ERP and Business Process Reengineering

ERP and BPR
Titus Osikoya
Absolutely Ade, ERP facilitates a seamless process flow which makes process frustrations easily noticeable. Improvement costs become less and easy to implement...bottom line, greater value is created for the customers via resource optimization. I somehow believe in SAP, the embedded controls take me to the dream lands quicker. Thanks

BPR and ERP
naincy
How does ERP enable reengineering of business processes?

ERP can not Substitute BPR
Alejandro Lonngi, Teacher, Mexico, Member
ERP can help to make processes in an organization easier, cheaper and faster. But keep away from thinking that a ERP can substitute a BPR.

ERP is No BPR Solution for Fast Changing Business Areas
Marina Maree, Project Manager, South Africa, Member
Although it has specific purposes, ERP does definitely not allow quick BPR at least cost in all business areas.
For business areas with regular changes (legislative / company policy, etc.) and for innovative, quickly growing companies, the entire ERP design, established, implemented & maintained at great cost, needs to be reconsidered again with delays & full change management for all areas of the ERP impacted.
Trying to 'accommodate' possible future change in the initial ERP design usually miss the mark as new / existing management, changed legislation, new business challenges, etc. requiring quick & effective change at reasonable cost cannot be correctly predicted.
Companies with areas requiring regular business changes should implement Best Of Breed applications to expertly manage these using best practise standard processes. Result: actual target resources have faster, less costly & better market-place related solutions as & when needed.
Then interface these BOB systems to/from the ERP to update data feeds as and when necessary.

BPR and ERP / ERP and BPR
funke tijani, Student (University), United Kingdom, Member
ERP may enable BPR, but BPR can exist without ERP through the use of other IT solutions.
The implementation of ERP and BPR may defeat the whole purpose of BPR in terms of innovativeness.
Most ERP systems require that the business processes of an organisation are re-engineered to the standard processes of the ERP system. How then can an organisation achieve innovative processes and have a competitive edge in terms of customer value when several other organisations have the same processes?
Except if the processes are first re-engineered and an ERP system selected to support those core processes, but will that not result in the ERP system being overly customised?
I think it might be a question of what the organisation is looking to achieve i.e. have standard processes versus having competitive advantage.

Best Practices in ERP Systems can Support Business Process Re-engineering
James Mudzikitiri, Business Consultant, Zimbabwe, Member
Good ERPs have incorporated best practices into their functionality. Ideally they should have the latest developments in the different industry verticals in their software.
The latest trends is that ERPs have developed industry specific solutions. So although agreeably ERPs may not give you a competitive advantage in themselves, it's what you do with these ERP foundations in your BPR effort that will make the difference. Too much customization of the ERP tends to make the system difficult in terms of stability, support and migrating to new versions. Ideally any customization should be done comprehensively during the implementation stage.
Finally, for BPR to give you a clear competitive advantage, it must be complemented with training in order to enhance the skills of the staff.

Business Process Re-engineering Using ERP
Arthur Panton, Consultant, Kenya, Member
@James Mudzikitiri: I largely agree with you. I have found companies in emerging markets, especially first time ERP users, benefit tremendously if the mentoring, modeling, mapping and migrating activities focus first on their existing processes.
This is not a long difficult exercise, simply stick a copy of every document on the wall and discuss the flow. Gaps and other points of interest quickly lead to a knowledge and understanding of how BRP and ERP compliment each other.
But I never agree to customization of ERP software; use it as-is or not-at-all.