ERP and BI combine forces and yield stronger benefits for SMEs

ERP’s role in providing visibility across functions and departments is where there is seemingly a strong connection with BI.

Business intelligence (BI) is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analysing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions.

ERP software is multi-module application software that integrates activities across functional departments, from product planning, parts purchasing, inventory control, product distribution, to order tracking. ERP software may include application modules for the finance, accounting and human resources aspects of a business.

So why do we need both?

ERP systems are known to produce a lot of data but not a lot of information. Data is facts and statistics where is information is data which is converted to knowledge; it’s interpreted data. BI facilitates the transformation of data to information.

Businesses are operating at an accelerated pace today forcing the need for speed in decision making but decision makers are also forced to work with an increasing amount of data.

In 2009 Aberdeen’s annual report revealed that 32% of those SME’s that have implemented their solution have extended their solution with BI or some analytical tool. Of all the SME’s surveyed, 31% had invested in some sort of BI or analytical tool, of which 51% had no ERP.

Both BI and ERP individually bring value to a business, but when married together the two produce a synergy by which the total value exceeds the sum of the parts.

As an SME the ideal solution is SAP Business One designed specifically to meet the needs of SMEs which can be integrated with Crystal reports.

The SAP Business One application together with the Crystal Reports offering from the SAP Business Objects portfolio, delivers compelling reporting functionality and information access to small businesses. With these offerings small businesses can get up to date intelligence to drive decision making.

To find out more visit: http://www.sap.com/solutions/sap-crystal-solutions/index.epx

Intelligent Information Systems are an SAP Gold Partner, delivering SAP Business One and Crystal Solutions. To find out more visit: www.beabetterbusiness.net

Cultural Change an upshot of SAP technical prowess

“We tend to think we can separate strategy from culture, but we fail to notice that in most organisations strategic thinking is deeply coloured by tacit assumptions about who they are and what their mission is.”
Edgar Schein

When enterprise resource planning software fails, it's usually because the company didn't dedicate enough time or money to training and managing culture-change issues.

"Faulty technology is often blamed, but eight out of nine times, ERP problems are performance-related," says Pat Begley, senior vice president of educational services at SAP, an ERP software company in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

When the technological problems are overcome by an SAP solution what happens to traditional processes and traditional behavior patterns and traditional organisational structures when those organisations suddenly have dramatically different views of what the world is likely to be like next week, next month, next quarter?

What happens when guesswork and catch up are no longer the norms?

What happens when all the people across the enterprise who should have access to these new insights gain that access?

Employees need appropriate training and a level of understanding so that they will support the ERP implementation and continue to support the use of the solution throughout its lifetime. Without employee commitment and dedication the solution is unlikely to become the backbone of the business and deliver on all the benefits of increased efficiency, productivity and reduced costs that they offer.

Early and constant communication is also critical to ease them through the transformation. Explain why you are implementing this tool and how it will make them more profitable or satisfied.

"End-users will want to know why they can't do it the old way," Begley says. "They need to know why the change was necessary and why management thinks it's important."

Your people are your main resource and core asset. They directly influence the value of any additional assets such as ERP software your company acquires or implements and are critical to strategic success.

"Intelligent Information Systmes" Our Professional LinkedIn Group

Having updated our company profile, created my own personal profile as a member of the Intelligent Information Systems team, joined and begun to interact with groups the next step on the LinkedIn Platform, as advised by the SAP social media support team.

Having created a facebook company page, blog and dedicated youtube channel I wasn't sure about what additional benefits a LinkedIn business group could offer.

LinkedIn is seen as a business-oriented social networking site and people tend to act more professional in this network than they would in Facebook or MySpace. Plus, many professionals tend to visit this site more frequently than they would other social media sites as they use LinkedIn to research companies and potential contacts.

There are seemingly many great benefits for having a LinkedIn Group for your business.

•Individual Visibility — when someone joins your group, they can elect to have a small badge representing the group display in their profile (and people generally opt in for displaying the badge). This badge signifies that someone has a particular affinity with your company and brand.

•Corporate Visibility — the group gives your company additional visibility. When someone sees the group badge in your profile or the profiles of others, they may click on it to see what the group is all about. If a customer joins your group, it shows that they are committed to what you are doing and makes them ‘stickier’ and less likely to take their business to another company.

•Corporate Announcements — you can use the Groups feature to contact your group members with an announcement or other news. While you can only use this feature once per week, it is a low cost way to keep members informed about new programs, offers or company news. The alternative would be to use an email or newsletter solution that could cost you from $25 to $100 per month or more.

•Job Postings — you can also use your group to post job openings for your company or affiliates. Only members of the group can see the postings, so this is another reason for people to join your group.

•Better Connections – even if you are not directly connected to another group member, you can still send that member a message or invite them to connect with you because you share the group affiliation.

•Group Newsfeed — any activity in the group is reported in the news feed for anyone who has joined the group. For example, I can easily see if there are any new posts or news added to the group site by reviewing my newsfeed. Users can also opt to get daily or weekly email updates of new activity.

We look forward to utilising our new group presence on LinkedIn and would love for anyone interest in SAP Business One, Intelligent Information Systems or Intelligent Essentials to come join the Intelligent Information Systems Group on LinkedIn. It may also be of interest or use to anyone involved with or working for an SME regardless of whether you have implementated SAP Business One or any ERP software solution within your business as we endeavour to enlighten you and keep you informed and up to date on the latest developments and benefits until you feel the time is right to take the plunge!

SAP growth a tribute to smart business investment

SAP has reported 16% growth in software and software related service revenues for the Second Quarter as it reaches the 100,000 customer milestone.

ERP investment hasn’t diminished in spite of the recession, their evidently has been an upsurge.

A Forrester Research survey carried out in the fourth quarter of 2008 that just 1% of Enterprise Software Decision Makers were planning to decrease their ERP investment.
This was during the heat of the recession when businesses were really feeling the pinch. Evidently there was and continues to be an increased awareness of the benefits of ERP Software in all circumstances but particularly when companies want to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

SMBs are now getting back into the ERP software market in light of the recovering economy. They are looking for software to automate their operations and scale for growth.

SAP were perceptive and as a result have benefited from the upsurge in SME ERP investment having focused a substantial amount of investment in their SME solutions which they continue to remain committed to.

“Our focus on customer-driven innovation is positively impacting our growth. Reaching more than 100,000 customers is a testament to the inroads we have made in expanding our volume business and our success in the small and midsized enterprise (SME) segment,” said Jim Hagemann Snabe, Co-CEO of SAP.

“Our success in the SME segment creates a strong foundation for the new version of our on-demand platform SAP Business ByDesign. The new version will be available on time on July 31st and is ready for volume deployment in six countries.”

Though the conventional response during a recession may be to curb ERP investment, businesses are evidently becoming aware that investing now will put them in a better position in the future!

To view the Top 10 benefits and results of implementing ERP in the current economic environment:
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/erp-roi/ten-reasons-to-implement-erp-during-the-economic-downturn-29577