Business Engineering With ERP Systems - Essay Example

The integration of processes means that any change in a particular field will reflect on all the related fields of the organization. In this sense, each center or branch will be connected with the other, as the same information will be available throughout. For example, a change in the inventory levels will be detected by the purchasing department without delay, enabling them to increase the inflow of raw materials accordingly, further leading the manufacturing department to increase production, so on and so forth.

As and when an event or functions occur its consequent actions will be automatically triggered, resulting in efficient and effective handling of each task. Moreover, R/3 provides a system that provides for the storage of Static ('Master') and dynamic ('transaction') data about the organizational structures, products, customers, and the process to be followed. The Master Data is centrally stored and therefore shared across application modules) so as to eliminate data redundancy and to enforce data consistency and integrity.

Thus, when creating transactions like a sales order, the R/3 system copies information from master data. The company can leverage the Master data for customers, products, and pricing to automate and advance its sales order and distribution processing. R/3 further makes it possible for the company to define the rules that can be used to determine prices of products based on criteria such as the size of the order; who the customer is - Corporate customers, Private Customers further segregated as repeat or one-off customers; rebates and discount, etc.

In addition, rules can also be used to determine how taxes and surcharges will be calculated. Transaction Data records data the represents sales and distribution activities. This makes it possible for the transactions to be automatically checked by R/3 for errors e.g. you cannot sell the wrong type of product to a customer, or sell something that is not available.Similarly, by virtue of the Master and Transaction data storage, the entire pre-sales to post-sales activities can be automated. The process starts as soon as an online inquiry from a customer is received; next, the system will enable the agent handling the inquiry, to communicate to the prospective customer the information about specific products, pricing, and availability of inquired products but also of others that might be of interest.

Next, the agent will be able to either generate quotations for the customer or in case the product is not available, of similar alternatives. In the same way, all the steps in the sale and delivery will be carried out with attention to details such as: how the product will be supplied, which warehouse it will be supplied from, using which shipping agent, generation and tracking of the invoice, receipt of payment, and in case the customer wishes to return or exchange a product then that too will be handled through the R/3 system, etc.

On the whole, R/3 seems to be very thorough software that will automate the entire sales and distribution process in the manner required by the company, accommodating all the procedures currently being followed. It further, provides profile features for varied levels of employees handling the system and processes, making it possible to set the various levels of access for the sake of security. Its graphical user interface makes it easy to use and employees will be able to adapt to it with relative ease.

Finally, it is a scalable software, therefore if the company wishes to add future modules for other departments; it can do so with ease.