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July 1-15, 1999 My CT Almanac Column |
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CORPORATE USAGE ERP Honeymoon Is Over ERP implementation is 'driven by' EDP departments which feel it is the 'in thing' for them to be 'respectable' among their peers. ERP is viewed as a 'software decision' and not a 'business decision' cutting at the root of ERP philosophy. S. Sadagopan
Undoubtedly Enterprise resource Planning or ERP is a very powerful tool that can truly produce amazing results. If implemented properly ERP can reduce cycle times, reduce inventory, improve resource utilisation, improve customer response, utilise information effectively and in turn improve profitability dramatically. There are many companies, in my opinion, which have jumped into the bandwagon in the hope of greater returns but ignoring a few basic principles. The ERP implementation is "driven by" EDP departments which feel it is the "in thing" for them to be "respectable" among their peers. Unfortunately, the users come nowhere in the picture. Since EDP is close to ERP (literally) they are "confident" of "mastering the software" and do not appreciate the role of consultants-the "money saved" thus can be used to buy more hardware! In a sense ERP is viewed as a "software decision" and not a "business decision" cutting at the very root of ERP philosophy. ERP decision is mainly viewed as a way of getting over the year 2000 problem which has become a bugbear for many CEOs. Justifying ERP to solve Y2K is truly the proverbial "hitting the mosquito with a sledge hammer".
ERP Consultants The "big six" consulting companies continue to dominate ERP consulting operations in the country. As it happense to be, some of them finding ERP consulting to be their major revenue earning activity. SISL, Satyam & HCL Consulting have been very successful too. Wipro, Infosys & Tata IBM have been gearing up to play a major role in ERP consulting. Many educational institutes in the country have the potential to play a sobering role in training genuine business analysts who can blend analytical skills, software skills and business knowledge to produce outstanding ERP consultants. Not many have been able to get their act together. S.P. Jain Institute is probably the only institution addressing this core need. Unfortunately even premier educational institutions are falling into the trap of "quick money" syndrome by approaching ERP merely in terms of resource generation. ERP Software Vendors SAP not only has a large market share but also the lion's share of the "mind share" of the Indian ERP market. A number of large industrial houses that really matters in the country including Tata, Mahindra, L&T, and Kirloskar have already implemented SAP in their organisations. A number of multinational IT players such as Hewlett Packard and Compaq have extended their decision to implement SAP globally to the Indian operation as well. BaaN Company is extremely active with their strengths in manufacturing industry and focus on SME sector. Both these ideally address the real needs of Indian industry. BaaN Company is also very committed to India with a large development centre in Hyderabad and a global support centre in Bombay. BaaN has a large number of accounts where the implementation has taken less time, say 6 to 9 months. Ramco with its flagship product Marshal has won laurels for India when their product was formally endorsed by Bill Gates during his visit to India in March 97. Designed with a visionary zeal, Marshal is widely perceived to be an outstanding effort in software product development, fromthis part of the globe. The product has an excellent set of client base both within and without the country. Ramco needs a set of partnerships with hardware vendors, software vendors, consulting groups and software product rating organisations. Oracle, an unquestioned world leader in DBMS software, has a wonderful ERP product in the form of Oracle Applications. However, the Oracle product has so far not been that successful in India, partly because of its over emphasis on its DBMS product range. PeopleSoft has recently entered the India market through an alliance with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Other ERP vendors vying for the Indian pie including JD Edwards, Intentia Movex & Scala too are doing well. Two less known homegrown products MakESS & Evolus are exciting products to watch. Training Track With worldwide shortages of trained SAP professionals, street corner SAP shops have sprung up all over the country with Andhra Pradesh taking the lead. Truly Andhra Pradesh is very much part of SAP! These training institutes promise to make their trainees into SAP professionals over three to six months and even guarantee placements abroad. What many of them consistently fail to realise that ERP consultant needs excellent communication skills and deep domain knowledge besides the mastery of ERP software features. The ERP market in India today is a confused bag of great expectations, fantistic rewards and rich results, and in some cases questionable excitement. It will be almost another two to three years before the dust finally settles down and a balanced view will emerge. Let us hope it will be for the better. A former professor at IIM, Bangalore the writer is director, IIIT, Bangalore |
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ERP holds great promise, thanks to many
success stories of early adoption around the world, including India. Thousands of sites
have "gone live" around the world; at least a hundred sites are "up and
running" in India today. Yet there is a lot of cynicism, thanks to many failure
stories. There are convenient "excuses" such as "Asian meltdown" and
"economic slowdown" or even "political turmoil" to push the failures
under the carpet. But, what are the "real" contributions of ERP? 
There are other reasons for
being cynical. The performance of ERP software vendors in the Wall Street over the past
three-quarters is anything but spectacular; this includes the market leader SAP. The ERP
software buying has slowed down considerably. Naturally the demand for ERP trained
manpower is tapering off. The ERP training institutions in the street corners of Cyberabad
have no "roaring business"-in fact some of them are close to pulling down their
shutters. There is not at all any dearth of ERP workshops, though they face real problems
when it comes to enrollment. There is an oversupply of consultants with a variety of
supposedly ERP skills. Crores of rupees continue to be spent in acquiring networking
infrastructure, hardware and software to support the high-end ERP software. What is the
overall position in the Indian market? 
