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ERP software is often highly customised for individual businesses and their processes. There are commonalities across packages (JDE, PeopleSoft, SAP, Dynamics,

by davb 13y ago

ERP software is often highly customised for individual businesses and their processes. There are commonalities across packages (JDE, PeopleSoft, SAP, Dynamics, etc) but for the most part they're different for each organisation. That's why ERP consultants can charge such high fees. Your SAP install is quite different from your rival's. They often integrate with external systems (stock management, production equipment, third party accounting platforms, billing, user management), even when the ERP system itself offers functionality in a given area. It's a huge subject area. However, most ERP software itself is just a large CRUD application that calls out to third party services (via APIs, COM, libraries, etc). If you really want to learn about ERP software, try go get a job working with it for a year or two. The technical knowledge you'll require to get such a position is fairly generic (database basics, user experience design, TCP/IP, Unix/Linux server management). What would really make you stand out as a candidate would be having an understanding of business process modelling and reengineering - that's all ERP software is, a mirror of business processes. It's an interesting area to work in (perhaps not long-term unless you're really into the BPR side of things). You'll really understand how businesses work and how they see their processes. And when you're working at the enterprise scale, small improvements in the software people use daily to perform their main functions can make all the difference. Source: I've build ERP software for the last 7+ yrs.

at-fates-hands 13y ago
Full Disclosure - I'm working at company going through a huge ERP change from one vendor to JDE. I was told by our .Net developers that JDE is for business analysts so they can do the same thing as developers without writing any code. I've only done a few minor things in JDE, but it seems very "mouse intensive". Lots of clicking this and that, joining this table to that table, looking up this record, etc. Is this true of most ERP software, or just in the case of JDE?
- ProAm 13y ago
  It depends on what you are doing in JDE really. There are several development tools, some that are easy for people with no technical experience (you mouse intensive development) but there is also tools that require a strong base of C or Java. It's fairly flexible. (Im a 15+ year JDE developer and sysadmin)
- davb 13y ago
  There's been a shift over the years towards end user workflow-based visual programming and report generation (something many traditional ERP systems left to tools like Crystal Reports). There are limitations to what can be accomplished in that sort of end user programming (wouldn't enjoy integrating with an arbitrary third party service, for example). However this tends to run parallel to the regular scripting and COM/CORBA/DLL interfaces. I must admit that the system I've worked with most recently doesn't offer any sort of end user programming or report generation, and I miss this badly. Those facilities, while basic, really lessen the burden on software engineers and allow us to focus on the more difficult tasks which deliver the most business value. I'm working in-house (not consulting) so would much rather see our end users creating their own reports than have to, for example, put a new supplier integration module on hold in order to have a developer pull together a critical sales report. In many deployments, I've seen not only business analysts take advantage of a simple programmable environment but also departmental power users. It's not uncommon in some larger organisations to find sales staff writing their own reports or finance professionals scripting integration with spreadsheets (yes, spreadsheets and ERP systems usually do co-exist really comfortably!). This usually depends on sensible RBAC and a well designed schema, to keep users from making damaging mistakes. So to answer your question (I think) - most good ERP software will offer a balance between end user programming/reporting and integration features aimed at full time developers.

by davb 13y ago

at-fates-hands 13y ago

Full Disclosure - I'm working at company going through a huge ERP change from one vendor to JDE. I was told by our .Net developers that JDE is for business analysts so they can do the same thing as developers without writing any code. I've only done a few minor things in JDE, but it seems very "mouse intensive". Lots of clicking this and that, joining this table to that table, looking up this record, etc. Is this true of most ERP software, or just in the case of JDE?

ProAm 13y ago
It depends on what you are doing in JDE really. There are several development tools, some that are easy for people with no technical experience (you mouse intensive development) but there is also tools that require a strong base of C or Java. It's fairly flexible. (Im a 15+ year JDE developer and sysadmin)
davb 13y ago
There's been a shift over the years towards end user workflow-based visual programming and report generation (something many traditional ERP systems left to tools like Crystal Reports). There are limitations to what can be accomplished in that sort of end user programming (wouldn't enjoy integrating with an arbitrary third party service, for example). However this tends to run parallel to the regular scripting and COM/CORBA/DLL interfaces. I must admit that the system I've worked with most recently doesn't offer any sort of end user programming or report generation, and I miss this badly. Those facilities, while basic, really lessen the burden on software engineers and allow us to focus on the more difficult tasks which deliver the most business value. I'm working in-house (not consulting) so would much rather see our end users creating their own reports than have to, for example, put a new supplier integration module on hold in order to have a developer pull together a critical sales report. In many deployments, I've seen not only business analysts take advantage of a simple programmable environment but also departmental power users. It's not uncommon in some larger organisations to find sales staff writing their own reports or finance professionals scripting integration with spreadsheets (yes, spreadsheets and ERP systems usually do co-exist really comfortably!). This usually depends on sensible RBAC and a well designed schema, to keep users from making damaging mistakes. So to answer your question (I think) - most good ERP software will offer a balance between end user programming/reporting and integration features aimed at full time developers.