ERP management is an integrated system that helps an organisation manage its core business. It co-ordinates operation process and flow of information to make maximum use of available resources. ERP enables monitoring and management of various department like procurement, human resource, finance, manufacturing, inventory etc.
ERP evolved from a system known as Manufacturing Requirement planning (MRPII) to where it is right know. Lots of improvement has been made to make the system more efficient by inter-linking processes since the older model used to treat each transaction separately as stand-alone activities.
Some of the important characteristics that an ERP management system have to deliver a good solution are flexibility, comprehensiveness (ability to support various functions and a wide range of business of an organisation), modular (it can be detached and interfaced if required without affecting other modules) and should be beyond organisational boundaries. Its flexibility enables it to respond to the dynamic needs of an enterprise.
ERP management can perform important activities and increase delivery of customer service, therefore guarding any corporate reputation. It also bridges information gap across companies through its integrated systems across organisations. With an ERP management, you can make better decisions easily since it provides decision support system, Executive information system and easy working system.
Also, projects can be managed properly with such a system in hand. Changes in existing business process are necessary to implement an ERP. It’s therefore, mandatory for an organisation to critically analyse a business process before implementing an ERP software because an opportunity for modernization can be identified.
Implementation of ERP management system is difficult in decentralized organisations due to different processes, data semantics, authorization hierarchies and business rules. To configure an ERP system you just need to stabilize the way it was designed to work and the way the company needs it to work.
This will require multiple settings to modify its operations. ERP management systems are typically made to work as it is but customers can customize it to meet their needs by incorporating their business rules. They have the will to bridge the future gaps with their own pros/cons. The importance of customizing the system enables improvement of user acceptance and providing a potential to obtain a competitive advantage than just using standard features only.