<p>There are two main requirements for this course. The first one is to have your own ERP5 system (you could either use an online instance or download the ERP5 virtual machine). The second requirement is to find a company for your ERP configuration process.</p><p>The best way to understand ERPs is to learn ERP using a real case. Therefore, for this course you need to find a small –to-medium sized business (could also be a non-profit organisation, or a public administration etc.). This business entity will serve as an implementation field. After you finished the first stage, you could apply the knowledge you learned to this implementation field, and try to configure the categories for ERP implementation.</p><p>For students, it will be a unique opportunity to learn what ERP consultants do for ERP implementation in companies. For companies you found, they will have the opportunity to gain more insights about their business processes, receive precious advices on how they could improve their business processes, and improve their performance.</p><p>The configuration process of this course only requires a configuration spreadsheet. It is a straightforward method and easier for the students to understand from the technical point of view. From the user point of view, this simple configuration method could completely change the way how an ERP is perceived. In the end, your configuration should match the actual business environment of the company, and become usable for an ERP implementation.</p>
<p>There are two main requirements for this course. The first one is to have your own ERP5 system (you could either use an online instance or download the ERP5 virtual machine). The second requirement is to find a company for your ERP configuration process.</p><p>The best way to understand ERPs is to learn ERP using a real case. Therefore, for this course you need to find a small –to-medium sized business (could also be a non-profit organisation, or a public administration etc.). This business entity will serve as an implementation field. After you finished the first stage, you could apply the knowledge you learned to this implementation field, and try to configure the categories for ERP implementation.</p><p>For students, it will be a unique opportunity to learn what ERP consultants do for ERP implementation in companies. For companies you found, they will have the opportunity to gain more insights about their business processes, receive useful advice on how they could improve their business processes, and improve their performance.</p><p>The configuration process of this course only requires a configuration spreadsheet. It is a straightforward method and easier for the students to understand from the technical point of view. From the user point of view, this simple configuration method could completely change the way how an ERP is perceived. In the end, your configuration should match the actual business environment of the company, and become usable for an ERP implementation.</p>
<p>Enterprise sales of ERP systems will grow to $34.3B in 2017, attaining a 6.7% CAGR in the forecast period of 2011 to 2017. CRM is projected to be $35.5B by 2017, attaining a CAGR of 9.1% from 2011 to 2017.</p><p>What kinds of business need an ERP? How much does an ERP cost? How long does ERP implementation process take? Is it risky to implement an ERP? And are there any alternatives? These questions are what we are going to try to answer before we explain in details what an ERP is.</p>
<p>Enterprise sales of ERP systems will grow to $34.3B in 2017, attaining a 6.7% CAGR in the forecast period of 2011 to 2017. CRM is projected to be $35.5B by 2017, attaining a CAGR of 9.1% from 2011 to 2017.</p><p>What kinds of businesses need an ERP? How much does an ERP cost? How long does the ERP implementation process take? Is it risky to implement an ERP? And are there any alternatives? These questions are what we are going to try to answer before we explain in details what an ERP is.</p>
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<h1>Who needs an ERP ?</h1>
<imgtitle="Who needs an ERP"alt="Who needs an ERP"src="http://img.erp5.cn/osoe-who.needs.an.erp-screenshot?format=png"type="image/png">
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<p>All businesses, government institutions, and non-profit organisations could use an ERP to manage their daily operations. An ERP systems can manage human resources, products and materials, purchases and sales, finance and almost all other aspects within a business entity. Even though today more and more transactions are done electronically in companies, which is much efficient than traditional paper recording. However, the efficiency of using separated applications for different business processes is not comparable to having an integrated ERP system. Especially for large organisations, ERP has become an essential success factor. It could drastically increase productivity, reduce errors, and decrease manual workload.</p><p>An ERP could take the form of a “Common Off-Shelve Package” or a custom software. It could be a centralised piece of software or a collection of components with interfaces. What remains common is that it provides a place for people to share and relate business documents.</p>
<p>All businesses, government institutions, and non-profit organisations could use an ERP to manage their daily operations. An ERP systems can manage human resources, products and materials, purchases and sales, finance and almost all other aspects within a business entity. Even though today more and more transactions are done electronically in companies, which is much efficient than traditional paper recording. However, the efficiency of using separated applications for different business processes is not comparable to having an integrated ERP system. Especially for large organisations, ERP has become an essential success factor. It could drastically increase productivity, reduce errors, and decrease manual workload.</p><p>An ERP could take the form of a “Common Off-the-Shelf Package” or a custom software. It could be a centralised piece of software or a collection of components with interfaces. What remains common is that it provides a place for people to share and relate business documents.</p>
<p>Most costs of an ERP lie in the implementation process. The total implementation cost of an ERP is usually estimated from 2 workdays to 6 workdays per employee in a company. This is approximately equivalent to 1% to 3% of the company turnover or to 1,000 EUR to 3,000 EUR per employee.</p><p>If we translate these figures to a small company (6 people), we will find that implementing an ERP costs about 10,000 EUR or 20 man-days. In a large organisation with 1,000 employees, an ERP will implementation will quickly reach 2,000 man-days or 1,000,000 EUR. In a large multinational with 100,000 employees, an ERP implementation can quickly surpass 100,000 man-days and 100,000,000 EUR.</p><p>The cost of buying an ERP is mainly the time spent in customizing a given ERP, which is similar in small and medium sized companies.</p><p>As a result, ERPs are not often used in small companies since the profit is so small that few people would invest time in promoting them to small companies.</p>
<p>Most costs of an ERP lie in the implementation process. The total implementation cost of an ERP is usually estimated from 2 working days to 6 working days per employee in a company. This is approximately equivalent to 1% to 3% of the company turnover or to 1,000 EUR to 3,000 EUR per employee.</p><p>If we translate these figures to a small company (6 people), we will find that implementing an ERP costs about 10,000 EUR or 20 man-days. In a large organisation with 1,000 employees, an ERP will implementation will quickly reach 2,000 man-days or 1,000,000 EUR. In a large multinational with 100,000 employees, an ERP implementation can quickly surpass 100,000 man-days and 100,000,000 EUR.</p><p>The cost of buying an ERP is mainly the time spent in customizing a given ERP, which is similar in small and medium sized companies.</p><p>As a result, ERPs are not often used in small companies since the profit is so small that few people would invest time in promoting them to small companies.</p>
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<h1>What is the success rate?</h1>
<imgtitle="What is the success rate?"alt="What is the success rate?"src="http://img.erp5.cn/osoe-what.is.success.rate-screenshot?format=png"type="image/png">
<p>The “Mourlon Neyer” report is one of the best sources to understand the risks of ERP implementation. As a rule of thumb, 50% ERP projects fail, they cost 3 times the expected costs and take twice longer than planned.</p><p>The reasons for failure are very seldom related to the ERP software itself, but rather to the abnormal behaviour of clients of consultants. However, because clients and consultants seldom accept to recognize their own mistakes, the ERP software is often blamed for the failure of the project. Thus, the current ERP market is dominated by a few well-known brands because only they could survive with a failure rate of 50% or more. In this environment, the ERP implementation process is also strictly controlled by these few providers.</p><p>The most common reasons for ERP failures are: 1) the clients do not know precisely what they want to achieve with the help of an ERP system; 2) the consults do not have a clear idea of what an ERP can do. This problem is well known in management under the name “Limited Rationality”, a decision theory which explains how and why organisations do not take the most rational decisions.</p><p>This happens a lot when a company outsources its ERP requirement specifications to a junior consultant who knows little about the company’s business. Under these specifications, the implemented ERP is of course of little use and help to the business.</p>
<p>The “Mourlon Neyer” report is one of the best sources to understand the risks of ERP implementation. As a rule of thumb, 50% ERP projects fail, they cost 3 times the expected costs and take twice longer than planned.</p><p>The reasons for failure are very seldom related to the ERP software itself, but rather to the abnormal behaviour of clients of consultants. However, because clients and consultants seldom accept to recognize their own mistakes, the ERP software is often blamed for the failure of the project. Thus, the current ERP market is dominated by a few well-known brands because only they could survive with a failure rate of 50% or more. In this environment, the ERP implementation process is also strictly controlled by these few providers.</p><p>The most common reasons for ERP failures are: </p><p>1) the clients do not know precisely what they want to achieve with the help of an ERP system; </p><p>2) the consults do not have a clear idea of what an ERP can do. </p><p>This problem is well known in management under the name “Limited Rationality”, a decision theory which explains how and why organisations do not take the most rational decisions.</p><p>This happens a lot when a company outsources its ERP requirement specifications to a junior consultant who knows little about the company’s business. Under these specifications, the implemented ERP is of course of little use and help to the business.</p>
