Bridging the SME need for enterprise resource management solutions.

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Small and medium businesses require integrated enterprise resource management (ERM) solutions that build in efficiency, cut costs, and help provide valuable operational insights. Epicor, an American-based ERM solutions provider is one firm that is primed to address this emerging SME need.

DESPITE the economic downturn many companies in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore are planning to spend more than US$50,000 each on enterprise resource management (ERM) solutions, implementation, and services in 2009 according to findings revealed in a market research study conducted by and sponsored by Epicor Software Corporation.

The study, which garnered more than 450 responses in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China, was conducted with the aim of finding out users' motivations and barriers to implementing ERM solutions and how satisfied they were with their current ERM solutions.

It revealed that the main drivers for implementing ERM solutions were to streamline business processes and to conduct business globally, with more than half indicating they will implement new ERM solutions and capabilities over the next two years.

Respondents targeted in the survey were decision-makers, influencers, and recommenders involved in the planning and selection of ERM solutions in their respective companies.

The survey respondents revealed the top five priorities they would consider when purchasing an ERM solution as:

1) breadth and capabilities of solution; 2) flexibility; customer/technical support; 3) total cost of ownership and scalability (tied); 4) technology; and 5) vendor reputation.

Epicor offers business software solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality, and services industries. With 20,000 customers in more than 150 countries, Epicor delivers solutions that include ERM, customer relationship management, and supply chain management.

Epicor Software's vice president of sales, Asia, Bryan Tan says: "In a time of shrinking budgets and tough economic climates, businesses are forced to have a sharper focus on driving business efficiencies and doing more with less, regardless of geography or industry."

"It is heartening to see this study reveal that business decision-makers throughout Asia recognise the importance of technology in helping them overcome challenges in a downturn," he says.

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Additionally, the top five benefits businesses hope to realise from these investments are:

* optimise business processes efficiencies;

* business process integration;

* improve customer service;

* reduce costs for purchased items; and

* better resource management.

Tan adds: "SMEs realise the potential benefits of implementing technology now, which will have them ready to scale their business and innovate for the upswing--a key to their success in staying ahead of competition."

Key Singapore insights

Respondents in Singapore indicated that ERM solutions purchases over the next two years will likely materialise from corporations operating in electronics and electrical components, industrial machinery, and other manufacturing operations.

Furthermore, when deciding on a solution, customer and technical support was more critical than cost for these companies, with solutions' capability and flexibility ranking as most important.

Other key survey findings included a strong interest in implementing ERM solutions, with more than half of respondents indicating that they plan to implement Enterprise Resource Planning solutions within the next two years. They ranked customer relationship management, business intelligence, project management, and business process management highest among the solutions that they planned to implement.

Tan says this indicates that the ERM market in Asia is still on the upswing. Epicor Asia achieved S$495.6 million in revenue for the 2008 financial year in Asia. With sales offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, Epicor employs over 200 staff in the region.

"Epicor's customers generally span across four industries, such as manufacturing and distribution, retail, services and hospitality, and entertainment. Some of our notable clients in Asia include Wing Tai Asia for retail and GF Agie Charmilles for manufacturing and distribution," says Tan.

His organisation provides integrated ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and enterprise retail software solutions that enable companies to drive increased efficiency and improve profitability.

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One aspect of Epicor's business strategy that differs from its competitors is its focus on SMEs. He stresses that in Asia, SMEs need the scalability and flexibility to build competitive advantages for growth.

"We provide our customers with a comprehensive range of services with a single point of accountability that promotes rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership, whether operating on a local, regional, or global scale," explains Tan.

Next-Generation Enterprise Applications

The tools that people use to conduct business today have changed. The Internet and ubiquitous mobility play an essential part in the daily lives of the information-hungry global economy. Business is everywhere, business is real-time and is always online. The world has changed and with Epicor, ERM has too.

Epicor's next-generation enterprise applications represent a game changing opportunity for business. The solutions are designed for the way people work today, built for business, and yet are ready for change.

Figure 1 represents the business architecture that Epicor builds into its enterprise performance management solutions.

Tan says: "Nothing stays still for long in our global economy. Business today is fast-paced, highly competitive, and more demanding than ever before. In order to remain competitive, enterprises must be prepared to adapt business processes quickly to reflect ever-changing market trends and demands."

The business technologies of tomorrow must be intuitive, compliant and super productive. In response to this demand, Epicor has created scalable next-generation ERP solutions aimed at SMEs.

Epicor recognised that business software requirements were changing as early as 2002 when it introduced its first business software built from the ground up using 100 per cent service-oriented architecture (SOA).

"Our years of experience with SOA and our many successful SOA offerings resulted in a process that allows us to separate technology framework from business application in order to promote lean and efficient software development that in turn provides the agility, scalability, and extensibility needed by our customers. We call this business architecture Epicor Internet Component Environment (ICE)," explains Tan.

He adds that ICE redefines business architecture by exploiting both the social and technical aspects of Web 2.0 technologies and fusing them with modern SOA to deliver a solution that is designed for people and built for business.

The unique service-oriented approach ensures an abstraction of complexities in terms of how business systems are built and operated. In an SOA, business logic, that represents software processes is broken down into a series of loosely coupled granular "business services" which are then made available and discoverable on a network via Web services.

Each service provides functionality that can be adapted to the needs of the enterprise while hiding the underlying implementation details. By exposing business processes, SOA provides the ability to streamline those same processes, which in turn promotes agile change management.

"Because business processes are broken down into smaller functions that can be easily accessed and manipulated, it becomes that much easier to have your business system represent your business rules," says Tan.

He shares that in the current economic climate, the biggest challenges are letting customers and prospects know that they need to prioritise their investments, and that they might need to redeploy some of their resources to improve processes, so that when the economy recovers, they are ready for growth.

He says: "With a need to have a sharper focus on value for SMEs in particular, the demonstrable improvement of a company's condition becomes paramount. However, costs must not be the main determinant when deciding to invest in an IT solution. Flexibility to scale for growth, after-implementation support, and experienced consultation services is just as crucial."

Need for ERM

Companies, especially SMEs, require solutions that build in efficiency, cut costs, and help provide valuable insights. They are likely to focus on applications that allow for good customer insights, speed to market, and business forecasts.

A tightly integrated enterprise resource planning software solution helps manufacturers with identifying and planning the extended enterprise resources needed to capture, produce, ship, and account for customer orders.

A distributed, common database provides the ability to access the right information, from the right source, at the right time, empowering all users through the supply chain to make valid, informed decisions.

"To this end, Epicor believes that ERM is distinguished by its increasingly broad focus on planning and managing all resources, both within and across location and company boundaries. This expanded scope is most strongly felt in the areas of CRM, supply chain management, product lifecycle management (PLM), quality performance management (QPM), and business performance management (BPM)," says Tan.

Although costs has been a priority in this economic climate, manufacturers should focus on long term growth that enables productivity and sustained growth after the downturn, and not be too focused by short-term growth.

Tan says his firm tries to partner its customers in matching their needs and demands in different economic times, to scale growth: "Competition is stiff and for those who have not invested in IT but are considering to, the dilemma is whether they should just acquire an IT system or outsource. We have been able to help companies that wanted to start with smaller solutions that have the ability to grow alongside their needs."

Like all elements in the technology sphere, the ERM landscape is constantly evolving. What is unique here in the ERM field, unlike other software solutions, is that it continues to evolve to merge old and new technology.

Redundant technology rarely exists in the industry but more modern methods and devices are used in delivering the ERM solutions in new ways including the use of full Web services and mobile devices.

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"Today, vendors that are not innovative or willing to reinvent themselves will fall behind easily as users demand more functionalities in their solutions at lower total cost of ownership (TCO)," explains Tan.

Users are also quick to adopt a more nimble or proven solution. The big bang implementation methodology is now a thing of the past for much of today's organisations.

Tan believes that despite the sluggish economy, investments planned for ERM will remain strong: "Our recent study revealed customer relationship management, business intelligence, project management, and business process management ranked highest among the solutions that businesses plan to implement within the next two years."

In Singapore, he feels local sentiment matches the region's forward thinking and it is heartening to see that business decision-makers in Asia recognise the importance of technology in helping them overcome challenges in a downturn.

"They realise the potential benefits of implementing technology now, which will have them ready to scale their business and innovate for the upswing--a key to their success in staying ahead of competition," he adds.

He reckons the ERM climate will continue to be positive with new technologies being integrated to ensure ERP provides the up-to-date and accurate data crucial for decision-making. As more nimble and scalable solutions are demanded, companies like Epicor who have a history of being able to evolve with the industry and satisfy the needs of consumers will thrive in this fast-paced and ever-changing sector.