google总是悄无声息，却又行动神速，从最早的只能查询美国和加拿大的地图业务，到现在已经蔓延到全球，包括北京。没有具体和提供美国城市卫星地图的可视扩大程度作对比，不过在目前对北京所提供的最大可视范围下，能清晰分辩出道路上哪些是轿车，哪些是公交的程度的确让普通老百姓来说不是一般的惊讶。
突然有个冲动，我要寻找我的熟悉之地…

广安门桥，难忘的937

右安门桥，怀念的19

这个是我现在居住的租房所在地（开阳里5区）

这个是我目前工作的公司所在地（宣武区信息大厦）

最近几日，因为需要，忍受在北京38度高温的小屋里，恶补了一下关于ERP的基础，虽然我是被称为挨踢(IT)的人,看ERP这个字眼也N(N>=1)次了，但是仍属于一无所知的一类…

ERP — Enterprise Resource Planning

标准定义来自于其对英文的直译：企业资源规划(Enterprise Resource Planning)。

先看一则笑话：

一天中午，丈夫在外给家里打电话：“亲爱的老婆，晚上我想带几个同事回家吃饭可以吗？” [ 订货意向 ]

妻子：“当然可以，来几个人，几点来，想吃什么菜？”

丈夫：“6个人，我们7点左右回来，准备些酒、烤鸭、番茄炒蛋、凉菜、蛋花汤……。你看可吗？” [ 商务沟通 ]

妻子：“没问题，我会准备好的。” [ 订单确认 ]

妻子记录下需要做的菜单 [ MPS计划 ] ，具体要准备的东西：鸭、酒、番茄、鸡蛋、调料…… [ BOM物料清单 ] ，发现需要：1只鸭蛋，5瓶酒，4个鸡蛋…… [ BOM展开 ] ，炒蛋需要6个鸡蛋，蛋花汤需要4个鸡蛋 [ 共用物料 ]。

打开冰箱一看 [ 库房 ] ，只剩下2个鸡蛋 [ 缺料 ]。

来到自由市场，妻子：“请问鸡蛋怎么卖？” [ 采购询价 ]

小贩：“1个1元，半打5元，1打9.5元。”

妻子：“我只需要8个，但这次买1打。” [ 经济批量采购 ]

妻子：“这有一个坏的，换一个。” [ 验收、退料、换料 ]

回到家中，准备洗采、切菜、炒菜…… [ 工艺线路 ] ，厨房中有燃气灶、微波炉、电饭煲…… [ 工作中心 ] 。

妻子发现拨鸭毛最费时间 [ 瓶颈工序，关键工艺路线 ] ，用微波炉自己做烤鸭可能来不及 [ 产能不足 ] ，于是阅览室在楼下的餐厅里买现成的 [ 产品委外 ] 。

下午4点，接到儿子的电话：“妈妈，晚上几个同学想来家里吃饭，你帮忙准备一下。” [ 紧急订单 ]

“好的，你们想吃什么，爸爸晚上也有客人，你愿意和他们一起吃吗？”

“菜你看着办吧，但一定要有番茄炒鸡蛋，我们不和大人一起吃，6：30左右回来。” [ 不能并单处理 ]

“好的，肯定让你们满意。” [ 订单确定 ]

“鸡蛋又不购了，打电话叫小店送来。” [ 紧急采购 ]

6：30，一切准备就绪，可烤鸭还没送来，急忙打电话询问：“我是李太，怎么订的烤鸭还不送来？” [ 采购委外单跟催 ]

“不好意思，送货的人已经走了，可能是堵车吧，马上就会到的。”

门铃响了。

“李太太，这是您要的烤鸭。请在单上签一个字。” [ 验收、入库、转应付账款 ]

6：45，女儿的电话：“妈妈，我想现在带几个朋友回家吃饭可以吗？” [ 呵呵，又是紧急订购意向，要求现货 ]

“不行呀，女儿，今天妈已经需要准备两桌饭了，时间实在是来不及，真的非常抱歉，下次早点说，一定给你们准备好。” [ 哈哈，这就是ERP的使用局限，要有稳定的外部环境，要有一个起码的提前期 ] 。

…… ……

送走了所有客人，疲惫的妻子坐在沙发上对丈夫说：“亲爱的，现在咱们家请客的频率非常高，应该要买些厨房用品了 [ 设备采购 ] ，最好能再雇个小保姆 [ 连人力资源系统也有缺口了 ] 。

丈夫：“家里你做主，需要什么你就去办吧。” [ 通过审核 ]

妻子：“还有，最近家里花销太大，用你的私房钱来补贴一下，好吗？” [ 最后就是应收货款的催要 ]

有了以上的通俗易懂的认识，让我们再次回到科学的论述：

ERP是美国Gartner Group公司于1990年提出的一个对企业资源进行有效共享与利用的，以管理会计为核心的系统。

它是MRPⅡ(Manufacturing Resource Planning 企业制造资源计划)下一代的制造业系统和资源计划软件。除了MRPⅡ已有的生产资源计划，制造、财务、销售、采购等功能外，还有质量管理，实验室管理，业务流程管理，产品数据管理，存货、分销与运输管理，人力资源管理和定期报告系统。

ERP通过信息系统对信息进行充分整理、有效传递，使企业的资源在采购、生产、成本，库存、分销、运输、人力、财务等诸多方面能够得到合理地配置与利用，从而实现企业经营效率的提高。

ERP通过运用最佳业务制度规范(business practice)以及集成企业关键业务流程(business processes)来发问和提高企业利润，市场需求反应速度和企业。

ERP软件的合理运用可以帮助企业内部业务操作合理化，同时运用功能丰富的协作/合作技术(collaborative technologies)可以帮助企业在跨合作企业群体和贸易伙伴之间提高管理水平，扩展企业竞争空间和提高综合能力。

ERP把客户需求和企业内部的制造活动以及供应商的制造资源整合在一起，形成企业一个完整的供应链，其核心管理思想主要体现在以下三个方面：
一、体现对整个供应链资源进行管理的思想；
二、体现精益生产、敏捷制造和同步工程的思想；
三、体现事先计划与事前控制的思想。

从本质上讲，ERP是一套信息系统，是一种工具。ERP在系统设计中可集成某些管理思想与内容，可帮助企业提升管理水平。

但是，ERP本身不是管理，它不可以取代管理。ERP本身不能解决企业的管理问题。企业的管理问题只能由管理者自己去解决。ERP可以是管理者解决企业管理问题的一种工具。 不少企业因为错误地将ERP当成了管理本身，在ERP实施前未能认真地分析企业的管理问题，寻找解决途径，而过分地依赖ERP来解决问题。

最后，不但老的问题得不到有效地解决，又产生了许多新的问题，最终导致了ERP实施的失败。企业也因此而伤了元气。正确地认识ERP是什么与不是什么，就会在ERP实施之前认真分析企业在管理上存在的问题，了解ERP对解决这些问题的作用，充分细致地计划与落实利用ERP解决这些问题的程序，为ERP充分发挥效率提供基础。

ERP应用成功的标志是：
一、系统运行集成化，软件的运作跨越多个部门；
二、业务流程合理化，各级业务部门根据完全优化后的流程重新构建；
三、绩效监控动态化，绩效系统能即时反馈以便纠正管理中存在的问题；
四、管理改善持续化，企业建立一个可以不断自我评价和不断改善管理的机制。

■ How do companies organize their ERP projects?

Based on our observations, there are three commonly used ways of installing ERP.

1. The Big Bang
In this, the most ambitious and difficult of approaches to ERP implementation, companies cast off all their legacy systems at once and install a single ERP system across the entire company. Though this method dominated early ERP implementations, few companies dare to attempt it anymore because it calls for the entire company to mobilize and change at once. Most of the ERP implementation horror stories from the late ’90s warn us about companies that used this strategy.Getting everyone to cooperate and accept a new software system at the same time is a tremendous effort, largely because the new system will not have any advocates. No one within the company has any experience using it, so no one is sure whether it will work. Also, ERP inevitably involves compromises. Many departments have computer systems that have been honed to match the ways they work. In most cases, ERP offers neither the range of functionality nor the comfort of familiarity that a custom legacy system can offer. In many cases, the speed of the new system may suffer because it is serving the entire company rather than a single department. ERP implementation requires a direct mandate from the CEO.

2. Franchising strategy
This approach suits large or diverse companies that do not share many common processes across business units. Independent ERP systems are installed in each unit, while linking common processes, such as financial bookkeeping, across the enterprise. This has emerged as the most common way of implementing ERP. In most cases, the business units each have their own “instances” of ERP—that is, a separate system and database. The systems link together only to share the information necessary for the corporation to get a performance big picture across all the business units (business unit revenues, for example), or for processes that don’t vary much from business unit to business unit (perhaps HR benefits). Usually, these implementations begin with a demonstration or pilot installation in a particularly open-minded and patient business unit where the core business of the corporation will not be disrupted if something goes wrong. Once the project team gets the system up and running and works out all the bugs, the team begins selling other units on ERP, using the first implementation as a kind of in-house customer reference. Plan for this strategy to take a long time.

3. Slam dunk
ERP dictates the process design in this method, where the focus is on just a few key processes, such as those contained in an ERP system’s financial module. The slam dunk is generally for smaller companies expecting to grow into ERP. The goal here is to get ERP up and running quickly and to ditch the fancy reengineering in favor of the ERP system’s “canned” processes. Few companies that have approached ERP this way can claim much payback from the new system. Most use it as an infrastructure to support more diligent installation efforts down the road. Yet many discover that a slammed-in ERP system is little better than a legacy system because it doesn’t force employees to change any of their old habits. In fact, doing the hard work of process reengineering after the system is in can be more challenging than if there had been no system at all because at that point few people in the company will have felt much benefit.

■ How does ERP fit with e-commerce?

ERP vendors were not prepared for the onslaught of e-commerce. ERP is complex and not intended for public consumption. It assumes that the only people handling order information will be your employees, who are highly trained and comfortable with the tech jargon embedded in the software. But now customers and suppliers are demanding access to the same information your employees get through the ERP system—things like order status, inventory levels and invoice reconciliation—except they want to get all this information simply, without all the ERP software jargon, through your website.

E-commerce means IT departments need to build two new channels of access in to ERP systems—one for customers (otherwise known as business-to-consumer) and one for suppliers and partners (business-to-business). These two audiences want two different types of information from your ERP system. Consumers want order status and billing information, and suppliers and partners want just about everything else.

Traditional ERP vendors are having a hard time building the links between the Web and their software, though they certainly all realize that they must do it and have been hard at work at it for years. The bottom line, however, is that companies with e-commerce ambitions face a lot of hard integration work to make their ERP systems available over the Web. For those companies that were smart—or lucky—enough to have bought their ERP systems from a vendor experienced in developing e-commerce wares, adding easily integrated applications from that same vendor can be a money-saving option. For those companies whose ERP systems came from vendors that are less experienced with e-commerce development, the best—and possibly only—option might be to have a combination of internal staff and consultants hack through a custom integration.

But no matter what the details are, solving the difficult problem of integrating ERP and e-commerce requires careful planning, which is key to getting integration off on the right track.

One of the most difficult aspects of ERP and e-commerce integration is that the Internet never stops. ERP applications are big and complex and require maintenance. The choice is stark if ERP is linked directly to the Web—take down your ERP system for maintenance and you take down your website. Most e-commerce veterans will build flexibility into the ERP and e-commerce links so that they can keep the new e-commerce applications running on the Web while they shut down ERP for upgrades and fixes.

The difficulty of getting ERP and e-commerce applications to work together—not to mention the other applications that demand ERP information such as supply chain and CRM software—has led companies to consider software known alternately as middleware and EAI software. These applications act as software translators that take information from ERP and convert it into a format that e-commerce and other applications can understand. Middleware has improved dramatically in recent years, and though it is difficult to sell and prove ROI on the software with business leaders—it is invisible to computer users—it can help solve many of the biggest integration woes that plague IT these days.

From CIO.com