Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Levis suffers from ERP meltdown

Paul Mah — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:18:44 -0400

It appears that problems with a global roll out of an enterprise resource planning system played a part in a resulting 98 percent plummet in net income at Levis Strauss. Levis has been working to standardize a single instance of SAP ERP for its global operations. However, problems with receiving and fulfilling orders resulted in the company being forced to off-line its shipping systems at its three distribution centers in the United States for one week earlier this year. While other factors are being blamed for its poor performance this time, Levis is but another name on a list of companies that have pointed the finger at an ERP system such as SAP for a poor showing.

For more information on this report:
- check out this The Register article

Mobile Apps expected to grow to $9 billion by 2011

Wed, 30 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

In the quest for innovation and the push toward the next frontier for applications, many companies are looking to mobile phones as a platform of opportunity. According to consulting and analytics firm Compass Intelligence, mobile apps are a good bet. The U.S. mobile applications market will grow to $9 billion by 2011, the company predicts, forecasting that U.S. businesses will spend about $3.8 billion on mobile applications this year alone. That includes custom-coded wireless packages, productivity tools, enterprise resource planning tools, email, and security applications. Compass predicts U.S. annual growth rates in the market to be between 20 and 37 percent from 2006 through 2011. Applications will provide SMS/text messaging, content relationship management programs, project management software, and file-sharing, InformationWeek reports.

See the full survey data:
- read this InformationWeek article

The art of choosing an ERP system

Tue, 01 May 2007 20:01:38 -0400

For smaller companies in particular, the decision of which enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to buy can be daunting. There are a great variety of systems, both in terms of functionality and price. First, ask these questions: Which offers the proper fit of software to business processes? How fast is too fast when it comes to implementing a system? What effect will the Oracle vs. SAP battle have on my organization? For large enterprises, SAP continues to be the dominant enterprise resource planning player with Oracle running a close second, but once you move down the rungs, Microsoft Dynamics also is a popular choice. For SMBs, it almost always comes down to price, however.

Read more about choosing an ERP system:
- read the article at ComputerWeekly

ALSO:
- read this about how Microsoft Office integrates with ERP systems
- this about how ERP vendors are revamping their tools
- and this about how ERP makes business processes work

Making open source attractive to businesses

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:01:38 -0400

The Open Solutions Alliance (OSA), a non-profit consortium dedicated to increasing businesses' use of open-source software, has developed an interoperability roadmap and announced its first major project. The interoperability roadmap outlines the specific interoperability problems the consortium expects to address and provides a timeline. The end result for each issue will be a document describing standards and best practices that the open-source community can use as a guide for building and deploying interoperable software. A companion project has the OSA creating prototypes of working code to show that the interoperability principles work in practice. The first prototype is the Common Customer View, which will bring together information held in different members' applications including CRM (customer relationship management), ERP (enterprise resource planning) and business intelligence software and legacy point-of-sale applications. Once complete, when a user updates information about a customer in an ERP application, they will be able to see that new information as they access the same customer's record held in their CRM software.

For more on the Open Solutions Alliance:
- read the article at LinuxWorld

Social responsibility: a CIO function

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:01:39 -0400

According to a survey by market research firm AMR Research, CIOs aren't taking an active enough role in their companies' corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Often, the data and information needed to prioritize CSR investments and measure its impact are spread across organizations in disparate systems and databases. It's the CIO's responsibility to take ownership of this problem. For example, a successful CSR initiative would include information accessed from a company's enterprise resource planning (ERP) system--something CIOs should recognize and incorporate. But as companies realize the business benefits, CSR is becoming a front-of-mind issue for many organizations. That should change the way that CIOs view CSR over time.

For more about the importance of CSR:
- read the article at ZDNet

ERP, not as easy as 123

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:01:38 -0400

When it comes to choosing and implementing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, finding the right tool is just the first of many important steps. Even if the ERP system you find is a great fit for your organization, it doesn't have a chance of succeeding without good processes already in place. Instead of a system that you can simply install and then forget about, the technology will impact the organization in many ways, each of which should be evaluated in advance. The first step is addressing areas where your company needs to improve. Also, the project should have sponsors on both the IT and business sides of the company. When evaluating vendors, consider input from employees in the trenches who will be affected by the project; they can better define mission-critical aspects of the business to create a list of must-haves for any system. And don't try to use all features of the ERP system just because they are available; it can bog down implementation and training and may increase complexity. Finally, make training a priority. That's important, because ERP systems are complicated and sometimes difficult to learn.

Read more about success with ERP implementations:
- read the article at TechTarget

Wireless data access goes mainstream

Sun, 04 Feb 2007 19:01:38 -0500

Wireless data access is quickly becoming a requirement for enterprises that want to remain competitive. The most popular platforms through which corporate users are accessing data wirelessly are laptops, followed by smartphones. Generally, employees are using these devices to access desktop applications, but increasingly, employees want to access enterprise-wide applications, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and salesforce/fieldforce automation apps. To plan for this inevitability, CIOs should start thinking about how to choose a carrier, plan and device and how to manage plans centrally and develop policies that address data auditing, security and budgeting.

Learn more about the inevitability of wireless data access in the enterprise:
- read the article at Network Computing

The unknown, but successful, software maker

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:01:37 -0500

When you think of customer relationship management (CRM) or enterprise resource planning, it's more than likely the names Oracle and SAP come to mind. But there's actually a little-known software vendor who's right on the leading vendor's heels and may be worth checking out, if you're looking to upgrade or revamp your systems. Infor Global Solutions has been quietly building a customer base and expanding its reach by gobbling up a bunch of smaller software makers--it now boasts with 8,100 employees and 70,000 customers.

For more on the unknown leading software maker:
- read the report at Baseline magazine

Related Article: Oracle sets its sights on Red Hat. Article

Office lures interest with ERP promise

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:01:39 -0500

While enhanced security may prove a major selling point, it seems like the integration capabilities between Vista and its companion software Office 2007 are also attracting the attention of tech leaders who are looking for an application that mixes well with back-end systems such as SAP and Oracle. The ability to integrate with such popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) modules and customer relationship management products is prompting more than a few IT leaders to explore the option of upgrading.

For more on the allure of Office 2007:
- read the news at ComputerWeekly

SPOTLIGHT: Taming the public sector transition element

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:01:34 -0400

On a pure tech level, private and public sector CIOs have a lot in common--ironing out enterprise resource planning kinks, mapping out the new wireless network. But public sector tech leaders deal with one constant that most private firm tech leaders don't--government leadership changes on a regular basis. Often newly-elected governors have their own ideas about where technology fits in, and dealing with the consistent administration changes can pose huge challenges to IT leaders on a state level. Find out how state CIOs deal with the times of transition they face every four years. Article