10. Major Enterprise Applications in Business Organizations

Lecture 9 – Major Enterprise Applications in Business Organizations

1. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

ERP is an integrated, real-time, cross-functional enterprise application, an enterprise-wide transaction framework that supports all the internal business processes of a company. It supports all core business processes such as sales order processing, inventory management and control, production and distribution planning, and finance.

Importance of ERP

ERP is very helpful in the following areas −

• Business integration and automated data update
• Linkage between all core business processes and easy flow of integration
• Flexibility in business operations and more agility to the company
• Better analysis and planning capabilities
• Critical decision-making
• Competitive advantage
• Use of latest technologies

Rationale for adopting ERP solutions

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are adopted by organizations for several reasons, as they offer a wide range of benefits that contribute to overall efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness. Here are some key reasons why organizations choose to adopt ERP:

• Integrated Information: ERP systems integrate various business processes and functions across different departments into a single unified system. This integration ensures that data is consistent and can be easily shared across the organization.
• Efficiency and Productivity: ERP systems streamline business processes and eliminate repetitive manual tasks. This leads to increased efficiency and productivity as employees can focus on more value-added activities rather than spending time on routine, administrative tasks.
• Data Accuracy and Consistency: With an ERP system, data is entered once and stored in a centralized database. This reduces the likelihood of errors that can occur when data is duplicated or manually transferred between systems. It ensures data accuracy and consistency across the organization.
• Improved Decision-Making: ERP systems provide real-time access to accurate data, enabling better decision-making at all levels of the organization. Managers can make informed decisions based on up-to-date information, which is crucial in today’s dynamic business environment.
• Customer Service Enhancement: By integrating customer-related processes, such as sales, marketing, and customer service, ERP systems contribute to improved customer service. Organizations can respond more effectively to customer inquiries, manage orders efficiently, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
• Regulatory Compliance: Many industries have specific regulations and compliance requirements. ERP systems often come with built-in features that help organizations adhere to regulatory standards, reducing the risk of legal issues and penalties.
• Cost Reduction: Although implementing an ERP system involves initial costs, it can lead to long-term cost savings. Automation of processes, better resource utilization, and improved efficiency contribute to overall cost reduction.
• Supply Chain Management: ERP systems help organizations manage their supply chains more effectively by providing real-time visibility into inventory levels, production schedules, and order statuses. This improves coordination with suppliers and reduces the risk of stock-outs or overstock situations.
• Scalability: ERP systems are designed to be scalable, allowing organizations to adapt and grow without major disruptions. As businesses expand, ERP systems can accommodate increased data, users, and business complexities.
• Competitive Advantage: Organizations that effectively implement ERP systems gain a competitive advantage. They can respond more quickly to market changes, make better strategic decisions, and operate with greater agility than their competitors.

Advantages of ERP

• Reduction of lead and cycle time in processing 
• Better customer satisfaction
• Increased flexibility, quality, and efficiency
• Improved information accuracy and decision making capability
• Improved resource utilization
• Improve supplier performance
• Reduced quality costs
• Quick decision-making
• Forecasting and optimization
• Better transparency

Disadvantage of ERP

• Expense and time in the implementation
• Difficulty in integration with other system
• Risk of implementation failure
• Difficulty in implementation change
• Risk in using one vendor

2. Customer relationship Management (CRM system)

CRM is an enterprise application module that manages a company’s interactions with current and future customers by organizing and coordinating, sales and marketing, and providing better customer services along with technical support. 

What is CRM?

‘Customer Relationship Management is the practices, strategies, and technologies that organizations use to manage and analyze interactions with current and potential customers’. 

The goal of CRM is to improve and enhance the overall customer experience, foster customer loyalty, and drive business growth. CRM systems help businesses organize and centralize customer-related information, such as contact details, communication history, and purchase history, enabling them to better understand, serve, and anticipate the needs of their customers. Through effective CRM, organizations can build stronger customer relationships, streamline sales and marketing processes, and ultimately maximize customer satisfaction and retention

Why CRM system?

Organizations adopt Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems for various reasons, as these systems offer a range of benefits that contribute to better customer interactions, improved sales processes, and overall business success. Here are some key reasons why businesses choose to adopt CRM systems:

• Centralized Customer Data: CRM systems provide a centralized repository for storing customer information. This includes contact details, communication history, purchase history, and other relevant data. Having a unified view of customer data helps employees across different departments access consistent and up-to-date information.
• Improved Customer Relationships: CRM systems enable organizations to better understand their customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors. This understanding allows businesses to personalize interactions, anticipate customer requirements, and provide a more tailored and satisfactory experience.
• Enhanced Communication: CRM systems facilitate better communication within the organization. Teams can share customer information, collaborate on strategies, and coordinate efforts more effectively, leading to improved customer service and a more cohesive approach to customer interactions.
• Sales Process Optimization: CRM systems often include features that streamline sales processes. Sales teams can manage leads, track opportunities, and monitor sales performance more efficiently. Automated workflows and reminders can also help ensure that sales activities are timely and well-coordinated.
• Marketing Effectiveness: CRM systems support targeted marketing campaigns by providing insights into customer preferences and behaviors. Businesses can segment their customer base, create personalized marketing messages, and measure the effectiveness of marketing initiatives. This leads to more efficient and impactful marketing efforts.
• Customer Retention: By understanding customer needs and preferences, businesses can implement strategies to enhance customer loyalty and retention. CRM systems help identify at-risk customers, enabling proactive measures to address issues, provide additional support, or offer personalized incentives to retain valuable customers.
• Data Analysis and Reporting: CRM systems come with reporting and analytics tools that allow organizations to gain valuable insights from customer data. This data-driven approach helps in making informed business decisions, identifying trends, and measuring the success of various customer-related initiatives.
• Efficient Customer Service: CRM systems contribute to improved customer service by providing a comprehensive view of customer interactions. This allows customer service representatives to resolve issues more quickly, offer personalized solutions, and deliver a more satisfactory customer experience.

Advantages of CRMS

• Provides better customer service and increases customer revenues.
• Discovers new customers.
• Cross-sells and up-sells products more effectively.
• Helps sales staff to close deals faster.
• Makes call centers more efficient.
• Simplifies marketing and sales processes.

Disadvantages of CRMS

• Some times record loss is a major problem.
• Overhead costs.
• Giving training to employees is an issue in small organizations.

3. Content Management System (CMS)

A Content Management System (CMS) allows publishing, editing, and modifying content as well as its maintenance by combining rules, processes and/or workflows, from a central interface, in a collaborative environment. A CMS may serve as a central repository for content, which could be, textual data, documents, movies, pictures, phone numbers, and/or scientific data.

Why do Organizations adopt CMS?

Organizations adopt Content Management Systems (CMS) for various reasons, as these systems offer a range of benefits that contribute to efficient content creation, management, and delivery. Here are some key reasons why businesses choose to adopt CMS:

• Centralized Content Repository: CMS provides a centralized and organized repository for storing digital content such as text, images, videos, and documents. This centralization simplifies content management, making it easier to find, edit, and update content.
• Ease of Content Creation and Editing: CMS platforms typically come with user-friendly interfaces that make it easy for non-technical users to create and edit content. This reduces the dependency on IT or web development teams, empowering content creators to update and publish content independently.
• Workflow Automation: CMS systems often include workflow tools that facilitate collaboration among content creators, editors, and other stakeholders. Workflow automation streamlines the content creation and approval processes, ensuring a more efficient and organized content development lifecycle.
• Consistent Branding and Design: CMS allows organizations to maintain consistent branding and design elements across their digital properties. Templates and style guides can be implemented to ensure that content adheres to brand guidelines, fostering a cohesive and professional online presence.
• Multi-channel Publishing: With the increasing number of digital channels, CMS enables organizations to publish content across various platforms and devices seamlessly. This includes websites, mobile apps, social media, and other digital channels.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Many CMS platforms come with built-in SEO features or allow for easy integration with SEO tools. This helps organizations optimize their content for search engines, improving visibility and discoverability online.
• Responsive Design: A responsive design, often facilitated by CMS, ensures that content is displayed appropriately across different devices and screen sizes. This is crucial in today’s mobile-centric environment, providing a better user experience for visitors accessing content on various devices.
• Security and Access Control: CMS platforms offer security features to protect against unauthorized access and potential cyber threats. Access control mechanisms allow organizations to define roles and permissions, ensuring that only authorized individuals can create, edit, or publish content.
• Scalability: CMS systems are scalable, allowing organizations to expand and manage a growing volume of content as their needs evolve. Whether an organization is a small business or a large enterprise, CMS can adapt to changing content requirements.
• Cost Efficiency: Implementing a CMS can lead to cost savings in the long run by reducing the need for custom development for each content update. Non-technical users can manage content without requiring extensive coding or development skills.

Advantages of CMS

Content management system helps to secure privacy and currency of the content and enhances performance by −

• Ensuring integrity and accuracy of content by ensuring only one user modifies the content at a time.
• Implementing audit trails to monitor changes made in content over time.
• Providing secured user access to content.
• Organization of content into related groups and folders.
• Allowing searching and retrieval of content.
• Recording information and meta-data related to the content, like author and title of content, version of content, date and time of creating the content etc.
• Workflow based routing of content from one user to another.
• Converting paper-based content to digital format.
• Organizing content into groups and distributing it to target audience.

4. Business Intelligence Systems (BIS)

The term ‘Business Intelligence’ has evolved from the decision support systems and gained strength with the technology and applications like data warehouses, Executive Information Systems and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP). Business Intelligence System is basically a system used for finding patterns from existing data from operations.

Characteristics of BIS

• It is created by procuring data and information for use in decision-making.
• It is a combination of skills, processes, technologies, applications and practices.
• It contains background data along with the reporting tools.
• It is a combination of a set of concepts and methods strengthened by fact-based support systems.
• It is an extension of Executive Support System or Executive Information System.
• It collects, integrates, stores, analyzes, and provides access to business information
• It is an environment in which business users get reliable, secure, consistent, comprehensible, easily manipulated and timely information.
• It provides business insights that lead to better, faster, more relevant decisions.

Benefits of BIS

• Improved Management Processes.
• Planning, controlling, measuring and/or applying changes that results in increased revenues and reduced costs.
• Improved business operations.
• Fraud detection, order processing, purchasing that results in increased revenues and reduced costs.
• Intelligent prediction of future.

Approaches of BIS

For most companies, it is not possible to implement a proactive business intelligence system at one go. The following techniques and methodologies could be taken as approaches to BIS −

• Improving reporting and analytical capabilities
• Using scorecards and dashboards
• Enterprise Reporting
• On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) Analysis
• Advanced and Predictive Analysis
• Alerts and Proactive Notification
• Automated generation of reports with user subscriptions and “alerts” to problems and/or opportunities.

Capabilities of BIS

• Data Storage and Management −
• Data ware house
• Ad hoc analysis
• Data quality
• Data mining
• Information Delivery
• Dashboard
• Collaboration /search
• Managed reporting
• Visualization
• Scorecard
• Query, Reporting and Analysis
• Ad hoc Analysis
• Production reporting
• Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) analysis

These enterprise applications often work together, sharing data and facilitating seamless operations across various business functions. The implementation and integration of these applications can significantly improve productivity, decision-making, and overall business performance. However, selecting the right enterprise applications and managing their implementation effectively require careful consideration of an organization’s specific needs and goals.