ERP IMPLEMENTATION IN SME’s

E R P (enterprise Resource Planning) implementation is still a jargon for SME (Small and
Medium Enterprises) where the it is a challenge to implement an ERP due to absence of a
good coordinator from the company’s side.

Why most of the SME’s are either unwilling to implement ERP or unable to implement
successfully, despite the fact that there are number of good ERP software available in the
market in branded and semi branded categories at an affordable price. Most of the SME’s
are uncomfortable to implement ERP, mainly due to high failure rate in the market. If we
recall history of ERP failures, most of these failures are not due to software failure, but
are due to poor implementation. This calls for a study of reasons for the failure.

At the outset, SME’s fail to engage highly paid consultants, who are the main link
between the software provider (technical team) and the end user. Further, ERP
implementation is not just installation and configuration of the software but is process of
defining the way an organization should work, it involves defining the process flows
within different departments and across the departments, imposing the checks & controls
at different points and implementing the authorisation levels in all departments, which
requires certain important and stern decisions to be taken for successful execution.

Who can be a better person than a functional head in the company to fulfill the above said
requirement of a consultant and a strong coordinator, who has the pulse of the
organization and is in an influential and controlling position.

EPR implementation involves certain steps which starts with BPR (Business Process
Reengineering) and who can understand Business Processes better than a Functional
Head, who understands the process of Purchase, Sales, Inventory, Material Movement,
Accounts, Excise, Vat, Consumption, Production, HR etc especially during the Internal
Audit process.

The second step of ERP implementation involves understanding the process flow of the
ERP software that the organization is in the process of implementation. Understanding
the process flows requires certain training on the software and an EDP Engineer with a
bunch of exposure and experience in the technical processes requires certain limited
sessions to understand the technicalities in any ERP software.

The third step of ERP implementation is to map the functional processes of the
organization with the functionality of the software. This is where the role of functional
consultant is most important and critical and the best bet is a Senior Executive of the
company with functional exposure and training of the ERP software.
Ones the mapping of the processes is done, the execution of ERP starts with process
definition within different departments and across the departments, imposing the checks
& controls at different points and implementing the authorisation levels across all
departments.

To sum up, for SME’s the Functional Head along with the EDP Head is the best bet for
implementation of ERP.
Abhi sagar is a software professional, researching on ERP software Erp SolutionsERP
Product Erp Developing, ERP implementation, ERP Services & ERP Classic Software
Subject -
Why Implement ERP Software on
SMEs
Netsoft Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. proudly announces the new version of ERP for Small
Scale Industries of India and more particularly Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai,
Goa and India. This ERP has all possible modules to integrate all the divisions of a
company to the optimum level. ImpactERP has already enabled so many companies of
manufacturing and other segment to automate its departments and decisions. The core
intention of launching the new version of the ERP is to facilitate the clients with a low
cost product with outstanding features and widely covered modules. The basic idea
ofERP software, application ERP, customized ERP to provide the users with cheap ERP
at the same time with best featured ERP and wide range of modules.

Present day market provides ample space for SMEs to expand their business enterprise
horizon, what at times was a rigid system has now provided opportunities to SMEs (30 to
200 employees) businesses to expand, with multi-user computing capabilities, wide
communication networking and strong support system to manage business. ERP, the
concrete system has brought big enterprises and SMEs share fruits of ERP development
India together. Still ERP implementation is costlier, but the cost has reduced manifolds
what was biggest category of the IT investment. Implementing and managing ERP
software solutions for different business modules is costly, so be careful and make
strategies to successful in your mission.

Impact ERP Software Solution India helps manufacturers or traders from small
businesses to mid-size enterprises. Integration of data across the enterprise ensures that
you have greater visibility in all areas of your business, from daily operations to a
strategic decision level. Insight into production, inventory and financial data makes it
easy to identify opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements. A high-level
view of key business indicators facilitates faster and more accurate management
decisions and an “Impact” interface puts all of this at your fingertips when and where you
want it.

Talking about ERP benefits is that overall efficiency is improved; customer retention rate
is also high with better services, real time updating, improved planning and reliability of
delivery. Most of the ERP software packages developed today can be easily used by
SMEs. These ERP software product target niche market; the basic price is same but the
price of the software package implementation differs depending on the concurrent users
in the network and the number of modules that they will use. To minimize the risk of
failure, ERP software package should be carefully chosen depending on your enterprise
needs. Most of the ERP software packages are designed to suit SMEs businesses specific
needs, all at one place 'One-stop business software solution’.
Impact ERP is among one of the best ERP selling companies established in the market
for past seven years and hence catering to the versatile market requirements of the
industry. Impact ERP uses the best technology tools presently available in the market. In
present time the demand of ERP is increasing very rapidly. Netsoft Solutions is a
software company which provides best ERP solutions for small, medium scale industries.
ERP Implementation Case Study in SME
Case Study of Alfa Pneumatics

Alfa Pneumatics is a manufacturing co. for pneumatic tools for pumps and Marine
industry, operating on tight margins and turn over of less than 1 Million. Management of
the company had realistic plans of growth in future but wanted to cut down the operating
cost and time. But against the future plans, company had serious issues with material
supply process from supplier, tracking the same at sub-contractor’s site and managing
sales data due to which, delivery against sales order used to get delayed, costing to the
company dearly. To overcome these, Alfa Pneumatics implemented Ebizframe ERP
software, a solution from Eastern Software Systems Limited.

Before going for ERP, manual data entry in each department caused major worries for the
management as no data, either in sales, purchase or inventory tallied with the actual at
hand. This made decision making for the management of the company impossible or a
huge risk. It got out of hand when technical specifications followed by production team,
suppliers, sub-contractors and customers were all haywire. This in turn caused variations
in required and supplied from suppliers and materials going and coming in from sub-
contractors. The same caused rejections from customer’s side causing cost again.

It was then that company decided to go for an ERP to solve all these glitches.
Implementation of ERP started by Nov 2003 and went live by March 2004. ERP was

adopted with minor customization and major re-engineering of their business processes to
improve on performance. Challenges of understanding the concepts and quick
adoptability by staff during implementation of ERP were tackled well by team from both
sides. All specifications for raw material, semi finished and finished goods are now
incorporated into the system. Turn around time of delivery against order is reduced by 12
to 15 days. Also, company has now got the required controls over suppliers and sub-
contractors. Company is has got crystal clear MIS reports of receivables and payables. As
of now, Sales (including exports), Purchase, Inventory, Production and finance are live.

Correct, uniform and smoother flow of information across suppliers, sub-contractors and
customers caused delight in each due to timely receipts and payments against deliveries
with precision. Even dead stock has come down by 18 to 20% of whole. Stock tracking at
inventory & sub-contractor’s site was accurate due to live inventory related reports.
Production processes are streamlined based on the production advice from Sales as per
order bookings made. For future, company has plans for customization of reporting in
ERP considering growth plans.