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.

iPad Making Fast Inroads into the World of Business

Apple are putting an emphasis on the fact that the iPad is a useful innovative and soon to be key Business Tool.

“Featuring built-in support for Microsoft Exchange, secure access to corporate data, and a powerful platform for apps, iPad is ready for work, right out of the box.”

Apple, known for courting consumers with sleek designs and easy to use software is making inroads with corporations at a much faster pace than the iPhone was able to achieve in its early days.

Wells Fargo spent two years studying the iPhone before letting bankers use the device at work. Apple's iPad, released in April, took just weeks to get cleared.

Apple, known for courting consumers with sleek designs and easy-to-use software, is making inroads with corporations that say the iPad can make workers more productive without putting sensitive customer information at risk. SAP, Tellabs, and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz are using the tablet-style computer for tasks as varied as accessing work e-mail, approving shipping orders, and calling up on-the-spot auto-finance options.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs announced the iPad in January, touting its ability to deliver games, video, music, Web access, and digital versions of books and magazines. Yet companies say it's widely applicable at work, too.

"This iPad thing has taken the world by storm," says Ted Schadler, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester Research and author of Empowered, which explores how employees use new technologies. "It came in as a consumer product and very quickly the people who actually bought them were businesspeople."

Business Week

Enthusiastic Telemarketers Required

Two Enthusiastic Full Time Telemarketers Required

Intelligent Information Systems is a SAP Gold Partner focused on the reselling of SAP Business One and are own branded add on Intelligent Essentials. We require two full time telemarketers to make contact with SMEs within the UK and Ireland.

Applicants MUST have a clear speaking voice, fluent English, a confident telephone manner and a positive attitude.

The ideal candidates should be self motivated and target driven. They should have excellent time management, communication and organisational skills.

Applicants must also have a minimum of 1 years experience in Telemarketing. Experience of contacting SMEs and a knowledge of SAP Business One would be an advantage.

Please submit your CV and a brief cover note if you meet the criteria to Sonya O’Connor at sonya.o’connor@iisystems.net

SAP and Sybase Unveil Joint Strategy

At a co-located event today in Boston and Frankfurt, company leaders from SAP AG and Sybase came together for the first time to share the strategy and joint product direction for the newly combined companies.

Recognising the strength of Sybase’s existing business model, SAP confirmed that Sybase will be run as a separate, independent unit – and that customer investments in Sybase products will be preserved and supported. Setting the stage for their vision of an unwired enterprise and embracing the evolution of mobile as the new desktop, SAP and Sybase today also unveiled strategic product directions and planned co-innovations in three key areas: enterprise mobility, business analytics and enterprise information management (EIM).

With the combination of complementary technologies from the SAP BusinessObjects portfolio and Sybase, the companies now offer a complete and optimised high-performance business analytics infrastructure. SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions are already certified on Sybase IQ 15.0 and Sybase ASE 15.0. Customers can take advantage of complete solutions – from business analytic applications; to reports, scorecards and dashboards; to data integration and data quality; to transactional storage, data marts and data warehousing. SAP and Sybase will also deliver business analytic applications that are optimised for industries such as financial services, consumer products, retail and manufacturing.

The combination of SAP and Sybase EIM offerings provides the industry’s broadest solution portfolio for enterprise information management, including data integration and data quality, master data management, complex event processing (CEP), real-time replication, modeling, application development and database capabilities.

Copyright of SAP AG 2010 - Visit http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/press.epx?pressid=13780 to read the full article

ERP Vs Accounting – What’s the difference?

Though ERP Systems have been around since the 1960s there still is a common misconception that ERP Systems and Accounting Systems are one in the same.

ERP Systems originally existed in the form of MRP systems and developed into what we know as ERP systems around 1990. Global ERP leader SAP technologies were established in the year 1972 by five engineers.

Paul Marketos, Managing Director of Bluekey Software Solutions, which specialises in implementing SAP Business One, says that while accounting is central to any business, it is not what differentiates it.

“Without integrated systems, accounting only offers after-the-fact reporting. But, there are so many factors other than what’s happened in the past influencing where your business stands today and where it will be tomorrow and in a month’s time."

“An accounting package cannot help you forecast demand for products, reduce stock handling, keep goods flowing or improve stock management. Nor will it allow you to set up business rules which prevent stock from being sold or shipped at the wrong price or to customers who owe you more than 90 days; or ensure that managers are alerted to operational exceptions.”

“Where an accounting system assists in tracking the finances to provide an overview of where the company stands from a financial perspective, based on historical data; ERP can be used to plan, control and streamline all aspects of business in real time, into the future."

“ERP integrates your key operational and customer-centric divisions, from production through to sales and service, enabling them to operate more efficiently. In fact, ERP is so effective in planning, integrating and controlling the business that good accounting is just one of the by-products of ERP,” says Marketos.
He believes that ERP is becoming a competitive necessity for companies of all sizes."

“Having made the shift from manual ledgers and Excel spreadsheets, companies that have automated their accounting processes are starting to realise that they need something bigger and better to improve efficiencies and profits because an accounting package simply cannot do it for them."

“The fact is that even with the best accounting package in play, that one source of the truth - that complete and accurate view of the business - remains elusive, and the only way to get it is with an integrated ERP solution."

“Many larger enterprises are also beginning to put pressure on their supply chain to implement ERP, not only to automate and speed-up administrative processes, but to streamline communication and other transactions as well,” says Marketos, adding that very often, the implementation of an ERP system leads to a complete re-engineering of many business processes, resulting in a leaner, meaner, faster and more profitable version of the business.

“With better inventory control, costing and operational efficiencies, ERP can actually help to drive profits, and so it quickly pays for itself,” says Marketos.

When the competitiveness, health and longevity of a business is at stake and the only way to increase profits is through improved efficiencies and cost cutting, the investment in ERP can be easily justified.

Best Business iPhone Apps

Make your iPhone work for you.

iThoughts
Mind mapping tool that highlights the benefits of using touch screen technology. An excellent tool for those that like the mind mapping approach.

Quickoffice
Excel and Word functionality for the iPhone.

WorkSnug
Locate a nearby wireless network (and cafe). Uses the augumented reality approach also found on Nearest Tube.

BusinessWeek
Quality content with good small business and management channels.

National Rail
Obtain the latest information and never miss a train again!

Tube Exits
Shortest journey calculator for the tube.

Weather Pro
High precision weather forecast.

Business Card Reader
Import contact information from business cards directly to your iPhone contacts.

Twittelator
Discover Twitter for yourself and join the growing business users. Alternatively, there is the LinkedIn app.

Currency Converter
Currency Converter is an iPhone business application which allows users to convert money between 23 currencies. The application will constantly update the conversion rates, allowing users to check exchange rates.

ACTPrinter
ACTPrinter is an innovative new application which hopes to save the world by cutting back on unnecessary print-outs. It allows users to “print” documents from a Mac or PC to an iPhone. It means users can take their documents with them without printing, folding, and then sheltering documents from the rain. Documents can be viewed easily and conveniently without sorting through a stack of paperwork.

Intelligent iPhone
Not forgetting our very own iPhone app which is currently being developed which will allow you to access SAP Business One and elements of Intelligent Essentials via your iPhone!

Government to award 25% of IT contracts to SMEs

The coalition government has set a policy objective of placing 25% of government IT external expenditure with SME suppliers.

Achieving the scale of savings demanded by government requires moving from the status quo and deploying innovative ideas, products and services. While government appreciates that small and medium-sized enterprises, (SMEs), are best placed to provide that innovation, the barriers to using them are huge.

Blockers include: perceived risk of SMEs, complexity of UK interpretations of EU procurement rules, self interest from gatekeepers to preserve lucrative status quos, and an underlying belief that big is safe.

Aside from the government's self-imposed objective, there are a number of other key drivers that should prompt more support for SMEs:

•Looming job losses in the public sector may not be soaked up by large companies.
•SMEs are a vital part of the UK economy and employ 51% of those working in the private sector. They are also the key to innovative step-change savings and efficiencies.
•SMEs are disadvantaged in bidding for and securing government work by the structure of public sector procurement and the UK interpretations of EU procurement regulations. In the current IT supply chain to government, 70% of the revenue goes to just over a dozen large organisations - those gatekeepers often have the most to lose from innovation.
•There is an urgent need to create more jobs in the private sector.
•An effective mechanism for government to give contracts to SMEs (and become "anchor clients") would make step-change savings, create the new jobs, and provide customer references to help those SMEs to export, and help reduce the deficits for the Exchequer.

The coalition's policy objective of placing at least 25% of external government spending to SMEs is feasible in the IT marketplace and does not necessarily require changes to EU procurement legislation. It can be done if the public sector takes a creative approach, using the legislative requirements as a constraint rather than a driver for procurement.

David Chan, Computer Weekly