Features

• 11 Tips for Deploying ERP Applications

  By Jennifer Lonoff Schiff | 15 May, 2013 13:24

  In a global mobile environment, organizations are looking for ERP systems that do more than integrate with a legacy system. But with so many solutions available, how do you choose the software that's right for your enterprise? IT executives and ERP experts offer 11 tips to get a return on your software investment.

• Supply chain management in Australia - Part 3

  By David Braue | 21 September, 2011 07:00

  As if data quality and stockouts weren’t enough of a day-today worry for CIOs, added pressure to serve demanding online customers and keep up with changing legislation are creating new challenges. With several retail giants lumbering online and the looming introduction of the government’s new carbon tax, CIOs need to be working with procurement, financial and other business leaders to ensure supply-chain systems are up to today’s new challenges.

• Supply chain management in Australia - Part 2

  By David Braue | 20 September, 2011 06:00

  If supply chain experts can spend so much time and effort improving efficiency and still have more work to do, how are smaller companies meant to get their supply chains right? It’s not as if they have been standing still: CIOs at FMCG organisations and other companies of all sizes have long focused on using high-end supply chain management solutions to trim fat from their company supply chains. Many embarked upon massive enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations a decade ago as they stared down the end-of-life of existing systems and the spectre of the Y2K bug. Yet while their intentions were good, the same can’t be said for the methods of resolution.

• 5 open source ERP projects to watch

  By Rodney Gedda | 06 December, 2010 12:27

  Whatever the incarnation, Enterprise Resource Planning is at the heart of every business with the world’s largest software companies are all clamouring for a piece of the action. The big vendors may scoff at the idea of an open source ERP suite, but given the success rate of traditional ERP projects, CIOs could do worse than take a look at free options. In this edition of 5 open source things to watch, we take a look at ERP suites where the barrier to entry – for testing, at least – is on the small side.

• Apocalypse: 52 percent of CIOs plan to blow up IT groups

  By Thomas Wailgum | 24 July, 2010 09:00

  The saying goes something like this: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The statement is, of course, embraced as dogma by those fearful of change and by automobile owners praying for a reasonable bill of charge while waiting at the mechanic's garage.

• An IT department's crucial role in a new product launch

  By Kim S. Nash | 22 July, 2010 07:01

  In late 2008, Monsanto licensed a seed coating that helps corn, soybean and other seeds fight insects and disease during the tricky germination stage. By early 2009, company scientists had finished work on that cocktail of fungicides and insecticides, dubbed Acceleron, and the company wanted to get the coating to market in time for the 2010 planting season. "We were going after that opportunity very aggressively. If we don't hit season, that opportunity is another 12 months away," says CIO Shirley Cunningham.

• ERP Application Consolidation: When It's Time to Cut

  By Thomas Wailgum | 23 March, 2010 07:45

  Remember Aron Ralston? He was the mountain climber who, back in 2003, was forced to cut off his own arm, which was trapped under a boulder, to save his life. Ralston had recklessly hiked alone and neglected to tell anyone where he was headed. His grave six-day ordeal was extraordinary and captivating.

• Why Watching 'Lost' Is Like Managing ERP

  By Thomas Wailgum | 09 February, 2010 06:09

  Since the fall of 2004, I've invested a lot of time, given way too much thought to, and probably annoyed plenty of people over all things Lost. Like a crazy, unpredictable friend in your life, the show has consumed me, frustrated me, surprised me, exasperated me and kept me on my toes.

• ERP Costs: 3 Signs Companies Are Wasting Less Money

  By Thomas Wailgum | 08 February, 2010 05:37

  ERP investments have long held a stranglehold on corporate IT investments. The Great Recession, however, has pushed boards and budgeting committees to examine IT spending like never before. Not surprisingly, ERP's juicy slice of the corporate spending pie has come under closer scrutiny.

• ERP: How and Why You Need to Manage It Differently

  By Kim S. Nash | 02 February, 2010 06:00

  Kennametal, a $2 billion maker of construction tools, has spent $10 million on ERP maintenance contracts during the past 13 years and not once could the company take advantage of upgrades, says CIO Steve Hanna. The company's implementation was too customized: The time and effort needed to tweak and test the upgrade outweighed any benefits, he says. But Hanna kept trying. Late last year, he priced the cost of consultants to help with an ERP re-implementation and was shocked by estimates ranging from $15 million up to $54 million.

• ERP Investments Still Top the List for Corporate IT Spending

  By Thomas Wailgum | 16 November, 2009 08:29

  Corporate IT budgets may have gotten slashed in 2009, but that apparently didn't stop companies from investing in their ERP software this year.

• Inside ERP Budgets: Slicing, Dicing the Corporate Pie

  By Thomas Wailgum | 10 November, 2009 08:12

  Lately, much of the furor encircling ERP costs has revolved around software maintenance and support fees. The global recession has forced customers of Big ERP vendors-SAP, Oracle, Lawson, Infor-to question the value they receive from the fees.

• Why ERP is still so hard

  By Thomas Wailgum | 10 September, 2009 05:18

  Steve Berg knows what intense pain feels like: The man has been Tasered, in fact-not because he ran afoul of the law, but as VP of IT at Taser International he's partaken in a corporate rite of passage. "It's the worst five seconds of your life," he says. "You cannot move."

• SAP upgrades: dos and don'ts from an ERP guru

  By Thomas Wailgum | 01 September, 2009 03:26

  According Jon Reed, ERP consultant, author and SAP analyst, there is no shortage of SAP ERP upgrade advice available to companies and IT departments today. One problem: "Most of this advice, as truthful as it is, has reached the point of cliche," Reed writes in a new report on SAP ERP upgrades.

• ERP & BI: Match made in heaven, if you're in data hell

  By Thomas Wailgum | 05 August, 2009 04:22

  Most businesses today have more data than they know how to use. And getting at that data and then presenting it in a useful manner for cogent analysis are two tasks that typically haunt organizations.