The Beginnings Of ERP And How It Has Evolved

The Year 2000 problem (also known as the Y2K problem, the Millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or simply Y2K) was a problem for both digital (computer-related) and non-digital documentation and data storage situations which resulted from the practice of abbreviating a four-digit year to two digits.

In 1997, The British Standards Institute (BSI) developed a standard (DISC PD2000-1) which identified two major problems that existed in many computer programs.

Firstly, the practice of representing the year with two digits becomes problematic with logical error(s) arising upon “rollover” from x99 to x00. This has caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after 1 January 2000, and on other critical dates which were billed “event horizons”. Without corrective action, long-working systems would break down when the “…97, 98, 99, 00…” ascending numbering assumption suddenly became invalid.

Secondly, some programmers had misunderstood the rule that although years that are evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, if they are divisible by 400 then they are. Thus the year 2000 was a leap year.

Companies and organizations worldwide checked, fixed, and upgraded their computer systems. That led to scrutiny and rearrangement of ERP systems. Information Technology (IT) companies experienced rapid growth in the 1990s because the year 2000 problem and introduction of the Euro disrupted legacy systems. Many companies took this opportunity to replace legacy systems with ERP. The rapid growth IT companies experienced from ERP implementations was followed by a slump in sales after these issues had been addressed.

ERP systems initially focused on automating back office functions that did not directly affect customers and the general public. Front office functions such as customer relationship management (CRM) dealt directly with customers, or e”“business systems such as e”“commerce, e”“government, e”“telecom, and e”“finance, or supplier relationship management (SRM) became integrated later, when the Internet simplified communicating with external parties.

“ERP II” was coined in the early 2000s. It describes web”“based software that allows both employees and partners (such as suppliers and customers) real”“time access to the systems. The role of ERP II expands from the resource optimization and transaction processing of traditional ERP to leveraging the information involving those resources in the enterprise’s efforts to collaborate with other enterprises, not just to conduct e-commerce buying and selling. Compared to the first generation ERP, ERP II is said to be more flexible rather than confining the capabilities of the ERP system within the organization, it is designed to go beyond the corporate walls and interact with other systems. “Enterprise application suite” is an alternate name for such systems.

As a trusted partner of SAP since 2005, Cornerstone continues to provide SAP Business One ERP business management software and related technical services to small and midsized companies within the wholesale distribution, manufacturing, and online retail industries.  The flexibility of SAP Business One (SAP B1), when combined with the customization expertise of Cornerstone Consulting, allows a company to implement a totally integrated ERP business management solution, designed to meet its specific business needs. Now, instead of your employees adapting to the software, with SAP Business One’s fully integrated accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), inventory tracking-control-management, and material requirement planning (MRP), the system can adapt to the needs of your business.

The Cornerstone Consulting staff understands that business owners do not have time to learn the intricacies of a complicated software program in order to effectively and efficiently operate their enterprises. If time is money, then wasted time is wasted money. SAP Business One has many benefits to offer including instant, “real time” access to information from finance, manufacturing, and sales departments. In addition, users of SAP Business One can make more informed decisions by generating accurate, up-to-the-minute analytics with the built-in Crystal Reports. The system also has automatic “workflow alerts” which provide users with warnings based on individualized business rules concerning data. This permits immediate action in the event of an emergency. Such an “early warning system” allows businesses to anticipate problems and concerns ahead of time, which can save both time and money. Further, the platform is designed to be a mobile ERP solution and can run on iPads and iPhones.

To learn more about SAP Business One ERP and how it can help your business, please call Cornerstone Consulting at 813-321-1300 today.

 

The article from which the information about the origin of ERP was excerpted:  http://tinyurl.com/79muh4l

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