ERP set for growth
15 Jan 2000
`ERP (enterprise resource planning) implementation has enormous implications. It promises one database, one application, and one user interface, where once disparate systems ruled manufacturing, finance, distribution and sales.' That is the view of Mike Evans, managing director of Cambashi and co-author of a report on ERP along with Ovum, the IT analyst group. And it is increasingly the view of IT suppliers to the process sector.
Aspen Technology (enter 390 on enquiry card), for example, has released ERP Connect. This bridges the gap between AspenTech's real-time plant systems and ERP systems such as SAP's R/3 (see page s17). The release follows the formation of a strategic alliance between the two companies, focusing on providing integrated business and manufacturing solutions to the process industries.
Marcam (391) also plans to deliver a `tight integration' of its Protean process ERP system with the financial applications of R/3. `We are committed to providing the most flexible, open ERP solution for all process users, regardless of their choice of financial packages,' says Marcam's Richard Fiddis.
SSI (Strategic Systems International 392) has had its Tropos process ERP solution accredited by Microsoft under is `solution provider partner' scheme. This follows the launch of a Windows NT version.
Designed expressly for NT, Fourth shift's new Objects enterprise software suite (393) has been awarded the `Designed for Microsoft BackOffice' licence. Incorporating object-oriented techniques, Objects (on show for the first time at next month's CIM 97 show, see page s22) is said to be cheaper, more economic to maintain, and faster to implement than any other major ERP system.
