Business Analysis

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) describes a broad set of activities that help manufacturers and other companies manage key areas of their businesses, including product planning and development, inventory management, parts purchasing, accounts receivable and payable, order tracking, and customer service. Software applications by

leading vendors such as SAP and PeopleSoft have emerged to support these activities by providing a single interface to ERP data, often employing different modules for general aspects of the business to aid user in specific areas such as finance and engineering.

More than 60% of the Fortune 1000 have implemented Enterprise

(ERP) systems to streamline and automate business support processes. Properly

implemented, Enterprise (ERP) systems can help companies improve operational efficiency and achieve more consistent results. However, no ERP systems will payback the implementation investment unless the application and business processes are aligned.

Companies that have made the investment the structure of ERP software is oriented to application areas and functions, not business processes. Since ERP implementation is an IT project, a great deal of effort is focused on fixing misalignment between existing data repositories and the new applications. Much less attention has been paid to the critical need to align the application with the client company's business processes. As a result, work forces struggle to perform processes.