Introduction

The report has been prepared to highlight the evolution of ERP systems. The report includes discussion on the legacy systems and how the systems across the globe including NASA were dependent on it. The report highlights the advantages and limitations of the system. At the same time the ERP systems have also been discussed which highlight the increased efficiency of the system and elimination of the drawbacks of the legacy system. However the limitations of the ERP system have been discussed. The report provides a comparison between the Legacy system and the ERP system and how the two systems have been used across the world. The report thus provides the basis for the selection of ERP system amongst the various vendors in the market.

Legacy systems
Legacy system may be defined as the computer system that have become obsolete but may be in use due to inability to change the data to newer or standard formats or its application programs cannot be upgraded (Ulrich, 2002). Basically it is a computer application which is continued to be used because of the high cost of replacing and redesigning. The legacy systems that were developed were basically on COBOL which was supported DB2 database and IMS database. However COBOL was easy to understand, both for programmer and managers, but there were issues associated with it as the legacy systems had their limitations. The biggest example of legacy systems is the NASAs space shuttle program. In this case the equipments that were used were built on legacy system. Thus there was huge cost associated with the flight certification as the legacy hardware was developed separately for each of the equipments and thus involved huge cost. Thus there was a huge cost associated with the testing of the equipment. However since the integration of all the equipments was under the legacy system there was smooth working. The above discussion highlights that the Legacy systems have some advantages and disadvantages as highlighted by the William Ulrich. The advantages of legacy systems include that these are able to support the existing business processes. This is to say that the legacy systems that have been developed for the business processes are working efficiently and thus the complete business process is dependent on it. Secondly the legacy systems are

reliable. This is to say that most of the business functionality have been built and proven. Thus the legacy systems are complete in itself. Thirdly the legacy systems are cheaper to implement and maintain (Ulrich, 2002). However there are certain disadvantages of legacy systems. Firstly the processes of legacy systems are difficult to understand and require a great deal of skill and time to understand the complete functionality of the system. Another major issue of the legacy system is the difficulty associated with separation of business logic from data logic. This is to say that the two systems are completely different and thus there is great amount of difficulty associated with integrating both. Other disadvantage of legacy systems are difficulty of manipulating, modifying the system and integration with the current system (Ulrich, 2002). There is issue of documentation related to technical and functional aspect and also the unavailability of regression tests of the system.

ERP systems
ERP systems may be defined as set of software applications that are used to organize and standardize the business processes that are essential for the planning and control in an organisation. ERP is built on database management system which is central to the ERP system. ERP applications provide planning applications that can provide recommendations for accomplishment of the requirement (Rashid, Hossain & Patrick, 2002). Thus ERP

systems integrate internal and external management information across the organisation in order to facilitate the flow of information in the organisation. There are various vendors of ERP system. The major vendors of ERP system in the market are SAP and Oracle. The basic features of SAP ERP system are its flexibility and ease of integration of the various functionalities and the departments and also the ease of integration with different system is another advantage of SAP. However the biggest disadvantage of SAP is the costing and the complexity of the ERP system developed by it. The Oracle ERP system is designed on Oracle App framework. Oracle Financials is the largest growing ERP system in the world. The main advantages of Oracle ERP system are, the User Interface which is easy to use, integration with web enabled features and easy customization. However the disadvantages of the Oracle ERP include unattractive user interface, requirement of data connection and the inability to integrate with legacy systems.

The ERP system was implemented by Mercedes Benz. The system has been a huge boost for the company as it provided a direct link between manufacturing process and the website. Thus the efficient tracking of the product was maintained which in turn improved customer satisfaction. The advantages of ERP systems over the legacy systems discussed earlier include cost reduction and improved scalability. The reduction in cost is due to time saving. This is because the same system can be integrated for the different processes and thus reduced cost of not to implement it from start as was the case with legacy systems. The improved scalability is due to modular structured design. This feature was missing in the legacy systems (Rashid, Hossain & Patrick, 2002). Another advantage of ERP system over the legacy system is that the data and operational redundancy is avoided. This is to say that the central database is managed which is accessed by different modules and thus multiple data input and the update operations is avoided. The disadvantages of the ERP system include the dependency on the vendor and the cost of implementation. The Legacy systems were not that costly and also were not dependent on vendors (Rashid, Hossain & Patrick, 2002). This is to say that in case of ERP systems if one wants to shift from one vendor to another would require complete change of system and huge cost will be involved. Second major issue is the complexity associated with features. This is to say that the ERP system has the ability t integrate many modules together. However it may increase the efficiency of the system but also impart complexity to the system.

Conclusion
Thus it can be seen that there are certain advantages and disadvantages associated with both the system. However the ERP systems have provided the necessary adaptability that was missing with the legacy systems. The certain disadvantages of the ERP system that have been discussed may not be huge concern for the organisation that are dependent on the overall operational efficiency of the system and thus ERP has provided the necessary solution for the operations of such organisations (Bingi, Sharma and Godla, 1999). Overall ERP systems have implemented the modern technologies and have been successful, to a certain extent overcome the limitations of the legacy systems that have been discussed. The advantages of ERP systems over the legacy systems discussed earlier include cost reduction and improved scalability. The reduction in cost is due to time saving. This is

because the same system can be integrated for the different processes and thus reduced cost of not to implement it from start as was the case with legacy systems (Holland and Light, 1999). The improved scalability is due to modular structured design. Thus such features of ERP system are the reason for the success of these systems over the legacy system. There is continuous research and development that is being done by the ERP vendors to improve the profitability of the company by improving the integration process and reducing the cost of implementation.

References
Ulrich W.M., (2002), Legacy Systems: Transformation Strategies, Prentice Hall; 1 edition Shields, M.G., (2001). E-Business and ERP: Rapid Implementation and Project Planning. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Bingi, P., Sharma, M. K. and Godla, J. K. (1999). Critical issues affecting an ERP

implementation. Information Systems Management, 16(3), 7-14 Holland, C. and Light, B. (1999). A critical success factors model for ERP implementation. IEEE Software, May/June, 30-36. Rashid M.A., Hossain L & Patrick J.D., (2002), The Evolution of ERP Systems: A Historical Perspective