Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have a suite of software modules that address all the data requirements of an enterprise. They are typically installed to improve business processes or replace aging enterprise systems. A complex set of tasks namely, selection, system design, installation, tuning, maintenance, and upgrades are involved in converting the existing system to one of ERP.ERP was coined in early 1990 as a successor to MRP II, which succeeded MRP. MRP (Material Requirements Planning) systems resulted from a requirement for control and efficiency in manufacturing systems. Therefore, ERP had its origins in manufacturing and production planning. ERP then expanded to include the back-office systems such as order management, financial management, warehouse management, distribution, production, quality control, asset management ,and human resources management.
It furtherexpanded to include front-office systems suchas sales force, marketing automation, electroniccommerce (e-commerce), and supply chainsystems. ERP helps plan the 4Ms of theenterprise man, money, materials andmachines to their best.ERP systems are selected by the followingcriteria:l Functionality fit with the companysbusiness processes.l The integration between the differentmodules so that combination data can beobtained easily.l Flexibility and scalability to keep up with thegrowth of the company.l User-friendliness.l Good reporting.l Ease of implementation and return oninvestment.l Technology, client/server capabilities, webenabling, and database independence. Ease of customisation and upgrade.l Excellent reference from other installations.l Excellent training programme.On the other hand, ERP systems have modulesthat integrate with one another easily. Themodules have the same user interface andusers have an easier time moving from one toanother. Whenever a change takes place in thebusiness process, the enterprise systems canadjust to it immediately as the ERP systemsare more flexible and changes across the boardcan be made more easily.
Some of the existingERP system companies are Baan, Coda, D&B,IBM, J.D. Edwards, Marcam, Oracle, Peoplesoft,Ramco and SAP.A successful ERP implementation needs aresult-oriented team with representation from allrelevant business areas. The skills required ofthe team members include: providing functionalrequirements, business process reengineering,mapping of requirements to module functionality,report designing, ensuring business control,customisation requirements, analysis and userdocumentation. The hardware and softwaretechnical skills are provided by the ITdepartment.An ERP consultant with experience inimplementing ERP systems can speed up theimplementation. It is a satellite communication system linking many stations.l It is reliable, cost effective and provides access to remote areas.What are VSATs and how do they work?VSATs stand for very small aperture terminals.It is a satellite-based communications systemlinking a number of locations. VSATs are arelatively new technology. The NationalStock Exchange is the most prominentorganisation which uses a VSAT-basedcommunications system in India How does it work? A VSAT-based system consists of three parts.The VSATs themselves are small fixed earthstations. There is a larger earth station called ahub which controls the network and finally thereis a satellite through which the VSATs link upwith each other.A VSAT to VSAT communication typicallyinvolves what is known as a double hop. A VSATfrom a particular location sends a signal to asatellite.
This is known as uplinking. The signalis then downlinked to the central earth station orhub, uplinked again to the satellite and finallydown-linked to another VSAT. The role of the hubis to control and monitor this whole process.There are other types of VSAT technology nowavailable which allow VSATs to link directly witheach other without using the hub, thus avoidingthe double hop. However, the hub monitors thesignal between the two VSATs. Connectivity withthe public phone network is not allowed.What is the role of VSAT service providers?There are companies which run VSAT servicesjust as companies offer cellular services. TheVSAT operator owns and runs the hub. Usually,companies or large organisations with multiplelocations would be interested in subscribing toa VSAT service.The most common is what is known as a sharedhub service in which a large number of users orsubscribers share the same hub which is ownedand operated by a VSAT operator. It is alsopossible for a company to buy and operate itsown hub. These are known as private hubservices. However, it would not make sense fora company to invest in a hub unless the numberof VSATs exceeded at least 50. Otherwise, thecapacity of the hub would remain unutilised.Large users typically prefer to run private hubservices. The NSE, for instance, has its ownhub.What is the policy regarding access tosatellite from VSATs?VSATs are only allowed to access Indiansatellites.
They were also allowed to use only apart of the frequency spectrum known asextended band. Recently they have been allowedto use the Ku Frequency band. These haveacted as a serious constraint in the growth ofthe industry because of the delay in sendingIndian satellites into orbit. However, VSATservice providers want to be allowed to negotiatewith foreign satellites. How has the VSAT industry performed? The VSAT industry took off very fast after itsinception in early 1995. However growth hadslowed in the last two years because of theproblems with satellites. There are currentlymore than 8,500 VSATs in use for shared hubservices.Satellite communications have definiteadvantage over the terrestrial ones, in that,uncertain weather conditions do not affect them(i.e., the satellite transmissions). Providingcommunications links to remote areas or areaswhere line-of-sight connectivity is not availablemay be difficult using the terrestrial links. Satellitecommunication provides distance-independentwider coverage which is easily expandable, costeffective with point to multi-point connectivity. Its goal is to find out patterns of customer behaviour.l It helps in designing new products and cross-selling products.l CRM heavily draws on these.Managers need quick, easy access toinformation business intelligence – about thecompany , customers, competitors, marketsand more. If they are to pursue the kind ofinitiatives that translate into competitive andstrategic advantage, business managers needspecific , high -quality information. Herein liesthe importance of data warehousing.
The idea behind data warehousing is to get allthe company data working together so that userscan see more, learn more and make theorganisation work better. The data warehouseis an integrated store of information collectedfrom other systems, and becomes thefoundation for decision support and dataanalysis.The goal of data warehousing is to help usersidentify trends, find answers to businessquestions and derive meaning from historical andoperational data, all of which enhance decisionsupport in the enterprise. The practise of datawarehousing usually involves centralising avariety of data sources or extending the value ofa central repository of doing more with the storeddata mining it, transforming it, analysing it ordepicting it visually.Data warehousing allows organisations to runmore effectively and to act, react and adapt morequickly to the everchanging environment theyoperate in. It prepares a company to react tounplanned events and helps close the gapbetween a company and its customers. It letspeople focus on business, not technology, thusdelivering a competitive advantage.Data marts have evolved due to the huge timeand cost investments required for constructingdata warehouses.
Data marts are streamlined, highly focused, smaller scale versions of theenterprise data warehouse.Data Mining Data mining, constitutes the discovery of patterns in the data. Human beings tend to makegeneralisations based on experience. Similarly we would like the computer to make such generalizations and provide us with some patterns from the details available. This would enable us to form multiple images (or models, as they are called) about the different characteristics of a given data. This is typically used to establish profiles among the customers to characterize them by their behavior. We can identify customers who are willing to go in frisky products or customers who want only the safest investments and so on. This profiling of customers can then be used to market specific products to them.
There are different types of data mining. The oldest and most traditional form is through statistical analysis. More recent forms include what is called association, which helps in detecting patterns of combination items. A number of data mining tools are available in the market now. However, data mining has not yet reached a high level of maturity and only an expert can work with the tool and interpret the results. Overall, the computer, which, till recently, was considered a tool to churn out data and process it, can now be used to interpret data and understand some of the hidden patterns. This would help all of us understand the environment we live in and exploit that environment to the maximum extent possible to further our business. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)tools heavily depend on data warehousing and data mining.
