ERP - enterprise resource planning systems. Enterprise management using a cloud ERP solution What systems are included in erp

In this article we will talk about what is meant by the term ERP system, when this software appeared on the market and why it was created, and also try to predict in which direction systems of this class will develop.

We will also try to answer the main questions that arise for those who decide to figure out why this software is so in demand by modern enterprises:

What software can be classified as ERP?
Why do companies around the world spend significant amounts of money for their business on the implementation of ERP systems?
How do these systems work?

History of the concept of ERP

Before we start talking about ERP systems, it’s worth remembering where this concept came from. The term ERP or Enterprise resource planning was a development of the concept of MRP (MPR-II), which was used to designate a class of systems developed back in the 60s of the last century and intended for organizing production processes (primarily material planning “MRP”, and later resources in general “ MRP-II") and production accounting. Those. the very concept of MRP(-II) applied and still applies to information systems designed to automate production activities.

In the 90s, the Gartner Group and a number of other companies were looking for an opportunity to apply the planning approaches implemented in MRP systems to other areas of business, expanding the capabilities of MRP in terms of planning activities and managing enterprise processes.

It was from these works that the term “ERP” was born, first used by the Gartner Group and intended to designate a new class of systems.

From the very beginning, ERP systems were positioned on the market as systems that, in addition to solving resource planning problems, also solve issues of organizing data and optimizing processes related to the functioning of the back office, such as inventory management, sales, pricing, accounting, etc. d.

Figure 1. Composition of ERP systems

In addition to the term ERP, the definitions “Enterprise management system” and “Integrated enterprise management system” are actively used, and in fact, they all describe ERP systems.

Architecture of modern ERP systems

While every company is unique in some way, they all face a common challenge: To remain competitive in today's business environment, companies need a reliable and efficient way to store and access diverse information. This is exactly the problem that a modern ERP system solves.

A typical ERP system is a set of modules (or even separate applications), each of which manages a specific process: procurement, sales, production, accounting and tax accounting, HR processes, customer support, CRM, warehouse logistics, etc. At the same time, the system covers the main processes of all areas of the enterprise’s activities.

As a result, an ERP system is a comprehensive information management system within an organization that solves the entire range of problems of managerial, regulated and other types of accounting, in contrast to specialized software designed to automate a specific business process or line of activity.

Figure 2. List of tasks solved by the 1C:ERP system Enterprise management

As a result of implementing an ERP system in a company, business owners and managers can simplify and automate labor-intensive back-office tasks, help employees become more productive, and most importantly, get an operational (often in real time) overview of all areas of activity with the possibility of parallel analysis and development planning.

Classification of ERP systems

Having figured out what is usually understood by the term “ERP system,” we will try to classify these systems by type. It must be said right away that the classification is rather conditional, because there are quite a lot of signs by which such software can be classified: functionality, positioning, the size of the organizations for which the solution is intended, and much more. We tried to simplify the classification as much as possible by dividing ERP solutions into the following groups:

Integrated information systems. This group includes universal ERP systems. They can be adapted to the processes of a wide variety of companies - from large industries to financial organizations. Such solutions have a wide range of settings and developed integration mechanisms in order to remain as universal as possible and meet the requirements of different business sectors. The largest players operate in this market, and the market for such systems occupies the largest share compared to the markets for other types of systems (which we will talk about below). Examples: Oracle, SAP, Netsuite, 1C.
Industry information systems. These ERP systems are focused on a specific industry, sometimes even on a narrow area within the industry (for example, ERP systems designed to automate companies selling air and railway tickets). Often such products are produced by startups or companies that, being unable to develop a product that competes with large players in already established markets, are trying to find their own small niche and take a leading position in it. Many large companies, entering this market, start with specific industries, gradually developing the solution towards maximum versatility. Examples: Microsoft Dynamics AX, Brightpearl, Epicor Retail, 1C.
ERP for small businesses. Formally, such systems cannot be classified as ERP; however, small companies have enough functionality of such systems to satisfy all their needs at a lower cost of both the program itself and its implementation and subsequent ownership. Often such ERP systems are modular, and the functionality is reduced compared to more expensive products.
Thus, instead of installing a comprehensive information system, the company implements a small product that serves one or two key business processes, but does not cover other areas of the enterprise. Example: PeopleSoft (a system that implements the functions of accounting, personnel management and CRM), 1C: UNF.
Open source ERP systems. Open source ERP systems currently occupy a small part of the total ERP market. But such solutions are often supported by companies that have teams of developers and analysts on staff to refine and integrate the system with their local information resources. Example: Odoo.

Advantages of modern ERP systems

The ERP systems market is growing from year to year, both in value terms and in the number of automated workstations. Numerous market studies indicate this. Why are more and more enterprises, from giants to small companies, striving to implement modern ERP systems?

The main advantages provided by the ERP system implemented at the enterprise:

Deeper understanding of the processes occurring in the company and reduction of reaction time to changes. Thanks to the consolidation of all key information in a single system, it becomes possible to quickly obtain management reporting on all aspects of the enterprise’s activities in real time;
As a result, a private (but very important) advantage of consolidating operations and data in one system is to ensure comparability of data, eliminate duplication and form a common vision of the ongoing processes for all participants;
Modern ERP systems contain built-in forecasting tools that can be used to make informed decisions about next steps for business development;
Reducing costs through the introduction of unified end-to-end business processes, automation of labor-intensive tasks, elimination of redundant processes, as well as simplification of training and onboarding procedures for new users;
Thanks to a uniform IT landscape, the ERP system makes it possible to increase data storage security, simplify access restriction tasks, and thereby increase the level of information security.

Disadvantages of ERP systems

To complete the picture, having outlined the advantages, we should also dwell on the disadvantages of switching to modern ERP systems:

High cost of implementation and ownership. Until now, the traditional scheme for implementing ERP systems involves large initial costs during implementation. Moreover, money must be spent even before the system works and the business receives its benefits.
High implementation risks. There are a large number of difficulties during implementation, here is a difficult legacy in the form of the operating features of old software that must be taken into account during the transition, and staff resistance to change, and the lack of qualified personnel within the enterprise capable of organizing the transition process and further support, and much more. Until now, projects for implementing ERP systems at enterprises remain one of the most risky for business.
Insufficient versatility of ERP solutions. Despite the fact that leading manufacturers are trying to make their solutions as flexible as possible and suitable for any business requirements, it is clear that practice is far from theory. There may simply not be a completely suitable solution on the market, so the product is often adapted to a specific organization, which significantly increases the cost of the project.

ERP systems are constantly evolving, and leading vendors are trying to take into account existing shortcomings in new versions of the software and level them out as much as possible.

How to Determine What Your Business Needs ERP

Every company is unique in its own way, although at different times it faces problems common to all such organizations. Below we will try to help determine whether the time has come for your company to consider investing in an ERP system.

If most of the points below apply to your business, then it's probably time to seriously think about the need to implement an ERP system in your business:

Your team members spend too much time on tasks that could be simplified or automated;
You do not have immediate access to the data that is required to make a decision here and now;
You have many diverse integrations with external systems;
Your company uses a large number of unrelated software products and tools;
You do not have reliable information about the balances of inventory items in warehouses or cash in the cash registers;
You personally spend a lot of time searching for information, trying to improve the productivity and efficiency of employees, and departments have difficulty communicating and are reluctant to exchange information with each other;
You do not have full access to information when you leave the office;
You lack tools to monitor the implementation of decisions made.

To be sure that investing in a new ERP system will pay off, you need to drill down into the specific problems that exist in your organization and understand exactly how the ERP system can help solve those problems before making decisions.

The modern international market for ERP systems is huge and continues to grow. Today, it features thousands of software providers, the exact number of which no one knows - some players are leaving the market, but new ones are constantly appearing.

Basically, the market offers industry-specific solutions developed for the needs of specific industries: certain areas of production, logistics, retail and others. However, the leaders in the international market are those companies that offer the most comprehensive solutions.

Founded in 1972, SAP has now opened subsidiaries around the world and has established collaboration with a number of external teams developing add-ons for the company's software products.

SAP is represented on the market with two main products:

SAP Business All-in-One. This ERP solution, built on the latest SAP HANA platform, is positioned as a comprehensive solution covering 25 business sectors, including, of course, production and sales, and is intended for large companies. Includes business intelligence (BI) and forecasting product.
SAP Business One. It was released to the market to strengthen SAP's position in the solutions segment for small/medium organizations. The solution is built on the same platform as SAP All-in-One, but is less functional and universal.

Microsoft took second place in 2017 with its Microsoft Dynamics AX product. Despite its lower versatility compared to SAP products, the solution is suitable for companies engaged in trade and service provision, thanks to which the company annually increases its market share and actively develops its product.

Third place was shared by Oracle and Infor, followed (by a large margin) by second-tier companies: Epicor, Sage, NetSuite and others.

The Panorama study also notes that SAP ranked first in terms of return on investment in ERP. In terms of speed of implementation, Oracle products are in the lead, and in terms of implementation costs, the palm is taken by NetSuite systems, which cost customers an average of 2.8% of revenue.

The advantages of Infor systems were specifically noted, such as the wide possibilities for using mobile versions by remote offices and employees, reliable and intuitive tools for analyzing business data, and optimal indicators of time and cost of implementation, as well as return on investment.

The leading position in the Russian market with a share of just under 50% is occupied by SAP, followed by 1C with a share of about 32% and the remaining players with a significant gap: Oracle, Galaktika and others.

However, in addition to assessing the market share in total terms, you can look at the number of automated jobs in the Russian market. In terms of the number of implementations and automated workstations, more than 80% of the market is occupied by the 1C company, which is essentially a monopolist in terms of ERP systems for small and medium-sized businesses.

The future of ERP systems

Since the 90s of the last century, the ERP systems market has been actively developing, as the number of organizations implementing ERP systems to optimize key business processes and improve data visibility has grown exponentially.

At the same time, the costs of implementing ERP systems were also growing, and it was not so much about the cost of hardware or software, but about the costs of implementing and developing systems in the context of constantly expanding markets and changing processes. As a result, “traditional” systems, due to their high cost, have simply become inaccessible to small and medium-sized businesses.

The situation has changed with the advent of cloud technologies and the development SaaS (Software as a Service). Already, all market leaders are offering the opportunity to start using their key subscription products.

The main advantages that this approach provides:

Scalability – you can purchase additional functions as your business grows without the need to implement a new system;
SaaS solutions, due to their specificity, provide access to the ERP system via the Internet anywhere and at any time;
Low capital costs - there is no need to buy equipment or accompanying software, there are no large one-time payments for system implementation;
The system is maintenance-free - the supplier takes on the task of updating the system, troubleshooting and troubleshooting, thereby reducing downtime.

A significant disadvantage of SaaS is the inability to customize the solution to meet the requirements of a specific enterprise and a number of other restrictions, so some large enterprises opt for "hybrid" ERP systems, which offer the opportunity to combine traditional system ownership and subscription. With this scheme, part of the subsystems is located in the cloud (and access to them is offered by subscription), and part is on the customer’s servers.

It can be predicted that this market will only develop; moreover, systems that are distributed only via SaaS and do not have a “traditional” deployment option on the customer company’s site have begun to appear on the market en masse.

Another clear trend is the widespread implementation mobile access to systems. Access is implemented in various ways, some ERP systems support integration with their own mobile applications developed for iOS and Android, some offer access through a web browser. However, such access today is always a compromise between the restrictions imposed by mobile interfaces, security requirements and the functionality expected by the client.

You can be sure that in the future, the capabilities of remote data access will expand and new products for remote work will appear on the market, both from market leaders and newcomers.

Another direction of development, for which a new term “ERP 2.0” was even coined, is the implementation social interactions in system. A “social” ERP system allows you to effectively use social networks, closely interacting with Facebook and Twitter, implements new communication channels, helps increase customer loyalty and, as a result, increase conversion in sales of goods and services.

Results

We can absolutely say that today there is rapid development and change in the ERP systems market. Thanks to the development of cloud technologies, ERP systems have become

are available to a company of any size, and now even a small business, by subscribing, can begin to use a “heavy” ERP system, the implementation of which in a company in a more traditional way would be impossible.

As a result of the widespread introduction of new technologies, the modern user places increasingly strict demands on the capabilities of the ERP system in terms of remote work. Therefore, in the near future we can expect the appearance on the market of products that will not differ in terms of functionality and security, no matter whether the user works remotely or from the office.

All these changes benefit the end user of ERP systems and will certainly lead to an even greater increase in the market share occupied by EPR systems, making them common tools for companies of any industry and any size.

More and more enterprises of various sizes around the world are striving to implement a powerful management tool known as an ERP system into their work. Its use is intended to establish effective control and planning of all business processes that are strategically important for the organization, and to optimize the functioning of the main production and auxiliary facilities.

Concept of ERP and ERP system

The ERP business strategy (EntERPrise Resource Planning) represents the integration of all divisions and processes of the organization: production facilities, financial, personnel and customer departments and many others. This combination is primarily aimed at optimizing the distribution of various resources within the enterprise.

If previously this was a purely marketing concept, today an ERP system is most often understood as a class of specialized software. In a broad sense, it is a methodology for planning and managing all enterprise resources. Historically, the ERP strategy was formed on the basis of its predecessors:

MRP - material requirements planning.
MRP II - production resource planning.

In contrast, an ERP system can be used for very large enterprises, often geographically distributed. In this case, we are talking about corporate resource planning, since it pays attention not only to production, but also to comprehensive financial planning. An essential feature of the ERP system is also the possibility of its use in absolutely any enterprise, regardless of the specifics of the work, including those not engaged in production activities. Considering it as such, it should be noted that it is equipped with a more powerful set of technical means that facilitate or replace the decision-making process.

Purpose of an ERP system in an enterprise

In order to decide on fundamental changes in the activities of their company related to the implementation of a management information system and the implementation of a new business strategy, management must clearly understand the necessity of this step, which should be expressed in the following key points:

unwillingness to accept the current state of affairs;
the existence of a need to use modern technologies to strengthen the position of a business entity in the market in a competitive environment;
expecting to receive significant benefits from implementation.

First of all, the use of an ERP system is intended to facilitate the successful implementation of a similar business strategy, the implementation of which should ensure effective planning and management of enterprise resources. To do this, it is necessary to optimize the work of its departments, namely to achieve maximum consistency between them and reduce administrative costs. This can be achieved through the benefits provided by the information system. This:

Increasing the transparency of business processes.
Solving problems with organizing and finding the necessary information.
Increasing the reliability and relevance of data.
Increasing the speed of document flow between departments.
Organization of a single information space between the head office and remote branches.
Reducing the time required to fill out documentation and eliminating possible errors.
Increased speed of decision making at all levels.

An ERP system ensures an increase in the competitiveness of an object not only through the introduction of more efficient business processes into its work. Its use should also lead to a reduction in the overall costs of the enterprise. Advanced planning, modeling and analysis tools help optimize the resources of production activities, the financial sector, as well as the work of warehouses, transport and other departments.

Main features of work

In different companies, even those engaged in the same business, all business processes can proceed completely differently. The standardized work scheme offered by an enterprise management information system may differ significantly from what was previously used here. For this reason, considering it only as a software product is fundamentally wrong, since its implementation requires the company to undergo large-scale internal changes in the form of reorganization of existing business processes.

The conceptual features of these systems are directly related to their essence. Let us remember that the ERP methodology involves the consolidation of all vital divisions of an enterprise to organize the effective management of its resources. Such a combination is implemented within the information system through the presence of a single publicly accessible database. Information enters the repository only once, and subsequently can be repeatedly processed and used by various internal and external consumers. Compared to real life, in this case there is a reduction in the time and effort spent by enterprise employees on decision making. It should also be noted that the ERP system is not an automated technological process management system, but an integrated information system based on their abstract model, information into which is entered by real people.

The structure of the database, as well as the operation of the software package as a whole, must be arranged in such a way as to reflect the activities of all departments without exception. This approach makes it possible to monitor the totality of resources and business processes of an enterprise in almost real time, and therefore to carry out operational and strategic management of them.

One of the main tasks of ERP systems is to optimize the planning process and control over the implementation of the plan. Built-in intelligent algorithms greatly simplify its solution for its users. For example, planning and management of a manufacturing enterprise has many specific features associated with the heterogeneity of its components. Thus, at one plant there can be workshops operating both continuously and discretely. From this point of view, the implemented ERP-class system must be universal and contain a wide range of specialized modules.

Since modern enterprises today are often geographically distributed, it is very important that branches remote from the main office are provided with full access to general information. This is realized by the most advanced network technologies involved in the development of ERP systems, which also provide for the delimitation of user access rights to data stored in their information.

Functionality of ERP-class systems

Speaking about functions, we must not forget that any ERP-class product is an enterprise management system as a whole. The range of its capabilities will primarily depend on the scale and operating characteristics of the facility for the needs of which it is used. Let's consider the classic set of functions:

Production

Maintaining design and technological specifications of manufactured goods or performed services in order to determine the amount of required materials and labor cost standards.
Drawing up production plans.
Planning and management of the technical capacities of an enterprise in various approximations: from individual units to workshops and production associations.

Finance

Operational accounting, financial, management, tax accounting and controlling.
Management of enterprise assets, including fixed assets, securities, bank accounts, etc.
Comprehensive enterprise planning and control of its results.

Logistics

Formation of planned indicators for the required volumes of materials, raw materials, parts, components in accordance with production plans.
Supply and sales management: accounting for counterparties, maintaining a register of contracts, supply chain management, implementation of warehouse planning and accounting.

Personnel

Management of the personnel selection process.
Operational personnel and time records, maintaining staffing tables, calculating salaries.
Workforce planning.

Maintaining sales plans.
Management of pricing in various types of markets in order to form an adequate overall strategy for the enterprise, a transparent policy for calculating the cost of goods: taking into account discounts and special sales conditions.
Planning and control of ongoing advertising and marketing activities.

Projects. Reporting

Providing a wide selection of standardized accounting, financial and management reporting forms, as well as a flexible mechanism for creating custom ones.
Drawing up a general strategy: step-by-step planning of the time frames, material, financial and human resources necessary for successful implementation.
Monitoring of key project performance indicators.

Which companies can use ERP systems?

At first glance, it may seem that systems of this class are intended exclusively for large-scale industries, since they are more characterized by the high complexity of the structure of resource flows and processes of various types. However, there are situations where the use of MRP or MRP II classes may not be enough for a small enterprise. Today on the market you can purchase software products with various capabilities. Depending on the scale of the enterprise at which they can be effectively used, heavy, medium and light solutions are distinguished.

As for non-manufacturing organizations, ERP class systems are also applicable to them. For such enterprises, not too broad functionality will be enough. At the moment, there are small integrated or local varieties of systems that can meet the needs of trading companies or organizations operating in the service sector. It should also be noted that many developers also offer industry-specific products to their clients.

About classification methods

The most obvious way in which all ERP enterprise management systems can be classified is the scale of the organization where they can be applied. From this point of view, depending on the number of jobs, it is customary to identify solutions for:

Large corporations (over 10 thousand people).
Medium corporations (from 1 thousand to 10 thousand people).
Medium enterprises (from 100 to 1 thousand people).
Small enterprises (less than 100 people).

An important feature of the systematization of such information products is functionality. Depending on the volume of tasks being performed, there is the following generally accepted division into:

Large integrated.
Medium integrated.
Financial and managerial.
Local.

The local option is usually a unified boxed information product with a narrow focus, which has a relatively low overall cost. Most often, it covers one or more blocks in the field of finance of an organization or its accounting activities. Such systems are suitable for small manufacturing or trading companies.

Integrated information systems, depending on the scale of the target object, can be medium or large. They cover all business processes of corporate structures, namely interaction with suppliers and consumers, production of the final product, flows of materials and finances, relations with personnel, supply, storage and sales, project implementation and many others.

Modern market of ERP systems

All software products presented on the domestic market today can be divided into two main categories: Russian and imported. The differences between them lie not only in the place of creation, but also in functionality.

Powerful Western developments serve as standards for what is commonly called ERP-class systems. The most striking examples of these are products from SAP, Oracle, PeopleSof, SAGE, Baan, Microsoft Business Solution. All of them can be used on target objects of any level, including very large ones. However, their use by Russian companies can often be difficult due to the possible occurrence of the following problems:

Unpreparedness of enterprises for a serious reorganization of existing business processes. It is difficult to exaggerate the scale of such changes. Business processes of foreign enterprise management systems are radically different from those commonly used in our country.
There is an insufficient number of specialists capable of implementing the project of introducing an imported ERP system in Russia with the required level of quality.
The high cost of using such solutions.

Despite the general lag behind their Western counterparts, modern Russian developments are gradually increasing their functionality. They are fully adapted to the work of domestic enterprises. And they can be successfully implemented if in a particular case a wide coverage of business processes is not required, but it is enough just to establish accounting for certain areas of activity using an ERP system. Examples of advanced domestic developments are products from 1C and Galaktika companies.

Looking to the Future - ERP II

The ERP II concept, which appeared some time ago, was the result of improving the ERP methodology. Enterprise resource planning and management remain among the main tasks here. However, the rapid development of the Internet, which initiated the emergence of a new methodology, left its mark, making traditional business partly electronic. ERP II is a combination of a classic enterprise management system with specific network commerce solutions.

It has now become extremely important to interact with your counterparties online. There are two important areas for this: and customer relations. Intracompany information ceases to be just that, goes out into the external environment and becomes the basis for cooperation with other business entities. The new concept in this case is formulated as management of resources and external relations of the enterprise. In addition to the ideological reorientation, ERP II systems received their own technological features.

Solving the issue of choosing a system

Choosing software of this level is an extremely responsible process. An incorrect decision on this issue, especially for large-scale projects, can entail significant time and money costs in the absence of the expected result.

Effective implementation of a large-scale system, which, for example, should ensure the effective management of a manufacturing enterprise, will necessarily require business process reengineering. It is important to prevent a situation in which, upon completion of the program implementation procedure, it collects unused data or does not solve the necessary problems. For this reason, it is better to invite a team of experts proven in this matter to cooperate.

There is a certain list of criteria on the basis of which the project team, in agreement with the administration of the target company, can make an optimal, cost-effective decision on the issue of choosing a software product:

Compliance of the technical and functional capabilities of the system with the main goals of the enterprise.
The total cost of ownership must fit within the budget allocated for these purposes. In addition to the cost of purchasing the system, this includes operating and other types of indirect costs.
The implemented ERP-class information system must meet all generally accepted technical requirements, which means it must be scalable, reliable, resistant to possible failures, and have anti-virus and anti-hacker protection.
The supplier must guarantee subsequent maintenance and support of the installed software.

The process of implementing ERP class systems

The implementation of ERP systems at enterprises accompanies the implementation of strategies of the same name. This procedure, depending on the scale of the target object, usually lasts from several weeks to several years. An organization can carry out implementation on its own or use the help of companies specializing in this. The main stages of this process can be distinguished:

Primary organization. Here it is necessary to determine strategic goals, objectives and indicate the expected effect of implementation for a specific organization. Based on this data, it will be possible to draw up a technical plan for the project.
Project development. At this stage, an analysis of the current activities of the organization takes place: its promotion strategy, business processes. Based on its results, a system model is built, and appropriate clarifications are made to the work plan.
Project execution. Since the rules for conducting business processes are dictated by the implemented ERP system, they are transformed here in accordance with unified requirements. If necessary, reporting forms and algorithms for transferring data from previously used accounting programs are developed. If at the previous stages it is revealed that the system functions for the object are insufficient, it is improved. Finally, user training and preliminary testing are carried out.
Start-up. During use, possible errors and malfunctions are identified and eliminated.

An ERP-class management system today is not just a copy of expensive software installed on all computers in an organization, but also the main driving force of a promising business strategy. Its selection should be made based on the existing needs and capabilities of the target object. The further success of the entire business as a whole depends on the correctness of the decision made and the implementation of subsequent implementation steps.

Automation of business processes is a very important task for every company that is focused on constant growth and development. The criteria that determine when it is time to automate certain processes, develop or integrate existing IT solutions depend on the size of the company and the stage of its development. At the first step, most companies implement CRM, then ERP, and when the business grows, they think about BPM. What is behind these acronyms and at what point is it time to implement each solution in your company?

Build relationships with clients

A CRM system is perhaps one of the first IT solutions that a company selling goods or services to clients should implement. If your business is not a shawarma stall near the metro or a manufacturing company with a single customer, CRM will definitely be useful to you. A good sign that you have arrived is the fact that you can no longer keep in your head all the agreements and interactions with current clients.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, so this is not just a database with addresses and phone numbers of clients and transaction amounts. First of all, this is a system that helps you build stable relationships with your users. And this includes not only guiding the client through the sales funnel - from application to transaction - but also the participation of the entire user base in email marketing, trigger mailings, special promotions and, as a result, repeat sales.

Without a CRM system, a business can grow “in breadth” within certain limits (due to the influx of new clients), but it will be quite difficult for it to increase the average bill, profit per client and increase the base of loyal users.

“We have a step-by-step approach to automation: as the number of orders increased, we standardized and transferred business processes to automatic rails using ready-made solutions on the market. First of all, we automated our work with clients as much as possible, so as not to waste time searching for important information and to provide the fastest possible response to our customers’ requests. We have implemented a CRM system to see and constantly analyze the history of relations with the client - calls, orders, correspondence, feedback. If you suddenly need to quickly raise the history of orders, and the responsible manager is sick, these systems make life very easy. If you need to transfer business to a new employee, then this is also not a problem.“, says Evgeniy Nepeyvoda, managing partner of the Kinodoktor company.

Automate processes within the company
During the first months and even years of its life, a company can grow and develop spontaneously: new departments and functional units appear, tasks are split, workload is redistributed between different employees. At this point, confusion can arise: who is responsible for what tasks? When should this work be completed?

If such issues have become relevant for your company, then it’s time to automate processes within the organization. For this they use ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning - enterprise resource management). ERP helps to integrate all departments and functions of a company into a single system. As a result, all employees work with a single database, making it easier for them to exchange various types of information and distribute tasks (both within the department and between different departments).

“A signal that it’s time to start automating resources within the company is problems with organizing processes at the department level and between departments: the process may not be followed, slowed down, or be incomprehensible to performers and management.”, says business analyst at DIRECTUM Maxim Kainer.

Dive deeper into business processes

If the main task of ERP is to optimize business processes in a company by reducing material and time costs, then the systems BPM (Business Performance Management) solve higher level problems. We can say that ERP systems are designed to solve tactical issues, while BPM is more about strategy. If ERP is based on resources and the current state of the business, BPM helps to look deeper into business processes. A BPM system is needed when a company has several non-trivial business processes (which can constantly change), and there is a need to speed them up, make them more standardized and transparent.

“Business automation is simply necessary at the stage of active growth of a company. Without it, you will be tied to your company with a thick rope, moreover, it will be difficult to achieve a significant scale of business.
My two companies are now fully automated. This means that without me, both the sales and marketing functions and the management functions of decision-making, including strategic ones, are carried out.
You can implement automation of this level when you already know your business thoroughly. At what point should you do this?
● When the company begins to grow and it becomes impossible to manage it manually
● When there is a need to free up your time or the time of managing managers
● When you began to feel depressed and a complete lack of desire to further develop this business on your own
● When you want to start a new project
● When you need time to come up with a way to explode your current business
In order to correctly implement automation, you need to very clearly understand all business processes, the sequence of actions that need to be automated - that is why you first need to go through the “manual” work path. But it is important not to “get stuck” in the manual labor stage for a long time. The corresponding habits and norms become so ingrained within the business and the team that automation becomes alien and difficult to implement.”, says Galia Berdnikova, founder of the network of photo schools Like and the network of city cafes “Sweater”.

Yours or factory?

At the automation stage, many companies are faced with a dilemma: should they write their own solution or use a “boxed” one?

Most large IT companies, such as Microsoft, SAP and 1C, provide ready-made automation systems for business. There are also many smaller vendors that offer out-of-the-box solutions—thanks to their smaller scale, working with these vendors allows for greater customization of programs to suit your business. However, many companies are trying to make their own solutions.

« When I worked in a small SEO company, the need for a service for assigning tasks to copywriters, monitoring their execution and tracking time arose when the staff size was more than five people. At first we used a self-written solution. But it became difficult to maintain, and it exhausted its functionality after just a year and a half, with a staff of 15 people: three account salespeople, four programmers and a copywriting department. We purchased an annual subscription to a cloud solution that combines CRM, simple workflow and time tracking.
This is a typical scenario: at first managers think “we’ll do everything ourselves,” but then there is an understanding that there are ready-made solutions on the market from vendors who have been developing and improving them for a reason for years.
There are cases when, even with a staff of more than 20 people, companies make do with self-written services, but this requires their own IT specialist who will constantly work on this solution - this is not cheap,” says Maxim Kainer.
But still, ready-made factory programs cannot solve all the customer’s problems - you must always understand that they will have to be adapted to your needs.
“Be prepared for the fact that any “boxed version” of an IT automation product will not be able to take into account all your specifics and will require additional customization to suit your processes. And the system will continue to be refined in the future as your business grows and becomes more complex.”, says Dmitry Archipenko, managing partner of the Revera law firm.

How to choose an automation system that suits your business at this stage? Leave your email and we will send you a list of suitable solutions!

Recently, interest in integrated business process management systems has been growing in Russia. It is due to many factors, including active support from the government for the introduction of modern technologies into the Russian economy. In particular, there is an objective need to automate the functioning of an enterprise to optimize management and control processes. ERP systems can take on such problems within an enterprise.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an integrated system based on a wide class of disciplines and areas of activity related to technologies for creating and processing data for managing internal and external resources of an enterprise. Simply put, ERP is an enterprise resource management system. This term was first used by the consulting company Gartner Group in the early 90s. Since then, the ERP concept has gone through many stages of development.

The main tasks solved by ERP systems are:

General and structured planning of enterprise activities;

Company financial management;

HR management;

Accounting for material resources;

Accounting and management of supply and sales;

Operational management of current activities and monitoring the implementation of plans;

Document flow of the enterprise;

Analysis of business results.

At a certain stage of development, a business is faced with the need to automate the processes and functions of the company, especially if we are talking about a large corporation or holding company. Then there is a need for specialized software that can organize the management process as efficiently as possible. ERP systems are based on the principle of creating a single repository of the enterprise’s information base accumulated in the process of doing business, in particular, financial information, data related to production, personnel, etc.

Modern business practice requires, as a rule, an individual approach. This fully applies to accounting and planning. Therefore, the most effective software is adapted directly to the complex tasks of a specific enterprise. The cost of such development is quite high due to the individual approach and implementation features, but, as a rule, the economic effect justifies the costs.

The process of implementing an ERP system at an enterprise is a technically complex undertaking that takes a long period of time. In addition to installing software and training staff, one should take into account the psychological factors of introducing a new system into the corporate culture, as well as the importance of the smooth functioning of each link.

ERP concept.

Historically, the ERP concept has become a development of the simpler concepts of MRP (Material Requirement Planning) and MRP II (Manufacturing Resource Planning). The software tools used in ERP systems allow for production planning, modeling the flow of orders and assessing the possibility of their implementation in the services and departments of the enterprise, linking it with sales.

Functions of ERP systems.

ERP systems are based on the principle of creating a single data warehouse containing all corporate business information and providing simultaneous access to it by any required number of enterprise employees vested with appropriate authority. Data changes are made through the functions (functionality) of the system. The ERP system consists of the following elements:

Model of information flow management (IP) in an enterprise;

Hardware and technical base and means of communication;

DBMS, system and application software;

A set of software products that automate IP management;

Regulations for the use and development of software products;

IT department and supporting services;

Actually users of software products.

Main functions of ERP systems:

Maintaining design and technological specifications that determine the composition of manufactured products, as well as the material resources and operations necessary for their manufacture;

Formation of sales and production plans;

Planning the requirements for materials and components, timing and volumes of supplies to fulfill the production plan;

Inventory and procurement management: maintaining contracts, implementing centralized procurement, ensuring accounting and optimization of warehouse and workshop inventories;

Planning of production capacities from large-scale planning to the use of individual machines and equipment;

Operational financial management, including drawing up a financial plan and monitoring its implementation, financial and management accounting;

Project management, including milestone and resource planning

The difference between ERP systems and electronic document management systems(EDMS) is that, as a rule, in ERP documents are machine-readable, and they are not “maintained”, but “posted” - after they have completed their life cycle, that is, they have been created, discussed, verified, agreed upon , approved, etc. And the EDMS supports such a life cycle of human-readable documents in the enterprise.

Advantages.

The use of an ERP system allows you to use one integrated program instead of several separate ones. A single system can manage processing, logistics, distribution, stocks, delivery, display invoices And accounting.

The information access control system implemented in ERP systems is designed (in combination with other enterprise information security measures) to counter both external threats (for example, industrial espionage), and internal (for example, theft). Implemented in conjunction with CRM-system and quality control system, ERP systems are aimed at maximizing the needs of companies for business management tools.

Flaws.

The main difficulties at the stage of implementing ERP systems arise for the following reasons:

The distrust of company owners in high-tech solutions results in weak support for the project on their part, which makes the implementation of the project difficult to implement.

Departmental resistance to providing confidential information reduces the effectiveness of the system.

Many problems associated with the functioning of ERP arise due to insufficient investment in personnel training, as well as insufficient policies for entering and maintaining the relevance of data in ERP.

Restrictions.

Small companies cannot afford to invest enough money in ERP and adequately train all employees.

Implementation is quite expensive.

The system may suffer from a "weak link" problem - the effectiveness of the entire system may be undermined by one department or partner.

Compatibility issue with legacy systems.

There is a misconception that sometimes ERP is difficult or impossible to adapt to document flow company and its specific business processes. In fact, any implementation of an ERP system is preceded by the stage of describing the company’s business processes, most often associated with the subsequent stage business reengineering. In essence, the ERP system is a virtual projection of the company.

The group of “organizational needs” criteria may include:

Compliance with the organization's business processes. The ERP system must be able to be customized to the organization's processes. This criterion determines the flexibility of the system when the company's activities change.
Scalability. An ERP system should allow solutions to be replicated across several divisions or several types of company activities. Also, it must be able to adapt to the size of the organization.
Alignment with the organization's strategy. The ERP system is operated over a long period of time. Therefore, it should help implement the company's strategic plans. The choice of system must be made taking into account development prospects.
Availability of industry solutions. An organization's processes depend on the industry and market in which it operates. These factors must be taken into account when choosing a system.

The group of criteria “used technologies” may include:

Software architecture. Depending on the needs and capabilities of the organization, it is necessary to select the appropriate software architecture of the ERP system, for example, “cloud services”, “client-server” architecture or “object-oriented” architecture.
Technical architecture. This selection criterion is interconnected with the previous one. The choice of technical architecture may require the organization to update communication channels, hardware, and computer equipment.
ERP system implementation technology. This criterion varies by service provider. As a rule, large manufacturers of ERP systems offer to use implementation technology for their software product. SAP, ORACLE, Microsoft, etc. have such technologies.

The group of “functionality” criteria may include:

Composition of modules. The choice of ERP system modules must be made depending on the current and future needs of the organization. The system must be able to expand in functionality.
Integration. When choosing a system, it is necessary to consider the possibility of integration with existing control systems in interrelated areas.
Visibility. An essential element of the functionality of an ERP system is the simplicity of the interface and ease of use for users. When choosing, you need to take into account the possibility of customizing the interface to suit the needs of users.
Regulatory Compliance. The ERP system affects many areas of the enterprise's activity that are regulated by law. Therefore, an important selection criterion will be the ability of the system to be adjusted to the requirements of local legislation.

The “support” criteria group may include:

Support cycle. When choosing an ERP system, you need to determine how long the supplier will support the system. Is it possible to switch to a new version of the ERP system, is it possible to modify the system to meet the organization’s needs.
Availability of support service. In the course of work, ERP system users will always have questions and difficulties. For the system to operate effectively, it is important that the supplier can guarantee support for the system's users.
Implementation experience. This criterion is related to the performance of the ERP system provider. It is necessary to pay attention to the number of successful implementations of ERP systems from a particular supplier.

The group of “cost of ownership” criteria may include:

Software cost. To operate an ERP system, an organization must purchase licenses for its use. When choosing, you need to take into account the method of calculating the cost of these licenses (for example, per group of users or per workstation, etc.).
Hardware cost. Depending on the architecture used, hardware costs can vary significantly. An organization may need to purchase server equipment and update its computing fleet.
Maintenance cost. This criterion is also significant in the cost of purchasing an ERP system.
Cost of modernization and renewal. With some ERP system providers, the cost of upgrades and upgrades can equal or exceed the cost of the initial purchase.

Implementation of an ERP system

The implementation of an ERP system is usually a long and complex process. Each major ERP system manufacturer has developed its own technologies and implementation methods. These techniques are slightly different from each other, but the general procedure is basically the same. In addition, the procedure for implementing an ERP system may vary depending on the software and hardware architecture of the ERP system. These techniques are worth paying attention to when choosing a service provider.

An organization that has decided to implement an ERP system must, on its part, take a number of actions to successfully implement the implementation project.

These actions include:

1. Preparation for implementation. At the preparation stage, the organization needs to determine the main goals for which the ERP system will be implemented. This will allow you to clearly understand the results and expectations from the implementation of the ERP system. Since the implementation of an ERP system is a rather expensive project, it is necessary to estimate the estimated budget that the organization will be able to allocate for implementation. Also, at this stage, the person responsible for the project is determined, key specialists (members of the project team from the organization’s side) are identified, and the order of their interaction is determined.

2. Business analysis. These activities are among the most critical in the entire project. As a rule, an ERP system should operate for ten years or more. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the development prospects of both the organization itself and the market for a long period.

At this stage, the organization should assess:

prospects for market and company development for several years;
composition and possibility of developing the organization’s business processes;
automation needs.

3. Selecting an ERP system. The choice of system must be made based on current and future business needs. When evaluating various options, you must be guided by the criteria indicated above (criteria for selecting ERP systems). To choose the system that best suits your business needs, it is advisable to select at least 3 options for systems from different manufacturers.

4. Selection of supplier. Typically, there are many suppliers of the same ERP system on the market. These are vendor companies or system integrators. They offer a range of services for the technical implementation of an ERP system. When choosing an ERP system supplier, you need to pay attention to its specialization. Three types of supplier specialization can be distinguished.

Each type of supplier has its own advantages and disadvantages:

horizontal specialization. Such companies have a large number of customers who work in different industries. As a rule, such suppliers have developed support services. However, their approach to implementation is “standard” for all customers.
vertical specialization. These suppliers specialize in working with customers from a limited number of industries (from one to three). This allows them to create solutions that are specifically tailored to the specifics of the industry. The implementation approach of such companies is “tailored” to a specific industry.
customer-oriented specialization. These suppliers, as a rule, implement an ERP system according to the customer's needs. During implementation, they take the basic functionality of the ERP system as a basis and modify it to suit the customer’s business conditions. This option has a significant drawback associated with updating the system and the stability of its operation.

5. Project management. The person responsible for implementing the ERP system and the organization’s specialists must manage the project within the company. They must maintain the project plan, control deadlines, budget, scope of work, and compliance with implementation goals. Another important project management task is coordinating the interaction of the organization’s employees with the supplier’s representatives (the supplier’s implementation team).

6. Testing. Even with the best implementation organization, there is a risk of errors occurring in the system. Therefore, during the commissioning of the ERP system functionality, it is necessary to provide for mandatory testing of the operation of processes, departments and modules of the ERP system. The best way to test is to run parallel work in the old system and in the ERP system being implemented. This will get rid of the main errors.

7. Trainings and education. Employee training is a prerequisite for the operation of an ERP system. Depending on the complexity of the system, this may take several weeks. Before starting training, you must ensure that the ERP system has been tested. One bad option is when the service provider combines testing and user training. In this option, employees of the organization (future users of the system) act as system testers.

8. Commissioning. Commissioning is an important point in the process of implementing an ERP system. There are two options for putting the system into operation: launching the system throughout the entire organization at once, and phased introduction. The second option is more preferable, because allows you to gradually transition to new working conditions. If errors or operational problems occur, only part of the business (individual processes or departments) will be affected, and not the entire organization.

Main mistakes when implementing an ERP system

The implementation of an ERP system is one of the most difficult, time-consuming and expensive tasks to improve operations. During implementation, problems and errors always arise, which to one degree or another affect the timing, cost, and effectiveness of the project.

The main mistakes of the ERP system implementation project include:

poor planning. For successful project implementation, the implementation of an ERP system must be carefully planned. Poor planning often leads to loss of priorities, confusion with process automation, and poor understanding of the current and future state of processes.
insufficient assessment of ERP system suppliers. Organizations do a poor job of selecting ERP system providers. As a result, the choice is made in favor of suppliers who offer the minimum price. Often, the supplier reduces the price in order to get at least one client and work on the implementation of a new system. As a result, after completion of the project it may turn out that the functionality of the ERP system is severely limited or the system operates with errors.
lack of understanding of needs. When starting to implement an ERP system, many organizations do not understand what functions and modules they need, what needs of the organization can be automated through the ERP system. This leads to the fact that many unnecessary and unused functions and modules are introduced, or, conversely, the necessary functions are used to a limited extent.
insufficient understanding of time and resource costs. Typically, organizations underestimate the time and resources required to implement an ERP system. This leads to high expectations from the system. Employees of the organization begin to believe that the ERP system will begin to work fully in a short time and will not require much effort to operate it.
lack of qualified personnel in the implementation team. A common mistake in ERP system implementation projects is to involve simple performers in the project team. The project team on the part of the organization must include highly qualified specialists (key employees) in each area of the organization’s activities: finance, management, procurement, production, warehouse, etc.
lack of priorities. Before starting a project, organizations do not prioritize achieving goals. This leads to the fact that during the implementation of an ERP system one has to solve many tasks, constantly switching between them. As a result, implementation time increases and additional errors and problems appear.
no employee training is provided. Insufficient or complete lack of employee training is a common reason for unsuccessful ERP system implementation. Employees do not understand how to work in the system and this causes rejection. The system will not be in demand; its functionality will be used to a limited extent.
underestimation of data accuracy. The operation of an ERP system is based on data processing. Therefore, the accuracy and efficiency of the system will depend on the reliability and accuracy of the data that is entered into the ERP system. To reduce errors, it is necessary to initially enter reliable and accurate data into the system. Employees working with the system must carefully check data before entering it into the system.
using outdated applications. Another problem leading to low efficiency of ERP system implementation is the continued use of outdated applications. The work is duplicated in the ERP system and legacy applications. Organizations continue to use them because their support and license renewals are paid for. This leads to the fact that the transition to working in an ERP system is delayed.
The system is not tested effectively. Often, ERP system providers offer testing on a limited number of users. Such testing will not be able to identify all the shortcomings and will not simulate the real user load.
lack of maintenance and modernization strategy. If a company does not develop a strategy for maintaining and modernizing its ERP system, it will quickly become outdated. The technical (hardware) part of the ERP system requires modernization, because Over time, the volume of data grows and new computing power is required. The software part must be constantly updated in accordance with the changing requirements of legislation and the market.

The above implementation problems are the most common and frequently encountered ones. In addition to the above, problems that are specific to each specific enterprise or organization always arise. “An effective method to avoid or minimize losses from such errors is to carefully prepare and plan each stage of the ERP system implementation project.