What Is Enterprise Resource Planning: ERP Defined

ERP Defined: ERP is an acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning; a term that is used for business management systems which are designed to integrate the data sources and processes of an entire organization into a unified system. A key element is the use of a single database to store data for the various system modules.

ERP systems utilize components of both computer software and hardware. Traditionally the software is installed at the customer site, but many companies now offer hosted or 'cloud' ERP solutions to reduce the up-front and technical costs.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has evolved from Material Requirements Planning (MRP) as a means for covering all of the basic functions of an enterprise, in addition to production and inventory.

Components of ERP

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - Sales Force Automation, Quoting & Estimating, Order Entry

Manufacturing - Forecasting, Material & Production Planning (MPP), Shop Floor Control, Routings, Capacity Planning & Scheduling, Purchasing, Lot/Serial Control, Inventory, Workflow

Supply Chain - Demand Planning, Purchasing, Supplier Management, Purchasing to Jobs/Projects

Financials - Costing, Accounts Receivable (AR), Accounts Payable (AP), General Ledger (GL)

Human Resources - Labor Collection, Payroll, Benefits

Business Performance Management (BPM) - Business Intelligence (BI), Multi-Entity Consolidation, Corporate Governance, Reporting

Engineering & Product Lifecycle Management (EPLM) - Parts & Bill of Materials (BOM's), CAD Interface, Routings, Parts & Product Attributes, Change Management

Business Benefits

• Syncronization - End-to-end business function integration
• Accessibility - All key business information in one place
• Responsiveness - Real-time workflow and reporting tools
• Decisiveness - Informed decision making
• Consistency - Everyone in the company is on the same page
• Efficiency - Elimination of most or all side systems and manual calculations

Visit our ERP solutions page to learn more about VISIBILITY.net's on-premise or cloud based ERP solution.