Bernard Cini

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an enterprise-wide information system that facilitates the flow of information and aids the coordination of all resources and activities within the organisation. Functions typically supported by the system include sales, stock management, manufacturing, distribution, accounting and customer relationship management (CRM). ERP systems are fully automated and integrated systems that encompass all basic functions of an organisation and are designed for the optimal utilisation of an enterprise's resources. ERP systems have transformed the way organisations go about the process of providing Information Systems and it also provides the user a unified, consistent, uniform environment.

Companies today face the challenge of increasing competition, changing regulatory demands, expanding markets and rising customer expectations. This puts pressure on companies to lower total costs across the entire supply chain, shorten throughput times and drastically reduce inventories while still having to expand product choice and maintain profitability.  Companies also need to provide more reliable delivery dates and better customer service, improve quality, and efficiently coordinate global demand, supply and production.

A well-implemented, reliable ERP system is crucial to rapidly identify which products, departments and customers are profitable and which are not. The implementation of an ERP system should reduce costs and increase productivity through improved operations and better decision-making based on consolidated data one can trust. In order to attract new clients and keep faithful ones, a lot of medium-sized companies need to move fast, innovate, stay ahead of competition and propose new products and services. The implementation of an ERP solution allows a fast deployment of innovating technologies such as mobility, real-time Business Intelligences and multi-channel sales with potential savings and additional sources of revenue. For many years, smaller organisations thought they were too small to reap the benefits of ERP given the magnitude of the required investment, binding them to "tailor-made" legacy systems instead. The knowledge of such "tailor-made" legacy systems is often limited to a small number of individuals in an organisation. This introduces an operational risk with a potential discontinuation if something happens to these individuals.  

Nowadays there are ERP solutions designed to fit SME's specific needs, allowing smaller organisations to leverage the power of these systems to attain the same benefits that larger firms enjoy. An ERP system can be implemented using standard available functionalities, allowing any person that has experience with the implemented ERP solution to configure it for his own needs. Such system architectures have greatly simplified implementation and use, making such powerful solutions more affordable to acquire and maintain. ERP solutions facilitate standardised business processes that lay the groundwork for attaining improved efficiencies, scheduling and resource planning in order to optimise the use of capital equipment and manpower - exactly what each organisation needs in such fast moving markets of today. Indeed for the increasing number of regulated industries the introduction of such standardised processes act as the foundation for quality standards and certification necessary to allow your business to progress to the next step.

All the major venders Oracle, Microsoft and SAP now provide solutions for the SME. But for the Maltese market there can be a difference between what these international players consider small and what the reality here is.

The most success ERP provider by market share is SAP which offers SAP Business One for SMEs. SAP Business One is a single, integrated, configurable solution that provides clear visibility into an entire business and complete control over every aspect of operations. It can scale to businesses starting from less than five users, through to 200 plus. True to its market it aims to keep configuration and systems architecture simple. But at the same time calls upon the years of experience at SAP to distil a broad range of benefits to the user, these include mobility and business intelligence solutions, as business systems now need a convergence of such technologies.

It captures all critical business information for immediate access and company-wide use. SAP Business One can also be deployed in the cloud and it can be accessed outside the office by using SAP Business One mobile application. SAP also introduced SAP Business One version for SAP Hana, which is based on in-memory computing that enables users to analyse their business in real time, make the right decisions and prevent mistakes without complicating IT landscape.

Bernard Cini is a SAP BusinessOne Consultant at Alert Solutions Ltd, a local SAP Partner and Value-Added-Reseller.

For more information about how SAP BusinessOne can help your company visit www.alert-solutions.com

 

Tech update

The Data Protection Commissioner of Hamburg has issued a stern warning to Google, admonishing it not to create data files about users without their permission.

"Google is ordered to take the necessary technical and organisational measures to guarantee that their users can decide on their own if and to what extend their data is used for profiling."

 

This statement increases pressure on the search giant, shining the spotlight on serious privacy concerns. So far Google has refused to give users more control over the data it holds about them, leading to regulators from Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands opening investigations into Google after it started combining data collected on individual users across its services, including YouTube, Gmail and Google Maps.

 

eMarketing update

Q1 2014 marked an important milestone for mobile ad spending on Facebook. It was during this quarter that turnover from mobile adverts surpassed that from adverts appearing on the desktop version of the social network giant.

Different research agencies have commented on the surge in mobile ad spending, and estimates for this year are that 66.2% of Facebook’s $11.24bn ad revenues worldwide will come from paid advertising on mobile, while advertising on the desktop version will account for the remaining 33.8%.

One of the main drivers of growth in mobile advertising is the fact that marketers are reporting a higher ROI from mobile ads as opposed to desktop ads.

For more eMarketing news visit www.alertemarketing.com