ERP for SMEs

English translation: Enterprise Resource Planning for small to medium-sized enterprises

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	ERP for SMEs
Selected answer:	Enterprise Resource Planning for small to medium-sized enterprises
Entered by:	Fan Gao

02:56 Feb 11, 2007

English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Business/Commerce (general) / Enterprise Resource Planning Software

English term or phrase: ERP for SMEs

Hi,
Could somebody explain in simple, layman's terms how ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software benefits SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises).

The context is as follows:
"(The company) understands the urgent demand for the rapid establishment of an integrated ERP application to help SMEs accomplish a highly integrated level of business flow, information and human resources."

I know the sentence isn't worded very well. I'm trying to get a better understanding so I can reword it.

Many thanks in advance.

Fan Gao KudoZ activity Questions: 152 (2 open) (12 closed without grading) Answers: 134 Australia
Local time: 21:45

please see below

Explanation:
ERP's during the 90's were geared toward large manufacturing business, as the market dried out, the big companies like SAP, Oracle, JDE starting focusing their products to SME by offering more affordable implementations to this market, 6 figure implementations vs. seven figures. New packages benefit SME's because they are built on accepted best practices business processes and because even though they have less capability, the systems have a history of reliability and success, which is something that is attractive to any client. Brand name helps with business too. Hope that helps.

Selected response from:

Armando Diaz
Local time: 05:45

Grading comment

Thank you:)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

5 +8

please see below

Armando Diaz

4 +3

Explanation below...

amarpaul

3 +3

perhaps this will help...

Ioanna Karamanou

Discussion entries: 1

Answers

8 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +8

erp for smes

please see below

Armando Diaz
Local time: 05:45
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English,

Spanish
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Thank you:)

14 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

erp for smes Explanation below...

Explanation:
The benefits of an ERP system are similar for Large Enterprises and for SMEs - the ability to have a common database platform so that all departments can talk to each other and to enable 'management' to 'see the big picture'.

Traditionally, however, ERP tools have been large & expensive software systems that required equally expensive computer hardware to run on, and well trained (highly paid) IT staff to run them.... Hence they were affordable only by large enterprises.

Now the ERP vendors are offering new ERP systems redesigned for SMEs - at a price that they can afford. - which accounts for the marketing material that you are translating!

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Note added at 21 mins (2007-02-11 03:17:43 GMT)
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... I see that Armando has already explained this very clearly.

amarpaul
India
Local time: 17:15
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

Hindi,

Punjabi
PRO pts in category: 4

23 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

erp for smes perhaps this will help...

Explanation:
Erp Solutions for Small Businesses
As sales of ERP systems to large manufacturing companies began to slow, some vendors changed their focus to smaller companies. According to a survey by AMR research reported in Modern Materials Handling, the overall market for ERP systems grew 21 percent in 1998, despite the fact that sales to companies with greater than $1 billion in revenues declined 14 percent during the same period. "ERP applications are no longer just the stuff of huge corporations," Constance Loizos noted in Industry Week. "While billion-dollar manufacturing companies are now completing their ERP implementations, mid-size customers—witness to the improved business processes of manufacturing market leaders—are beginning to refine their own operations…. Invariably the mostsubstantial reason for companies to implement ERP is that without it, staying competitive is a practical impossibility. The business world is moving ever closer toward a completely collaborative model, and that means companies must increasingly share with their suppliers, distributors, and customers the in-house information that they once so vigorously protected."
Of course, small and medium-sized companies—as well as those involved in service rather than manufacturing industries—have different resources, infrastructure, and needs than the large industrial corporations who provided the original market for ERP systems. Vendors had to create a new generation of ERP software that was easier to install, more manageable, required less implementation time, and entailed lower startup costs. Many of these new systems were more modular, which allowed installation to proceed in smaller increments with less support from information technology professionals. Other small businesses elected to outsource their ERP needs to vendors. For a fixed amount of money, the vendor would supply the technology and the support staff needed to implement and maintain it. This option often proved easier and cheaper than buying and implementing a whole system, particularly when the software and technology seemed likely to become outdated within a few years.

Pasted from <http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=ERP&gwp=16>

Ioanna Karamanou
United States
Local time: 07:45
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English,

Greek

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ERP for SMEs

English translation: Enterprise Resource Planning for small to medium-sized enterprises

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