Feedback: Top 5 Trends in ERP and Accounting Software

Author: Data Guidance Group Inc.

Source: (2012) [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDS15JJ4Rhg [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016].

 

Review

Webinar is well designed and materials presented in a good form and structure. Information provided by many sources such as internet sources, Microsoft partner data, Sage partner data, Gartner (Gartner. (2014). Predicts 2014. Retrieved 26th November, 2016 from https://www.gartner.com/doc/2633315), ERP providers was organized and processed into diagrams and clear short conclusions. Some part of information was based on researcher experience and opinion. Presenter refers to the Cloud platforms (IaaS, SaaS and PaaS) and integration with mobile platforms as main trends in ERP systems and accounting software. Webinar shows ERP orientation to social concepts as a Twitter, Facebook or Skype with real-time transactions. Also, webinar presenter mentioned continuity of long-lived trends such as data/systems integration and custom development.

Conclusion

According to the most recent researches information presented in this webinar is still relevant to current situation on the market. However, some statistical, licensing and costs information should be updated because has been changed through the years.

References

Gartner, (2014). Predicts 2014: The Rise of the Postmodern ERP and Enterprise Applications World. [online] Available at: https://www.gartner.com/doc/2633315 [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016]

CGI, (2016).The future of public sector ERP. [online] Available at: https://www.cgi.com/sites/default/files/white-papers/cgi-future-of-public-sector-erp-is-aces-white-paper.pdf [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016]

ToolBox, (2016). 5 ERP Trends That Could Change the Game. [online] Available at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/inside-erp/5-erp-trends-that-could-change-the-game-71616 [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016]

 

What CRM gives to all divisions of the company?

For the whole organization. First of all, it is to create a single information space due to the accumulation of all the information pertaining to the commercial activity of the company. It is the organization and control of business processes, when all the steps are interrelated, regulated and strictly consistent. CRM-system as a commercial service automation provides data to manage pricing, assortment, competition policy, personnel and marketing.

For sales. CRM in this case – the alpha and omega, it is conducted the work on the organization of communication with customers and counterparties, collects information for effective segmentation and future sales, carried out the work of sales managers transparent and accountable. The presence of CRM protects a company from losing its customer base – with the vice managers manage to struggle due to the flexible allocation of access rights to the system. With using CRM-system managers collect, interpret and structure the information about the relationship with customers.

CRM – a handy tool for collecting information which is necessary to managers and executives. Every manager during the work with customer captures detailed information about each contact and client details, ranging from details and ending phone calls, which are including with the use of CRM tools. It formed the most valuable piece of information – the customer base.

For the marketing department. With the development of online communication awarded to the company ready to make the most personalized offer scope for B2B and for B2C. Marketing actions (mailings, promotions, offers individual) should be based on information: customer segments, consumer profiles, SWOT-analysis, ABC-analysis. Some CRM also enable to collect and process of incoming leads.

What is marketing in one word? It is Information!

In fact, any marketing decision should be based on the information: the analysis range, profiles of customers, sales volume, sales stages, and external factors. Only in the case of integrated evaluation of the data and can obtain detailed analysis marketing decisions.

What does the process approach to management?

Any activity – are actions aimed at achieving the result, which is reflected in the fact that the system acquires a new state. Processes we have in the development, engineering, chemistry, and even sociology. However, each of us every day is a part of a work process. Proper process development and management in the company of any structure helps to ensure adequate interaction of employees, due to the responsibility and attention to deadlines. The process is at the basis of many fashion theories of company management and personnel development.

Business is aimed at making a profit from the production and sale of goods, services and works. But not every process is profitable. Any result (satisfaction of needs), but not profit.

How to get profit? It is necessary to improve the processes in the company:

• Increase accuracy and speed of execution of the routine tasks by automating and reminder system
• Increase the responsibility at each stage and to minimize the human factor due to the designation process owners, performers and transparent monitoring of the process performance
• Make a predictable final result by accumulation of knowledge and resources within a project
• Perform continuous monitoring of the quality and capacity improvements due to the continuous optimization of processes and their division
• Involve all elements of an infrastructure and all employees by good planning on the basis of the previous results

Ultimately, process control reduces the cost of the final product, allows savings in the release and reallocation of resources, making the company work transparent, but remains flexible – you can always make changes to the process.

1C: Enterprise. ERP System Review

1C company positioning «Enterprise» as one of the flagship products. It is a basic configuration from 1C, those software completely produced by the company itself, and any improvements in a system should be made by official partners. Enterprise — just one kind of configuration, which is in constant support of the company, it has updates, etc.

For the basic configuration 1C has industrial versions in different areas. To fulfill specific customer improvements partner companies create any kind of industry solutions based on the basic configuration. They “build” the new version, designed for selected industries. Modified configuration gets name of industry for which it was written, and becomes a “box solution”.

Licensing of software produced by 1C for common ground, i.e. 1C users of other products may not buy any separate license for that system. Any license for example, different industries suited to this system. Naturally, the cost of licenses for these products is the same. It is important to understand that for industry-specific solutions may require a separate license from 1C partner companies. The price may be different from the base version. As with the other products, licensing is performed according to one of variants, for one computer (device), and for one user (connection from any device).

About 1C program is written very much. To get to it you can visit: http://1c-dn.com/1c_enterprise/what_is_1c_enterprise/

Critical Analysis: ERP Challenges and Opportunities in Government

Authors: Frost and Sullivan

Source: (2009). ERP Challenges and Opportunities in Government. [online] CGI. Available at: https://www.cgi.com/sites/default/files/white-papers/cgi_whpr_85_managed_services_market_research_e.pdf [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016]

 

Summary of Content of Paper

This paper provides results of research focused on operating and maintenance challenges in government and examined current ERP practices, challenges and general trends in managed services usage. It shows what significant differences in current behavior of usage managed services between smaller organization and larger organization. Make suggestion according to surveys about trends changes in the future. “Over the next two years, most government organizations surveyed (72%) predict their usage of managed services will not change.” (Frost and Sullivan, 2009)

Quality of the Research

Item	Comments
1. Is the research question or objective clearly stated?	The objective of the study is not clearly stated, has different meaning and serves only as introduction or attraction.
2. Is the research question interesting and important?	The research question is interested for all ERP owners who maintain day-to-day operations.
3. Is the work original?	This work has original research materials and do not use any external sources.
4. Is the background research clear and relevant?	Background research is clear and based on companies’ experience and collected data.
5. Are there any ethical problems?	The study focuses changes focus from challenges to managed service without strong comparative analysis.

 

The Research Method

Item	Comments
Summarise the research method	Researcher realized studies by surveyed government ERP executives about their concerns and how they affect the needs and requirements of ERP specialists.
Does the research method seem appropriate for the research question?	Research method looks appropriate with including in survey executive specialists with specific expertise and who facing operation challenges every day.
Are the methods adequately described?	Methods was described enough to understand and evaluate quality of research.
Were the analyses done correctly?	Data analysis was provided in forms of histograms and diagrams.
Are the conclusions supported by the data?	Provided data have enough conclusions and references.

 

Quality of Presentation

Item	Comments
Is the work well presented?	Work is designed well and presented in a good form.
Is the paper well structured?	Paper has the necessary structure for whitepaper. But content could be shorter to provide information in more effective way.
Are symbols, terms, and concepts adequately defined?	All terms adequately defined in text.
Would additional tables, figures help to clarify the work?	Paper provides enough diagrams to clarify the work.

 

Additional Notes

Use this section to record additional notes on the paper. In particular you should identify any links to other topics and papers from the module

Paper has main purpose to convince reader that the best approach or “opportunity” to maintain ERP systems is managed services and does not provide enough information about challenges.   References: Khosrow–Puor, Mehdi, (2006). Emerging Trends and Challenges in Information Technology Management. Idea Group, Inc. p. 865. Meg Fryling, (2010). Estimating the impact of enterprise resource planning project management decisions on post-implementation maintenance costs: a case study using simulation modelling. Enterprise Information Systems 4 (4): 391–421.

Critical Analysis: An Investigation into the Use of ERP Systems in the Public Sector

Authors: Maria Céu Gaspar Alves and Sergio Ivo Amaral Matos

Volume: (2011). Journal of Enterprise Resource Planning Studies, 2011, art. 950191.

 

Summary of Content of Paper

This paper provide results of research focused on public sector organizations. For the reason that ERP implementation on public-sector is relatively sparse and little studied, this paper helps to narrow this knowledge gap. It shows us which modules of ERP system most valuable and used in public sector, what motivates public-sector organizations decision makers invest into implementation of ERP solutions initially targeted for manufacturing companies.

Quality of the Research

Item	Comments
1. Is the research question or objective clearly stated?	The objective of the study clearly stated and shows the clear target which sounds as “investigation results”.
2. Is the research question interesting and important?	The research question is interested for the solution providers as foundation for decision to invest in public-sector modules development or not.
3. Is the work original?	Due little studies in public-sector this research is original in its own field.
4. Is the background research clear and relevant?	Background research based on lack of information and some 3rd party statistics sources.
5. Are there any ethical problems?	The study focuses on some kind ethical problem what motivates public-sector organizations invest into implementation of ERP solutions initially targeted for manufacturing companies.

 

The Research Method

Item	Comments
Summarise the research method	Researcher realized studies by small area (Portugal) of public-sector survey based on some solution provider customers list.
Does the research method seem appropriate for the research question?	Research method looks appropriate for that amount of respondents.
Are the methods adequately described?	Methods was described enough to understand researchers motivation and presuppositions of choosing it for this research.
Were the analyses done correctly?	Analysis data for questionnaires was provided in a table but not so good designed to understand it without description.
Are the conclusions supported by the data?	Provided data do not have enough conclusions.

 

Quality of Presentation

Item	Comments
Is the work well presented?	Work is presented not a good form and main part of research is looks shorter than conclusions.
Is the paper well structured?	Paper has the necessary structure for scientific research.
Are symbols, terms, and concepts adequately defined?	All terms and symbols adequately defined in text and have references.
Would additional tables, figures help to clarify the work?	Some additional diagrams and better form of information presentation would help percept and accept of the work results.

 

Additional Notes

Use this section to record additional notes on the paper. In particular you should identify any links to other topics and papers from the module

A gap in researches has now been adequately covered in the research dues providing results only for small area but it paved the way for new studies touching upon this topic.   References: Chang, S., Guy, G., Errol, S. and Greg T. (2008). A Delphi examination of public sector ERP implementation issues. International Conference on Information Systems. Atlanta: Association for Information Systems, pp. 494–500. Rubina, A., Paula, K. and Alta van der, M. (2011). Acceptance of enterprise resource planning systems by small manufacturing Enterprises. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems. Gulledge, T. and Sommer, R. (2003). Public Sector Enterprise Resource Planning, Industrial Management & Data Systems. Sayed, H. (2006). ERPs and Accountants’ Expertise: The Construction of Relevance. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 19(1).

Critical Analysis: Business Transformation with Cloud ERP

Authors: Michael Krigsman

Source: (2012). Business Transformation with Cloud ERP. [online] Netsuite. Available at: http://www.netsuite.com/portal/pdf/wp-business-transformation.pdf [Accessed 25 Jun. 2016]

 

Summary of Content of Paper

The paper provides some considerations why Cloud ERP is not just a modern flow but important for effective business transformation. It shows us different from classical investment approach in ERP implementation which has lower risks, globalize rules, unify and simplify processes “For some organizations, cloud ERP offers a mean to consolidate geographically dispersed business units onto a single system; for others, gaining visibility into manufacturing or finance operations may be priorities.” (Michael Krigsman, 2012). White paper present an independent view of ERP service transformation into simplified Cloud solutions which change focus from wasting resources from technical side to adoption and following implementation operations effectiveness.

Quality of the Research

Item	Comments
1. Is the research question or objective clearly stated?	The objective of the research is clearly stated and corresponds to the content.
2. Is the research question interesting and important?	The topic is most relevant now because Cloud computing technologies one of the top topics in IT media and still has potential for development.
3. Is the work original?	The paper is original and based on author own experience and research. However author based some outcomes on summarized statistical data from 3rd party sources.
4. Is the background research clear and relevant?	Background research is clear but some statistical data is not relevant and could be updated and reviewed since last time so main outcomes or at least part of them could be changed.
5. Are there any ethical problems?	Author provides only his own point of view which could be easily criticized.

 

The Research Method

Item	Comments
Summarise the research method	Statistical analysis and summarized data from some major sources was used to confirm the author’s point of view.
Does the research method seem appropriate for the research question?	According to the purpose of the white paper the research methods will satisfy significant part of the target audience.
Are the methods adequately described?	Used methods was not described well. Supposed as a main reason why author used them is to have some leverage for outcomes and to increase the time of writing and publishing the paper.
Were the analyses done correctly?	Analysis data is simplified.
Are the conclusions supported by the data?	Most of conclusions made of authors own experience and opinion.

 

Quality of Presentation

Item	Comments
Is the work well presented?	Work is designed well and presented in a good form which is not overloaded by detailed infromation.
Is the paper well structured?	Paper is well organized and has the necessary structure for white papers.
Are symbols, terms, and concepts adequately defined?	All terms were defined in text or has no acronyms at all.
Would additional tables, figures help to clarify the work?	Paper have enough tables and diagrams to understand main point and be satisfied with outcomes.

 

Additional Notes

Use this section to record additional notes on the paper. In particular you should identify any links to other topics and papers from the module

White paper provides easy materials and understandable key benefits of SaaS Cloud platform which should force organizations to move to the Cloud for improving operations and achieve greater business agility.   References: Hassan, Qusay, (2011). Demystifying Cloud Computing. The Journal of Defense Software Engineering (CrossTalk), Jan/Feb. Hassan, Qusay, (2012). Software reuse in the emerging cloud computing era. Marston, Sean, Li, Zhi, Bandyopadhyay, Subhajyoti, Zhang, Juheng and Ghalsasi, Anand, (2011). Cloud computing — The business perspective. Decision Support Systems 51 (1): 176–189.