Lesson 1: What is ERP? Course book p. 1-35
Manage processes with ‘ERP software’:
ERP = Enterprise Resource Planning:
→ a software for companies
→ it manages the resources (people & materials)
→ it plans the sequence (= volgorde van handelingen)
Why using ERP software:
Communication between departments is very important,
therefore an ERP software can be used:
• Contract in computer (name customer, the product wanted,…)
• Automatic search in stock
• Automatic calculation of the delivery date (based on availability and production time)
• Automatic order parts (via system, vendors in system, parts in system)
• Automatic start of production steering
• Automatic stock keeping
Input for the ERP software:
An ERP system is the heart of a company, there will be input from all departments:
,People feed the system → only correct input of data will lead to success
Principles:
• Segregation of duties (SOD) (= scheiding van taken, functiescheiding)
o Every duty including documentation, physical delivery and financial document
(3-way match) needs to be done by someone else
o No one can do two or more steps, to decrease the chances of fraud
• Master data management
o A separate department (MDM-department) which is dedicated to add and
change master data in the system
o It is a separate department to avoid double entries, because they understand
the significance of every field and because they can check the correct
sequence of entrance
o Those people will not be allowed to do transactions in the system,
to decrease the chances of fraud
• A lot of data in 1 database
o Gives opportunities for analysis
o Big data → you can add data from external factors (other companies, the
internet,…) to your own data to develop new strategies and be future proof
o There are a lot of tools to analyze data
▪ (Online Analytical Processing Tools (OLAP))
, Software suppliers:
There are a lot of software suppliers on the market, depending what sort of company you
are (service industry, production industry,…), you will find different types of ERP software
SAP is the market leader in enterprise software
Advantages of SAP:
• Professional
• For all industries (very extended software)
• World wide usage
• Advantage for future job opportunities