ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING FOR STUDENTS AND PROFESSIONALS OF Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India

BY P.Karthikeyan Grad CWA Karthikeyanp1981@gmail.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 3 WHAT IS ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)? ......................................................... 4 ERP PROJECT PHASE AND IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY .................................... 4 DIFFERENT JOB PROFILES IN ERP ............................................................................................ 5 DIFFERENT ERP SOFTWARES .................................................................................................... 5 ROLE OF A FUNCTIONAL CONSULTANT IN AN ERP IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT ... 6 STARTING POINT FOR ICWAI PROFESSIONAL ..................................................................... 6 HOW TO LEARN / GET TRAINED IN ERP ............................................................................... 7 HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE FOR TRAINING ........................................................................... 7 WHAT WOULD BE THE COST OF TRAINING ......................................................................... 7 JOB PROSPECTS AFTER GETTING TRAINED IN ERP ............................................................. 7 CERTIFICATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 8 CAREER GROWTH IN ERP FOR FINANCE PROFESSIONALS .............................................. 8 SALARY EXPECATATIONS IN ERP FIELD ............................................................................... 9 JOB MARKET FOR ERP PROFESSIONALS - GEOGRAPHICALLY IN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL ARENA.......................................................................................................... 9 JOB PORTALS ................................................................................................................................ 9 CHOOSING ERP PRODUCT ...................................................................................................... 10 DRAWBACKS OF ERP FIELD .................................................................................................... 10 MORE ABOUT ORACLE ERP .................................................................................................... 11 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ......................................................................................... 11

INTRODUCTION
Greetings fellow and future professionals, I welcome you all to a simple presentation of mine which speaks about the importance or usage of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) for ICWAI professionals and Students. At least for the last two years this area has gained lot of importance among professionals in finance domain, however there isnt enough information available on the same, rather I would say the information is not available in the way it will be useful to the students and professionals, hence I have decided to pen down my experience and knowledge about ERP and its usage for ICWAI professionals. Let me introduce myself for the readers, My name is karthikeyan, I am from Chennai. I have completed my ICWAI and presently working in the ERP field as a consultant. My total work experience amounts to 6 years. I have also been moderating a community in orkut for a reasonable period of time. Having been a moderator for the ICWAI community in orkut for substantial period of time, I can easily identify areas which require more clarity to students. There have been greater discussions, at times debate was also made on these areas, where most of them were sharing their perceptions and assumptions and not the reality. I dont want to be a silent spectator encouraging wrong assumptions, which is not going to help anyone in future; luckily I have found some free time to make a presentation which would bring down some clarity. There are many topics which require series attention; however I have chosen this for the simple reason, me being an ICWAI Professional working in ERP field. Even though I have been answering most of the queries through my replies in orkut topics, scraps and emails, but still I personally feel there may be a good amount of silent spectators in the community who may come to wrong conclusions based on some topics and pointless discussions, without performing deep analysis. This presentation is purely targeted at clearing all queries of my beloved fellow professionals and students of ICWAI with respect to making a career in ERP.

I would request everyone to take your time in reading this presentation with patience and open mind and share your views / feedback / criticisms to my Gmail id karthikeyanp1981@gmail.com. So that I can make corrections, to the presentation at the earliest.

WHAT IS ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)?

I do not want to bore any one with copy paste extracts from study materials, I am putting it in a very simplified manner, since the purpose is to understand and not biheart the wordings. ERP is a Computer Software, designed keeping in mind the Best Business Practices followed by business globally. The capabilities of ERP software are beyond most of our imaginations. It does not restrict to mere recording of financial transactions, it extends beyond that. It can do planning, forecasting, MIS Reports, business processes, Statutory compliances and many more, in short it is a Complete Integrated Business Management System. Now that you know it is a computer software, most of us think how different it can be from other financial (non ERP) software packages one has worked till date. The difference is due to the design made based on the requirements of the business. A single ERP software can be designed and configured in such a fashion which would satisfy all the business industry needs and at the time, it will look very different when compared with each other designs, whereas on the normal financial software packages, the design is fixed for the whole package, irrespective of any industry, the screens, designs, features remain the same, the flexibility is not there.

ERP PROJECT PHASE AND IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY

ERP software is completely different from other softwares which we have seen till date. Installation is not the only task, there are different aspects to it and each has to be done in different phases, this is ideally termed as Implementation of an ERP Package. Let me breakdown the phases involved in implementing an ERP package in a sequential order for better clarity, Step 1 - Company has to decide first why they need an ERP Software to run their business & why the same cannot be achieved through smaller software applications. Step 2 List down the business requirements of the organisation which needs to be met by the ERP Software Step 3 Provide those business requirements to various Implementation Partners (Ideally Software Companies involved in ERP implementation) inviting their recommendations and Proposals for implementing the same. Step 4 Review the recommendations and proposals submitted by various implementation Partners, and decide on an ERP software and an implementation partner. Step 5 Implementation Partner along with the subject matter experts, consultants will Study the business processes of the company and map it to the ERP system. Step 6 Test the design by simulating real time business scenarios Step 7 Provide training to the employees of the company, so that they can handle the new System independently.

Step 8 Migrate data from the old system to the new ERP system Step 9 Start using the new ERP system Of all the above steps, Step 5 is the stage where the Implementation Team will study the business process of the company and design the product as per the requirement; this is a stage where an individual with knowledge and understanding of business and also the ERP software is required. To perform this very critical stage of the project successfully you need people who understand business language and ERP product language, and this is the place where Finance professionals like Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants, and MBA finance people are needed.

DIFFERENT JOB PROFILES IN ERP

Implementing ERP software for a Company is not an easy task, there is a big pool of people with different skill sets is required; let me explain them in brief: Database Administrators They are pure technical skilled people who are responsible for installation of ERP software. Technical Consultant They are pure technical skilled people, who can customize the design, code, layouts of the ERP software Functional Consultant They are typically business analysts who have business knowledge and product knowledge. This profile is suitable for Finance Professionals. Functional Lead Consultant It is nothing but a Functional Consultant with more experience who will be responsible for the design developed. This profile is suitable for Finance Professionals Subject Matter Expert SME is a Functional consultant with heavy work experience and extensive knowledge on the ERP product. Support Consultant They are functional Consultants who assist the company after implementation of ERP software till Client gets used to the new software Techno-Functional Consultants They are the ones who possess the skills of Technical Consultant and Functional Consultant. End Users / Super Users They are employees of the company / Client who is going to use the ERP application on a daily basis for data entry and report generation.

DIFFERENT ERP SOFTWARES

There are many different types of ERP softwares available in the market, each specializes in particular industry, few leading ERP softwares are: Oracle E Business Suite, SAP, Ramco, Finnacle, BAAN Etc....

ROLE OF A FUNCTIONAL CONSULTANT IN AN ERP IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT

Functional consultant in any ERP implementation project is expected to perform the below activities: Detail Study on Clients Business Process Document the Current Client Business Process Compilation of all Business Scenarios currently in place Attend Meetings and Discussions with business users at various levels Design of Future Clients Business Process Document the Future Client Business Process Design new Business Process with Technical Consultant Convince Client on the Future Business Process Designed Demonstrate all current Business Scenarios in the new ERP system Preparation of User Manuals Conduct User Training

The above list is only inclusive; there are projects where a functional consultant can perform additional tasks beyond what is required, which differs on a case to case basis.

STARTING POINT FOR ICWAI PROFESSIONAL

As an ICWAI Professional, one must be purely targeting at being a Functional Consultant. In order to become a Functional Consultant, the basic prerequisites is to understand the business and processes, which is provided by the ICWAI course itself along with industrial and practical training, and the next basic prerequisite is that one must know the ERP software for which one has to get proper training from the respective learning centres or computer coaching institutes. Else the next best option is to be an End User / Super User. As an ICWAI professional, if you are working in an organisation which is already using ERP software, you must have been trained to use such ERP software for generating reports, recording transactions based on your job profile. Being an End User / Super User is the much easier way to learn the Product, without getting trained separately at your own cost, since your company will provide training. Having said the above, there are greater chances that one may develop more interest on the technical side of the product like coding, programming etc.. in which case he will become an Techno Functional Consultant, but to start with he must be either a Functional or Technical Consultant. Therefore the target must be either End user / Super user Profile or Functional Consultant.

HOW TO LEARN / GET TRAINED IN ERP

In order to attain the ERP Software Product knowledge one must attend formal training conducted by Authorised Computer Training Institutes/ Coaching Centres. For example, if one has to learn oracle ERP software, you can perform a simple search in Google and find out the institutes which are authorised to conducts training by Oracle. The training will be a class room training where concepts and hands on training will be provided.

HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE FOR TRAINING

The duration is most likely less than a month period of time, an ERP product is branched in to so many areas like Finance Modules, Supply Chain Modules, Payroll Modules, Manufacturing Modules, and HRMS Modules etc ....the duration of the training depends on the areas in which you are willing to get yourself trained. The Training period may extend beyond a month based on the time you spend on a daily basis, a full day training scheme will enable to complete the training in less than a month, whereas weekend batches or alternate days training will extend beyond one month of training. One has to plan based on the availability of time, an ICWAI student would be more keen on taking up full time batches whereas a working professional can only afford weekend batches.

WHAT WOULD BE THE COST OF TRAINING

The cost of getting trained in an ERP package is normally on the costlier side, if there is an institute offering it for cheaper price, one can be rest assured that they are not an authorised institute. For an Oracle ERP product, to learn Financial Modules alone will cost around 1.5 lakhs and the duration would be 20+ Working days, for SAP it may cost around 2 lakhs or more. The cost is purely dependant on the Modules which you have selected for training.

JOB PROSPECTS AFTER GETTING TRAINED IN ERP

Information Technology industry is not the stable one, it has its ups and downs at frequent intervals, every 3-5 years there will be recession and Boom in the job market. Since most of the projects were initially driven by companies and clients outside India. But the recent trend and changes are indicating that there are large number of Companies in India have started implementing ERP packages, and the demand has been stable for some period of time. Initial break in any field is the difficult part in any career, same applies to ERP domain, getting the first break is often difficult, but once that is achieved then there is no looking back.

The better way to land in a job after training is to select Training Institutes which offers / guarantees placement assistance. Also update resumes in leading Job portals and keep applying to all jobs related to your skill set.

CERTIFICATIONS
In the world of information technology, reading software documentations through self reading or getting trained in a computer coaching / learning centre alone does not state that he is having the necessary skill set to perform the task. He needs to be tested on his skills, which is done through certification exams. Every Software vendor conducts various certification exams which are used on grading the professionals based on the expertise on the product. These certification exams are not part of course fee, one has to pay it separately and take it. Certification exams are not mandatory for everyone. In reality, it always gives an upper edge when you are a certified professional than someone who has just attended training alone. When someone does not have requisite years of experience, these certifications can be of some factor which may help in getting a job. These are value additions and I would only insist everyone who is getting trained in ERP product to right away take up these certification exams.

CAREER GROWTH IN ERP FOR FINANCE PROFESSIONALS

In the Information Technology field, the growth can be at times really faster, than the domain industry. The Designations change in phases as years go by, one ideally starts as a Consultant or Associate Consultant which is considered as a junior profile, as you touch 3 years of experience you will become a Consultant, when you touch 5+ years of experience you will be a Senior Consultant. Now from here onwards you are just one step away from becoming a manager. There were many senior consultants who I have seen does not want to become managers, since they like to work on the product, becoming manager will shift their focus from working on the product to managing people. Those people tend to become Subject Matter experts or Solution Architects when they touch around 8+ years of experience. If one prefers to become a manager after senior consultant, then he can further continue to become a Senior Manager and then Program Manager, Associate Director, Director, Vice President etc..... The Organisation Structure and designations may be called in different names under various companies, what I have stated is for illustrative purposes only.

SALARY EXPECATATIONS IN ERP FIELD

Information Technology industry is known for its attractive remuneration, even though they were very much attractive five years back, recession and depression and various other global factors have made it very restrictive in recent times. The hiring is always opportunistic, which means people with same qualification, same work experience, hired for same work will be paid two different salaries, which is based on the: Negotiation skills of the candidate, and the requirement of the company, if the requirement is very critical and urgent, company will offer higher salary package, so there isnt any hard and fast rule, or industry standards being followed. But I have provided a very rough idea as to what is being paid currently in India for professionals in ERP Domain. As a beginner it is tuff luck to get the first break, therefore the initial salary will never be great, may be around 10-20 K per month. After few years of experience lets say around 3 to 5 years of experience can get around 30 to 60K per month. Once a person is a senior consultant who is now having above 6 years of experience he may draw anywhere between 60K to 1L per month......... The yearly increments or appraisals are not that great in Indian Companies, they range from 3 to 5% and very occasionally some may get above 5%. My Sincere advice to all professionals working in IT field, is not to target for appraisals and better rating, since they are not decided based on performance, they are decided based on company budgets. So do not work 200% and waste your effort, you are rending your services for the money you are receiving that is all and there is nothing more to it.

JOB MARKET FOR ERP PROFESSIONALS - GEOGRAPHICALLY IN DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL ARENA
ERP Implementation, during the earlier days (10-15 years back) it used to happen only outside India due to the project cost and lack of resources, whereas now the growth of domestic companies have grown, there are many Indian companies who have implemented ERP for their organisation. But still I would say the scope of job opportunities are plenty to work/travel outside the country, else work for a foreign company from staying in India. In domestic market, metro cities are considered to have more job opportunities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi / NCR Region and Hyderabad. In International Market, for Oracle ERP Software, US, Singapore and Middle East countries are major leaders, for SAP most of the European nations.

JOB PORTALS
The starting point would be to upload your resume in the job portals like naukri, monsterindia etc. Then start applying in the leading consulting companies websites, every information technology will have an option under their website called careers where one can submit their resume, companies will call the candidate when they have an opening in hand.

Also keep searching the internet on a daily basis on job openings, advertisements, walk in drives. If you have a friend who is working in an IT company, you can ask him to refer your resume to the Human Resources Recruitment department. Being proactive is the only way you can get that first break.

CHOOSING ERP PRODUCT

This has always been a debatable area of discussion. Without a question the two leading ERP softwares are SAP and ORACLE. Each has their advantages and limitations. I would say Oracle has its upper edge when compared to SAP on the cost perspective, therefore I could see more clients using Oracle ERP when compared to SAP. Apart from these two global ERP packages, there are many other ERP softwares which are popular for specific industries.

DRAWBACKS OF ERP FIELD

As ERP domain is a part of Information Technology Industry, it suffers from all typical drawbacks of the I.T field, for readers who are not aware of them, I am sharing a few from my personal experiences: Numbers of Professionals with FAKE profiles are in plenty in IT domain; therefore it is totally common to see incompetent professionals as your colleagues. Inexperienced people handing critical assignments and tasks Decisions are always made from Cost cutting and maximization of profit motive, therefore client/customer satisfaction is never considered. There will be Additional working hours required to be put in on a daily basis, because of lot of incompetent people in the team and poor effort estimation and planning by the Management Client interaction is very critical, and convincing the client normally comes as a big challenge in any consulting profession. This often creates heated arguments and bad relationship with individuals. Stricter Norms and Restrictive Clauses in offer letters and vague company policies often makes IT companies a very unsafe place to work. As they tend to violate labour laws, human rights etc. IT Professionals never think twice to lie. All unethical work practices and intentional deception are carried out by them or forced on them by the management on a daily basis. Greater risks that a person may be assigned to a less competent designation or profile for a longer period of time. Greater difference in Salaries when compared to peers Greater display of stupidity in Management, Cheap Behaviour, Lack of Discipline, in short office politics are quite common. One will always be threatened with the Ratings on the performance appraisal cycle. And many more...........

MORE ABOUT ORACLE ERP

As I am currently working on the Oracle ERP product, I will give a small briefing about the product. The ERP software provided by Oracle is called as Oracle E Business Suite. This E business Suite has variety of Modules, like for Financials, Supply Chain, Human Resources, Manufacturing etc. Based on the requirement one can choose the relevant area and select those modules. For example, assume being a finance professional I wanted to learn Modules related to Financials, in which case oracle offers the following five financial modules: General Ledger Module, Accounts Payable Module, Accounts Receivable Module, Fixed Assets Module and Cash Management Module Please visit http://education.oracle.com and read more on Oracle E Business Suite.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Question I am from pure commerce background; I do not have any computer background so far apart from working in MS- Office applications. Is it possible for me to get trained in ERP software without any technical knowledge and skills? Answer It is possible for anyone and everyone to get ERP Training, one need not posses greater technical knowledge, since you will be taught what you need to know in the training programme. However some basic skills like understanding computer terminologies, able to perform actions in computer independently based on instructions will be good to have skills. Question I am a student pursing Final CWA, and I have decided to get an ERP Training. I want to know when the ideal time is to get myself trained. Whether should I wait till completion of my Course or can I get training right now along with my finals. Please Advice Answer ERP is computer software which tends to have various versions of it, as technology changes in a very short period of time. So if you get yourself trained in ERP before completing Final, the chances are very minimal that you will get a job before completion of final. In which case, it will take some amount of time for you to land in your first job, during that time; the ERP software might have released a new version which may require additional training. So it is better to take up the ERP training after completion of your Course, since when it comes to Software and Technology, one has to prefer to the latest, therefore wait till the last moment.

Frankly speaking the version or new releases of ERP product are not that frequent, it will take minimum couple of years to release a new version. Question I am a fresher, without any work experience till date. I am thinking of getting myself trained under ERP. Is it necessary that one need to have some professional work experience in Accounting and Finance before getting trained under ERP. Answer It is not mandatory for everyone to have a professional work experience, having said that, work experience helps in understanding and learning the ERP product. ERP is a software built with best business practices and processes, in order to understand the business process and logics used by the product, a working professional will find it much easier than a fresher. Question Does Getting trained in ERP and Shifting to an Job field in ERP, is considered as a Career shift from Costing profile to a different field all together? Is it advisable to do so? Answer It is a career shift, as long as a person considers that ICWAI professionals must working in Manufacturing Organisations performing cost sheets and nothing else. The scope for ICWAI professionals has opened up a lot; there are areas which have never been done till date is awaiting our professional expertise, and however the decision purely depends on the individual. Also, every business organisation, be it manufacturing / service / trading organisation will definitely have an software application to run their business, for a large scale concern chances are more that they will be using an ERP software application. In which case, even a person who wants to work in pure manufacturing organisation would be learning the ERP product as to perform his day to day activities. ERP has its presence in everywhere in forms which are not very easily visible. Question Assuming that one person has shifted from Core Cost accounting field to ERP domain and worked for few years, and later due to lack of satisfaction or discomfort or some other reason, want to shift back to the core cost accounting field. Can one do so; will there be any impact due to shift in Industry? Answer Absolutely Not, One can shift to Cost Accounting domain or any other domain, if they are not comfortable with the ERP domain. The factors which require relaxation are salary, since in ERP industry you might be drawing more salary, which cannot match up with the salary paid by Domain companies. You have to update yourself on the learning you missed out by not working on the cost accounting field, like new rules, standards, notifications etc...

There is no greater impact, one can do whatever they are comfortable with. Question As a continuation from previous Question , by Shifting to ERP, I will be losing all of my learnings till date from my Core Domain industry, later even if I wanted to return to Core Domain Industry, it looks totally impossible, due to the learnings lost and I have to start all over again like being a fresher. Is it a Myth or a Valid Risk? Answer I would say it is a Myth the reason being, how can one forget what you have studied, by shifting to ERP Industry, you will only learn more. Then, the common wide assumption is that ERP will provide only technical based knowledge and nothing about business, which is totally wrong. ERP product demands a person to know about the statutory requirements, accounting standards, IFRS norms, Income Tax Act, Sales Tax, VAT, Service Tax etc.. Since ERP product is designed to perform transactions related to all taxes available in the country, how can one design the process and the test the accuracy if he is not aware of all of the above. Question What is the ideal time for an ICWAI Student to get training for ERP? Answer Ideal time is after completing the ICWAI course, and if possible after gaining at least a year of work experience. Question Getting trained in ERP is a One Time Activity or is it a Continuous process? Answer Getting trained in ERP software is not an one time activity, as when the ERP company releases new versions and modifications to the existing product which you have learnt, you have to update your skills and fill the knowledge gap. Therefore learning/training is a continuous process in the ERP Domain. Question I wanted to know, is it worth spending such an huge amount for training, can it be done at much cheaper price. What will happen if I am unable to get placed in a proper profile in ERP after getting the Training? Answer First, please do not think money spent on education/ training as expense, it is an investment. Now there are organisations which offer the training at much cheaper rates with pirated softwares, poor infrastructure, and incomplete training manuals. It is totally up to

that individual to provide preference to Quality or not. Studying MBA from B School is different from studying it some state level university. Now the risk of not getting a job after getting the training, it will be there in all professions. If you badly want things to happen, it will happen the way you wanted it to happen, else nothing can be done. Question Apart from basic working knowledge in computers, is there any soft skills one is required to have for better prospects in the ERP field? Answer Soft skills are mandatory for an employee irrespective of the type of organisation. Every organisation spends a considerable amount of money on training their employees, the reason being the educational institutes in India are not producing the students who can be employed. They need to be groomed, trained, and nurtured by providing training so that they meet the industry and company standards. Some of the soft skills are: Email Etiquette, Business Communication, Personality Development, Time Management, and Negotiating Skills etc... All the above skills will help you in performing your job with ease in ERP field. Question What are the companies in India which has larger pool of ERP Professionals with them? Answer Those information are often not shared, if shared not updated frequently, therefore it is difficult to find out, whereas in ERP consulting the leading organisations in India are: Oracle Consulting, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro Infotech, Infosys, CTS, Deloitte, KPMG, Accenture, PWC etc .. There are still more available, which needs to be searched in Google. Question Is it mandatory that I can only find a job by joining a company; is it not possible for me to find a job at my individual capacity, like self employment? Answer Frankly speaking it is not, whereas in India it is. The practice of not working for a company but providing services to companies/clients at your individual capacity is termed as Independent Contractor or Freelancer. This type of employment is very common in abroad, as they see only talent, skills and intelligence in providing the job and nothing more. Whereas in India, the same style has not yet reached the recognition, in fact there are many companies which will not recruit employees who have worked as contractors. Also to work as an independent consultant, you need to built up your reputation by working on the field for many years, else no client is going to approach you for assignments, same like a practicing cost accountant with less industry experience.

It will take some time for the IT industry in India to encourage the Contract and Freelancing as an acceptable employment type.

Please Remember, Information Technology field provides services to Domain Industry; it can never grow or stand on its own without domain industries being in place!!