ERP is by no means some sort of management fad - it is, in
fact, a product of the increased computerisation of the business
environment that has been taking place over many decades.
Many of the world's largest companies now use ERP software
routinely, and increasingly many of the smaller ones are adopting
it also. Despite its costs and risks, ERP platforms help companies
compete better. Since the late 1990's, there has been a strong
trend to conduct business online (e-business) and this cannot
be easily accomplished without an ERP platform working in
the background.
One of the big improvement areas for ERP concerns increased
flexibility. Many ERP systems are notoriously difficult to
change once the initial design is complete. As a result, many
sensible change initiatives get killed, and companies can
find it difficult to react quickly to rapid changes in the
business environment. Organisations are thus demanding that
ERP systems work more closely with other applications and
that ERP suppliers make it easier to implement changes without
the need for huge delays and massive budgets.
Companies are starting to link their computer systems together
so that even greater efficiencies may be realised. This has
lead to the concept of Extended ERP, where moves are afoot
to deploy computer systems which not only look inside the
information of your own company, but can actually query the
core business data of customer and supplier systems in real-time.
Given the well-documented challenges of implementing ERP,
it still remains to be seen how successful these efforts will
be in the short term.
