Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an information technology software and data base management system. ERP applications generally handle several core business functions such as project management, work effort tracking, accounting, manufacturing, human resource management and more.

The primary difference between ERP systems and legacy systems is that ERP systems share the same database structure. This means that all data is in the same location and the need to move data between systems is greatly reduced.


But wait—If they store all data in one database that should completely eliminate many of the information management issues—yes?

The answer is not quite so simple—ERP systems have made great strides in achieving the benefits of relational data base management systems, however, there are some real life practicalities that must be considered.

Why is an ERP review important?

• ERP systems frequently take a long time to implement. During this implementation process, there is still a need to maintain current data with the legacy systems that are being replaced. This involves information management;

• ERP systems are very flexible and allow a considerable amount of customization. ERP vendors pretty much recommend an “out-of-the-box” implementation however--many organizations feel the need to customize things. This has an impact on information management;

• ERP systems provide excellent reporting capabilities and some data integration and data mining features—however, one seldom finds an organization that has completely replaced all legacy systems with ERP. Thus, the need to integrate data and present a consolidated view for business intelligence still exists; and

• ERP Systems require data conversion from legacy systems. This definitely has an impact on Information management.

Although ERP systems integrate a lot of data into one location, they still sometimes look like a bigger “silo”. Although they do talk more easily to other systems, documentation is sometimes a closely guarded secret and it requires ERP “experts” to fully understand the data.

ERP systems require new information management data movement systems to extract data from legacy systems, including CRM, and from ERP systems to integrate it for storage and reporting purposes and present it for business intelligence use.

We need to look at existing enterprise resource management systems, in a similar way, we look at legacy systems and CRM applications, to fully understand the complexity of information management. In other words, we need to get an idea of how much data integration work will be required to manage information stored in these ERP systems.

What is important for an information management strategic plan?

I generally like to gather the following information:

• The software name;
• Vendor;
• IT owner;
• Business owner;
• A brief description of what the system does;
• System and data base documentation;
• The perceived data quality;
• The cost of maintaining the system; and
• The skill levels of the production support staff
  

Finally, to complete the information management strategy documentation, we need to include the ERP package in the data mapping which maps the entities from the entity relationship diagram to each existing system. For each entity, ask does the enterprise resource planning system:

• Create the entity?
• Read it?
• Update it? or
• Delete it?
  

Summary..

• Enterprise resource management  software is a vital component of an Information management strategy; and

• We need to understand them so we can assess the complexity of extracting data for business intelligence purposes