FAQ

Enterprise Resources Planning or ERP software came from the term Material Resource Planning (MRP) and later on became Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) in the 80s. In the beginining, the interest mostly is from the manufacturing and distribution sector. In the 90s, different vendors have extended MRP to accounting, Human Resources and other functions that evolved to the term ERP which is an enterprise wide solution in automating an organization.

Sample list of modules offered in ERP are procurement, inventory, warehousing, general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, cash management, job order, manufacturing, production planning, HRIS, payroll and financial statements.

Some ERP customers get confused on these modules that at times they look for a front-end software within the ERP package. These front-end solutions like CRM, Hotel Management and POS are independent modules but some vendors package it as a product to a vertical industry.

The very first step in preparing in implementing an ERP solution is a concrete business process. The organizational chart should be well defined, the different roles of each function and the process documentation/accountability.

Once the above is established, next step is to establish a steering committee who will manage the project. The team can come from internally or thru a third party. Their role will be the interface between the management, end-users and the solutions provider.

They will also be accountable in signing-off necessary chart of accounts, vendor listing, customer listing, SKUs, reports or output expected by the stakeholders, the accountability forms format and the configuration in general based on the organization’s process flow. This team will also handle the UAT and test-to-production milestone.

The implementation timeframe varies depending on the modules being implemented. In our experience, we can implement as early as one month for an accounting module. This is based on the assumption that the user or the company already knows what to expect and have necessary data available right away.

There are implementations that take a year or more especially if the organization has growing requirements, incomplete or incorrect data provided and/or management changes.

But this can be shortened by having a strong collaboration between the internal steering committee and the solutions provider. Both should have strong background and experience in implementing ERP.

On-premise is the traditional licensing model where the user acquires the license per user or per company installed in the user’s office site or premises. After a certain period depending on the arrangement with the solutions provider, user undergoes support agreement that ensures upgrades and support for questions or issues that will arise when the user is using it live. Both client-server and web-based platform products offer the on-premise model

Cloud-based ERP is a subscription based model where the user pays the service annually, quarterly or even monthly per user. The recurring payment should include the support or maintenance agreement. Only web-based platform ERP product can offer SAAS based model.

Both models have its pros and cons. This will all depend on the flexibility that the user requires from the software.

Data migration and historical data transfer is typically agreed upon with the service provider during the pre-selling stage. In Hilsoft’s case, we can commit to migrating master list of data such as users, chart of accounts, inventory items and beginning balances but not the transactions. But technically its doable.

Hidden costs all depends on how the solution provider present their product and service. But typically, feature requests that are not identified during requirements gathering stage shall be subject to customization fees. Hence it is important the user and the service providers have a detailed list of the requirement during contract signing.

Solutions available in the market normally have their own APIs available in integrating with other software or database. The success of the integration all depends on the commitment of the software provider and the participation of the third party software in providing necessary information or documentation during the course of the integration development.