ERP software, which one to choose at home and abroad?

Since 1990s, internationally renowned ERP products such as SAP and ORCALE have entered China and developed rapidly. Subsequently, some ERP products appeared in China, such as Case ERP, Lima ERP, Hejia ERP and Boko ERP. In recent years, several large and medium-sized financial and enterprise management software companies in China, on the basis of learning and understanding foreign eRP products and technologies, combined with the specific situation of enterprise management in China, began to explore and develop ERP products that meet the requirements of enterprise management in China, such as UFIDA NC, New Zhong Da GWERP, Inspur Guoqiang ERP, North and South ERP, etc. The perfect combination of advanced enterprise management concept and management mode with modern computer technology and network technology is the goal pursued by ERP products. How to apply the advanced concept, management mode and advanced technology of ERP to enterprise management practice is the effect pursued by ERP in enterprise implementation. The advanced ideas, concepts, models and technologies of foreign ERP products have created conditions for their competition in the domestic market, but few of them have been successfully applied in China. So, what hinders the application of foreign ERP software in China? Perhaps the crux of the problem is that we don't understand the national conditions of China and can't provide integrated services. 1. Most domestic enterprises cannot afford the high software cost and implementation cost of foreign ERP. In the helpless situation, foreign ERP products have to reduce the service and implementation at the same time, which also reduces the requirements and treatment for implementers and simplifies the implementation process, thus either causing the failure of the project or greatly reducing the implementation effect, which in turn leads to the disproportionate investment of enterprises in ERP and the effect after implementation. 2. Almost all the implementers of foreign ERP products in China are recruited in China. On the one hand, these people can't communicate directly with R&D designers of products, and can't deeply understand the internal structure and functional structure of products, and can't deeply understand the design ideas of products and their management concepts and models; On the other hand, the lack of implementation costs also limits these implementers' in-depth investigation and understanding of the implementation targets, which makes their solutions and implementation plans fall far short of the actual requirements of enterprises. 3. Domestic enterprise managers, especially senior managers, have insufficient understanding of enterprise informatization construction. Managers, especially middle and senior managers, are the first demanders of enterprise informatization, and it is far from enough for them to only support the construction of the system. On the basis of support, middle and senior managers further put forward requirements and participate in promoting its construction process, which is one of the key factors for the success of enterprise informatization construction. 4. Because of the high management level and personnel quality, foreign enterprises are often easy to fully implement ERP products, which is in line with the characteristics of high integration and easy to fully implement ERP products abroad. However, domestic enterprises, especially those with large cross-regional scope, are not suitable for fully implementing foreign software requirements, but are suitable for step-by-step implementation on the basis of comprehensive planning because of the great differences in management level and personnel quality among subordinate enterprises within the enterprise, even among different businesses and departments of the same subordinate enterprise. Second, analysis of advantages of domestic ERP software products Compared with foreign ERP software suppliers, domestic ERP software suppliers may be slightly inferior in technology and experience, but they have incomparable advantages over foreign software suppliers: understanding of China's national conditions and localization of services. As long as they can develop products suitable for China enterprises and provide comprehensive services, domestic ERP software suppliers should be able to make great achievements in the market. The three major shortcomings of domestic ERP products are 1. The lack of ERP product experience is first of all the embodiment of the advanced management mode of enterprises. Because foreign ERP products started earlier (from the early 1980s), domestic ERP products started relatively late, and the management level of foreign enterprises, especially those in developed countries, is higher, and the experience of foreign ERP products in technology and practice is obviously higher than that of domestic similar products. 2. Insufficient technology accumulation. ERP product is the integration of advanced technology, and its product development needs the technical support of modern computer technology and network communication technology. Compared with professional software companies in developed countries, there is still a big gap in domestic technology accumulation in these two aspects, especially in product design and application of these advanced technologies. 3. Lack of ERP application practice On the one hand, foreign ERP products have formed a professional implementation team. For example, the implementation of SAP products is mainly carried out and serviced by professional management consulting companies internationally, and the implementation and products are charged separately, with the highest proportion of 15: 1, even in China, it is as high as 2: 1. However, domestic ERP products have not yet formed a professional agent implementation team, and the low level of ERP application implementation is due to the difficulty in achieving high fees. On the other hand, the management level of enterprises in foreign developed countries is generally high, and managers' understanding and requirements for enterprise informatization are also in place, which lays an environmental foundation for these enterprises to successfully implement ERP. However, in some large and medium-sized enterprises with advanced management consciousness in China, only some managers have a deep understanding of enterprise informatization and improving enterprise management level through informatization, and most enterprises and their managers still have insufficient understanding of enterprise informatization construction and its role in enterprise management. Three advantages of domestic ERP products 1. Advantage of latecomer Although foreign ERP products started earlier, they also took many detours. As a latecomer, when we develop and design domestic ERP products, we first learn from the experience and lessons of foreign products. In particular, a group of China designers who participated in R&D and foreign ERP product design provided technical support for R&D and design of domestic ERP products and laid a technical foundation for the development of domestic ERP products. 2. Advantages of implementers' understanding of products Although foreign products are more advanced, domestic implementers only begin to implement them for enterprises after simple product training. Therefore, it is difficult for them to have a comprehensive and profound understanding of products, and it is also difficult to give full play to the advantages of foreign products in enterprises. Although there is no professional ERP product implementation team in China, there are product R&D personnel involved in the implementation team, which makes it easy to have a deep understanding of the product and its internal structure, laying a foundation for the full play of product functions. 3. Advantages of domestic ERP Understanding of domestic enterprise management Although foreign ERP products have been applied and implemented for nearly 20 years, due to the gap in corporate culture and management level at home and abroad, there are great problems in copying the mature BPR (Business Process Reengineering) technology in the implementation of foreign ERP products to domestic enterprises. Their implementation experience in foreign companies is difficult to continue to be directly applied to domestic enterprises. However, domestic ERP products and their professional software companies have had good communication and cooperation with domestic enterprises in the application and implementation of enterprise MIS system or financial accounting system in the early stage, and it is easier to understand the enterprise situation, management and managers' thoughts and concepts, thus creating conditions for domestic enterprises to implement domestic ERP products. 3. Thinking about the development of ERP in China Enterprise management software will become the largest and most important part of the software market in China, and ERP software is undoubtedly the most important branch. How to grasp the correct development direction and maintain the healthy and benign development of ERP in China is a topic of general concern in the industry, and more people of insight are needed to think about it. 1. Localization of products, implementations and services. China MRP software has invested1800 million yuan since 2008, but there are few successful cases. An undeniable important factor is the localization of products and services. Software is culture, and management software is the carrier of management culture and management concept. Although Chinese and western enterprises are facing the same direction and the same topic in the ultimate goal of management and the latest management theory research, the management mode of western enterprises formed in a relatively mature and perfect market environment is very different from the current situation of domestic enterprises. If domestic enterprises completely accept and copy the whole set of westernized management models and business processes, it is easy to fail. How to respect and retain the original reasonable part of the enterprise, realize the national conditions and factory conditions, and integrate the advanced management ideas and models of foreign ERP into the enterprise? In the pain and reflection of failure, in the change of economic environment and management background, the industry gradually realized that introducing advanced products and services and realizing the localization of suppliers and implementers is the fundamental way to truly solve the successful application of ERP in China enterprises. Although foreign ERP software has started to set up R&D center in China, due to the limitation of its overseas mainboards, it is difficult to truly customize for China users, and the product applicability and practicality are not ideal. Domestic ERP manufacturers, through long-term accumulation, are familiar with the usage habits of domestic users and absorb advanced foreign management models, so they have certain localization advantages in product research and development, customization, implementation, support and service. In addition, domestic enterprises have just set foot in the field of ERP, and have no historical burden, so they can choose the most advanced technology platform; On the whole price, it can be accepted by large domestic enterprises. However, due to the national conditions, there is still a gap between domestic enterprises and their foreign counterparts in application mode and management concept, which needs to be improved and learned urgently. Domestic and foreign counterparts should learn from each other's strengths and develop together, improve the application level of ERP in Chinese enterprises as soon as possible, and shorten the gap with foreign users. The organic combination of advancement and localization is a problem faced by ERP suppliers and implementers at home and abroad, and it is also an eternal theme of ERP development. 2. Improve the industrial chain and improve the application level. The systematic, professional and complex application of ERP determines that ERP is an interlocking industrial chain. From procurement to sales, from products to implementation, from research and development to application, from upstream to downstream, institutions with different functions are needed, including users, suppliers and implementing agencies. The optimization and appreciation of this chain depends on the joint efforts of all members. The perfection of industrial chain is related to the benign development of ERP. "I only saw the newcomers laughing, but I didn't hear the old people crying." IT is the law of the development of IT industry that market resources are constantly concentrated in powerful enterprises. ERP is a high-input, high-output and high-risk industry, which requires suppliers to have a solid industrial foundation and comprehensive strength. In this field, small and medium-sized enterprises or enterprises with insufficient stamina will find it increasingly difficult to survive. At home and abroad, there are many short-lived examples of ERP software vendors. ERP users are very concerned about the choice of software, that is, whether suppliers have strong financial guarantee and R&D ability to ensure that their software can be continuously updated and upgraded. Only by practicing hard, balancing resources in products, markets, services, management, funds and other aspects, and constantly innovating can ERP manufacturers improve their sustainable development ability. If ERP is a new journey for enterprises, the implementer is a professional tour guide; If an enterprise wants to reach a new shore through ERP, the implementer is a necessary ferryman. As a representative industry in the era of knowledge economy and a sunrise industry in the future, management consulting is an important link in the ERP industry chain, and management consulting companies are also an indispensable link between ERP suppliers and users. Its professionalism and impartiality determine that no matter the selection and implementation of ERP, or the management transformation and process optimization of enterprises, it is inseparable from management consulting companies. Only by introducing management consulting into the implementation of ERP can we give full play to the role of ERP in enterprise management and really improve the application level of enterprises. In recent years, with the development of economic environment and the increase of customer demand, domestic management consulting companies have developed rapidly. It will flourish with local ERP suppliers. Systematic planning and macro guidance of government departments are also important driving forces for ERP development. The ERP market is still in the "primary stage", and government departments should pay full attention to and give preferential policies to promote the development of national brands, maintain industry self-discipline and norms, and create a relaxed and favorable development environment. Social education institutions play an irreplaceable role in enlightening and cultivating the market and improving the quality of enterprise managers. The powerful spread of the media is the "accelerator" and "catalyst" of ERP development. 3. Pay attention to basic theoretical research and develop industrial model. ERP has the dual core of management theory and information technology. ERP itself comes into being with the change of enterprise management background and develops with the development of management theory. Every change of enterprise management mode will surely bring the progress of management software. New management concepts such as supply chain and knowledge management are affecting ERP. Some new ERP technologies, such as dynamic enterprise modeling (DEM) and intelligent resource planning (IRP), are also being studied by theoretical circles. ERP suppliers also need to strengthen technical reserves, make forward-looking analysis of information technology, and constantly use advanced and mature information means to solve new management problems. It is noteworthy and gratifying that some domestic management software manufacturers have taken a gratifying step and established their own research institutes, research institutes and R&D centers. We have reason to believe that such research institutions will become the cornerstone of the sustainable development of ERP manufacturers. Facing the different industries in which enterprises are located, such as petrochemical, manufacturing, consumer goods, finance, retail, etc., there are great differences in management requirements, application models, business processes, etc., and a single, solidified software package cannot be applied to all industries. The advanced management mode contained in any ERP system may not fully meet the management requirements of a specific enterprise, so it is necessary to adjust the software functions appropriately in combination with the industry background and industry management mode to meet the special requirements of specific industry management. This requires ERP vendors to pay close attention to and fully study the management development of various industries, accumulate more industry models and launch different industry solutions. Only by meeting the requirements of industry users can ERP software have a more solid development foundation. 4? Looking back on the development history of MRP II/ERP software technology platform oriented to Internet technology architecture, it has roughly gone through three stages: from file/server (F/S) architecture, to client/server (C/S) architecture, and then to browser/server (B/S) architecture. F/S computing mode has obvious shortcomings: it can't have too many network users and can't handle a lot of data, so it is generally not suitable for large enterprises. The appearance of C/S architecture in 1980s left the application processing in the client, which made the client application still bloated when dealing with complex applications, and limited its ability to adapt and expand the logic changes of business processing. When access data increases and business processing is complicated, clients often become bottlenecks, which is inconsistent with the development trend of thin clients today. When using the remote database access database mode, the data exchange between the client and the background database server is frequent and the data volume is large. Once a large number of users visit, it is easy to cause network bottlenecks. With the continuous development of Internet/Intranet/Extranet technology, especially the organic combination of Web-based information publishing and retrieval technology, Java cross-network operating system computing technology and CORBA network distributed object technology (Web+Java+CORBA), the architecture of the whole application system has greatly developed from the master-slave structure of C/S to the flexible multi-level distribution structure, and the network architecture of enterprise management software system has entered the third stage, namely browser/server (B/S). It has the advantages of centralized processing mode and distributed collaborative processing mode of C/S structure system. At the same time, the cross-platform problem is completely solved because of the characteristics of Java language "develop once and run everywhere". The client adopts browser interface, which is easy to learn and can be well combined with e-commerce and office automation. The perfect combination of "Java+B/S+ERP" shows the future development direction of ERP technology platform and has been recognized by the industry. ERP vendors at home and abroad have begun to transplant to this platform. Some software vendors have launched products based on this platform.