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FAQ
For the better understanding of our visitors we
have divided our FAQs in four sections. Click on the desired question
in the appropriate section to see the answer.
ERP
What is ERP?
Why ERP?
How did ERP evolve?
Can a packaged software fit business needs well? /
How do we get best business practices through ERP?
How are ERP and BPR related?
What are the typical modules under an ERP package?
How does my cost of ownership reduce with ERP?
Are Enterprise Solutions meant only for large companies?
Can ERP be integrated with Internet?
Is ERP too expensive for Indian companies?
Why do consultants recommend changing business practice
to suit the ERP software rather than customising the software to
every user needs?
What are the critical success factors for ERP?
How much does is cost to go in for ERP?
Reckoner
A quick summary of sales module?
A quick summary of core module?
A quick summary of finance module?
A quick summary of human resource module?
A quick summary or production module?
A quick summary of projects module?
A quick summary of materials module?
Is Reckoner ERP suitable for process-based industries?
What are the hardware requirements/investments for
Reckoner ERP business solution?
What are the operating systems and databases supported
by Reckoner?
Reckoner on ASP
How do I benefit from it?
How does 'Reckoner on ASP' change the way companies
do business? How do they differ from traditional client/server applications?
What is the implementation time? Do I need to spend
any money for implementation?
What level of security does it provide?
How can I be sure my data is secure?
Implementation
What are implementation costs?
What are the three dominant approaches to ERP implementation?
ERP being integrated software does one benefit by
implementing only specific modules?
In Reckoner ERP system why is 'CORE' the first module
to be implemented?
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ERP
What is ERP?
ERP is an acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP is package
software solution that tries to address the enterprise needs for
an organisation by tightly integrating the various functions of
an organisation using a process view of an organisation. ERP understands
the needs of any organisation belonging to any industry because
the processes implemented in an ERP software are core processes
such as order processing, order fulfilment, shipping, invoicing,
BOM processing, purchase order processing, preparation of Balance
Sheet, Profit and Loss statement etc., that are common to all industry
segments. ERP addresses the entire needs of an enterprise and cuts
across all its functions such as finance, sales, production, human
resource and others to meaningfully execute any of the core processes.
An integrated ERP ensures that the logic of a process that cuts
across the function is captured genuinely, this in turn implies
that data once entered in any of the functional modules (whichever
of the module owns the data) is made available to every other module
that needs this data. This leads to significant improvements by
way of improved consistency and integrity of data. In short an ERP
provides a much better insight into the organisational systems and
procedures and also breaks the "kingdoms" that work at cross-purposes
in many organisations.
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Why ERP?
Companies go in for ERP either to solve their existing problems
or to explore new opportunities. Many organisations face the problem
of islands of heterogeneous and incompatible information systems
that were developed over the past several years running on diverse
hardware and software platforms leading to nearly insurmountable
problems of reconciling data locked up among these diverse systems.
ERP provides instant access to all the transactional information
across the corporation. Such an information rich scenario permits
organisation to reduce inventory across multiple units/ departments/
plants; reduce cycle times from weeks to hours; and improve customer
satisfaction by orders of magnitude. Reduces costs, reduced cycle
time, increased inventory turns are just some of the benefits which
an ERP solution offers to an organisation.
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How did ERP evolve?
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Evolution of ERP
- Accounting
- Inventory
- MRP I
- MRP II
- ERP
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Automation was used for accounting to keep track of financial resources.
Soon, organisations realised that the key to manufacturing efficiency
was the management of inventory, and computers could be of enormous
help in that area. This was followed by a more complete Material
Requirement Planning Sysem (MRP1), but then came the need for integrating
the manufacturing process itself with MRP - thus was born Manufacturing
Resources Planning, or MRPII. These systems later evolved to ERP
solution which integrated the en
tire enterprise for better productivity, reduced costs and as a
tool for Planning.
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Can a packaged software fit business needs
well? / How do we get best business practices through ERP?
Core processes of an organisation such as raising a purchase order,
or a request for quotation, or letter of credit etc. across all
industries are the same. Companies developing ERP software have
spent huge amounts of money in understanding the business processes
used by thousands of corporations world-wide. All these business
practices have then been successfully mapped onto ERP software packages
and thus bring in world-class practices to any company that implements
the ERP software.
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How are ERP and BPR related?
BPR stands for Business Process Reengineering. A BPR exercise preceding
the ERP implementation can help the organisation significantly.
It may also increase a combined time of implementing BPR and ERP
significantly. There is also a risk that a particular ERP software
selected later may not be able to implement the reengineered processes.
A simultaneous BPR and ERP exercise saves time and also minimises
the risk of sequential implementation of BPR followed by ERP. One
rarely comes across the instance where BPR is followed by ERP. As
such the ordering of ERP & BPR must be based on the needs of a specific
organisation.
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What are the typical modules under an ERP package?
Typical Modules of ERP include sales (sales forecasting, customer
prospecting, database marketing), order processing (inquiry handling,
order taking) shipping, transportation, invoicing, finance (G/L,
AR, AP), asset management, cost accounting, financial accounting,
manufacturing, plant & machinery management, payroll, human resource
management, and materials management.
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How does my cost of ownership reduce with ERP?
An ERP ensures reduced Inventory, efficient utilisation of plant
and machinery by better planning, improved sales by responding to
customers requirements quickly, better cash and fund management
along with reduced staff requirements for doing non productive functions.
With so much of savings for an organisation a company can break
even within a couple of years.
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Are Enterprise Solutions meant only for large
companies?
No, it has been noticed world-wide that even SMEs(Small and Medium
Enterprise) have gained tremendous advantage with an ERP solution
for their own organisation. Enterprise solutions packages offer
the benefits of information integration, based on industry best
practices. It offers a solution to help operate seamlessly, within
their own organisation and also with key external parties such as
customers, suppliers, financial institutions, and the government.
In today's world business demands the use of information technology
as basics for any organisation, and penalises those who stay out
of the game. This is one of the quickest ways to jump start itself
to world class standards, thus avoiding the time and the cost needed
to reinvent the wheel.
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Can ERP be integrated with Internet?
Yes, attempts are going on for making ERP packages integrate with
internet. For just about any company engaged in purchasing and fulfilment
activities, electronic commerce systems have become a virtual business
necessity. The Internet represents the next major technology enabler
which allows rapid supply chain management between multiple operations
and trading partners. Most ERP systems are enhancing their products
to become "web-enabled" so that customers world wide can have direct
access to the supplier's ERP system.
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Is ERP too expensive for Indian companies?
The cost of ERP software should not be viewed as an expense. It
is an investment towards an ability that provides better profitability,
increased market share or better customer service. Most software
pieces used by the corporations for commercial applications never
had price tags of millions of rupees which ERP software carry. ERP
decision is a "high-risk high reward" decision and to view ERP as
an expensive only looks at the risk but not the rewards.
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Why do consultants recommend changing business
practice to suit the ERP software rather than customising the software
to every user needs?
An ERP business solutions is bundled with business processes that
have evolved over the past two decades of ERP implementation in
some of the most well-managed corporations around the world. By
adapting to those processes that have proved successful in some
of the finest corporations around the world, an organisation implementing
ERP would get the advantage of these "best of the breed" practices.
That is the reason behind the consultant recommendations.
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What are the critical success factors
for ERP?
Critical success factors for ERP include top management commitment,
clear focus about the goals of ERP project, readiness to invest
in high risk, high reward project, management of change and faith
in ERP software.
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How much does is cost to go in for ERP?
The cost for implementing an ERP package varies significantly from
one instance to another. The actual cost depends on the nature of
the industry, the size of the firm, the geographical distribution
of the organisational units such as offices, plants, warehouses
and distribution points, the number of user licenses and the extent
of ERP implementation (the number of functional modules implemented).
The cost includes ERP software licenses, server cost, communication
network cost and the cost of consultants who would do the implementation.
A major component of ERP project is the cost of implementation consultant
(both internal and external), ERP software nearly costs around 25%
of the overall cost.
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Reckoner
A quick summary of sales module?
Reckoner Sales and Distribution module covers functionality like
customer database management, their ratings, replying their inquiries
as well as tenders, pricing of products, product catalogue maintenance,
quotations management, receiving orders, post order processing,
delivery scheduling, goods delivery, invoicing etc. It covers all
the processes of Sales department for an organisation.
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A quick summary of core module?
Core is an abstract module, which gives its functionality to all
other modules in the package. Core has a very powerful system administration
function which not only drives the Reckoner ERP system, but which
is also used in configuring the process definitions of the enterprise.
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A quick summary of finance module?
Reckoner's finance module keeps track of every financial transaction
of every voucher posted, of every debtor and creditor, of multiple
currencies and even information on specific cost centres. This module
gives you the flexibility of operating in multiple currencies, having
multiple balance sheets and allows the user to define any type of
voucher to the user including future vouchers.
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A quick summary of human resource module?
Reckoner's Human Resource Management module provides a comprehensive
solution to make an organisation's human resource process much more
information intensive and flexibility to adapt to future needs.
It takes care of all the processes right from recruitment to retirement
of an employee.
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A quick summary or production module?
Reckoner production covers the entire gamut of production planning,
shop floor management, machine allotment and maintenance and human
resource allocation to give your enterprise with an optimal production
schedule according to a pre-determined plan so that WIP and lead
times are reduced and productivity is enhanced.
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A quick summary of projects module?
Projects are tasks with special characteristics. Projects are non-repetitive,
engineer-to-order strategy, span a large time frame, are performed
in phases and include both services & materials. Reckoner projects
module mainly targeted at constructions industries takes care of
activities right from tendering and estimation to planning and monitoring
of projects. This modules is integrated with Microsoft Project and
Primavera.
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A quick summary of materials module?
The materials application in Reckoner is an extensive one designed
to provide you with instant information on each and every aspect
of your materials planning and execution - including information
of each and every material in each and every godown in every geographical
location. It covers all the functional areas right from inventory
management, to vendor management, to purchase management and others.
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Is Reckoner ERP suitable for process-based
industries?
Reckoner right form its inception has been designed as a process
based ERP Business solution. In a process based ERP system all the
business processes on an organisation are mapped and visualised
onto the system in a graphical manner. This helps in communication,
clarification, and documentation of "as is" and "to be" processes.
This design supports both process/continuous industries.
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What are the hardware requirements/investments
for Reckoner ERP business solution?
Being a high end mission critical application, it is demanding in
terms of hardware requirements. It is recommended to have a minimum
of 256 Mb of RAM for the server and 32 Mb RAM for the client. Harddisk
capacity for the server should be around a dozen Gb and for the
client around a couple of Gb.
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What are the operating systems and databases
supported by Reckoner?
Reckoner can operate on Windows NT and IBM AS400 platforms. In Reckoner
is a well planned business application which gives the user the
flexibility to choose any database. We recommend to our users Microsoft
SQL Server for the purpose.
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Reckoner on ASP
How do I benefit from it?
It gives the advantage of the ease and accessibility of Net and
provides a solution that enables you to leverage the benefits of
Internet, while maintaining the strengths of client-server computing.
You can gain access to powerful features of an ERP package with
the flexibility of internet with just a nominal cost. It gives you
the flexibility to operate it from anywhere in the world with the
highest level of security.
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How does 'Reckoner on ASP' change the
way companies do business? How do they differ from traditional client/server
applications?
| Internet-based Applications
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Traditional Client/Server Applications
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| If you have a browser, you are ready to use the
product immediately. |
Requires software installations, on desktops
and centralised servers, and requires significant time (several
months) and energy to configure. |
| No software or hardware to buy, install or maintain.
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Requires companies to purchase, install and maintain
a myriad of software and hardware. |
| Upgrades happen transparently and automatically
without a cost to the user and thus provide all users with new
features without any additional effort. |
Users must go through an expensive and long upgrade
process that may include purchasing new hardware and software.
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| Your data is securely accessible from any machine
that has access to the web, including colleagues' computers,
your home computer, and even the new web-enabled kiosks in airports.
Eventually, your data will even be accessible via Internet enabled
cell phones and PDA's. |
Requires all users to have access to their own
machines at all times. |
| Synchronisation happens in real-time giving all
users the most updated data all the time. Because everyone in
your organisation is accessing the same shared database that
we maintain, no effort is required from any user or the IT department
to synchronise data between users. |
Users must manage a local copy of the data on
their laptop/desktop, and if you want to share data with others
and get the most up-to-date data, you have to go through a synchronisation
process that frequently takes hours and often requires IT assistance.
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| Access to your data is extremely reliable for
several reasons. First, the application and all your data are
hosted in an industrial strength data centre that is manned
24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The machines have redundancy
built in to every component of the architecture to ensure against
hardware failures. Additionally, the computers are in a physically
secure location, and all data communications use the latest
SSL encryption technology. |
In the traditional client/server model, true
reliability requires that you build a world class, highly reliable
and highly secure data centre yourself. The financial investment
to build such an environment is extremely high, forcing nearly
every company to have far from reliable data centres. |
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What is the implementation time? Do I
need to spend any money for implementation?
The implementation time in this process is low. It normally takes
two to three weeks to implement it if the person has kept all the
required details ready with himself.
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What level of security does it provide?
Reckoner as an application is loaded on Citrix Metaframe Server
which renders highest level of security by making use of Secure
Socket Layer (SSL) technology, which protects your information using
both server authentication and data encryption, ensuring that your
data is safe, secure, and available only to registered users in
your organisation.
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How can I be sure my data is secure?
When you logon to the service you will see a small lock icon at
the bottom of your browser display, indicating that a secure connection
has been established to our server. We promise to keep your data
private and secure. We do take timely backup of the databases to
ensure against any kind of hardware redundancy.
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Implementation
What are implementation costs?
Roughly implementation costs are about four to five times the software
cost. Implementation costs are charged by our consultants who implement
the package at the customer site.
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What are the three dominant approaches
to ERP implementation?
The three dominant approaches to ERP implementation are "big bang",
"location-wise" and "module-wise" implementation. In the big bang approach
the organisation decides to implement all relevant modules, for
example - Financials, Logistics & HR- all at the same time. This
has the advantage of getting the full benefit of the integrated
software across all functions of the organisation. However there
is a risk of the implementation getting out of control. In "Location-wise"
implementation, the organisation chooses a specific location, say,
the head office, one of the new plants etc. The choice could be
based on better infrastructure, better IT culture, more co-operative
set of users, higher level of automation etc. In "module-wise" implementation
individual modules are taken up for implementation in a phased manner
depending on the criticality of applications. Once again a module
taken up for implementation can be implemented across all locations
or just one location. Later they can be rolled out to other locations.
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ERP being integrated software does one
benefit by implementing only specific modules?
Benefits of ERP will be accrued only if you implement all the modules
of ERP package. ERP is an integrated software where each module
has some or the other kind of interaction with other modules in
the package like the accounts payable sub-module(under Finance module)
address all the material purchases and in turn impacts the entire
materials management functions. The process orientation of ERP software
definitely contributes to a better management of the organisation.
Even partial implementation of the ERP therefore leads to significant
benefits.
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In Reckoner ERP system why is 'CORE' the
first module to be implemented?
Core module under Reckoner ERP system defines all the process definitions
of an enterprise. It is an abstract module, which gives its functionality
to all other modules in the package. It has a very powerful system
administration function drives the Reckoner ERP system.
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