1. Enterprise Applications
Be systems that:
Span functional areas,
Focus on executing business processes across the business firm, and
Include all levels of management
Help businesses become more flexible and productive by coordinating their business processes more closely and integrating groups of processes so they focus on efficient management of resources and customer service
Include:
Enterprise systems or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
Supply chain management (SCM) systems
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems
Knowledge management systems (KMS)

2. Enterprise Application Architecture

3. Enterprise Systems
Also known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
Based on a suite of integrated software modules and a common central database
The database collects data from many different divisions and departments in a firm, and from a large number of key business processes in manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources, making the data available for applications that support nearly all of an organization’s internal business activities.
When new information is entered by one process, the information is made immediately available to other business processes.

4. How Enterprise Systems Work
Enterprise systems feature a set of integrated software modules and a central database that enables data to be shared by many different business processes and functional areas throughout the enterprise.

5. Enterprise Systems
Making it possible for information that was previously fragmented in different systems to be shared across the firm and for different parts of the business to work more closely together
Speeding communication of information throughout the company, making it easier for businesses to coordinate their daily operations
Giving companies the flexibility to respond rapidly to customer requests while producing and stocking inventory only with what is needed to fulfill existing orders
Increasing accurate and on-time shipments, minimizing costs, and increasing customer satisfaction as well as increasing firm profitability

6. Enterprise Systems

7. Enterprise Systems (Cont.)
Providing valuable information for improving management decision making through helping to:
Create more accurate sales and production forecasts
Analyze overall product profitability or cost structures
Integrating the key business processes of an entire firm into a single software system that enables information to flow seamlessly throughout the organization
Focusing primarily on internal processes but may include transactions with customers and vendors

8. Example of ERP Software

9. Enterprise Software
Built around thousands of predefined business processes that reflect best practices
Companies implementing this software would have to first select the functions of the system they wished to use and then map their business processes to the predefined business processes in the software.
If the enterprise software does not support the way the organization does business, companies can rewrite some of the software to support the way their business processes work.
However, enterprise software is unusually complex, and extensive customization may degrade system performance, compromising the information and process integration that are the main benefits of the system.

10. Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems
Supply chain is a network of organizations and business processes for procuring raw materials, transforming these materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished products to customers.
Supply chain links suppliers, manufacturing plants, distribution centers, retail outlets, and customers to supply goods and services from source through consumption.
Materials, information, and payments flow through the supply chain in both directions.

11. Nike’s Supply Chain

12. Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems
One type of interorganizational system because they automate the flow of information across organizational boundaries
Helping businesses manage relationships with their suppliers
Providing information to help suppliers, purchasing firms, distributors, and logistics companies share information about orders, production, inventory levels, and delivery of products and services so that they can make better decisions about how to organize and schedule sourcing, production, and distribution.
Increasing firm profitability by:
Lowering the costs of moving and making products
Enabling managers to make better decisions about how to organize and schedule sourcing, production, and distribution

13. Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems

14. Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems
The ultimate objective is to get the right amount of their products from their source to their point of consumption with the least amount of time and with the lowest cost.
Information from SCM systems helps firms:
Decide when and what to produce, store, and move
Rapidly communicate orders
Track the status of orders
Check inventory availability and monitor inventory levels
Reduce inventory, transportation, and warehousing costs
Track shipments
Plan production based on actual customer demand
Rapidly communicate changes in product design

15. Example of a SCM System

16. Example of SCM Software

17. SCM Software Supply chain software is classified as:
Supply chain planning systems – software to help businesses plan their supply chains
Enable the firm to model its existing supply chain, generate demand forecasts for products, and develop optimal sourcing and manufacturing plans
Help companies make better decisions such as determining how much of a specific product to manufacture in a given time period; establishing inventory levels for raw materials, intermediate products, and finished goods; determining where to store finished goods; and identifying the transportation mode to use for product delivery

18. SCM Software
Supply chain execution systems – software to help them execute the supply chain steps
Manage the flow of products through distribution centers and warehouses to ensure that products are delivered to the right locations in the most efficient manner
Track the physical status of goods, the management of materials, warehouse and transportation operations, and financial information involving all parties
The Interactive Session on Technology describes how supply chain management software improves operational performance and decision making at Procter & Gamble.

19. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Helping firms manage their relationships with customers
Providing information to coordinate all of the business processes that deal with customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention so that firms can:
Identify, attract, and retain the most profitable customers
Provide better service and support to existing customers
Increasing the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns
Hopefully increase sales
Integrating the firm’s customer-related processes, consolidating customer data from multiple communication channels – telephone, , customer service desk, conventional mail, wireless devices, retail outlets, or the Web, analyzing the data, and then distributing the results to various systems and customer touch points across the enterprise

20. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Good CRM systems provide data and analytical tools for answering questions such as these:
What is the value of a particular customer to the firm over his or her lifetime?
Who are our most loyal customers? (It can cost six times more to sell to a new customer than to an existing customer.)
Who are our most profitable customers?
What do these profitable customers want to buy?
Firms use the answers to these questions to:
Acquire new customers
Provide better service and support to existing customers
Customize their offerings more precisely to customer preferences
Provide ongoing value to retain profitable customers

21. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems
Well-designed CRM systems provide a single enterprise view of customers that is useful for improving both sales and customer service.
Two main aspects of CRM:
Operational CRM includes customer-facing applications, such as tools for sales force automation, call center and customer service support, and marketing automation.
Analytical CRM includes applications that analyze customer data generated by operational CRM applications to provide information for improving business performance.
Analytical CRM applications are based on data warehouses that consolidate the data from operational CRM systems and customer touch points for use with online analytical processing (OLAP), data mining, and other data analysis techniques.

22. CRM Software Capabilities

23. Example of a CRM Software

24. CRM Software The more comprehensive CRM packages contain modules for:
Partner relationship management (PRM)
Enhance collaboration between a company and its selling partners (distributors and retailers) and help them sell to customers directly
Provide a company and its selling partners with the ability to trade info. and distribute leads and data about customers, integrating lead generation, pricing, promotions, order configurations, and availability
Provide a firm with tools to assess its partners’ performances so it can make sure its best partners receive the support they need to close more business
Employee relationship management (ERM)
Deal with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives, employee performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee training

25. CRM Software Sales Force Automation (SFA) Modules
Help sales staff increase their productivity by focusing sales efforts on the most profitable customers, those who are good candidates for sales and services
Provide sales prospect and contact info., product info., product configuration capabilities, and sales quote generation capabilities
Assemble info. about a particular customer’s past purchases to help the salesperson make personalized recommendations
Increase each salesperson’s efficiency in reducing the cost per sale as well as the cost of acquiring new customers and retaining old ones
Have capabilities for sales forecasting, territory management, and team selling

26. CRM Software Customer Service Modules
Provide info. And tools to increase the efficiency of call centers, help desks, and customer support staff
Have capabilities for assigning and managing customer service requests such as an appointment or advice telephone line, and Web-based self-service capabilities:
Call centers and customer service groups achieve greater productivity, reduced transaction time, and higher quality of service at lower cost. (The customer is happier because he or she spends less time on the phone restating his or her problem to customer service representatives.)
The company Web site can be set up to provide inquiring customers personalized support info. as well as the option to contact customer service staff by phone for additional assistance.

27. CRM Software Marketing Modules
Support direct-marketing campaigns by providing capabilities for:
Capturing prospect and customer data
Providing product and service info.
Qualifying leads for targeted marketing
Scheduling and tracking direct-marketing mailings or
Include tools for:
Analyzing marketing and customer data
Identifying profitable and unprofitable customers
Designing products and services to satisfy specific customer needs and interests
Help firms manage and execute marketing campaigns at all stages, from planning to determining the rate of success for each campaign

28. Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)
Some firms perform better than others because they have better knowledge about how to create, produce, and deliver products and services.
This firm knowledge is difficult to imitate, unique, and can be leveraged into long-term strategic benefits.
KMS collect all relevant knowledge and experience in the firm, and make it available wherever and whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management decisions.
KMS link the firm to external sources of knowledge.
KMS enable firms to better manage processes for:
Acquiring, storing, distributing, and applying knowledge and expertise
Creating new knowledge and integrating it into the organization

29. Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)
KMS include:
Enterprise-wide systems for managing and distributing documents, graphics, and other digital knowledge objects
Systems for creating corporate knowledge directories of employees with special areas of expertise
Office systems for distributing knowledge and info.
Knowledge work systems to facilitate knowledge creation
Intelligent techniques that codify knowledge for use by other members of the organization
Tools for knowledge discovery that recognize patterns and important relationships in large pools of data

30. Types of KMS There are essentially three major types of KMS:
Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems – general-purpose firmwide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and knowledge
Knowledge work systems – specialized systems built for engineers, scientists, and other knowledge workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge for a company
Intelligent techniques - data mining, expert systems, neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and intelligent agents

31. Enterprise-wide Knowledge Management Systems
Including capabilities for searching for info., storing both structured and unstructured data, and locating employee expertise within the firm
Including supporting technologies such as portals, search engines, collaboration tools ( , instant messaging, wikis, blogs, and social bookmarking) and learning management systems
Dealing with all three types of knowledge:
Structured (explicit) knowledge which exists within the firm in the form of structured text documents (reports and presentations) – structured knowledge systems
Semistructured knowledge such as , voice mail, chat room exchanges, videos, digital pictures, brochures, or bulletin board postings – semistructured knowledge systems
Tacit knowledge which resides in the heads of employees without any formal or digital info., and is rarely written down – knowledge network systems

32. Knowledge Network System

33. Knowledge Work Systems (KWS)
KWS are specialized systems for knowledge workers to help them create new knowledge and to ensure that this knowledge is properly integrated into the business.
The development of powerful networked workstations and software for assisting engineers and scientists in the discovery of new knowledge has led to the creation of knowledge work systems such as:
Computer-aided design (CAD) systems – automating the creation and revision of designs, using computers and sophisticated graphics software
Virtual reality systems for visualization, rendering, simulation and modeling – using interactive graphics software to create computer-generated simulations that are so close to reality
Investment workstations for the financial industry – leveraging the knowledge and time of its brokers, traders, and portfolio managers

34. Example of CAD Systems

35. Example of Virtual Reality Systems

36. Intelligent Techniques
Artificial intelligence and database technology provide a number of intelligent techniques that firms can use to capture individual and collective knowledge and to extend their knowledge base.
These techniques have different objectives:
Discovering knowledge such as underlying patterns, categories, and behaviors in large data sets that could not be discovered by managers alone or simply through experience (data mining and neural networks)
Distilling knowledge in the form of rules for a computer program or capturing tacit knowledge (expert systems, case-based reasoning, and fuzzy logic)
Discovering optimal solutions for problems that are too large and complex for human beings to analyze on their own (genetic algorithms)
Automating routine tasks to help firms search for and filter info. for use in E-commerce , supply chain management, and other activities (intelligent agents)