ERP基础回顾

June 22, 2005

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。

The ABCs of ERP-(V)

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

The ABCs of ERP-(IV)

June 20, 2005

What are the hidden costs of ERP?

Although different companies will find different land mines in the budgeting process, those who have implemented ERP packages agree that certain costs are more commonly overlooked or underestimated than others. Armed with insights from across the business, ERP pros vote the following areas as most likely to result in budget overrun.

1. Training
Training is the near-unanimous choice of experienced ERP implementers as the most underestimated budget item. Training expenses are high because workers almost invariably have to learn a new set of processes, not just a new software interface. Worse, outside training companies may not be able to help you. They are focused on telling people how to use software, not on educating people about the particular ways you do business. Prepare to develop a curriculum yourself that identifies and explains the different business processes that will be affected by the ERP system. One enterprising CIO hired staff from a local business school to help him develop and teach the ERP business-training course to employees. Remember that with ERP, finance people will be using the same software as warehouse people and they will both be entering information that affects the other. To do this accurately, they have to have a much broader understanding of how others in the company do their jobs than they did before ERP came along. Ultimately, it will be up to your IT and businesspeople to provide that training. So take whatever you have budgeted for ERP training and double or triple it up front. It will be the best ERP investment you ever make.

2. Integration and testing
Testing the links between ERP packages and other corporate software links that have to be built on a case-by-case basis is another often-underestimated cost. A typical manufacturing company may have add-on applications from the major—e-commerce and supply chain—to the minor—sales tax computation and bar coding. All require integration links to ERP. If you can buy add-ons from the ERP vendor that are pre-integrated, you’re better off. If you need to build the links yourself, expect things to get ugly. As with training, testing ERP integration has to be done from a process-oriented perspective. Veterans recommend that instead of plugging in dummy data and moving it from one application to the next, run a real purchase order through the system, from order entry through shipping and receipt of payment—the whole order-to-cash banana—preferably with the participation of the employees who will eventually do those jobs.

3. Customization
Add-ons are only the beginning of the integration costs of ERP. Much more costly, and something to be avoided if at all possible, is actual customization of the core ERP software itself. This happens when the ERP software can’t handle one of your business processes and you decide to mess with the software to make it do what you want. You’re playing with fire. The customizations can affect every module of the ERP system because they are all so tightly linked together. Upgrading the ERP package—no walk in the park under the best of circumstances—becomes a nightmare because you’ll have to do the customization all over again in the new version. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. No matter what, the vendor will not be there to support you. You will have to hire extra staffers to do the customization work, and keep them on for good to maintain it.

4. Data conversion
It costs money to move corporate information, such as customer and supplier records, product design data and the like, from old systems to new ERP homes. Although few CIOs will admit it, most data in most legacy systems is of little use. Companies often deny their data is dirty until they actually have to move it to the new client/server setups that popular ERP packages require. Consequently, those companies are more likely to underestimate the cost of the move. But even clean data may demand some overhaul to match process modifications necessitated—or inspired—by the ERP implementation.
Data analysis - Often, the data from the ERP system must be combined with data from external systems for analysis purposes. Users with heavy analysis needs should include the cost of a data warehouse in the ERP budget—and they should expect to do quite a bit of work to make it run smoothly. Users are in a pickle here: Refreshing all the ERP data every day in a big corporate data warehouse is difficult, and ERP systems do a poor job of indicating which information has changed from day to day, making selective warehouse updates tough. One expensive solution is custom programming. The upshot is that the wise will check all their data analysis needs before signing off on the budget.

5. Consultants ad infinitum
When users fail to plan for disengagement, consulting fees run wild. To avoid this, companies should identify objectives for which its consulting partners must aim when training internal staff. Include metrics in the consultants’ contract; for example, a specific number of the user company’s staff should be able to pass a project-management leadership test—similar to what Big Five consultants have to pass to lead an ERP engagement.

6. Replacing your best and brightest
It is accepted wisdom that ERP success depends on staffing the project with the best and brightest from the business and IS divisions. The software is too complex and the business changes too dramatic to trust the project to just anyone. The bad news is a company must be prepared to replace many of those people when the project is over. Though the ERP market is not as hot as it once was, consultancies and other companies that have lost their best people will be hounding yours with higher salaries and bonus offers than you can afford—or that your HR policies permit. Huddle with HR early on to develop a retention bonus program and create new salary strata for ERP veterans. If you let them go, you’ll wind up hiring them—or someone like them—back as consultants for twice what you paid them in salaries.

7. Implementation teams can never stop
Most companies intend to treat their ERP implementation as they would any other software project. Once the software is installed, they figure the team will be scuttled and everyone will go back to his or her day job. But after ERP, you can’t go home again. The implementers are too valuable. Because they have worked intimately with ERP, they know more about the sales process than the salespeople and more about the manufacturing process than the manufacturing people. Companies can’t afford to send their project people back into the business because there’s so much to do after the ERP software is installed. Just writing reports to pull information out of the new ERP system will keep the project team busy for a year at least. And it is in analysis—and, one hopes, insight—that companies make their money back on an ERP implementation. Unfortunately, few IS departments plan for the frenzy of post-ERP installation activity, and fewer still build it into their budgets when they start their ERP projects. Many are forced to beg for more money and staff immediately after the go-live date, long before the ERP project has demonstrated any benefit.

8. Waiting for ROI
One of the most misleading legacies of traditional software project management is that the company expects to gain value from the application as soon as it is installed, while the project team expects a break and maybe a pat on the back. Neither expectation applies to ERP. Most of the systems don’t reveal their value until after companies have had them running for some time and can concentrate on making improvements in the business processes that are affected by the system. And the project team is not going to be rewarded until their efforts pay off.

9. Post-ERP depression
ERP systems often wreak cause havoc in the companies that install them. In a recent Deloitte Consulting survey of 64 Fortune 500 companies, one in four admitted that they suffered a drop in performance when their ERP system went live. The true percentage is undoubtedly much higher. The most common reason for the performance problems is that everything looks and works differently from the way it did before. When people can’t do their jobs in the familiar way and haven’t yet mastered the new way, they panic, and the business goes into spasms.

Why do ERP projects fail so often?

At its simplest level, ERP is a set of best practices for performing different duties in your company, including finance, manufacturing and the warehouse. To get the most from the software, you have to get people inside your company to adopt the work methods outlined in the software. If the people in the different departments that will use ERP don’t agree that the work methods embedded in the software are better than the ones they currently use, they will resist using the software or will want IT to change the software to match the ways they currently do things. This is where ERP projects break down. Political fights break out over how—or even whether—the software will be installed. IT gets bogged down in long, expensive customization efforts to modify the ERP software to fit with powerful business barons’ wishes. Customizations make the software more unstable and harder to maintain when it finally does come to life. The horror stories you hear in the press about ERP can usually be traced to the changes the company made in the core ERP software to fit its own work methods. Because ERP covers so much of what a business does, a failure in the software can bring a company to a halt, literally.

But IT can fix the bugs pretty quickly in most cases, and besides, few big companies can avoid customizing ERP in some fashion—every business is different and is bound to have unique work methods that a vendor cannot account for when developing its software. The mistake companies make is assuming that changing people’s habits will be easier than customizing the software. It’s not. Getting people inside your company to use the software to improve the ways they do their jobs is by far the harder challenge. If your company is resistant to change, then your ERP project is more likely to fail.

From CIO.com

The ABCs of ERP-(III)

What will ERP fix in my business?

There are five major reasons why companies undertake ERP.

1. Integrate financial information
As the CEO tries to understand the company’s overall performance, he may find many different versions of the truth. Finance has its own set of revenue numbers, sales has another version, and the different business units may each have their own version of how much they contributed to revenues. ERP creates a single version of the truth that cannot be questioned because everyone is using the same system.

2.Integrate customer order information
ERP systems can become the place where the customer order lives from the time a customer service representative receives it until the loading dock ships the merchandise and finance sends an invoice. By having this information in one software system, rather than scattered among many different systems that can’t communicate with one another, companies can keep track of orders more easily, and coordinate manufacturing, inventory and shipping among many different locations at the same time.

3.Standardize and speed up manufacturing processes
Manufacturing companies—especially those with an appetite for mergers and acquisitions—often find that multiple business units across the company make the same widget using different methods and computer systems. ERP systems come with standard methods for automating some of the steps of a manufacturing process. Standardizing those processes and using a single, integrated computer system can save time, increase productivity and reduce head count.

4.Reduce inventory
ERP helps the manufacturing process flow more smoothly, and it improves visibility of the order fulfillment process inside the company. That can lead to reduced inventories of the stuff used to make products (work-in-progress inventory), and it can help users better plan deliveries to customers, reducing the finished good inventory at the warehouses and shipping docks. To really improve the flow of your supply chain, you need supply chain software, but ERP helps too.

5.Standardize HR information
Especially in companies with multiple business units, HR may not have a unified, simple method for tracking employees’ time and communicating with them about benefits and services. ERP can fix that.
In the race to fix these problems, companies often lose sight of the fact that ERP packages are nothing more than generic representations of the ways a typical company does business. While most packages are exhaustively comprehensive, each industry has its quirks that make it unique. Most ERP systems were designed to be used by discrete manufacturing companies (that make physical things that can be counted), which immediately left all the process manufacturers (oil, chemical and utility companies that measure their products by flow rather than individual units) out in the cold. Each of these industries has struggled with the different ERP vendors to modify core ERP programs to their needs.

What does ERP really cost?

Meta Group recently did a study looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of ERP, including hardware, software, professional services and internal staff costs. The TCO numbers include getting the software installed and the two years afterward, which is when the real costs of maintaining, upgrading and optimizing the system for your business are felt. Among the 63 companies surveyed—including small, medium and large companies in a range of industries—the average TCO was $15 million (the highest was $300 million and lowest was $400,000). While it’s hard to draw a solid number from that kind of range of companies and ERP efforts, Meta came up with one statistic that proves that ERP is expensive no matter what kind of company is using it. The TCO for a “heads-down” user over that period was a staggering $53,320.

When will I get payback from ERP—and how much will it be?

Don’t expect to revolutionize your business with ERP. It is a navel-gazing exercise that focuses on optimizing the way things are done internally rather than with customers, suppliers or partners. Yet the navel gazing has a pretty good payback if you’re willing to wait for it—a Meta Group study of 63 companies found that it took eight months after the new system was in (31 months total) to see any benefits. But the median annual savings from the new ERP system were $1.6 million.

From CIO.com

The ABCs of ERP-(II)

June 19, 2005

How long will an ERP project take?

Companies that install ERP do not have an easy time of it. Don’t be fooled when ERP vendors tell you about a three or six month average implementation time. Those short (that’s right, six months is short) implementations all have a catch of one kind or another: The company was small, or the implementation was limited to a small area of the company, or the company used only the financial pieces of the ERP system (in which case the ERP system is nothing more than a very expensive accounting system). To do ERP right, the ways you do business will need to change and the ways people do their jobs will need to change too. And that kind of change doesn’t come without pain. Unless, of course, your ways of doing business are working extremely well (orders all shipped on time, productivity higher than all your competitors, customers completely satisfied), in which case there is no reason to even consider ERP.

The important thing is not to focus on how long it will take—real transformational ERP efforts usually run between one and three years, on average—but rather to understand why you need it and how you will use it to improve your business.

What will ERP fix in my business?

There are five major reasons why companies undertake ERP.

1. Integrate financial information
As the CEO tries to understand the company’s overall performance, he may find many different versions of the truth. Finance has its own set of revenue numbers, sales has another version, and the different business units may each have their own version of how much they contributed to revenues. ERP creates a single version of the truth that cannot be questioned because everyone is using the same system.

2.Integrate customer order information
ERP systems can become the place where the customer order lives from the time a customer service representative receives it until the loading dock ships the merchandise and finance sends an invoice. By having this information in one software system, rather than scattered among many different systems that can’t communicate with one another, companies can keep track of orders more easily, and coordinate manufacturing, inventory and shipping among many different locations at the same time.

3.Standardize and speed up manufacturing processes
Manufacturing companies—especially those with an appetite for mergers and acquisitions—often find that multiple business units across the company make the same widget using different methods and computer systems. ERP systems come with standard methods for automating some of the steps of a manufacturing process. Standardizing those processes and using a single, integrated computer system can save time, increase productivity and reduce head count.

4.Reduce inventory
ERP helps the manufacturing process flow more smoothly, and it improves visibility of the order fulfillment process inside the company. That can lead to reduced inventories of the stuff used to make products (work-in-progress inventory), and it can help users better plan deliveries to customers, reducing the finished good inventory at the warehouses and shipping docks. To really improve the flow of your supply chain, you need supply chain software, but ERP helps too.

5.Standardize HR information
Especially in companies with multiple business units, HR may not have a unified, simple method for tracking employees’ time and communicating with them about benefits and services. ERP can fix that.
In the race to fix these problems, companies often lose sight of the fact that ERP packages are nothing more than generic representations of the ways a typical company does business. While most packages are exhaustively comprehensive, each industry has its quirks that make it unique. Most ERP systems were designed to be used by discrete manufacturing companies (that make physical things that can be counted), which immediately left all the process manufacturers (oil, chemical and utility companies that measure their products by flow rather than individual units) out in the cold. Each of these industries has struggled with the different ERP vendors to modify core ERP programs to their needs.

From CIO.com

The ABCs of ERP-(I)

What is ERP?

Enterprise resource planning software, or ERP, doesn’t live up to its acronym. Forget about planning—it doesn’t do much of that—and forget about resource, a throwaway term. But remember the enterprise part. This is ERP’s true ambition. It attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all those different departments’ particular needs.

That is a tall order, building a single software program that serves the needs of people in finance as well as it does the people in human resources and in the warehouse. Each of those departments typically has its own computer system optimized for the particular ways that the department does its work. But ERP combines them all together into a single, integrated software program that runs off a single database so that the various departments can more easily share information and communicate with each other.

That integrated approach can have a tremendous payback if companies install the software correctly.

Take a customer order, for example. Typically, when a customer places an order, that order begins a mostly paper-based journey from in-basket to in-basket around the company, often being keyed and rekeyed into different departments’ computer systems along the way. All that lounging around in in-baskets causes delays and lost orders, and all the keying into different computer systems invites errors. Meanwhile, no one in the company truly knows what the status of the order is at any given point because there is no way for the finance department, for example, to get into the warehouse’s computer system to see whether the item has been shipped. “You’ll have to call the warehouse” is the familiar refrain heard by frustrated customers.

ERP vanquishes the old standalone computer systems in finance, HR, manufacturing and the warehouse, and replaces them with a single unified software program divided into software modules that roughly approximate the old standalone systems. Finance, manufacturing and the warehouse all still get their own software, except now the software is linked together so that someone in finance can look into the warehouse software to see if an order has been shipped. Most vendors’ ERP software is flexible enough that you can install some modules without buying the whole package. Many companies, for example, will just install an ERP finance or HR module and leave the rest of the functions for another day.

How can ERP improve a company’s business performance?

ERP’s best hope for demonstrating value is as a sort of battering ram for improving the way your company takes a customer order and processes it into an invoice and revenue—otherwise known as the order fulfillment process. That is why ERP is often referred to as back-office software. It doesn’t handle the up-front selling process (although most ERP vendors have recently developed CRM software to do this); rather, ERP takes a customer order and provides a software road map for automating the different steps along the path to fulfilling it. When a customer service representative enters a customer order into an ERP system, he has all the information necessary to complete the order (the customer’s credit rating and order history from the finance module, the company’s inventory levels from the warehouse module and the shipping dock’s trucking schedule from the logistics module, for example).

People in these different departments all see the same information and can update it. When one department finishes with the order it is automatically routed via the ERP system to the next department. To find out where the order is at any point, you need only log in to the ERP system and track it down. With luck, the order process moves like a bolt of lightning through the organization, and customers get their orders faster and with fewer errors than before. ERP can apply that same magic to the other major business processes, such as employee benefits or financial reporting.

That, at least, is the dream of ERP. The reality is much harsher.

Let’s go back to those inboxes for a minute. That process may not have been efficient, but it was simple. Finance did its job, the warehouse did its job, and if anything went wrong outside of the department’s walls, it was somebody else’s problem. Not anymore. With ERP, the customer service representatives are no longer just typists entering someone’s name into a computer and hitting the return key. The ERP screen makes them businesspeople. It flickers with the customer’s credit rating from the finance department and the product inventory levels from the warehouse. Will the customer pay on time? Will we be able to ship the order on time? These are decisions that customer service representatives have never had to make before, and the answers affect the customer and every other department in the company. But it’s not just the customer service representatives who have to wake up. People in the warehouse who used to keep inventory in their heads or on scraps of paper now need to put that information online. If they don’t, customer service reps will see low inventory levels on their screens and tell customers that their requested item is not in stock. Accountability, responsibility and communication have never been tested like this before.

People don’t like to change, and ERP asks them to change how they do their jobs. That is why the value of ERP is so hard to pin down. The software is less important than the changes companies make in the ways they do business. If you use ERP to improve the ways your people take orders, manufacture goods, ship them and bill for them, you will see value from the software. If you simply install the software without changing the ways people do their jobs, you may not see any value at all—indeed, the new software could slow you down by simply replacing the old software that everyone knew with new software that no one does.

From CIO.com

Microsoft under fire for censoring China blogs

June 16, 2005

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp.’s new MSN China Internet venture is censoring words such as “freedom,” “democracy” and “human rights” on its free online journals, Microsoft said on Tuesday, putting itself in the middle of a major Web controversy.

The world’s largest software maker said that its “MSN Spaces” service operated out of China, which allows users to set up their own blogs, or online journals, was acting in accordance with local laws.

“MSN abides by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates,” said Brooke Richardson, MSN lead product manager.

The move comes as the Chinese government attempts to tighten control over the Internet. Last week, a media watchdog group said China would close unregistered China-based domestic web sites and blogs. About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, the group, Reporters without Borders said, citing Chinese figures.

Microsoft rivals such as Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news), eBay Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and InterActiveCorp., which have made a string of acquisitions to expand their operations in China, have also been known to censor content in the country.

Words and phrases banned in the subject line of entries for Microsoft’s MSN Spaces on Tuesday also included “Taiwan independence” and “demonstration,” which returned an error message saying “prohibited language, please remove.”

Not even former and current leaders’ names such as “Mao Zedong” or “Hu Jintao” were allowed.

Most of the phrases, however, were allowed in the body of the entries.

Other blog sites lashed out at Microsoft. Online tech forum Slashdot had user comments calling the censorship a “really really awful thing” and accusing the software giant of trying to appease China’s government in the interest of conducting business.

Matt Rosoff, analyst at Directions on Microsoft, an independent research firm in Kirkland, Washington, pointed out that any censorship by Microsoft’s online service was relatively minor compared to the broader censorship by the Chinese government over all Internet activity.

“If Microsoft wants to do business in China they have to obey the laws set by the Chinese government,” Rosoff said, adding that “they’ve done the calculations and decided this was worth it.”

Microsoft’s censorship was first reported by bloggers and news outlets in Asia after MSN Spaces was launched in China on May 26. So far, five million blogs have been created with the service, Microsoft said.

The company has long seen China as a key growth market, but also as a headache because of widespread software piracy and copyright issues. China represents the world’s second-largest Internet market with 94 million users at the end of 2004, a number expected to rise to 134 million by the end of this year, according to official data.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft launched MSN China last month by establishing a joint venture with government-operated Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. (SAIL) to develop more communication, information and content tied to China.

From Yahoo.com

中国の大地で輝くFlash文化—中国大地闪耀的Flash文化

June 7, 2005

中国の大地で輝くFlash文化

中国大地闪耀的Flash文化

中国ではFlashが日本では「ありえねー」ほど大人気。でもその影にはやっぱり海賊版が見え隠れする。Flash文化で海賊版を一掃する手立てはないものか?

无论在中国,还是在日本,Flash文化都深受喜欢,但是盗版的影子还是隐隐约约看到,有什么可以通过Flash文化消除盗版的方法呢?

フリーズするカラオケマシン

死机的卡拉OK机器

いきなり私的な話で恐縮だが、先日、中国のカラオケ屋で中国人の知人がパーティを行った。1部屋4時間で日本円にして1000円強といったところ。

突然用自己的话(开头)还是有点担心,昨天,参加了个中国熟人举行的聚会,是那种一个房间4小时1000日元相当便宜的地方。

小部屋に入ると、日本でよく見る「曲のタイトル本」が見当たらない。その部屋には、歌詞ムービーが映るテレビとは別に小さいモニターがあり、グラフィカルなインタフェースが表示されている。そのモニターに向かってリモコンを操作して歌いたい曲を探し、その曲入力装置に連動して大型のテレビに歌詞の映像が流れ始める。

进入卡拉OK房间,在日本认为很好的曲目点歌本看不到,歌词被在电视机旁另外一个小的监视器上以图形化的界面显示,通过向这个监视器遥控操作找寻想要唱的曲目,这首曲子会被输入装置传送到旁边运行的大电视机上,歌词的图像也开始流动显示。

時間が経つにつれパーティは盛り上がり、カラオケの常として、曲入力合戦が白熱する。っと、そのとき、入力装置が突然固まってシステムが落ちた、と思った次の瞬間、見覚えのある「BIOS画面」が現れたのだ。このとき、筆者はこの「曲入力装置」が実は「PC」だったことに初めて気がついたのである。

随着时间的过去,聚会也变得热闹起来,作为正常的卡拉OK,歌曲的选曲也变得白热化,就在此时,突然选曲的装置停了下来,系统也非正常运行,紧接着的瞬间,记得见到过的印象有BIOS画面的出现。这个时候,笔者才初次注意到这个所谓的选曲装置其实是台PC。

店員と客一同が不正シャットダウン後の起動時に行われるスキャンディスクをひたすら待つ「無音&お寒い空気」の中、カラオケショップにもWindowsがタダ同然で入ってしまう社会ゆえ、このシステムが存在するのか、と思いを巡らせてしまった。

在不正常的系统重新启动所进行的磁盘扫描时,店员和客人们也一同进入只能等待的无声与尴尬的气氛中,Windows也同样进入卡拉OK店铺中,围绕这样的系统存在,确实有所思考。

しかし、それで驚いたのはそれだけではなかった。パーティに参加した中国人が皆熱唱した「東北人」の歌詞画面は明らかにFlashで作られたもので、かつ、それがアマチュアの「フラッシュ職人」が作った歌と歌詞画面だったのだ(これは、日本でいうところの“掲示板に投稿されたFlashアニメ作品”がカラオケで歌われている状態に等しい)。

但是,因此感到吃惊的还不仅仅是这个,参加聚会的中国人全部热情所唱的《东北人》(我怀疑是《东北人都是活雷锋》)的歌词画面,明显是由Flash制作。并且,这个业余Flash爱好者所作的歌曲和画面,与日本在公告板上投稿了的Flash动画作品用卡拉OK的方式演唱的状态是相同的。

ちなみに、パーティの参加者にヘビーPCユーザーはいない。それにも関わらず、一個人が私的に作成したFlashアニメがカラオケで歌われ、一般的な中国の若者に認知されるまで浸透している。こんなめちゃくちゃ一般世間に浸透している「中国のFlash事情」から、今回は、中国におけるデジタルコンテンツの需要と供給を考察してみたい。

顺便还须说明一下,参加聚会的人都不是对电脑很熟悉的人。不考虑这些,以个人方式一个人制作的Flash动画作品被用卡拉OK方式演唱,在一般的中国年轻人中被认可的程度已经很深。从这样一个不很正常的中国的Flash情况开始,此次,想对中国的数字内容作品的需求和提供进行一番考察。

海賊版蔓延が招いた新たなカルチャー

盗版蔓延导致了的新的文化

さて、Webの世界に目を向けると、中国製Flashアニメが最近一層世界に浸透しているように感じる。各ポータルサイトで「これでもか」とFlash広告を使うことはもとより、中国の最も有名なサイトのひとつ「Tom」をはじめとして、多くのポータルサイトでFlash専用ページを設けている。

把眼光转向网络世界,能够深刻感受到最近在中国Flash动画所深入的程度,不用说在各个站点所使用的Flash广告,以中国最有名的站点Tom.com开始,好多站点都开始设置Flash专用网页。

また、最新のFlash動画を紹介するサイトも数多くある。中国のネット媒体や紙媒体のPC誌でFlash作品コンクールを募ることもよく見かける。最近中国全土で起こった大規模な反日デモは記憶に新しいが、反日をテーマにしたFlashアニメも数多く存在する。

同时,也有许多介绍最新的Flash动画的站点。在中国以网络和纸为媒体的PC杂志中招募Flash作品比赛的相关活动也很容易看见。对最近中国发生的大规模反日游行也许记忆犹新,但把反日做为题目的Flash动画也存在很多。

ともかく、その莫大なFlashを取り扱うWebページを見たかったり、海の先にある国の人々のFlash作品のレベルはいかほどかと思ったりしたらまず、中国の検索エンジンの百度か、Googleの簡体字中国語ページ検索でFlashと入力してみるといい。

不管怎样,想看这些庞大的Flash网页,想知道还对面国家(中国)Flash作品的水平有多高,使用中国的搜索引擎百度,或是使用Google的简体中文搜索,试着输入Flash就明白了。

Flashが使われる場面はWebだけでもなければ、前述のカラオケ屋だけでもない。街の中心にある巨大スクリーンや、路線バスの中にある乗客向けテレビモニター広告を見れば、少なからずFlashで作られた広告を少なからず見る。Flashは街中の巨大スクリーンまでジャックしたのだ。

Flash被使用的场面不仅仅在Web和前述的卡拉OK屋中(这句话翻译有欠妥,原意句子需要推敲),街中心巨大的广告显示屏里,公交汽车上面向乘客的移动电视广告中,能看到有很多Flash制作的广告。

Flash普及の勢いはとどまらず、中国のメーカーは自国向けにFlashファイル再生プレーヤーまで作ってしまった。「愛国者」というメーカーの「波波Flash Player MP-P800」がそれだ。Flashで作成した動画やゲームを楽しめるのがウリというコンセプトが、いかにFlashが中国で認知され一般に浸透しているかを物語っている。

Flash普及的势头没有丝毫停滞,中国厂商已经生产出面向本国的Flash文件播放器,爱国者的“波波Flash Player MP-P800“就是其中一例,享受如何用Flash制作的动画或是游戏在中国认知已很普遍深入。

Web上のものにしろ街中で見る作品にしろ、作者ごとに画風の違いこそあれ、日本製Flashアニメが「あぁ、これは日本の漫画だね」と思えるように、中国でも「なるほど、これは中国らしい」というアニメの画風がすでに中国で見るFlash作品にも認められる。

象在Web上的作品还是象在大街上见到的作品,作者们的画风各不相同,就像看日本制作的动画片会认为:“啊,这是日本的漫画呀”一样,在中国,看到这些Flash作品会认可“的确,这就像中国的动画片画风”。

かくして、マクロメディアのソフトは、いずれも中国で人気をはくしているが、その中でもFlashは突出している。書店のコンピュータコーナーにはFlashムービーのハウツー本がどっさりおいてあるし、PC雑誌には初心者向けの記事としてFlash作成方法が頻繁に掲載されている。

媒体制作的软件,在中国全都深受欢迎,在这其中,Flash最为突出,书店的电脑柜台上的制作Flash电影的书被大量的放置,面向初学者的PC杂志上,Flash做成的方法也被频繁地刊载。

ところが、解説書籍が氾濫する一方で筆者はソフト屋の店頭でFlashの正規版パッケージを見たことがない。店頭で見る限り、WindowsやMicrosoft Office、アンチウイルスソフトの正規版が(たまに)あっても、マクロメディア製(そして同じくユーザーが多いアドビ製品)の正規版はまず見ることはないだろう。

然而,在书籍泛滥的一方笔者在软件商店店头中却没有看到Flash的正版,有限地(偶尔)只有Windows和Microsoft Office等,媒体制作软件(就像用户很多的Adobe产品)的正版却没有首先看到。

正規版販売量に対する解説本の量たるや、不釣合いも甚だしい。結局のところ、その解説本人気を裏付けるかのように街中どこでも見かけるソフト屋でAdobe製品の海賊版CDがいかにも人目につきそうな一等地におかれている。

与正版销售量相对比的解说书籍销售量,有很大程度的不相符,这样的结局是,同这个受欢迎的解说书籍一样,在大街中的任何哪个软件商店里,Adobe产品的盗版CD盘的确成为同等重要的焦点位置。

手軽に作れるMP3プレーヤーが爆発的に普及

简单制作的MP3播放器爆炸性地普及

MP3も同様に海賊版のおかげで爆発的に普及した。ちなみに、ここでいう「MP3の海賊版」とは、たとえばソフト屋であたりまえのように買える、MP3ファイルが何百曲も収録されたCDや、著作権を保護するといった概念に乏しい中国人ユーザーのWebサイトでアップされたまま放置されている膨大なMP3ファイルのことだ。

MP3也因为托盗版的福而爆炸性的普及起来。顺便,在这里所说的盗版MP3是指,例如在软件商店当然可以很好买到的,含有几百首歌曲的CD或是去缺乏知识产权的中国用户的互联网站点被大量放置的Mp3文件。

このように無防備に流通しているMP3の普及を後押ししてしまうのが、生産に高い技術力を必要としないシリコンオーディオメディアプレーヤーだ。「安かろう遅かろう」のメモリといくつかのチップを用意するだけでシリコンオーディオプレーヤーができてしまうとあって、中国国内に存在する膨大な数の零細メーカーがMP3プレーヤーを販売するなど、日本では想像もつかぬほどの苛烈な競争が行われている。

虽然推动了这种流通毫无阻拦的MP3普及,但是却没有把较高技术作为必要的去生产媒体音频播放器,有的只是将便宜的存储器和几个芯片组装一下,这样的媒体音频播放器便生产出来了。在中国国内存在数量巨大的小生产厂家,Mp3的销售,对于日本也不会想象会如此激烈的竞争,在这里就发生了。

中国各地の電脳街や大型電器店だけでなく、デパートはもとより、大手スーパーの電器売り場や、学生街の小さな商店まで、各社MP3プレーヤーがびっしりぎっしり並べられている。

不用说在中国各地的电脑街,大型电器店和商场,大型超市电器卖场,学生街的小商店,各个商家的MP3播放器都密密麻麻密密麻麻满满地并排呈列着。

イマドキの中国製低価格MP3プレーヤーは128Mバイトが売れ筋の中心で、価格は「1メガ1元(1元=約13.5円)」が相場、つまり1700円程度(日本で言えば1万2800円の感覚)でプチ金持ちのPCユーザにも無理なく購入できる価格設定だ。

现在中国制造的低价格Mp3播放器,128M是热销的重点,价格为1700日元,如果对于日本来说的话,是1万2800日元的感觉,这对于有钱的PC用户来说,也是一个并不无理的购买敬价格。

日本ではiPod Shuffleが戦略的価格で販売されたが、それですら中国ではかなりお高い部類になる。イマドキの中国製低価格MP3プレーヤーは、その便利さと価格から中国人には大いに支持され、都市の若者世代には必須のアイテムとなっている。おかげで、MP3といって意味が分からず首をかしげるような若者はいない。

在日本,iPod Shuffle是以价格战略销售,即使这样,在中国仍然是相当高的价格。现在中国生产的低价格MP3播放器,因为便宜方便被中国本土用户大大支持,托这样的福,对不明白MP3意义感到疑问的年轻人没有。

誰もが十分な所得が得られる国の人も、国内の貨幣価値が低く、どう考えても先進国の価格水準でソフトを購買できない国の人も、コンテンツを作り、コンテンツを楽しむ権利はある。

对于无论是谁都能够充分得到所得的国家的人,还是因国家币值低而无法考虑购买先进国家价格水平的软件的国家的人,制作(媒体)内容,享受(媒体)内容的权利都是有的。

しかし、今の中国のように「海賊版は違法だけれどもやむを得ないから放置している」とも捉えかねない状況はどうにかならないものだろうか。

欧米や日本では、MP3ファイルをダウンロードたびに課金するシステムが運用されている。海賊版MP3ファイルの流通を防ぐために、このシステムを全世界的に適用し、ダウンロードする国々にあった物価でサービスを提供することは可能かもしれない。

在欧美和日本,MP3文件下载需要付费系统正在被使用,为了防范盗版MP3,通过在全世界都适用这样的系统,根据各国物价提供下载服务也不能说不可能。

この方法で、「ダウンロード」というコンテンツを消費する行為ではたしかにフェアになるかもしれない。しかし「Flash」のようなメジャーなコンテンツ製作ツールを購入する場合、アドビが設定した全世界共通価格があるために、貨幣価値が低い国のユーザーは、そのあまりの高さのため、正式版ではコンテンツを作れないことになってしまいアンフェアとなる。

说不定用这种方法,消费下载服务的行为确实变得公平了,但是像购买Flash这样的媒体制作工具,Adobe在全世界相同的价格,使得对于币值低的国家的用户来说,仍然很高,那么因为要使用正版而不能制作媒体内容,变得又不公平了。

世界のリーダーであるアドビが、国々の事情に合わせて価格を変えるのも1つの方法であるし、たとえば日本では、Flashコンテンツを作成できるオンラインツールが2000円程度から購入できたりするように、中国でも良質なコンテンツ制作ツールを中国の物価にあわせた価格で提供するのも有効な手段だ。

作为世界著名的公司Adobe,通过符合各国的国情,从而改变销售价格也是一个方法,譬如像日本,用2000日元购买能够制作Flash媒体内容的在线工具一样,在中国提供符合中国物价的优秀媒体制作工具也是有效的方法。

中国が海賊版の撲滅に向けて本気で立ち上がっているというならば、そういった有用なソフトを国がソフトウェア製作会社をバックアップしてでも作らせるべきではないだろうか。

コンテンツ作成ツールがMP3ファイルで提案したような、フェアな課金システムで販売されれば、「高いからしょうがない」といった海賊版普及の温床となる言い訳がなくなるのと同時に、今回紹介したような中国のFlashのような新しいが合法的なソフトウェアライセンスの背景の下に新興国にも生まれるかもしれない。

因为MP3文件,而象对媒体制作工具的建议那样,公平的收费服务系统如果被使用的话。“由于价格高没有办法”,这个被称为盗版普及温床的解释在丢失的同时,像此次介绍的中国Flash,在新的合法的软件许可背景下,产生新兴国也不能说没有。

总算踉踉跄跄把文章翻译完了,断断续续花了快一周,而且自己又是一个爱较真的人,于是乎,有点自讨苦吃的味道,而且还是第一次试着翻译这么长的文章。文章中很多地方都是囫囵吞枣,还有两段不知如何表达,如果有谁路过,看到什么奇怪的语句,第一不必大惊小怪,第二不必鄙视草民,第三还是希望各位日语达人指正错误。
作者的观点有欠全面,这可能和接触有关,不过思考的深度以及意见的提出,确实给我们有益的启示。

From ITmedia

海尔,需要吹捧!

May 30, 2005

haier-in-giza-1

离开东京的最后一晚,在银座街边闲逛,中心一十字路口,
随意抬头,竟然发现海尔的大型广告牌,不由得兴奋起来。
联想起前几日所看王建硕《让我们吹捧出中国自己的产业来》
虽然看到的海尔广告不是IT,
虽然目前的海尔产品在日本是同类里最便宜的,
虽然当前的海尔品牌认知程度远远比不上那些老牌的国际公司……
但是她让我们看到了希望,
不仅仅在家电业,
不仅仅是因为来自于Made in china的廉价,
也不仅仅是因为大肿脸充胖子,穷宣传……
让我们也为海尔吹捧吹捧!

haier-in-giza-2

咄咄逼人

May 25, 2005

回顾5月,日本一系列外交动作确实咄咄逼人……

■5月初,町村外相在纽约对各国驻联合国大使发表演讲时公开明言:“台湾本来就是日美安保条约的对象”。日本媒体对町村这一露骨表态普遍感到震惊,认为町村触碰到了中国最敏感的政治神经。而中国外交部发言人孔泉也在记者会上坦承“感到震惊”,并就此向日方提出严正交涉、强烈抗议。

■5月11日,美国国际新闻社报道说,日本政府计划重新启动位于青森县六所村市的一个钚处理厂,这座钚处理厂每年可以分离、储存8吨钚,足够制造1000枚原子弹。

■5月13日,日本参议院打破二次世界大战后的禁忌,将已故天皇裕仁的生日4月29日重新确定为法定纪念日“昭和日”,并定于2007年实施。

■5月15日,日本防卫厅宣布在新泻、冲绳等4个地方部署全新的地面雷达FPS-XX,并将原有的6部FPS-3雷达全面升级。日本防卫厅表示,中国有数量可观的中程弹道导弹,对日本的安全“构成了威胁”,因此有必要建成一个覆盖日本全国的雷达监测系统。

■5月16日,小泉首相在众院预算委员会集中审议中表示,将继续参拜靖国神社。此事引起中国的强烈谴责,再次强调了中国不希望小泉首相继续参拜靖国神社的立场。

■5月17日,日本政府透露,有18名日本国民的籍贯在与中国存有领土争端的尖阁诸岛(中国名·钓鱼群岛)。

■5月18日,读卖新闻发表民调指出,有高达85%的受访者要求中国就4月的反日示威向日本道歉和赔偿,92%的受访者不接受中国宣称反日示威归咎于日本未对二战罪行忏悔的说法。

■5月19日,日本东京都知事石原慎太郎前往冲之鸟宣示主权,并于20日在冲之鸟珊瑚礁登陆。冲之鸟珊瑚礁距东京1730公里,日本将其划入东京都的管辖范围。

■5月20日,小泉首相在一个国会委员会会议上说:“我不介意以个人身份或官方身份到靖国神社参拜,我到靖国神社参拜,是出自我个人的信念。”

■5月22日,共同社报导说,日本政府任命了对台交流协会台北事务所的新任所长池田维,此举被舆论赞赏为是日本重视台湾的表现,认为池田维是“在1972年9月日本与台湾断交后首次以台湾实质上的大使身份踏上这片土地。”

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