Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000 Technology Background and Review Daniel E. O’Leary University of Southern California c

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000 Technology Review In the analysis of ERP systems there are a number of “technologies” that we will see … including A. Client Server Systems B. Networks C. Relational Databases and Data Warehouses D. Software E. Software Choice F. Reengineering and Best Practices

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000 A. Client Server 1. What is Client Server? 2. What is the basic notion behind C-S? 3. What is “Three tiered Architecture”? 4. Why concern with C-S? –ERP generally are built for CS

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright What is Client Server? Client Server is a computing model in which the application processing load is distributed between a client computer and a server computer, which share information over a network. Typically the client is a PC running front end software that knows how to communicate with the server (often a db server) Typically the server is a PC or workstation, but it can be a mainframe

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright What is the basic notion behind Client Server? Processing can be improved because client and server share processing loads. –Client - server computing says that the client has computing power that is not being used –Fundamental idea is to break apart an application into components that can run on different platforms. Thin vs. Fat Clients –A thin client has most of the functionality with server –A fat client has most of the functionality with the client.

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright What is a “Three Tiered Architecture”? Three Tiered Architecture is an information model with distinct pieces -- client, applications services and data sources -- that can be distributed across a network Client Tier -- The user component displays information, processes, graphics, communications, keyboard input and local applications

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright What is “Three Tiered Architecture”? Applications Service Tier -- A set of sharable multitasking components that interact with clients and the data tier. It provides the controlled view of the underlying data sources. Data Source Tier -- One or more sources of data such as mainframes, servers, databases, data warehouses, legacy applications etc.

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000

B. Networks LANs, WANs, Intranets, Extranets Bandwidth –Network Transmission Capability Standards –TCP/IP Security –E.g., Encryption

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000 C. Databases and Data Warehouses Databases -- Numerous approaches including relational databases Relational DB is a set of related files that reference each other ERP are built on relational DBs and data source in three tier is typically relational Data warehouse is a DB for decision making, not transaction processing

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000

D. Software ERP have been developed for different operating systems –UNIX, Windows NT … Legacy Software –Informally … software that has been in the company for a while. –Generally, developed in house

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000 In the same sense that personal computing software has moved toward a standard set of package options, corporate enterprise computing has also moved toward packages Package software is changing the nature of accounting, finance and IT departments –No longer a matter of programming from scratch, instead need to understand processes Package Software

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000 E. Software Choice Typically, use some form of cost benefit analysis –Benefits – fuzzy –Costs – easily seen “As Is” vs. “To Be”

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright 2000 F. Reengineering 1. What is it? 2. What are the primary approaches? 3. What is the role of reengineering in ERP?

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright What is Reengineering? Process involves the redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service or speed. –Typically involves transaction processing –Tries to find inefficient rules of thumb built into processes and break away from them –Design business processes to exploit IT rather than replicate old manual processes

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright What are Primary Approaches? Two primary approaches: Start from scratch and “Best Practices” Start from scratch and redesign processes –Most expensive... But considers unique aspects of specific firm, processes, resources & people Using existing best practices generated by others (e.g., consultants or competitors) –Processes that have been proved in other firms

Daniel E. O’Leary – copyright What is the role of reengineering in ERP? ERP have many best practices built into them to choose from –E.g., SAP now has over 1000 best practices available to choose from Firms often use ERP as a way of reengineering processes