ERP Software

SAP merger ?

Henning Kagermann, SAP’s chief executive, has changed SAP's tone to a possible merger  “There is no intention for SAP to enter any discussions,”  this has contradicted what Hasso Plattner (SAP founder)did say that Microsoft, IBM and Google were the only companies that could feasibly buy the group.

Maybe SAP needs to write a application for board communication strategy?

SAP buyers:IBM|Microsoft|Google?

Hasso Plattner, of SAP is open to chatting to suitors for a possible merger or buyout saying : “There are only three potential buyers: IBM,Microsoft and Google of all companies. I don’t see anyone else. If shareholders think that a combination, and not independence, is better, then it will happen.”

Platter’s thoughts on IBM were: “I do not want to invent rumours because there are no talks. However, I do not want to say that I dislike IBM so much that I could not imagine such a scenario at all.” But the two companies have formed an agreement for IBM in the us to resell SAP to the small to medium sized market.

Microsoft: They did talk a couple of years ago but there would be EU competition issues there which could sour the party.

Google: nothing mentioned that would be a huge culture clash to manage but imagine having a SAP application that was flexible .If Google could change the mindset in SAP, having customer focused approach would work wonders.

There will be no dance with Larry (Oracle) though, he must be miffed.

The company that takes on SAP will need to have deep pockets Sap’s turnover is $64bn plus they are leading the field in organic sales with plans to double their stock price by 2010

Infor buys SSA

Infor has just bought SSA for $1.4 billion , SSA customers must be frustrated they were forced to migrate to SSA LN/LX now they have a new partner to evaluate, saying that customers were not signing up to SSA LN/LX maybe Infor can offer a better package.

One of the reasons Infor has bought SSA is their bundle of ERP software packages that SSA has bought over the last couple of years.

SSA has been trying to get customers to migrate from these packages to LN/LX

Marcam

EXE Technologies

Infinium Software

Baan

Elevon

Ironside

CA Interbiz

Max International

ManMan

In total there are 13,000 SSA customers who are wondering what now.

Infor will be the third largest ERP vendor after acquiring these ERP packages

Mapics

Frontstep

Mercia

Software

Clarus (Finance/HR)

D&B Software

Anael

Extensity

Sage and Lawson the other tier two ERP software competitors must be reevaluating their business plans as Mike Greenough, CEO of SSA mentions  "In a rapidly consolidating marketplace we have seen that size and scale matter,".

Sage snaps up Master Builder

Sage's  pre-tax profits are up 19 per cent to £113.7m (2005: £95.8m) on sales up 18 per cent to £455.9m (2005: £385.6m). most of this growth has come from acquisitions and have just made another niche purchase with  Master Builder, which focuses on the US construction industry for six million dollars.

There has been debate about how Sage balances the books.

"Sage's balance sheet remains a thing of controversy - saved from the ignominy of negative equity only by the company's decision not to amortise goodwill from acquisitions. Goodwill currently stands at £1,275.4m, up from £995.7m in 2005, contributing to shareholders' equity of £957.3m."

Sage info from the register

Apparel erp industry software functionality

I have had a couple of emails asking what sort of functionality to look for in apparel specific ERP systems.

I have made a quick list of apparel specific functionality what would you add to this list?

Purchase Orders – to input raw materials and supplies directly related to the product;

Inventory Control – for raw materials, components and finished goods inventory;

Work In Process;

Order Entry/Customer Service;

Allocation; Pick, Pack and Shipment of finished goods;

Accounts Receivable – as related to finished goods invoices, credit memos and returns of merchandise

Accounts Payable – (purchase of raw material and components.)

Charge backs

Product design

Manage BOM explosions such as colour, size of each product.

Plant loading, shop floor control

EDI

RFID

Handheld bar-coding scanners

Top five ERP software vendors

The ERP consolidation wave is gathering force; a quote from the butler group reinforces the feedback I have been receiving from companies evaluating ERP software packages.

Teresa Jones of analyst firm Butler Group  "Increasingly we see customers rank supplier's financial viability as a major factor in purchasing decisions, sometimes even above [software] functionality," she explained. "A lot of customers will only consider vendors from the [largest] top five suppliers"

Who are the top five ERP software vendors.

• SAP
• Oracle
• Microsoft Dynamics
• SSA
• Sage

I believe the postions four and five will change per quarter and who you speak to.

Top five ERP vendor information from AMR Research

Siemens and SAP working together on SOA

Siemens Communications will be releasing their first SOA initiative saying that IBM, and SAP will use Siemens SOA components in ongoing application development projects.

SAP will use one of the SOA components, called Identity and Access Management, in its NetWeaver application-building platform

Evaluating your company's corporate style

Selecting an ERP system can be a painful exercise due to infighting within your own company plus who gets the blame when the ERP package does not live up to expectations from the beauty parade.

The questions you need to ask about the corporate style of your company could be.

·       Does your corporate culture encourage/discourage micro-management?

·       Does your business environment value team participation over individual showboating?

·       Does your company encourage quick conflict resolution as opposed to hoping disagreements will go away by themselves?

·       Can the project manager handle the necessary responsibility and authority, or will he choke?

·       Will all senior mangers commit to personal as well as corporate goals?

·       Will responsibility for failure as well as success be shared?

·       Can resources be committed and kept through the duration of the project.

·       Can a committee be established to resolve management differences quickly

·       Will the project manager be an experienced, respected, powerful user?

·       Will top management support the ERP project even when they have a profits warning.

There are few companies that can answer yes to all of these questions, but knowing how your company deals with each is important to your project's success.

ERP steering commitee

The steering committee should comprise senior decision-makers led by the CEO or the sponsor.

The steering committee should meet once a month to discuss the projects issues relating to potential project slippage, resources drain and costing.

The project sponsor is the key person here to keep the steering committee on course to make sure the project has the full support of the board and investors.

Selecting a ERP team to evaluate ERP systems

Replacing an ERP system can be a major factor in competing against your competitors, helping you to manage your increasing cost of raw materials and at the same time the constant pressure to reduce your prices.

Picking the right time team to evaluate a ERP software package is critical most companies teams consist of senior IT management, along with selected senior representatives from each area of the business with one person from the board to help balance the IT departments functionality choice with a business decision choice such as will the IT vendor be around in five years time, doing a full compliance exercise on the vendors financials and business model.

Where most companies go wrong in their ERP review is not selecting a senior person from each dept and changing their mind on what they want half way through a project, in some ways this is an IT vendors dream come true by the time an ERP project has gone live the original budget has doubled.