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Follow UsThe Network Is The Enterprise
Since last year, the most frequent question I get from enterprise IT users has graduated from “What’s ERP?” to “How do we do it?”
That doesn’t always stem from a big revelation on the subject. Among reactions to my January editorial on ASPs–‘The Network is the App’–were...“We run our FA and HR packages in-house. Should we now go out for our ERP?” “We have this big Rs 40 lakh payroll application, now we are also looking at ERP…should we get an ASP?”
The point is too often missed. ERP or GroupWare aren’t about an application or a package. ERP is a system, a platform for those FA, payroll and other apps that involve key processes in the enterprise.
I believe the biggest barrier in 2000 to enterprise IS will be unplanned, isolated, expensive apps springing up randomly.
“Random?” one IS manager reacted. “Our company spent a year studying the sales process and another year and Rs 55 lakh implementing this CRM application. Call that unplanned?”
I do, and the planning is not about that process, but in figuring out where it fits into the enterprise. Else it’s just another expensive, isolated application. Worse, other departments–production, distribution, accounts, and even HR–will be disconnected from this system, and exchange data through manual and menial means.
So how do you plan an enterprise system? It’s easier than it appears. It takes work, but not years of it.
A quick process audit: A week is okay for many mid-size enterprises. Get a quick understanding of the process areas, and a rough shortlist of apps. The goal is simply to help define a platform.
The platform: This is the key. The enterprise is a process jigsaw puzzle, parts that need to fit together. The platform can help define the base on which future apps will be built, so that they coexist and interact.
Connectivity: Another foundation support for an enterprise IS strategy. Instead of clumsy, replicated environments at multiple offices, use Web-enabled apps that are served out of a well-supported, connected head office.
Circulate the strategy: When you’ve defined the platforms, put it down along with other common minimum specs, such as ‘Oracle or SQL Server based’.
If you already have a strong IS department with a CIO handling IS strategy, you’ve probably done all this. But smaller SMEs can approach enterprise systems through easy steps. There’s no room in the Internet age for isolated processes, however automated, on that network.