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Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP is one of the most popular
initiatives that business enterprises have undertaken in the
past decade. Evolving from earlier Manufacturing Resources Planning
(MRP-II) systems that was itself an upgrade from Materials Requirements
Planning (MRP-I), ERP is an integrated program that focusses
on bringing all the transactions and workflow within the enterprise
into a single integrated environment.
ERP is driven by a strong Accounting framework and draws all
accounting based transactions from other functions including
sales, purchase/procurement, payroll, inventory and others.
ERP provides forms for entry of transactions and automatic routing
of these transactions for verification, review, approval and
moving to the next stage.
ERP also has an extensive reporting capability that provides
reports at all levels to monitor work progress, transactions
and provide performance summaries.
ERP implementations include the following areas of an enterprise.
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Finance & Accounting ( General Ledger, Accounts
Receivable, Accounts Payable, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet) |
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Purchase/Procurement |
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Sales |
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Stores & Inventory |
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Production |
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Quality |
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Maintenance |
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Despatch & Billing |
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Payroll & Human Resources |
Benefits that enterprises have been able to gain from the implementation
of ERP include
1. Using a common, standard and integrated accounting environment
throughout the enterprise.
2. Recording and storing electronically all transactions that
involve an accounting entry such as a purchase or a sale into
this integrated system.
3. Providing security levels for selective access to information,
transactions and reports and actions on transactions.
4. Automating workflow such as transaction verifications and
approvals and moving them to the next stage after each transaction
eg after a vendor's bill has been accepted by purchase, moving
it into accounts for payments and listing it under payables.
5. Providing detailed reports on performance of an individual,
function or enteprise as a whole of transactions and their status
and consolidated statements of performance and accounts of individuals,
departments, customers and vendors.
6. Creating a digital framework and enterprise data for analysis
and decision making.
Global Leaders in Enterprise Resource Planning include:
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SAP |
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Oracle |
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PeopleSoft |
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Microsoft |
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