Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - helps to
manage and operate business processes
effectively and in an integrated/co-ordinated
fashion. The integration nature helps businesses
to understand their business/business processes more effectively
and make decision intelligently
ERP makes use of IT to integrate all business
processes into a single co-ordinated system
In ERP only one integrated database is used that is shared
among all the business departments. Operational
data from all business departments such as
production, sales, finance, hr, customer
service, SCM come into the same database. Hence, data are more consistent and complete. The database may not be in one single physical location, but can be distributed and integrated database
As you get all the information in the same place, generating cross-department reports, applying BI to these data become easier and more meaningful. Getting overall picture of the company becomes much easier (than multiple DBMS). It helps the management take important decisions and plan the company future more effectively
If all the departments were using separate databases for their operations, it would be harder to generate cross-functional reports, and get overall picture of the company. Merging different databases also would become a big headache.
Additionally, Many jobs require inter-department communications. ERP makes such communication easier/faster, more manageable
If all the departments were using separate databases/systems, interdependent activities would require to insert data (relevant to the dept) in all the databases separately - more work, require more time, more error prone. If a change is needed, the change needs to be done in multiple places - again the three mores. The departments would require to submit individual reports to the management - more difficult for the management to understand the areas of the interdependent activities
To address such issues ERP came into play
Evolution: MRP, MRP II, ERP
MRP: Materials Requirements Planning: 1960: To control inventory management. Overstock or lower-stock inventory control
MRP II: Manufacturing Resource Planning: 1970s: for manufacturing companies to automate production, sales, marketing, HR, Finance: focused manufacturing businesses only.
ERP: 1990s: For standard business organizations addressing any type of business.
SAP
SAP: Systems, Applications Products: Was established in 1972
Versions of SAP: R/2 (late 1970s), R/3 (early 1990), mySAP ERP (late 1990), standard business products, industry specific products, for small and mid-size enterprise solutions
R/2 for mainframe platform with character based clients, R/3 improved R/2 to support diversified and changing technologies, mySAP ERP further improved R/3 to support ebusiness
mySAP ERP: has many modules such as Finance, HR for specific departments, also integrates related modules
mySAP ERP features: process auditing, centralized system management, centralized operation management, integrated and modular model, integration with non-SAP systems with netweaver platform, e-business support
SAP solutions for small and mid size enterprises (SMEs): SAP Business One, mySAP All-in-One
Industry specific solutions: Aerospace and Defense, Oil and Gas, Banking, Media
mySAP:
R/3 introduced GUI for SAP. Latest version for SAP R/3 is the Enterprise Central Component (ECC) = core component of mySAP ERP.
mySAP: Three tier architecture: presentation, application, data. Presentation: GUI, application: processes, Data: storage and manipulation of data
SAP tasks: functional, technical
Functional: end user carry out an operation
Technical: Administrators and programmers - update SAP system
each task is considered as a transaction, each transaction is associated with a transaction code
ME21 - functional - purchase order, SE38 - technical - work with ABAP (Programming Language for SAP) editor
SAP Data: Organizational Structure, Master Data : needs to be created before a SAP systems come into operation.
Organizational Structure - structure of the organization - people - departments. Master: example: a list of suppliers - change more frequently than organizational structure
Reporting in SAP R/3: creating report programs (create with ABAP), generating report lists - programmed report programs