Managing and Developing Integrated Systems
I have chosen to write about Business Process Analysis as it is very relevant to my work. I currently support, maintain and develop an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The business also uses a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. We are also looking at Workflow Management through an ITIL helpdesk package. Currently workflow is managed through a comprehensive set of procedural documents.
We use our CRM system to record all contact with customers and potential customers. Potential customers cannot be recorded in the ERP system as a customer account must exist. The CRM system can be used to record activities such as visitng a customer site, calling the customer on the phone to notify them about a special on a product, receiving a call from a customer regarding pricing, a lead on a potential customer, calling a customer regarding an outstanding invoice and any other contact.
Workflow Management involves the development of procedures relating to the flow of data, documents, and work items from one person or step to the next. Software applications exist to assist in this, and many helpdesk applications now assist organisations in adhering to their procedures.
ERP systems allow a business to enquire on entities such as suppliers, stock, customers, and warehouses. Their main purpose however, is to perform transactions on these entities. Some of the transactions that may be performed are:
Entry, editing, picking, despatching, and invoicing of sales orders.
Entry, editing, sending, receipting, and updating of purchase orders.
Transfer of stock from one warehouse to another.
Place work orders on production to manufacture goods.
Reporting on and following up on all of the above.
Overall these systems can be integrated to make data quickly and easily available to those who need it, and to make internal, customer, supplier and partner transactions easy to manage.
Tags: CRM, ERP, exercises, workflow management
