ERP Life Cycle
Initial investment in acquiring and implementing an ERP system is substantial in terms of both human efforts and financial resources. After, successful implementation, the system goes to maintenance mode and organizations start getting value out of their investment. After a prolonged period, due to changes in business and technological paradigm, it becomes more and more […]
Role of Governments in International Businesses
The Need to Encourage Foreign Investment The previous articles have discussed how international businesses need supporting ecosystems and business friendly policies if they are to succeed in emerging markets. Of particular importance is the role of governments in deciding whether they would allow international businesses to setup their operations and encourage them to grow and […]
Total Quality Management Models
Total Quality Management is a combined effort of both top level management as well as employees of an organization to formulate effective strategies and policies to deliver high quality products which not only meet but also exceed customer satisfaction. Total Quality management enables employees to focus on quality than quantity and strive hard to excel […]
Operational Challenges in Inventory Management
The latest trend in all industries has been to outsource inventory management functions to Third Party Service providers. Companies outsource both Raw Material Inventory as well as Finished Goods to the Service Provider. In case of finished goods inventory, depending upon the supply chain design, there may be multiple stocking points at national, regional and […]
World Trade Organization: Success or Failure
It has been more than 20 years since the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence. However, there is still considerable debate as to whether it has been a success or a failure. The objective of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was to foster efficient economic activity across the globe. This was to be done […]
Information technology is changing at a fast pace. Underlying ERP technology is needed to keep pace with first changing IT scenario and should also be flexible to adopt ever changing business scenario. ERP technical architecture basically defines layout of layers of application deployment between servers and desktops, interfaces and software objects.
ERP architecture is no more meant to just provide technical functionality, user interface and platform support but should be able to absorb emerging technologies. It should be expandable and maintainable to meet future business needs such as business process changes, merger and acquisitions, compatibility with future regulations etc.
Mainframe Era: During, 1980s, ERP systems were running on mainframe, capable of supporting hundreds of users concurrently. Users were connecting to this monolith system through dumb terminals (terminals without any memory or processing power), only to access and input data. Concept of Graphic users Interface was still to come and only a few knowledgeable users were comfortable with this set up.
Client Server: During 1990s, client server (C/S) ERP application became popular. PC became powerful and provided a better user interface (UI), through Graphic Users Interface (GUI). Mainframe computers were getting replaced by midrange system such as AS/400 or powerful PC servers. PCs (clients), networked with server/cluster of servers, are known as Client Server platform and have the following characteristic:
Monolith system of mainframe era gave away to multilayered and decentralized architecture of C/S. Consequently, ERP vendors started adopting more and more Object Oriented Program (OO) and third/forth generation programming language (3GL/4GL). This componentized development environment enables them to develop more modular solutions which can be customized, tested, deployed and retrofitted easily and separately.
Adoption of Internet technology allows access to an ERP system from anywhere anytime, enabling new ERP functionalities like Sales Force Automation.
User Interface (UI) under a Client/Server system was normally a small software programme which needed to be installed, maintained and updated, at each desktop. Carrying out this task over a number of desktops located at various nodes of Wide Area Network, became a cumbersome assignment.
Consequently, the concept of Uniform Resource Locator (URL) was adapted and internet browser was used to access server from client side. This development eliminated the need of installing client program but made use of Java applets, which gets downloaded whenever a connection is made by the client, through URL. This was the beginning of adoption of internet technology by ERP systems.
Additionally, on server side, a new layer of web server (HTTP server) was added for generating HTML pages, to respond to client instructions. A Caching server was, also, added to improve speed and performance. Browser enabled client and additional layer of web servers, provided the first step of web enablement of ERP solutions.
The next step of web enablement is to extend backend ERP system to the web so that mobile workers, suppliers and vendors can access and collaborate through secured internet link. To achieve this, ERP systems are needed to be redesigned and made compliant of standard like Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE). This is a time consuming work as traditional ERP systems are complex, inflexible and developed on proprietary platforms and is progressing slowly.
As a consequence of emerging technologies such as WEB 2.0 and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), new business models like extended ERP and Software as Service (SAAS) are evolving. ERP vendors, who will be able to adapt and make changes to their extant architecture, will come out successful.
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Configuration Control and Setting Up of Base in ERP System
February 12, 2025
