What is ERP?

Y An integrated computer based application.

Y Manages internal and external resources.
Y It facilitates the flow of info between all business
functions.
Y It has a centralized database and utilizes a
common computing platform.
Y can either reside on a centralized server or be
distributed across modular hardware and
software units that provide "services" and
communicate on a local area network
Y Ohe distributed design
allows a business to
assemble modules from
different vendors without
the need for the
placement of multiple
copies of complex and
expensive computer
systems in areas which
will not use their full
capacity.
Y Ohe evolution of the systems dates back to the
year 1960 as per ERP history.
Y Ohe systems in the yesteryears were designed to
assist the manufacturing process.
Y Ohe first software that was developed in this
process happens to be MRP (material Resource
Planning) in the year 1975.
Y usiness houses always find great difficulty in
quickly making out the required information
because of the voluminous data, improper
segregation, departmental arrangements and
unprecedented delays.
Y Ohe inconvenience was not only pinching on
monetary profits but also antagonized customers
who were made to wait for a long time for a
small piece of data.
Y ERP has come to overcome this menace.

Y It helps to integrate the data in an organization

under one common platform.

Y Ohe purpose behind is not only to ensure

transparency but also to facilitate tracking down
information regarding the status of a particular
order or its dispatch and so on.
Y ERP helps in making the maximum use of
technological advancements.

Y For instance the executive in the Sales

Department will be able to respond to a
customer query immediately by making out the
status of the product's delivery which would not
have otherwise been possible.
Y properly grasp the ERP Fundamentals,
Y in order to derive the maximum outcome
Y Ohe services of ERP cannot happen all on a
sudden in an organization.
Y Ohe work being done may require a couple of
months and even years depending on issues like
volume of the organization.
Y Meticulous planning will definitely help to
achieve ERP benefit
Y Integration: Highest benefit of them all. It helps
in reducing data redudancy and redudant data
entry.
Y Efficiency :Organizations become more efficient.
Y Cost reduction : helps reduce cost.
Y Less personnel : lesser no. of people are required
Y Accuracy: ERP forces people to be accurate .
Y Expensive
Y Not very Flexible
Y ERP technical architecture basically defines
layout of layers of application deployment
between servers and desktops, interfaces and
software objects.
Y ERP architecture should also should be able to
absorb emerging technologies
Y It should be expandable and maintainable to
meet future business needs such as business
process changes, merger and acquisitions,
compatibility with future regulations etc.
Y Mainframe Era: During, 1980s, ERP systems were
running on mainframe, capable of supporting
hundreds of users concurrently. Users were
connecting to this monolith system through
dumb terminals only to access and input data.
Y Client Server: During 1990s, client server (C/S)
ERP application became popular. PC became
powerful and provided a better user interface ),
through Graphic Users Interface (GUI).
Y Server hosts central database and application
programme.

Y PC Clients, provide input, request service from

server, performs display and does some
processing.
Y System functions are done in three logical layers
1. Presentation layer-at client PC
2. layer, executing instructions from users and
transferring and receiving data from database
3. Database layer for centrally managing data

Y Application programme and database may be

hosted in a single server or in two separate
servers.
Y Adoption of Internet technology allows access to
an ERP system from anywhere anytime, enabling
new ERP functionalities like Sales Force
Automation.
Y Ohe concept of Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
was adapted and internet browser was used to
access server from client side.
Y Ohis development eliminated the need of
installing client program but made use of Java
applets, which gets downloaded whenever a
connection is made by the client, through URL.
Y ERP software is typically implemented in 3-tier
client-server architecture.
Y Presentation tier implements the "look and feel"
of an application.
Y It is responsible for the presentation of data,
receiving user events and controlling the user
interface.
Y Oiers are classifications of software by the size of the
company they fit.
Y O

Oier 1 ERP software is software
for the large enterprise.
Oypically the Oier 1 customer is
a company with several sites,
probably geographically dispersed
and in multiple companies .
Y O

Ohe Oier 2 market is the
largest of all the tiers in
terms of the number of
potential customers.
Y Ohey are usually just a
few localized sites.
Y Ohe main indication is
the size of the company
by revenue.
Y Oier 3:
Oier 3 software is designed
for single site customers of
under $40 million dollars.
Y Ohese are companies with
5 to 30 users and have less
demanding needs.
Y Often these companies
have just and are looking
to expand their
capabilities. Ohese
companies tend to be the
family run or small
corporations.
Y Ohree-tier is a clientʹserver architecture in
which the user interface, functional process logic
,computer data storage and data access are
developed and maintained as independent
modules, most often on separate platforms.
Y It was developed by John J. Donovan in Open
Environment Corporation (OEC), a tools company
he founded in Cambridge, MA.
Y Presentation tier
Y Ohe presentation tier displays information
related to such services as browsing
merchandise, purchasing, and shopping cart
contents.
Y It communicates with other tiers by outputting
results to the browser/client tier and all other
tiers in the network.
Y Application tier (business logic, logic tier, data
access tier, or middle tier)
Y Ohe logic tier is pulled out from the presentation
tier and, as its own layer, it controls an
application͛s functionality by performing detailed
processing.
Y Data tier
Y Ohis tier consists of database servers. Here
information is stored and retrieved. Ohis tier
keeps data neutral and independent from
application servers or business logic. Giving data
its own tier also improves scalability and
performance.
Y Ohe clientʹserver model of computing is
a distributed application structure that partitions
tasks or workloads between the providers of a
resource or service, called servers, and service
requesters, called clients.
Y Often clients and servers communicate over
a computer network on separate hardware, but
both client and server may reside in the same
system.
Y A server machine is a host that is running one or
more server programs which share their
resources with clients.
Y A client does not share any of its resources, but
requests a server's content or service function.
Y Clients therefore initiate communication
sessions with servers which await incoming
requests.
Y Functions such as email exchange, web access
and database access, are built on the clientʹ
server model.
Y Users accessing banking services from their
computer use a web browser client to send a
request to a web server at a bank.
Y Ohe clientʹserver model has become one of the
central ideas of network computing. Many
business applications being written today use
the clientʹserver model.
Y Enables the roles and responsibilities of a
computing system to be distributed among
several independent computers that are known
to each other only through a network. . For
example, it is possible to replace, repair,
upgrade, or even relocate a server while its
clients remain both unaware and unaffected by
that change.
Y All data is stored on the servers, which generally
have far greater security controls than most clients.
Servers can better control access and resources, to
guarantee that only those clients with the
appropriate permissions may access and change
data.
Y Since data storage is centralized, updates to that
data are far easier to administer.
Y Many mature clientʹserver technologies are already
available which were designed to ensure security,
friendliness of the user interface, and ease of use.
Y It functions with multiple different clients of
different capabilities.
Y As the number of simultaneous client requests
to a given server increases, the server can
become overloaded.
Y Under clientʹserver, should a critical server fail,
clients͛ requests cannot be fulfilled.