Vyacheslav Kazakov: ERP have a bad reputation, but replacements with it did not think up yet

Vyacheslav Kazakov: Yes, those companies which saw need for ERP or already fully use them, or far progressed in implementation. The paradox is that a huge number of ERP companies is not used and are not planned. And not only because do not want, many just cannot. Obstacles set: beginning from immaturity of management, personnel problems up to the difficulties connected with national peculiarities of regulation, a negative role is played even by macroeconomic factors. Unfortunately, ERP had a reputation difficult in implementation and expensive product. Probably, therefore the companies wait for something new, a certain technology replacement of ERP, but it did not appear yet.

TAdviser: In what the national specifics of application of ERP are shown?

Vyacheslav Kazakov: The main painful point is implementation of accounting functions, requirements of the legislation and regulating authorities in the field of accounting and tax accounting, labor relations, etc., very different from used "in the West". A huge number of efforts leaves on licking this part of ERP into shape and to build the correct accounting. In normal projects, say, in the western companies where all logic is sewn up in software and business processes are more standardized, sale of this block hardly occupies a half of time from implementation of a core of ERP. In Russia it is always a huge independent task. Examples when implementation of an accounting circuit required, except setup of standard functionality, more than 10 thousand man-days of completions are known to me. Such projects require great patience both from the management, and from an implementation team. It is no wonder that before implementation "advanced" the ERP component already just are too busy.

TAdviser: Really there is no exit from this situation?

Vyacheslav Kazakov: Of course, and there are methods to reduce labor input. First, to implement products with the Russian localization, secondly, when perhaps, to use the presettings offered by the Russian integrators. There are also independent program expansions for the western ERP in which experience and completions of the previous implementations is consolidated. For example, in our portfolio there are such solutions for rather quick implementation of treasury, accounting, tax accounting based on Oracle E-Business Suite taking into account all Russian requirements.

But a problem not only in external requirements. Big difficulties are with internal management accounting. Having left from the Soviet planned model, to market model not all enterprises came. Often, works some intermediate, I would tell the distorted model, with unique, in a bad word sense, accounting methods, justifications of costs, resource planning, etc. Under such schemes very difficult, and sometimes it is impossible, to build logic of work of the IT system. At the same time the enterprises are not ready to change processes, thereby dooming an implementation project of ERP. Especially such problems are characteristic of the enterprises of a public sector or focused on state orders.

TAdviser: And what it is possible to tell in principle about relevance of ERP as methodologies of management?

Vyacheslav Kazakov: In due time one of innovations of methodology of ERP was the fact that to replace parallel material and financial planning, accomplishment of these processes in a sheaf "for one pass" had to come. However ERP in that type what it was thought up and seen by theorists, was never realized in the software product. Even the advanced systems provide only a small amount of keyword financial parameters at supply chain planning. In the countries with cheap money and small risks of it it is enough. However at us in Russia at supply chain planning, for example, of the production program and purchases, it would be desirable to consider the cost of the credits, conditions of payments and other important financial parameters. Any packet of ERP in the world is not able to do it at the same time, in one interface as it thought in a paradigm of ERP.

Here, for example, in Russia one of the biggest problems of business is a high cost of borrowed money. So, management of cash flows comes out on top. Example from real life: one of large production companies well implemented the automated formation of payments. Management of the company announced that the adoption of payments will be kept in a system and now only in that order which provides her logician of work. Despite possible small deterioration in parameters of cash flows, it was more important than advantage in the form of release of time of heads. However in 2008 there were difficulties with money, and everything returned to manual control, again as before. Someone needs to pay surely, and to hold someone's payment and, for example, to start up this money for purchase of materials. In our country there are a lot of political moments which require direct participation and control of top managers. By the way, and in many respects because of it there is an imbalance in management: pay to finance to the detriment of production and the commercial block much attention though finance, by and large, should be the servicing function of back office.

TAdviser: It turns out that implementation of ERP under our conditions attracts more than minuses, than pluses?

Vyacheslav Kazakov: It's not true. All considered risks can be turned into opportunities. There would be desire. Implementation of ERP requires review of old approaches? Means, it is excellent chance to transfer a company performance to new rails. Level of manual control in the company is high? Means, the management needs to deliver information more quickly, better in the mode close to online and also to give in hands additional analytical tools for decision support. The controllability of the company will at once improve. The functionality of ERP is not enough? Always there is an opportunity to use niche products from a stack of "big" ERP.

TAdviser: Could you give examples of the projects successful from this point of view?

Vyacheslav Kazakov: There are two examples. For division of insulating materials of TechnoNIKOL corporation we created the systems of demand forecasting and planning of transactions on the basis of the solutions Oracle Value Chain Planning. Using statistical data and the built-in mathematical models, the IT system calculates demand in future periods. Of course, this forecast is checked by experts, but, nevertheless, at the exit it turns out very reliable data, they are given to an adjacent system for the correct production planning, warehousing capacit, transport, etc. At this ERP owing to the historical reasons at them it is not used. And in one of the largest producers of zinc in the world of Borlas on the basis of Oracle Hyperion implemented processes of financial and operational planning. Now the Kaztsink company can quickly analyze transactions and their influence on financial results, carry out modeling of a situation. Besides, creation of budget plans and control of their execution is automated. And here a system is integrated with ERP solutions, the used enterprises.

These are examples of how the companies close functional areas, important for themselves and simplify business management - using ERP or without it.