Innfobase serves Oracle Applications clients in a wide range of industries, including engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturing, automotive, electronics, batch and continuous process, consumer goods, documentation management services, banking and financial services and insurance.
For Seven years Innfobase has delivered Oracle Implementation and Support Services to world wide in many companies. Our portfolio includes
- Implemention of Procurement and Expense solutions for one of the world’s largest Stock Exchanges
- Integration of global distribution and sales applications with Oracle’s Advanced Supply Chain Planning for a leading Japanese electronics manufacturer
- World wide roll out of Oracle Financial's for a leading transportation machinery industry.
Innfobase Offshore Development Center (ODC) in Chennai, India supplies the technology foundation for our Oracle Applications Practice. The ODC
- Provides R & D support for Innfobase Oracle Applications consultants worldwide
- Maintains a state-of-the-art repository of methods, Oracle implementation templates and reusable code
- Tests the newest advances in technology and implementation techniques
- Supports system upgrade and migration through a Center of Excellence (CoE)
- Provides ongoing training to Innfobase consultants to ensure that their skills are current.
Customizing and extending Oracle Applications forms an important segment of our Oracle Implementation Practice. Our extensions have helped customers disburse payments faster, integrate legacy applications, extend Oracle Applications to a mobile sales force, and enhance business decision-making using OLAP tools like Financial Analyzer. Innfobase expertise is built on industry proven Oracle implementation methodologies like AIM, EMM, and Fast Forward which ensure easy monitoring of projects and on-time delivery.
Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP's) integrate (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a single unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a single, unified database to store data for the various system modules.
The term ERP originally implied systems designed to plan the utilization of enterprise-wide resources. Although the acronym ERP originated in the manufacturing environment, today's use of the term ERP systems has much broader scope. ERP systems typically attempt to cover all basic functions of an organization, regardless of the organization's business or charter. Business, non-profit organizations, non governmental organizations, governments, and other large entities utilize ERP systems.
Additionally, it may be noted that to be considered an ERP system, a software package generally would only need to provide functionality in a single package that would normally be covered by two or more systems. Technically, a software package that provides both Payroll and Accounting functions (such as Quick Books) would be considered an ERP software package.
However, the term is typically reserved for larger, more broadly based applications. The introduction of an ERP system to replace two or more independent applications eliminates the need for external interfaces previously required between systems, and provides additional benefits that range from standardization and lower maintenance (one system instead of two or more) to easier and/or greater reporting capabilities (as all data is typically kept in one database).
Examples of modules in an ERP which formerly would have been stand-alone applications include: Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Financial's, CRM, Human Resources, and Warehouse Management.
Looking more closely at ERP systems, a key factor is the integration of data from all aspects of an organization. To accomplish this, an ERP system typically runs on a single database instance with multiple software modules providing the various business functions of an organization.
Notably, some organizations choose to only implement portions of an ERP system and develop an external interface to other ERP or stand-alone systems for their other application needs. For instance, the People Soft HRMS and Financial's systems are generally considered better than SAP's HRMS solution. And SAP's manufacturing and CRM systems are generally considered better than People Soft's equivalents. So an organization large enough to justify the purchase of an ERP system, may choose to purchase the People Soft HRMS and Financial's modules from Oracle, and their remaining applications from SAP.
An example of a complete ERP implementation is very rare indeed. Organizations large enough to justify ERP purchases typically have specialized needs that are not met by any one ERP software vendor. This requires either heavy customization, use of different modules from different vendors, or extensive re-engineering. In an ideal world, an example of a complete ERP implementation would be a manufacturing company running the same package for all relevant systems.
Engineering, Bills of Material, Scheduling, Capacity, Workflow Management, Quality Control, Cost Management, Manufacturing Process, Manufacturing Projects
Inventory, Order Entry, Purchasing, Product Configurator, Supply Chain Planning, Supplier Scheduling
General Ledger, Cash Management, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Projects Costing, Billing, Time and Expense, Activity Management
Human Resources, Payroll, Training, Time & Attendance, Benefits Customer Relationship Management Sales and Marketing, Commissions, Service, Customer Contact and Call Center support
Enterprise Resource Planning is a term originally derived from manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) that followed material requirements planning (MRP). MRP evolved into ERP when "routings" became major part of the software architecture and a company's capacity planning activity also became a part of the standard software activity. ERP systems typically handle the manufacturing, logistics, distribution, inventory, shipping, invoicing, and accounting for a company. Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software can aid in the control of many business activities, like sales, marketing, delivery, billing, production, inventory management, quality management, and human resources management.
ERP's are often incorrectly called back office systems indicating that customers and the general public are not directly involved. This is contrasted with front office systems like customer relationship management (CRM) systems that deal directly with the customers, or the eBusiness systems such as eCommerce, eGovernment, eTelecom, and eFinance, or supplier relationship management (SRM) systems.
ERP's are cross-functional and enterprise wide. All functional departments that are involved in operations or production are integrated in one system. In addition to manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and Information Technology, this would include accounting, human resources, marketing, and strategic management.
- ERP II means open ERP architecture of components. The older, monolithic ERP systems became component oriented.
- EAS - Enterprise Application Suite is a new name for formerly developed ERP systems which include (almost) all segments of business, using ordinary Internet browsers as thin clients.
Prior to the concept of ERP systems, departments within an organization would have their own computer systems. For example, the Human Resources (HR) department, the Payroll (PR) department, and the Financial's department. The HR computer system (Often called HRMS or HRIS) would typically contain information on the department, reporting structure, and personal details of employees. The PR department would typically calculate and store paycheck information. The Financial's department would typically store financial transactions for the organization. Each system would have to rely on a set of common data to communicate with each other. For the HRIS to send salary information to the PR system, an employee number would need to be assigned and remain static between the two systems to accurately identify an employee.
ERP software, among other things, combined the data of formerly disparate applications. This made the worry of keeping employee numbers in synchronization across multiple systems disappear. It standardized and reduced the number of software specialties required within larger organizations. It enabled reporting that spanned multiple systems much easier. And it allowed for the development of higher level analysis functions enabling larger organizations to identify trends within the organization and make appropriate adjustments more quickly.
Best Practices were also a benefit of implementing an ERP system. When implementing an ERP system, organizations essentially had to choose between customizing the software or modifying their business processes to the "Best Practice" functionality delivered in the vanilla version of the software.
Because of their wide scope of application within the firm, ERP software systems rely on some of the largest bodies of software ever written. Implementing such a large and complex software system in a company used to involve an army of analysts, programmers, and users. This was, at least, until the development of the Internet allowed outside consultants to gain access to company computers in order to install standard updates. ERP implementation, without professional help, can be a very expensive project for bigger companies, especially transnational's. Companies specializing in ERP implementation, however, can expedite this process and can complete the task in under six months with solid pilot testing.
Enterprise resource planning systems are often closely tied to supply chain management and logistics automation systems. Supply chain management software can extend the ERP system to include links with suppliers.
To implement ERP systems, companies often seek the help of an ERP vendor or of third-party consulting companies. Consulting in ERP involves three levels, namely top level systems architecture, business process consulting (primarily re-engineering) and technical consulting (primarily programming and tool configuration activity). A systems architect designs the overall data flow for the enterprise including the future data flow plan. A business consultant studies an organization's current business processes and matches them to the corresponding processes in the ERP system, thus 'configuring' the ERP system to the organization's needs. Technical consulting often involves programming. Most ERP vendors allow modification of their software to suit the business needs of their customer.
Customizing an ERP package can be very expensive and complicated, because many ERP packages are not designed to support customization, so most businesses implement the best practices embedded in the acquired ERP system. Some ERP packages are very generic in their reports and inquiries, such that customization is expected in every implementation. It is important to recognize that for these packages, it makes more sense to buy third party reporting packages that interface well to particular ERP, than to reinvent what tens of thousands of other clients of that same ERP have needed to develop.
In the absence of an ERP system, a large manufacturer may find itself with many software applications that do not talk to each other and do not effectively interface. Tasks that need to interface with one another may involve:
- design engineering (how best to make the product)
- order tracking from acceptance through fulfillment
- the revenue cycle from invoice through cash receipt
- managing interdependencies of complex Bill of Materials
- tracking the 3-way match between Purchase orders (what was ordered), Inventory receipts (what arrived), and Costing (what the vendor invoiced)
- the Accounting for all of these tasks, tracking the Revenue, Cost and Profit on a granular level.
Change how a product is made, in the engineering details, and that is how it will now be made. Effectivity dates can be used to control when the switch over will occur from an old version to the next one, both the date that some ingredients go into effect, and date that some are discontinued.Part of the change can include labeling to identify version numbers.
Computer security is included within an ERP, to protect against both outsider crime, such as industrial espionage and insider crime, such as embezzlement. A data tampering scenario might involve a terrorist altering a Bill of Materials so as to put poison in food products, or other sabotage. ERP security helps to prevent abuse as well.
There are concepts of Front office (how the company interacts with customers), which includes CRM or Customer relationship management; Back end (internal workings of the company to fulfill customer needs), which includes quality control, to make sure there are no problems not fixed, in the end products; Supply chain (interacting with suppliers and transportation infrastructure). All of these can be integrated through an ERP, although some systems have gaps in comprehensiveness and effectiveness. Without an ERP that integrates all these, it can be quite complicated for a manufacturer to handle.
