Yours, retail network (Oracle E-Business Suite (OEBS))

Author: Olga Shchepunova, project manager of implementation of Oracle of TVOYo company

For the last desyatitiletiye changed the ERP system role in a functional architecture of the enterprise. If in the beginning — the middle of the 2000th years there was an opinion that in the company the single system covering all areas of its activity is necessary, then already by the end "zero" there was obvious a slowness and small convertibility of the ERP system.

However the need for such solutions did not disappear at all and as it seems to me, will not disappear. At the enterprises there are always stable business processes — or not changing at all, or changing not often. If to speak about retail, then, say, process of shipment of goods from a warehouse in shops changes extremely seldom.

In other words, ERP systems will work in that part of business processes which in each organization are steady or seldom changing.

But with the advent of new technologies (a cloud, mobile devices and so forth) or new opportunities (replacement of own servers by co-location, lease of server capacities, etc.) requirements to ERP systems in terms of their architecture and the user interface change. So the ERP system should be able to pick up free capacities according to the requirements and opportunities of a cloud. According to its architecture it has to be changed so that it could be performed.

As for user interfaces, they should change, first, towards bigger friendliness, and secondly, to provide an opportunity to work with mobile devices.

It is unlikely, of course, from a communicator will enter some legal information on the partner, but to here create the order, to look at its status, to get access to reports is an urgent need of today.

If to speak about again appearing analytics functions, social networks, vendor interaction, etc., then here definite answer to a question that it is necessary to do (how to develop) with respect thereto to ERP systems, no.

Part of functions, for example vendor interaction or producers, probably, should enter standard functionality. A part — to develop separately, on independent platforms (like analytics, sometimes usual transactions, other than support), at the same time having fast and reliable interfaces with ERP. And in general need to have the interface bus to which other systems easily could be docked is browsed. By the way, large vendors (in particular, Oracle) go on this way.

Perhaps also removal outside separate subsystems which help to make decisions: forecasting, the analysis, optimization and their close integration with actually ERP.

Thus, ERP should change, considering new opportunities of hardware platforms and new needs of users both for functionality, and for the interface, saving at the same time capability to support stable business processes.