Customer Reviews

Enterprise-Wide Software Solutions: Integration Strategies and Practices

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is a good overview of all of the issues related to the selection and implementation of enterprise systems. I have purchased several copies of the book and distributed them to potential clients. I use the book as a gift during my seminars.

The book, however, does not go into a lot of details on such critical issues such as change management and business case development for the project.

This is a good introduction book and is an easy read. I recommend it for readers who want to understand the issues of ERP at a high level.

As someone involved in the consulting area for many years, I was unable to find any new idea that would make worthwhile to spend money in this book. Almost everything that is mentioned here can be grabbed from free articles availables in Internet,about this subject. Additionally, there are a good number of books that will help you much more to plan and implement ERP's. Last, but not least, the book only have a handful of small pictures and tables. Unacceptable for a modern book about business and technology topics.

The Information Technology is revolutionizing the way, in which we live and work. It is changing all aspects of our life and lifestyle. The digital revolution has given mankind the ability to treat information with mathematical precision, to transmit it at very high accuracy and to manipulate it at will. These capabilities are brining into being a whole world within and around the physical world. The amount of calculational power that is available to mankind is increasing at an exponential rate. Computers and communications are becoming integral parts of our lives.

To survive, thrive and beat the competition in today's brutally competitive world one had to manage the future. Managing the future means managing the information. In order to manage the information, in order to deliver high quality information to the decision makers at the right time, in order to automate the process of data collection, collation and refinement, organizations have to make Information Technology an ally and should harness its full potential and use it in the best way possible.

Almost all organizations are turning to some sort of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) package as a solution to their information management problems. ERP packages if chosen correctly, implemented judiciously and used efficiently will raise the productivity and profits of companies dramatically. But many a company fails in this because of wrong product, incompetent and haphazard implementation and inefficient or ineffective usage. To work successfully, the ERP solutions need a lot of factors to click. There should be good people who know the business, the vendor should be good and his package should be best one for the company's needs, the ERP consultants should be good, the implementation should be planned well and executed perfectly and the end-user training should be done so that the people understand the system and the effect of their efforts on the overall success of the program.

Often the responsibility of implementing the ERP solution will be given to a person or a group of people who do not have much experience in implementing such systems. They might be good managers with excellent track records and they might have encyclopedic knowledge of the functioning of the company. But the number of options available in the ERP marketplace is simply overwhelming-SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Bann, JD Edwards, etc.-to name a few. These are the major players and their and hundreds of small timers who enjoy considerable market shares in their own niche markets.

How to choose the right product? How to choose the right vendor? What options and modules to purchase? How to deal with the vendors and consultants? How to plan and execute the implementation? How to plan in advance so that the program can be rolled out in minimum time and with maximum effective ness? What are the things that could go wrong? Who are the people who can be of help? The list of questions is endless! Every vendor will claim that their product is the ideal and their support is the best. So the managers are faced with a tough proposition. They just can't make a `trial and error' decision making. It is either `do it right the first time' or `going out of business' proposition. The huge costs involved in the ERP implementation allow no margin of error, rework or correction.

The timing of the book `Enterprise-Wide Software Solutions' by Sergio Lozinsky could not have better. It is an ideal book for managers or professionals who are entrusted with the task of implementing the ERP solutions in their company. It a good book for people who are thinking of implementing ERP solutions, it is an ideal primer for and ERP consultant, programmer and end-user. The real value of this book lies in the fact that, it helps in giving the reader an excellent overview (the big picture) of the ERP solutions, the packages, the benefits, the problems, the roles each has to play, and so on.

It is written in a simple, easy-to-read, jargon free and pleasant style. The design and layout helps a lot in improving the readability. The organization of the book is logical and clever; the reader is read from one topic starting from selection of a package to implementation problems in a clear and logical manner. The flow of the topics is real nice. The chapter `Some Additional Ideas' is a real bonus. There are no appendices. One on the various vendors, a brief overview of each product and where one can obtain more information would have been real nice. Similarly the a listing on the ERP resources on the Internet like mailing lists, sites dedicated to ERP issues, etc. could have been very useful to the reader. But the author has packed so much information in such a cute little book (190 page including index), that it is worth its weight in gold.

A `must read' for managers, ERP professionals and anyone who wants to know about ERP in general. This book should definitely added to every manager's reading list.

This book provides a high-level overview of many of the issues surrounding an ERP implementation. However, the coverage is superficial and repetitive. I think a 10-page summary of this material would be much more useful than this 200-page book. Often I felt like the book was more of an advertisement for a consulting company than a serious treatment of the issues involved in implementing an ERP system. Still, it may help one who is inexperienced in this area to know some of the important questions to ask before and during the implementation.

As manager of an Oracle applications training program for consultants, I have successfully used this book as introductory or intermediate material for ERP implementation training (regardless of specific ERP package) for new consultants or experienced consultants new to ERP.

The author has also been a guest lecturer for a class we delivered to partners who were interested in the selling of implementation services and the successful management of client expectations through all stages of the project.

I would highly recommend this book to any consultant or client member of an implementation project team who is relatively new to the ERP arena and even as a refresher to more experienced practitioners.

It covers ERP implementation in very broad strokes, and gives a superficial overview of each step. The book may be good for managers just embarking on the ERP implementation process. However, if you are looking for detailed steps and procedures, this book is not for you.

This book is very useful for choose right ERP package and implementation.

This book identifies all the important areas in enterpise software package implementation. However, I was really disappointed with the superficial treatment overall. Much of the stuff looks old - material that has been around in books on project management for a long long time. It would have been invaluable if the author had focused in detail on the two key areas (package selection and package implementation) and provided more specific tools/techniques etc.