B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

108 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
leader in the ERP market. According to AMR Research, the top
five ERP vendors, SAP America, Oracle Corporation, Peoplesoft, Inc.,
JD Edwards & Company and Baan International, accounted for 64
percent of the total ERP market revenue in 2000. Oracle, a newcomer
to the ERP marketplace, has quickly been making inroads.
Each vendor's product can automate a wide array of organizational
functions and processes, but they are generally focused on financials/
accounting, manufacturing and human resources. Some modules typically
offered through the most popular ERP products include:
• Production Planning;
• Materials Management;
• Plant Maintenance and Service Management;
• Quality Management;
• Financial Accounting;
• Human Resource Management;
• Business Information Warehouse;
• Treasury;
• Controlling;
• Enterprise Consulting;
• Investment Management; and
• Sales & Distribution.
The decision to implement an ERP system should be considered
carefully and planned even more carefully. Often touted in the past as
an 'out-of-the-box' solution, ERP is hardly that. A CD-ROM and some
training classes cannot fix the problems of a dysfunctional organization.
But, when implemented properly, ERP can provide a significant
competitive advantage.
Evolution of ERP II
The role of ERP continues to expand, not just across an enterprise, but
across multiple enterprises. This rapid evolution of ERP has led to a
new vision appropriately called ERP II. The major difference between
ERP and ERP II involves a practice termed as collaborative commerce.
According to the Gartner Group, collaborative commerce enables business
partners from multiple companies to exchange information posted