With the advent of the Internet has come a more dynamic and open way of manufacturers doing business. A company can no longer be satisfied with having WebPages that give contact details - these WebPages must now provide not only information on the company, but allow the purchase of products and provide information such as price, availability and delivery.
"It is a fact that at the moment only 6% of companies that allow orders to be placed via the Internet have a direct link into their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system," said Graham Shackle, Sales and Marketing Manager at QAD South Africa.
This lack of connectivity has become more evident as the consumer`s requirements have become more sophisticated, and it is only recently that the technology required has been available.
"The biggest problem faced by the ERP industry is that the majority of systems were designed many years ago, using what is now considered out dated technology and methods. This has led to a massive redesigning of the architecture of current ERP systems to separate the user interface portion of the system from the business logic," continued Graham.
The problem with this is that many systems will have undergone a full system rewrite, meaning changes to the business logic and therefore negating the fact that a system has been proven over many years. Other ERP vendors, like QAD, have taken the longer approach by separating the business logic bit-by-bit from the user interface. Taking this approach has preserved the proven business logic of its enterprise system, MFG/PRO. This means that the current installed base of MFG/PRO users can take advantage of the new interfaces, without the worry of the business logic behind the interface being changed. And new users of MFG/PRO have the assurance of business logic proven, over many years, to be stable. Both solutions have been very time consuming and costly for the vendors, but the process of change has been a necessary evil
The changing face of the computer/communications industry has meant that the providers of ERP software have been playing a catch-up game. The ERP industry will never run ahead of the technology but it can cut down the time it takes to respond to changes by developing their software with a more `open` architecture, allowing any application, any data source and any interface to interact seamlessly.
Many vendors are now entering partnerships with leading Internet companies to offer a complete e-commerce solution to a customer. This has been brought about by major organisations dictating a requirement to a supplier. The `if you don`t allow us to place orders electronically we won`t do business` is being slowly replaced with `if you don`t use xyz.com for your procurement we won`t do business.`
"One fact still remains," concluded Graham. "The ERP system at the business end needs to be in place. This is what has slowed the progression of e-business down and it is a trend that will continue for a few years to come. A manufacturing company who is only now looking to replace their legacy systems with Internet enabled software must still go through the `growing pains` of first getting their own house in order.".
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