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Wh e r eo n c ee n t e r -p r i s er e -source

planning (ERP) was the solepreserve of large companiesand multinationals, lower pur-chase prices and technologicaladvances in recent years havemeant that it is now accessible

to a much wider range of busi-nesses.

According to Alan Connor,commercial director with Ex-chequer Software, there hasalso been a significant shift inhowERPis perceived.

‘‘Where ERP used to besomething you bought, it’snow something that you do.There’s no one box for it any-more,andyou can’treallysepa-rate itfromthe otheraspectsof how companies manage theirwork processes.To doso wouldbe like saying ‘I want to buy acloud for my ITsystems’,whenactually cloud technology al-readyper meatesand facilitatesso much that such an idea ismeaningless,’’he said.

ERP can help companiesmake the best of the changingnature ofthe Irisheconomy.

‘‘ERP as a concept has twoelements ^ there’s the enter-prise-wide element which is

widely recognized and under-stood, and there’s also manu-facturing resource planning[MRP].This covers areas likematerials, purchasing andstock requisitioningandit’sbe-coming increasingly relevant,because in many cases compa-nies are no longer holding lotsof stock,’’Connor said.

‘‘This is particularly true forcompanies dealing in areassuch as foodstuffs or technol-ogy, where stock either goesout of date or gets supersededrelatively quickly.

‘‘In the past, a lot of ITandgeneral device suppliers wouldhave had a lot of stock on theirshelves, but now they’re order-ing based on very particularrequirements.

‘‘Nobody wants to get stuckholdingalotof stock,or tohavea situation where their custo-

mers are holding a lot of theirstock in case they in turn runinto problems with their sup-pliers or customers.’’

With this in mind, the kindof planning necessary to keepa company responsive to mar-ket conditionshas changed.

‘‘In the days of the Celtic ti-ger, you needed to be able totake as many orders as youcould and ship as many orders

as you could. You worriedabout accounting for it later.But now businesses are plan-ning much more in advance tominimise their exposure andmaximize their cash flow,’’saidConnor.

‘‘For example,if you’re ship-ping laptop computers or TVs,not only do you need to beaware of sales patterns goingback over a number of years,you also have to base your or-deringonthings suchas seaso-nal trends, average spend, andexcludingparticular customerswho are no longer in the mar-ket.’’

According to Connor, tech-nologies such as ERP andMRP allow companies to ex-pect and receive more activem a n a g e m e n t f r o m s t a f f  charged with staying informedof marketdemand.

‘‘Managers are having tomanage like never before, and

they need the tools and the in-formationto dothatalmostbe-forethings happen ^ they needto be notified in advance of anything that affects theirarea. Tools such as ERP canhelp with that. It’s what makesthe differencebetween a book-keeping or accounting solutionthat simply records transac-tions, and a system that man-ages and manipulates thatdata to allow managers man-agebetter,’’ he said.

The tools to do this aren’tparticularly new, and havebeen used by large companiesfor decades. But what haschanged isthe starting price of entry-level ERP systems.

‘‘Inter ms of cost, it’s no dif-ferent to how mobile phonesdeveloped ^ 20 years ago mo-bile phones were the size of abrick and cost a fortune, and

inthe sameway,ERP solutionswereonlyaffordableby thelar-gest Irish businesses. Mostcompanies simply couldn’thave justified paying out thekind of money involved,’’ saidConnor.

‘‘Nowadays, mid-range ac-counting and business soft-w a r e d e l i v e r s E R Pfunctionality without the over-heads that were involved 20years ago.Technology has ad-vanced to such a level that sys-

tems that used to require hugesequence systems and a lot of resource implementation, notto mention full time personnelworking to implement them,are now available as off-the-shelf mid-range solutions.’’

‘ ‘The data and tools arethere in those mid-range solu-tions, but it’s down tothe com-panies to get the ERP benefitsfrom them by using them inthe way they were designed.That’s the distinction nowcompared to the past ^ it’s notbeyondthe grasp ofa companythat is still using its first ac-counting software package togo up to a mid-range one suchas Exchequer,’’he said.

‘‘Because of the way it ex-pands and can be adaptedusing add-on modules, thatcould be the last product theywould need to buy. And it’sb e-

coming more affordable.’’So if ERP and MRP func-

tionality areb ecoming increas-ingly powerful and at the sametime easier to gain access to,what barriers are there forcompanies embracing thistechnology? For many firms,the answerlies in the problemsassociated with moving datafrom an old system to a new

system. This data migrationhas traditionally been a thornin the side of those looking toupgradetheir ERPsystems.

‘‘If you implement a mid-range accounting softwaresys-temwithwonderful facilitiestoanalyse your data, it will bepretty muchuseless for thefirstfew years unless you migratedata from the old system as

well. So a lot of thought has togo into the process of migrat-ing companies from entry levelaccounting software up tomid-range systems,’’said Con-nor.

‘‘Technically it’s not difficultto migrate such systems anymore butthere are somelegacysystems out there where youpretty much have to be a brain

surgeon to extract data from

them. However, customers ex-pect more open availability of data and the idea that you canlock people into proprietarysoftware is dead and gone.’’

‘‘Around 95per cent of ourcustomers upgrade from an-other accounting softwarepackage, so this is our breadand butter.We c onstantly ex-tract data from other systems,taking out what the clientneeds and then re-analysingand re-formatting it.The goalis to put it into a new, future-proof reporting structure, be-cause that’s when the clientcan start getting the ERP ben-efits outof it.’’

Along with the demandsbeing placed on Irish compa-nies by a stressed economy,there have been other changesto the market in recent years

that have driven change in theERPs ector.

‘ ‘ T he r e a r e i nt e r e s t i ngthings happening in the indus-try around the area of sustain-a bi l i t y . O ne of t he m a i nprinciples of ERP is enter-prise-wide planning, and youcanseean exampleofhowthatworks in reality if you look atthe automation of warehouses ^ the auto matio n of ord erscoming in to be picked up anddelivered, and the way they’reautomatically linked into a de-livery system with no need forpaperwork,’’said Connor.

‘‘A rep can take an order onthe road using a hand-held de-viceor laptop,andhavethator-der come through into theircompany’s customer relation-ship management [CRM] sys-tem, on into procurement andthrough to the warehouse.These used to b e disparate

functions in the company, buttechnology is bringing themtogether.Whenit startsto workacross departments like that,then the value of a joined-upapproached to ERP becomesevident.’’

‘‘It truly becomes an enter-prise-wide solution, ratherthan one solution for sales,onefor stock, one for manufactur-ing and so on. It means that,rather than trying to imple-ment a massive top-tier solu-tion with a very impressiveprice tag on day one, you canlook at implementing, on amodularbasis, mid-rangesolu-tions to fit an existing need,with the comfort that it canevolve to take on new modulesas you need them, so it’s amuch more affordable solu-tion.’’

ERP

By Caroline Allen

Companies want toaccess important fi-nancial informationfrom multiple de-

vices and applications ^ and,as Karl O’Leary sees it, thetrend is rapidly transformingthe world of ERP.

O’Leary, who is businessmanager for Microsoft Dy-namicsin Ireland,saidcompa-nies were increasingly lookingfor ‘always on’ access to theirfinancial information.

‘‘Up to now, ERP has re-corded the historyof what washappening in an organisation.It provided a means of under-standing the figures and as-sisted in relatively short termforwardplanning,’’ he said.

‘‘What is happening now isthat people want to be con-nected to data and processesthroughdifferentdevicestoen-ablethem makebettermorein-formed decisions for the shortand long term.’’

Companies are using ERPto make better business deci-sions and respond quickly toopportunities.

For big companies,O’Learysaid,there wasalsothe conten-tious issue of ‘‘big data’’ ^ thecopious amounts of informa-tioncreated byemails,transac-

tions, customer and supplierinteractions etc, etc.‘‘Companies have to sift

through, record and reuse

more and more data. Theywant to not just record what ishappening but to plan and beagile with their business,’’ hesaid.

O’Leary said companiescould use the Microsoft plat-form to connect with its Dy-namics ERP system using anydevice or application.

‘‘Dynamics ERP is weavedin with Microsoft Office, Mi-crosoft CRM, Sharepoint andLync, our communicationsplatform. It not only recordsdata, but offers the ability tocollaborate with customersand partnersthrough tools likeLync andSharepoint,’’he said.

‘‘Businesses dramatically

benefit from this. For example,Microsoft Office Excel whichis fully integrated into Dy-namics, reallydelivers self-ser-

vice business intelligence.’’O’Leary said Microsoft was

bringing consumer innovationto ERP. ‘‘People are used tobeing able to check their emailfromanywhere,’’he said.

‘‘The same vision is beingbrought to Microsoft’s Dy-namic suite. Businesses canhave the same level of connec-tivityto theirERPsolutionandcorebusinessprocesses as theycurrentlyhave totheir email.

‘‘However, the way we useemail is changing.We are nowall leveraging Instant Messa-ging and ‘instant’online meet-i n g s t o c o l l a b o ra t e w i t hcustomers and suppliers. Dy-namics ERP fully leverages

Sharepoint and Lync to facili-tatet his.’’

ERP isn’t just for heavy hittersFalling costs have now madeenterprise resource planning more affordable for everyone,and the benefits are numerous,writes AlexMeehan

 Alan Connor, commercial director, Exchequer Software MAURA HICKEY 

‘Always on’ featureis a big attraction

Enterprise Resource Planning

to page 32

Karl O’Leary, business manager for Microsoft Dynamicsin Ireland

‘In termsof cost,it’s nodifferent to howmobile

 phonesdeveloped’ 

n31commercial report THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST

MAY 13 2012