FREE online courses on Business Needs and ERP - BPR and ERP - The
relationship between BPR and ERP
For instance, many ERP solutions have graduated from the
APICS definition and presently include many features like human resource
management modules, supply chain modules (linking suppliers and customers),
product data management, electronic data interchange, engineering change
management, multi-currency and multi-location plants facilities, which is
allowing many drastically transformed business processes to be adopted quickly.
Most consultants take advantage of this overlap and
confusion. They talk, whatever is convenient, at the point of sale to puzzled
Indian executives, in order to clinch the deal and meet their own business
interests. The fact is that both ERP and BPR go hand in hand to helping
companies face the 3C crisis.
When it comes to overcoming the 3C crisis, BPR and ERP are
complementary to each other. But questions which top management may ask are:
Whether to transform the business processes first through BPR
and then adopt ERP; or first adopt an ERP solution with world-class proven
practices and then keep on doing reengineering: or adopt them together, business
process module wise, one after the other, till the complete business is covered.
The arguments and counter-arguments for these three routes
are presented in Table below:
Arguments, counter arguments for BPR, ERP sequencing
BPR before ERP
Argument
Counter argument
ERP before BPR
Why customize a BPR on
Why take a very long time
ERP which may not be (1-3
years) to implement
required at all after BPR? BPR
(involving major
(e.g., maintenance work organizational
changes,
order generation process job profile changes and
mentioned earlier)
workflow path changes?)
Maybe ‘too late' to take
advantage of ERP
