technology that can create geographic marketing campaigns based on customers' physical locations, sometimes integrating with popular location-based GPS apps. Geolocation technology can also be used as a networking or contact management tool in order to find sales prospects based on location.


CRM Framework

Managing ERP Project Life Cycle (Cost-Time-Scope analysis)

• A project is a temporary endeavour with a realistic scope, attainable timeline, and feasible cost.

• When ERP suite is implemented in an organization with a defined scope, timeline, and cost then it is called a ERP project.

• Project management is the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It’s a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals — and thus, better compete in their markets.

• Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives.

S

Smart

M

Measurable

A

Attainable

R

Realistic

T

Time bound

Initiation Planning ExecutionControlling

& Monitoring

Closure

Project Management Life Cycle


Integration Scope TimeCost Quality ProcurementHuman resources Communications Risk management

Stakeholder management

Project management has below ten knowledge areas as per PMBOK:

• A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's work into manageable sections.

• A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's work into manageable sections.

• WBS is a hierarchical and incremental decomposition of the project into phases, deliverables and work packages. It is a tree structure, which shows a subdivision of effort required to achieve an objective; for example a program, project, and contract.


• Software Licenses• IT Infrastructure• Professional Services• Data & System Migration• Staffing cost

• Training & Mentoring• Integration & Testing• Data Conversion• Data Analysis• ERP Consultants• Technical Team• Functional Team• Administrator

Cost Factors

Planning & Implementation of ERP

Planning & Implementation of ERP Suite• Understand the business requirements

• Analyse the company size and users

• Determine the budget and the scope

• Finalize buy-in or in-house product development

• Evaluate the existing ERP products and services in the market inline with your require requirements

• Set Realistic Expectations for ERP Implementation

• Understand and procure the required infrastructure

• Chart down integration mechanism

• List down the BI tools required to be integrated

• Prepare a holistic project management plan considering all the 10 knowledge areas

• Prepare staffing and contracting plan of the required stakeholders: ERP Suite provider, Service Provider, Consultants, Techno-Functional engineers and analysts, trainers, and users

• Phase wise ERP suite rollout post UAT clearance from all the stakeholders

Planning & Implementation of ERP Suite

ERP Suite Provider (SAP/Oracle, Microsoft, etc.)

End Users

3rd. Party ERP Support Consultants

In-house ERP Consultant

Techno-Functional engineers & analysts

Trainers

Industry

Challenges & Impediments of ERP Implementation & Administration


• Lack of requirement understanding• Improper evaluation of ERP business suite• Irrational project planning• Lack of senior manager commitment • Ineffective engineering teams• Ineffective communications with users • Insufficient training of end-users or unavailability of the trainer• Failure to get user support • Attempts to build non-holistic bridges to legacy applications • Improper usage of BI tools & business logic• Wrong database choice• Conflicts between user departments • Composition of project team members• Failure to redesign business process • Misunderstanding of change requirements• Improper UAT• Lack of documentation: Functional/Technical/Test documents• Unavailability of 3rd. Party support consulting teams• Improper after sales service agreement with the parent vendor or with the implementation

team• Non-adherence of ERP standards

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)• Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems'

architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.• Enterprise application integration is an integration framework composed of a collection of

technologies and services which form a middleware to enable integration of systems and applications across an enterprise.

• Enterprise application integration is the process of linking heterogeneous applications within a single organization together in order to simplify and automate business processes to the maximum extent possible, while avoiding any compromise in the overall throughput. Applications can be linked either at the back-end (database) or the front-end (GUI).

• EAI is an applied technology aimed at modernizing, consolidating (integrating), and coordinating the computer applications in an enterprise.

• It works on either of the two major topologies: hub-and-spoke and bus.• There are two patterns that EAI systems implement:

– Mediation (intra-communication)– Federation (inter-communication)

• EAI supports both asynchronous and synchronous access patterns, asynchronous being typical in the mediation case and synchronous in the federation case.

• Usage of EAI:– User Interface Integration– Data Integration– Application Integration– Method Integration

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

ERP as a Service on a Cloud Infrastructure

• Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing resources—everything from applications to data centres—over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis.

• loud computing involves deploying groups of remote servers and software networks that allow centralized data storage and online access to computer services or resources.

• Clouds can be classified as: public, private or hybrid.• Major service models:

– Software as a Service (SAAS)– Platform as a Service (PAAS)– Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS)– Storage as a Service

• Advantages: Cost effective, Agility, Device and location independence due to virtualization, Mobility, Easy support & maintenance, Better productivity, Scalability, Reliability with effective DR plan, Service on choice flexibility, security.

• ERP application can also be implemented over Cloud infrastructure and therefore it is also known as ERP as a Service.

• Sales Force ERP application is one of the pioneering companies providing ERP suite over the cloud.• ERP application is hosted over a number of servers in various cloud based datacentres. • Business users located remotely can access the ERP suite on pay per subscription basis.• ERP as a service is an extended version of SAAS with its own infrastructure deployed for enabling

remote access over a secured network and platform.

ERP as a Service on a Cloud Infrastructure

Subhajit [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Information technology in global arena & enterprise resource planning

Technology

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