Lesson 2

Today we made a brief recap of what we saw yesterday and then moved further into ERP’s.

Companies that sell ERP systems sometimes may not tell the buyers if the software doesn’t include modules they need, so that in the long term buyers keep spending their money acquiring different modules they may need and, that they probably thought the included since the beginning.

We had a very interesting discussion on whether a company that runs other businesses should have one ERP or several ERP’s. In my opinion there’s no right or wrong answer. Companies that find themselves in this situation should evaluate which is the convenient way for them.

Afterwards we saw how to start building an ERP business case, why would a company initially need to implement an ERP and why not. Companies that take a step into acquiring an ERP might be companies that have long future plans and are thinking of solving problems within themselves by implementing the system, companies that are seeking to stay in the competition and obtain more control among many other reasons.

For building an ERP it is convenient to do an analysis, by starting defining the companies SWOT’s (its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). After this we can pass on defining the strategic goals of the company, to later pass on identifying the objectives (forecast revenue and expenses) and the Return of Investment. The analysis can then be completed with a GAP analysis, to then start working on the system and its future needs.

It was interesting to learn the basics on SAP navigation. It would be more interesting to do a real life simulation on it though, to see how it actually works and see all the benefits it provides that we’ve discussed in class.