Why Use ERP need, function ?

(R2I2T)

Reliable Data: To make the right business decisions, you need access to the
right information at the right time. With an ERP solution configured to your
specific needs, you can rest assured that you are receiving accurate data to
make smart decisions. Even if you already have an ERP solution in place,
years of minor tweaking and connecting with disparate systems may have
turned it into a convoluted mess of obscure information. With a new ERP
solution, your business can put its trust in an up to date and reliable system.
Transparency: A huge boon to business is being able to identify which
products and departments are saving/providing money and which are falling
behind. With an ERP solution in place you can pin point exactly which areas
need to be addressed accordingly. By being able to quickly decipher where
your company's strengths and weaknesses are, you can improve profitability
before losing it.
Reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): While it may seem like a large
investment at the time, the cost-saving benefits of an ERP solution will out-
weigh the initial expenditure on the solution. Even if your business already
has a legacy system in place, maintaining an outdated ERP solution can cost
an indefinite amount of time and resources as well as limit new opportunities.
An ERP solution needs to be looked at in terms of eventual return on
investment, not it's immediate cost.
Integration with new technologies: With the rise in use of the
internet and technology for business, it would severely inhibit a company's
ability to advance and grow if their systems did not stay up to date with
current tools and trends. Mobile technology and social media is heavily
influencing enterprise resource planning these days, so even businesses that
already have an ERP system in place will lose out if their solution is unable to
integrate with modern applications. Speed and accuracy are always being
improved, so being able to update your ERP system to meet these demands is
tantamount to staying ahead of your competition.
Increase user interaction: One of the big benefits of a modern ERP
solution is that they are designed to be used by everyone involved in the
implementation. Most legacy ERP systems have been put in place by a specific
set of people, which can cause drastic communication issues when other users
need access or upgrades. By having a fully integrated modern ERP solution,
your business will benefit from company wide interaction and smooth
upgrades to newest releases of the software.
Those are some of the most important reasons to implement/update an ERP
solution for your business. Stick with us for more blogs designed to help you
understand the world of ERP and CRM, and contact an ECI representative
today to find out more about our ERP solutions!

ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning is an important enterprise application that
integrates all the individual department functions into a single software application.
ERP Systems make it easier to track the workflow across various departments. They reduce
the operational costs involved in manually tracking and (perhaps) duplicating data using
individual & disparate systems. In this article, let us have a look at the advantages and dis-
advantages of implementing ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) Software Systems.
Advantages of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) System:
1. Complete visibility into all the important processes, across various departments of an
organization (especially for senior management personnel).
2. Automatic and coherent workflow from one department/function to another, to ensure a
smooth transition and quicker completion of processes. This also ensures that all the inter-
departmental activities are properly tracked and none of them is missed out.
3. A unified and single reporting system to analyze the statistics/status etc. in real-time,
across all functions/departments.
4. Since same (ERP) software is now used across all departments, individual departments
having to buy and maintain their own software systems is no longer necessary.
5. Certain ERP vendors can extend their ERP systems to provide Business Intelligence
functionalities, that can give overall insights on business processes and identify potential
areas of problems/improvements.
6. Advanced e-commerce integration is possible with ERP systems most of them can
handle web-based order tracking/ processing.
7. There are various modules in an ERP system like Finance/Accounts, Human Resource
Management, Manufacturing, Marketing/Sales, Supply Chain/Warehouse Management,
CRM, Project Management, etc.
8. Since ERP is a modular software system, its possible to implement either a few modules
(or) many modules based on the requirements of an organization. If more modules
implemented, the integration between various departments may be better.
9. Since a Database system is implemented on the backend to store all the information
required by the ERP system, it enables centralized storage/back-up of all enterprise data.
10. ERP systems are more secure as centralized security policies can be applied to them. All
the transactions happening via the ERP systems can be tracked.
11. ERP systems provide better company-wide visibility and hence enable
better/faster collaboration across all the departments.
12. It is possible to integrate other systems (like bar-code reader, for example) to the ERP
system through an API (Application Programming Interface).
13. ERP systems make it easier for order tracking, inventory tracking, revenue tracking,
sales forecasting and related activities.
14. ERP systems are especially helpful for managing globally dispersed enterprise
companies, better.
Disadvantages of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Systems:
1. The cost of ERP Software, planning, customization, configuration, testing,
implementation, etc. is too high.
2. ERP deployments are highly time-consuming projects may take 1-3 years (or more) to
get completed and fully functional.
3. Too little customization may not integrate the ERP system with the business process &
too much customization may slow down the project and make it difficult to upgrade.
4. The cost savings/payback may not be realized immediately after the ERP implementation
& it is quite difficult to measure the same.
5. The participation of users is very important for successful implementation of ERP
projects hence, exhaustive user training and simple user interface might be critical. But
ERP systems are generally difficult to learn (and use).
6. There maybe additional indirect costs due to ERP implementation like new IT
infrastructure, upgrading the WAN links, etc.
7. Migration of existing data to the new ERP systems is difficult (or impossible) to achieve.
Integrating ERP systems with other stand alone software systems is equally difficult (if
possible). These activities may consume a lot of time, money & resources, if attempted.
8. ERP implementations are difficult to achieve in decentralized organizations with
disparate business processes and systems.
9. Once an ERP systems is implemented it becomes a single vendor lock-in for further
upgrades, customizations etc. Companies are at the discretion of a single vendor and may not
be able to negotiate effectively for their services.
10. Evaluation prior to implementation of ERP system is critical. If this step is not done
properly and experienced technical/business resources are not available while evaluating,
0ERP implementations can (and have) become a failure.
Function of ERP

1. With ERP, business can better control over its billing to customer and receivables.
With the ability to automate processes. It provides better operational, financial and
accounting control over its billing operations and receivables.
2. ERP system can be used for accomplish every task by integrating the information
system , seamless flow of information across every department . It is helpful to
make automation of every business process.
3. Because ERP works on IT's basic rules 'input -process-output ', So it is also using as
management information system (MIS ) .
4. ERP treats the organization as single entity and caters to the information needs of
the whole organization because information is the key resource of every
organization to win the competition . ERP system provides accurate , relevant and
timeliness information to all department on one software system .
5. Main function of ERP system and software is to provide information updated and on
real time .

6. . In ERP , you can get answer of any query by its powerful query and filtering
facility .
7. . Now advance ERP softwares packages are providing the facility to manage import
export , tax and fulfilling other legal requirements .
8. Computer aided design can also integrate with ERP softwares for showing design
of products on real time and according to the need of customers .
9. . ERP provides also all financial analysis under finance modules and comply with
India's and other international accounting standards .
10. ERP system can easily use in Government , healthcare , financial , retail and other
service sectors .

Free and open-source ERP software


Name
Platform
technology
Software
license
Description
Countries
of origin
Last
stable
released
ate
Adaxa Suite Java GPL
Integrated ERP
built
on Adempiere
Australia/Ne
w Zealand
2010
Adempiere Java GPL
Began as
a fork of Compi
ere
Spain 2014 (3.7.0)
Compiere Java
GPL/Commer
cial
Acquired
by Consona
Corporation in
USA 2010 (3.3.0)

Name
Platform
technology
Software
license
Description
Countries
of origin
Last
stable
released
ate
June 2010
Dolibarr PHP, MySQL GPL
For small and
medium
companies,
foundations or
freelancers
France 2014 (3.5.4)
Epesi PHP, MySQL MIT license
A framework for
building ERP
applications
Poland, USA 2014 (1.5.6)
ERP5
Python, Zope,
MySQL
GPL
Based on
unified
model
[vague]

Worldwide
2014
(0.4.37)
ERPNEXT
Python,JavaScript,
MySQL
GPL
ERP for small
and medium-
size businesses
India 2014 (4.1.0)
Fedena Ruby, MySQL
Apache
License
ERP for
schools/univers
ities
India 2014 (3.1)

Name
Platform
technology
Software
license
Description
Countries
of origin
Last
stable
released
ate
FrontAccount
ing
PHP, MySQL GPLv3
Web
application
?
2014
(2.3.21)
GNU
Enterprise
Python GPLv3
Tools to
develop
interactive
database
applications
? 2010
HeliumV Java AGPL
ERP for small
and medium-
size businesses
(initial focus
has been
electronic
manufacturing)
Austria,Germ
any
?
iDempiere Java GPLv2
Began as
a fork of Ademp
iere
Worldwide 2013 (2.0)
JFire Java, Eclipse LGPL
ERP and CRM
system
Germany 2011 (1.2.0)

Name
Platform
technology
Software
license
Description
Countries
of origin
Last
stable
released
ate
LedgerSMB Perl, PostgreSQL GPL
Double entry
accounting and
ERP system
(fork of SQL-
Ledger)
Distributed
development
2014
(1.3.37)
Apache
OFBiz
Java, Apache
HTTP Server
Apache
License2.0
ERP and e-
commerce suite
from the
Apache
Software
Foundation
USA
2014
(12.04.04)
Openbravo
Java,PostgreSQL,O
racle
OBPL
1

ERP and Point
of Sale (POS)
software
Spain 2013 (3.0)
Odoo
Python,
Javascript,PostgreS
QL
AGPLv3
Renamed
from OpenERP
to reflect that is
more than just
ERP
Worldwide
2012 (7.0,
8.0RC in
2014)
Phreedom
PHP, Javascript,
MySQL
GPLv3
Expanded from
Phreebooks
USA 2012 (3.4)

Name
Platform
technology
Software
license
Description
Countries
of origin
Last
stable
released
ate
accounting
engine
Postbooks
C++, JavaScript,
PostgreSQL
CPAL
Accounting,
CRM and ERP
USA 2014 (4.5.0)
SQL-Ledger Perl, PostgreSQL GPL
Double entry
accounting and
ERP system
Canada 2014 (3.0.6)
Tryton Python, GTK+ GPLv3
Originally
forked from
TinyERP,
cleaned-up
code base with
continious
update/migratio
n path
? 2014 (3.2)
WebERP PHP, MySQL GPLv2
LAMP-based
system
?
2013
(4.11.1)