I recently read an article published by Brett Beaubouef on his blog (Cloud ERP – New Dog, Same Fleas), about the future of ERP in the cloud. Referring to the traditional ERP, Brett called these systems „the panacea for all business automation pains”. Instead, Cloud ERP is positioned as a revolutionary approach to deploying an ERP solution.
„Practically speaking, Cloud ERP is just another deployment option available to customers. Cloud ERP provides a solution that is flexible, adaptable, scalable, efficient, and affordable. Customers can enjoy painless upgrades, rapid deployment, and easy customization along with availability “anywhere at anytime”!”, said Beaubouef.
The question that arises is the following: are there major differences between those two ERP solutions? At first sight, it seems not. The activities required for an “on premise” ERP implementation are also required for Cloud ERP and the scope and responsibility for the implementation activities are still required. And then, what would be „the key impacts that a Cloud ERP deployment will have on the implementation?”
As Brett said in his article, „from a technology perspective, Cloud ERP offers a faster implementation timeframe and provides very robust functionality”, but if the organization is not prepared to properly use the software then the value of Cloud ERP will quickly dissipate. Also, „integration will be a greater challenge in a Cloud ERP model versus an on-premise ERP model – if only because the Cloud ERP will be outside the company’s internal network”.
Than, the customizations and integrations are impacted based upon the cloud model. Regarding Brett, a customer will have greater flexibility if the customer has a dedicated instance. „If multiple customers are on single software then the Cloud ERP provider may limit the level of integrations and customizations because the software changes may have an adverse impact on all the customers on a shared instance”, specified Brett.
As a conclusion, As with every deployment model, there are advantages and disadvantages to consider. „But it is important to remember that Cloud ERP is not a short cut to success”, noted Beaubouef.
Having seen BI implementations ranging from the very good to the very bad, I think a BI solution needs to be:
1) User friendly, self-help oriented and designed for the users and not for IT experts, because constantly needing an IT person to run SQL, MDX or complex reports is a slow and unproductive process for everyone.
Having representatives of all business areas attend the vendor presentations and participate in the BI selection process is fundamental to develop commitment and support. Of course, IT leads and facilitates the process.
In order to succeed, a BI project needs to be an equal partnership between IT and all the business sectors that will use the solution. A clear understanding and agreement on the definitions of user needs, metrics and dimensions is the base of a system that people will like and use.
2) The solution needs to accommodate a flexible design of the meta-data to be "business intuitive" because you do not want business folks to rely on analysts as intermediaries to translate BI reports into useful information through extensive and time consuming manipulation of data exported to spreadsheets.
3) The BI tool needs to be fast and interactive (like OLAP cubes) to be able to drill down, drill through and filter, so everyone can uncover the root cause of problems in a very few minutes.
4) The ability to connect multiple data sources is fundamental to enrich the scope of the decisions. Merging internal transaction data with external market intelligence will ensure a 360 view of the market-business-profit reality, instantly, right from the BI software. This gives the company a competitive edge, because the competition is still likely to rely on internal raw data from transaction driven static reports and managers’ intuition.
5) Top management needs to fully commit to the project, and once implemented should demand that the organization continues to use it, strengthening the data-driven culture, so BI does not become the flavor of the month.
Finally, while cost may be important to some folks, Return on the BI Investment is the ultimate measure of success. If the selection and configuration of the BI solution allows the company to beat the competition, increase market share, revenue and profit everybody wins.
By Bill Cabiró and Strat-Wise LLC
„Please visit their web site at www.strat-wise.com for additional articles and resources on the strategic use of Business Intelligence and Analytics”
I read recently, on a blog powered by Software Advice, an interesting post about what questions to ask yourself about ERP software license. Regarding to Anya Ciecierski, „once you have found the software that has the right functionality for your business, you need to make sure you understand the costs”. She talks about upfront costs and hidden cost and how you can save money or waste money. It is important to understand that the total cost of an on-premise accounting software project will include three components: software licenses, implementation services, and hardware. Regarding to software licenses, Ciecierski brings up nine questions that every ERP software buyer should ask before signing on the dotted line.
1. Is the system priced per user or per module?
For many companies, user-based pricing is often a better value and a better investment – you get more for your money and room to grow.
2. Can you buy full user and light user licenses?
If the software you choose gives you an option to purchase full user licenses and light user licenses, this can be a substantial cost savings for those additional 15 users.
3. Is the system priced by concurrent users or named users?
If you buy a system based on concurrent users, you can set everyone up in the system. If you pay by named user, however, you’ll have to buy a license for each user.
4. How easy is it to upgrade your ERP system?
5. What are the required annual maintenance fees?
Negotiating your maintenance contract can be tricky business.
6. What is included in the annual maintenance fees?
7. What are the rules for lapsed maintenance fees?
Maintenance plans are like insurance, we all wish we didn’t have to pay for it, but when we need it we’re glad we have it.
8. Is there a strong ISV/Add-On community?
9. Is there a strong user community?
A strong user community offers an opportunity to share ideas and learn best practices.
What’s your experience with software licenses? Please feel free to leave a comment below.
According to a study published by Gartner, the Business Intelligence market increased by 13,4% in 2010, the total value of the global BI market reaching $ 10.5 billion. The growth reflects the customers interest for business efficiency solutions and competitive advantage achievement in economic crisis time. Regarding to Gartner, the BI market is 59% controlled by the major vendors, such as SAP, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and MicroStrategy.
The role, responsibilities and activities of client Project Manager in an ERP implementation project
Most of the companies who are looking to implement an ERP system have a great dilemma: which is the role of the client project manager, in what areas of project management he is involved?
The key goals of any ERP implementation project are to complete it within the established time and budget, with a high degree of customer satisfaction. For this reason, the client Project Manager is responsible, first of all, for ensuring that all customer requirements are planned and executed in a manner that will meet the implementation goals for the project. Second, the client Project Manager will serve as a liaison between the implementation team and the management of the organization. He should submit regular reports to the project progress, project risks or additional required resources. Last, but not least, the client Project Manager manages the availability of key users in the organization.
A discussion about this problem took place recently in the ERP Project Management Group on LinkedIn. After I read more than one hundred comments, I made the following typical activities list of client project manager:
• Prepare and conduct customer/Vendor meetings
• Support and accept the planning of the Implementation phase
• Review and support decision for the project scope
• Acceptance of implementation proposal
• Initiate project planning of all project phases
• Assign adequate resources to the project
• Prepare and conduct the kickoff meeting
• Approve project charges such as travel expenses, equipment, or billable time
• Create and communicate project status reports to the project stakeholders
• Manage the defined budget and budget changes
• Ensure quality and timeliness for the services
• Ensure customer acceptance for delivered services
• Project closing
• Hand over to support team
Do you know others roles, responsibilities or activities that the client project manager must do, could do or don't have to do? If yes, please share them with us.
What is more important for an ERP: the brand or the flexibility and the functionality?
I recently followed a discussion on LinkedIn about what is important for an ERP: the brand or the flexibility and the functionality? The discussion had started from a simple question: „X or Y - which is best?” (where X and Y are some of the biggest global ERP suppliers). The conclusion that emerged form that discussion was both and neither. Why? Because it depends on what your business requirements are and on how each vendor met your business needs. Most of the comments made reference to the best way to pick an ERP package. Which is to identify how you need the business to run and then find a package that best fits your business processes. Those involved in the discussion noted that too many people are picking one of the top 5 ERP suppliers without understanding how their business plans to function or if the ERP solution is a good fit for their business processes. They just picking a name, a brand, not a product.
The idea is that the brand should count, but did not override. There are many others factors to be considered, such as to define what is the goal in use, which benefits do the business you want, what are the challenges, what is the main area that needs supported, what will be the need in 2 years time and, last but not least, focus on how the license policy and payment is after „go live”. And so you will find that there are other alternatives that probably fits better your business needs. Maybe the top 5 ERP suppliers have the brand, but others have the flexibility and the functionality. Which are more important for an ERP than the brand.
In a discussion started on Business Intelligence Professionals Group on LinkedIn, 276 BI specialists have tried to answer to a simple question: why does a BI implementations fail and how can specialists prevent this from happening again and again and again and ...
Few years ago, only large companies needed ERP software. Now, it can benefit form this technology even the small and mid-size businesses. In a recent article published on erpsoftwareblog, Jeff Pyden stated that the cloud computing technology is faster adopted by businesses with no more than 50 employees. In his opinion, „the emergence of the cloud is yet another step toward making this powerful technology available to those who otherwise may not be able to afford it.”
He indicated five reasons why small and mid-size businesses prefer a cloud ERP solution rather than a traditional one: limited budgets, faster deployment, security and data management, businesses continuity, growth and scale.
The first indicated reason - limited budgets - refers to the total costs of implementing and maintaining an on-premise ERP solution, which „is often not feasible for small businesses”. „It’s difficult for many small and mid-sized businesses to afford the up-front costs of an on-premise ERP solution”, Jeff said. But what is the option? An open source ERP, of course. For example, the total cost of implementation and use of our open source solution, SocrateOpen, is less than the on-premise version.
The faster deployment refers to the fact that „a cloud-hosted ERP solution can be deployed quickly, allowing businesses to start reaping the benefits of the solution sooner”. By streamlining and connecting internal processes, such as finance, sales, marketing, invoicing and others, „organizations can work more efficiently and gain a competitive edge from the beginning”.
In terms of business continuity, with an ERP system in the cloud, „it’s easier to get back up and running after unforeseen interruptions”, said Pyden. In other words, it’s important to consider a solution that is accessible via the cloud, because you will be able to recover data more quickly than from a physical database.
Finally, the „growth and scale” reason refers to changes that occur in a business lifetime, which can becomes larger or fluctuate in size, and in this case the „cloud-based applications can easily scale to accommodate growth”. This means that users can quickly be added or removed as needed.
The conclusion is that the ERP in the cloud is good for small and mid-size organizations, cause „cloud-based applications can provide fundamental business services to young companies at a fraction of the cost”.
I wrote earlier on December 2010 an article about what should I know when I want to implement an ERP system. I said than that are 7 steps you should not skip and 5 factors that you should not be omitted. I come now and fill in what I said in December. Besides the steps not to skip and the factors not to omitted, for a successful implementation you must follow another four guidelines:
1. Take small steps to implementation
2. Focus on the long term benefits of the implementation
3. Don’t make the new software feel like the old software (if it si the case!)
4. Be flexible with the implementation plan
You must keep in mind that every company and every implementation is a little different. Your software implementation project will take time, hard work from everyone involved, and the dedication of your project team. And be prepared for the small deviations that will inevitably occur. But, if you and provider`s implementation team will work together, the ERP Implementation projects will be a success.
The BI in cloud - affordable and available to those who need access to this information
David Linthicum said recently, in his article published on InfoWorld.com, that „those who follow the world of business intelligence (BI) have probably noticed both an increase in new cloud BI providers and the movement of existing providers to the cloud”. BI in the clouds means that the information is copied to a cloud data warehouse and then is structured, typically around the important parts of a business: sales, inventory, manufactoring, payments. „Once the data is in the cloud, you can run reports, create dashboards, and perform analytical operations that support core business decisions from a Web app”, said Linthicum. He belives that the use of Business Intelligence in the cloud is „a game-changer”, being „affordable and available” to those who need access to this information.
But what is the benefit? Why should I choose a cloud BI solution instead of a traditional BI solution?
According to Linthicum and other specialists in cloud computing, the traditional data warehousing and BI „have always been too expensive” and moreover, the users who needed these BI systems to make critical business decisions „typically had no access, with IT citing cost and complexity of deploying and managing the front-end BI tools”. Instead, with a cloud-based BI, the cost drops dramatically and managers „can use the information to improve business operations when it counts”. Plus, cloud-based BI provides better support for smartphones and tablets and makes it available to those who actually need them.
So, there are enough benefits for you?
