| > | | | | it as its own invention. ERP Systems implementation |
| IT/ERP/MRP consulting industry is currently under the | | | | faced the challenge of user experience lack in those |
| transformation. This process is usually happening and | | | | days — this is why we see large number of |
| comes in parallel with new economic recovery and | | | | flourishing ERP consulting firms in late 1960th and |
| change in the business paradigm. We’ll try to | | | | 1970th. |
| appeal to historical excurse and give some hints on the | | | | - ERP with rich functionality 1980th & 1990th. |
| future trends. In our case we work with such products | | | | Looking back to 1980th — the typical large and |
| as Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, CRM, | | | | midsize corporation had relatively similar business |
| Navision, Retail Management System (RMS) and cross | | | | processes in Sales, Purchasing, Inventory Control, |
| integrations between them and non-Microsoft products: | | | | Warehouse Management, Logistics, Shipping & |
| Oracle, Lotus Notes Domino, Unix & Java | | | | Receiving, Manufacturing, Accounting and Finance |
| platforms: J2EE, EJB, Bea Weblogic, Websphere, etc. | | | | departments. When we talk about similarity — |
| IT/ERP/MRP consulting industry is currently under the | | | | we are comparing it to the diversification of late 1990th |
| transformation. This process is usually happening and | | | | and 2000th when a lot of new companies grew up |
| comes in parallel with new economic recovery and | | | | and went public. The market conditions of 1980th and |
| change in the business paradigm. We’ll try to | | | | early 1990th made it feasible to design the systems |
| appeal to historical excurse and give some hints on the | | | | with rich functionality. From the ERP side we would |
| future trends. In our case we work with such products | | | | name: SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards. These |
| as Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, CRM, | | | | systems cost several hundred thousand dollars in |
| Navision, Retail Management System (RMS) and cross | | | | software licenses and the implementation of the |
| integrations between them and non-Microsoft products: | | | | system requires comparable budget. |
| Oracle, Lotus Notes Domino, Unix & Java | | | | - Business Models Diversification 2000th. If you look at |
| platforms: J2EE, EJB, Bea Weblogic, Websphere, etc. | | | | the dot-com boom of late 1990th — you will see |
| Let’s look at the history and the current | | | | that these companies tried to invent their own way of |
| processes: | | | | business processes to automate serving their unique |
| - Classical Business Consulting. It was flourishing back | | | | business offer to the potential clientele, usually related |
| in 1950th and had two major schools or directions. It | | | | to the new opportunities of internet marketing & |
| was the time when large businesses were trying to | | | | sales. In the case of these new public (plus small |
| deal with the dilemma of growth and efficiency of | | | | & micro cap) rapidly growing companies — |
| internal document workflow. If you remember — | | | | business processes were in the turbulent change and |
| in that time computers didn’t exist and | | | | the deployment of the system with rich functionality |
| everything was recorded on the paper. Plus it was the | | | | (usually with long implementation cycle) would not be |
| need to probe and deploy psychological methods of | | | | the option. |
| coordinating headquarters personnel: sales, purchasing, | | | | - Customization & Integration. As the alternative |
| finance and accounting departments to work in synch | | | | — new large and midsize businesses have to |
| with one another under the condition of paper | | | | deploy standard functionality ERP system (not rich |
| document workflow | | | | functionality ERP) and consider it as a platform for |
| - ERP System of 1960th. This was the time of | | | | customization, custom development, reporting and |
| mainframe and first ERP. If you look at the ERP | | | | integration. These standard functionality systems are |
| application, it has GL, AP, AR modules — these | | | | the ERP applications of the middle market: Microsoft |
| are classical and could be tracked back to the 19th | | | | Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, Accpac, MAS90, etc. In |
| century. When you automate Sales Order Processing | | | | our opinion — future business paradigm makes it |
| or Purchase Order Processing — this would be | | | | non feasible to purchase high-end ERP system for |
| something new and each ERP vendor would be doing | | | | midsize and even large corporation. |