EAI, ERP Notes

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Addresses the challenge of integrating disparate systems and applications.

  1. Aims to enable interoperability among independently designed applications.

  2. Involves sharing data and business processes across systems as if they were unified.

  3. Successful EAI requires addressing technical, design, architectural, business process, and organizational challenges.

EAI Advantages:

  • Productivity and Flexibility: Enables quicker and cheaper business functions compared to individual or limited integration.

  • Data and Process Quality: Identifies and removes redundancies, promoting data and functionality sharing.

  • Organizational Mergers and System Replacements: Reduces complexity in system substitutions and simplifies external system integration.

EAI Patterns and Usage Scenarios:

  • Data Consistency Integration: Maintains consistent data across applications through dissemination of updates.

  • Multi-step Business Process Integration: Integrates applications involved in executing business processes, often using a business process engine or event broadcasting.

  • Composite Application Integration: Assembles new applications using pre-existing or newly constructed components, integrating separate applications and data stores.

Key Capabilities of EAI Solution:

  • Reliable communication for message transfer.

  • Transformation of canonical documents (XML, EDI).

  • Repository for message definitions and transformations.

  • Interoperability with process execution engines.

  • Support for intermediary functions and business rules.

  • Adapters for various applications and databases.

  • Security mediation for federated identity management.

  • Integration with Enterprise tools.

EAI Approaches:

  • Involves sharing data and business processes across many systems and departments.

  • Requires understanding the nature and use of business processes and data within an organization.

  • Integration can be applied at data, application interface, method, or user interface levels.

EAI Levels:

  • Data Level:

    • Focuses on moving data between data stores.

    • Advantage: Low implementation cost; Applications that use and access the data do not have to be altered.

    • Approaches: Database replication and database federation

    • Pros: Simple, low risk, low cost.

    • Cons: Not always applicable, limited functionality.

  • Application Interface Level:

    • Leverages interfaces exposed by applications for accessing processes and data.

    • Applicable to packaged applications like ERP systems.

    • Pros: Simple, ensures consistency, many interfaces available for popular packaged applications.

    • Cons: No common level in functionality, often proprietary, not always available.

  • Method Level:

    • Shares business logic among different applications.

    • Achieved through centralizing common business logic.

    • Pros: Ultimate sharing of business processes, rich integration capabilities, variety of technology options.

    • Cons: Expensive, Requires rebuilding of the application. Long implementation time, infrastructure-oriented, high risk.

  • User Interface Level:

    • Bundles applications by using their user interfaces as a common point of integration.

    • Main Approaches: Screen scraping and content aggregation.

    • Pros: Very easy to utilize, short implementation cycles, lower cost and risk.

    • Cons: Difficult synchronization to maintain, applicable under certain requirements, no deep integration.

Introduction to ERP

  • An Enterprise resource planning system is a fully integrated business management system covering functional areas to make optimum use of resources such as men, material, money and machine.

  • Integrates data sources and processes across an organization into a combined system, providing a real-time view of core business processes.

  • ERP systems include flexibility, modularity, comprehensiveness, extended reach, and best business practices.

ERP Features:

  • Multi-platform, multi-facility, multi-mode manufacturing, multi-currency, multi-lingual facilities.

  • Supports strategic and business planning, operational planning, and creation of resources.

  • Covers all functional areas such as manufacturing, selling, distribution, and human resources.

  • Increases customer service, augments corporate image, and bridges information gaps.

  • Allows automatic introduction of latest technologies.

  • Eliminates business problems, provides intelligent business tools for decision-making.

Why Companies Undertake ERP:

  • Integrate financial information, customer order information, standardize & speed up manufacturing processes, reduce inventory, standardize HR information.

LIMITATIONS OF THE ERP SYSTEM

  • ERP systems are basically meant for recording what has already happened, rather than planning for what will be. These systems can process orders, but they do not analyze business situations to provide insight into future courses of action.

  • ERP systems allow an enterprise to design complex and sophisticated workflows, but are far too rigid in their ability to continually reshape and restructure workflows as business challenges and opportunities arise.

Evolution of ERP

  • Manufacturing Strategies:

    • Make-to-Stock

    • Make-to-Order

    • Assemble-to-Order

  • Material Requirements Planning (MRP):

    • A software production planning and inventory control system intended to meet objectives like:

      • Ensuring materials and products are available for production and customer delivery.

      • Maintaining lowest possible inventory levels.

      • Planning manufacturing, delivery, and purchasing activities.

  • Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II):

    • A method for effective planning of all resources in a manufacturing company which is evolved out of MRP.

    • It addresses operation in units,financial planning in dollars, and involves ability to use the simulation to get the result before execution.

    • Includes business planning, sales and operations planning, production planning, master scheduling, material requirements planning, capacity requirements planning, and execution support systems for capacity and material.

Benefits of an ERP system Direct Advantages:

  • Business Integration,

  • Flexibility

  • Better Analysis and Planning Capabilities,

  • Use of Latest Technology integration.

ERP Modules:

  • Production Planning

  • Purchasing

  • Inventory Control

  • Sales

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

  • Financial

  • HR, & Supply Chain Management (SCM).

  • Each functional modules is responsible for integrating business function for proper work load management.

ERP Software Selection:

  • Factors making the ERP software selection process complex include the following reasons.

    • Lack of clarity about the customers' requirements

    • Complexity in the business processes

    • Increased number of ERP vendors

    • Lack of better planning

Software selection Criteria:

  • There are numerous factors to consider while choosing an ERP product from an ERP vendor
    increased transparency and better information flow. easy maintenance, adaptability and flexibility of software reduced cycle time and lead time
    Increased customer satisfaction
    modular architecture of software

  • Methods in ERP Software Selection

    • the decision is made by top management with the inclusion of external consultants.

    • there is a centralized type of selection process in place, characterized by a strong focus on the IT and organizational department with only little participation of other internal departments and no employment of consultants. The decision is made taking into considerations the suggestions given by several departments and using a combination of all the three steps.

Cost Benefit Analysis

  • Cost is the major role of an ERP Software to execute. Some times the cost of hardware, software, one time capital cost, annual fee for new releases, ongoing maintenance cost to install, programming cost the size of the company has huge impact.

  • The methods include what software package to use . There are guidelines that we follow in selecting an ERP software package such as, Initial requirements, solution finding, final selection.

ERP Implementation

  • Approaches to Study ERP Implementation there are mainly three different approaches to ERP implementation

    • BIG BANG APPROACH

    • LOCATION-WISE APPROACH

    • MODULE-WISE APPROACH

  • Implementation Strategies and its objectives includes:

    • Organizational perspective business perspective

    • Technological perspective

  • It analyses Business Process Reengineering,Customization, the Implementation team members testing procedures before making it a delivery time.

Impact of Operating System on ERP

  • Functions of an Operating System An operating system is expected to perform the various functions

    • Command Interpretation

    • Peripheral Management

    • Memory Management

    • Process Management. UNIX and LINUX - An overview

LINUX IN AN ERP WORLD

  • Linux is beginning to expand beyond its traditional role as an edge server into the core of the enterprise applications stack.

  • Linux sometimes has a higher total cost of ownership (TCO) than one would expect .Linux requires a quite different corporate culture and employee skill base than Windows.Linux requires scope for customisation

HOW ERP VENDORS VIEW DIFFERENT OPERATING SYSTEMModern ERP applications are extremely complex multi-tier software packages that typically run on several physically and logically distinct server platforms. * Microsoft Windows Server • Linux

MIGRATING THE ERP FROM ONE OPERATING SYSTEM TO ANOTHER IT organizations face significant

  • challenges and business requirements as they move key applications to new platforms. The Migration of these systems poses specific issues for both the information technology organization and the business functions.

IMPACT OF .NET TECHNOLOGY ON ERP

  • As they saw it, software that operates independently on individual computers would give way to a future filled with cooperating applications running in a rich soup of web based services. Microsoft formed a grand plan to rework the core languages and tools used to develop Windows software.

  • Most of the ERP projects as new data feeds to be merged into a single user interface as well as management integration.

ERP Vendors SAP

  • (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing) integrates all business processes of a company and provides modules for finance, human resources, material management, etc.

  • J.D. Edwards OneWorld philosophy with the One World methodology gaining market acceptance,J.D Baan IV enterprise resource planningsuite is used in the automotive industry,SSA known as BPCS 6.0, Acacia Technologies,JBA International and several ERP and product management.

  • INTUITIVE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS offers intuitive and flexible enterprise solutions That's why .NET and the new standards-based world warrant a redesign of ERP systems from the ground up. The beauty is that software developers can continue to write software code in their favorite language.

ERP Case studies

  • Each use cases reveals a company's mission, challenges involved and outcome after implementation.

  • Business process reengineering describes forecasting, fund management , price planning, allocation, and quality control. BPR's purpose is to improve all functions.