Re: Is ERP dead? -- MIDRANGE-L

There is an article in the current issue of eCompany (one of the new, full
of ads & hype) magazine about the death of ERP. It is an interesting read,
article call Binge and Purge (who killed ERP). Apparently some of the "big
guys" in ERP have been jumping ship for a while.  The other interesting
article is about your customers calling you up and forcing you to e-bid with
the rest of the world to keep their business (Dear Supplier).
Jim Franz

----- Original Message -----
From: <DAsmussen@aol.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2000 5:37 PM
Subject: Re: Is ERP dead?


> Joel,
>
> Comments inline (Good rant, BTW):
>
> In a message dated 5/28/00 2:30:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> JFritz@sharperimage.com writes:
>
> > <RANT>
> >
> >  Somehow I don't see the value in an ERP package for an established
company.
> >  If you have decent software that does what a package will do, chances
are
> it
> >  will work better for you than an ERP package and will be easier to
extend.
> >  Of course, "decent software" is the part that's questionable.  When I
read
> >  the stories in the trade magazines about moves to ERP or whatever the
> flavor
> >  of the month is, over and over again, the problem seems to be badly
written
> >  existing software.  The articles never deal with how the companies
decided
> >  to go with the package rather than fixing what they had.  I often
wonder
> >  whether it would have been better to do it in house.  Certainly, a lot
of
> >  the obvious blood baths reported in the magazines as unqualified
successes
> >  don't give me a lot of confidence in the package alternative.
>
> Too many times, the choice was made because a manager went to a trade show
or
> the in-house staff was just incompetent (or both).  Many ERP installations
> occurred because of Y2K concerns.  Many more happened because of your
> mentioned "flavor du jour" problem.  Packaged software will _NEVER_
replace a
> well-written, maintained, and robust in-house package, but the vendors
will
> certainly tell you that they can.  Packages are good if you evaluate the
> thoroughly and choose based on the best structure for your business, but
most
> companies don't do this -- they choose based upon who gives them the best
> deal or what their brother-in-law bought last year.  Another failure point
of
> ERP systems is trying to make an unsuitable package fit the wrong business
> model.
>
> >  If you don't know whether or not you have inventory available to fill
> >  orders, you shouldn't be selling stuff.  That results from ignoring the
> >  operational side of the business.  Whether you have an ERP package or
not
> >  doesn't matter.  Many companies had perfectly good systems to do this
long
> >  before the term "ERP" was invented.  It's Moliere's old gag about
> >  discovering you've been speaking prose all your life.
>
> Surprising, but many companies _DO NOT_ know whether or not they can fill
an
> order.  Toys 'R US certainly isn't a "mom and pop" operation, yet they
failed
> the "Christmas test" miserably.  Really Joel, look at the stuff your
company
> sells -- you guys have been "high tech" before it was cool to be so :)!
>
> Regards!
>
> Dean Asmussen
> Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
> Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
> E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com
>
> "The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do.
> Doing it is the hard part." -- H. Norman Schwarzkopf
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