AdvantagesofERP(EnterpriseResourcePlanning)

System:
1.Completevisibilityintoalltheimportantprocesses,acrossvarious
departmentsofanorganization.
2.Automaticandcoherentworkflowfromonedepartment/functionto
another,toensureasmoothtransitionandquickercompletionof
processes.
3.Aunifiedandsinglereportingsystemtoanalyzethestatistics/status
etc.inrealtime,acrossallfunctions/departments.
4.Sincesame(ERP)softwareisnowusedacrossalldepartments,
individualdepartmentshavingtobuyandmaintaintheirownsoftware
systemsisnolongernecessary.
5.CertainERPvendorscanextendtheirERPsystemstoprovide
BusinessIntelligencefunctionalities.
6.AdvancedecommerceintegrationispossiblewithERPsystems.
7.TherearevariousmodulesinanERPsystemlike
Finance/Accounts,HumanResourceManagement,Manufacturing,
Marketing/Sales,SupplyChain/WarehouseManagement,CRM,
ProjectManagement,etc.
8.SinceERPisamodularsoftwaresystem,itspossibletoimplement
eitherafewmodules(or)manymodulesbasedontherequirementsof
anorganization.
9.SinceaDatabasesystemisimplementedonthebackendtostoreall
theinformationrequiredbytheERPsystem,itenablescentralized
storage/backupofallenterprisedata.
10.ERPsystemsprovidebettercompanywidevisibilityandhence
enablebetter/fastercollaborationacrossallthedepartments.
11.Itispossibletointegrateothersystems(likebarcodereader,for
example)totheERPsystemthroughanAPI(ApplicationPrograming
Interface).
14.ERPsystemsareespeciallyhelpfulformanagingglobally
dispersedenterprisecompanies,better.

DisadvantagesofERP(EnterpriseResourcePlanning)
Systems:
1.ThecostofERPSoftware,planning,customization,configuration,
testing,implementation,etc.istoohigh.
2.ERPdeploymentsarehighlytimeconsumingprojectsmaytake1
3years(ormore)togetcompletedandfullyfunctional.
3.ToolittlecustomizationmaynotintegratetheERPsystemwiththe
businessprocess&toomuchcustomizationmayslowdowntheproject
andmakeitdifficulttoupgrade.
4.Thecostsavings/paybackmaynotberealizedimmediatelyafterthe
ERPimplementation.
5.Theparticipationofusersisveryimportantforsuccessful
implementationofERPprojectshence,exhaustiveusertrainingand
simpleuserinterfacemightbecritical.ButERPsystemsaregenerally
difficulttolearn(anduse).
6.TheremaybeadditionalindirectcostsduetoERPimplementation
likenewITinfrastructure,upgradingtheWANlinks,etc.
7.MigrationofexistingdatatothenewERPsystemsisdifficult(or
impossible)toachieve.
8.ERPimplementationsaredifficulttoachieveindecentralized
organizationswithdisparatebusinessprocessesandsystems.