CHAPTER 12 : INTEGRATING THE ORGANIZATION FROM END TO END

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

 

· It serves as the organization’s backbone in providing fundamental decision making support.

· It enables people in different business areas to communicate.

· ERP system helps an organization to obtain operational efficiencies, lower costs, improve supplier and customer relations, and increase revenues and market share.

· The heart of an ERP system is a central database that collects information from and feeds information into all the ERP system’s individual application components (called modules), supporting diverse business function such as accounting, manufacturing, marketing, and human resources.

· ERP automates business processes such as order fulfillment- taking an order from a customer, shipping the purchase, and then billing for it.

 

Integrating SCM, CRM, and ERP

Integration of SCM, CRM, and ERP is the key to success for many companies.

·      Integration allows the unlocking of information to make it available to any user, anywhere, anytime.

·      2 main competitors in ERP market:

       #oracle

   #sap

 

 

Integration Tools

·    An integrated enterprise infuses support areas, such as finance and human resources, with a strong customer orientation.

·   Integration are achieved using:

§   Middleware- several different types of software that sit in the middle of and provide connectivity between two or more software applications. It translates information between disparate systems

·    Enterprise application integration (EAI) middleware- represents a new approach to middleware by packaging together commonly used functionality, such as providing prebuilt links to popular enterprise applications, which reduces the time necessary to develop solutions that integrate applications from multiple vendors.