W hen Germans o f t w a r efirm SAPan-nounced ear-l i e r t h i smonth that it

is to create 250 new jobs in Dublinand Galway, it emerged that 150 ofthem will be in the areas of salesand services.The move reflects what IT indus-

try sources say is an increased con-fidence among some firms that arenow comfortable about spendingon improving their systems afterseveral years of consolidation and,in many cases, downsizing.While SAP’s software is used by

some of the country’s largest firms,including AIB and Ryanair, it alsohas a large and growing number ofSME customers here which use itsSAPBusiness One programme.According to Morgan Browne,

managing director of Intelligent In-formation Systems ^ one of SAP’slargest partners in Ireland and Brit-ain ^ demand for the programmehas risen sharply over the past fewmonths.‘‘We’re seeing a scenario now

where people are spending becausethey don’t want to have to hirestaff,’’ Browne said. ‘‘They’ve cuttheir business back over the pastnumber of years to manage the re-cession, but now they’re starting togrow again. Instead of hiring some-one new to help them do that,they’re looking for new systems tohelp grow the business.‘‘We’ve seen massive growth in

the Irish market over the past six tonine months, and we believe thatwill continue; the pipeline is stillvery strong, and there are more andmore companies that are comingon-stream all the time. Obviously

that’s not the case across all sectors^ construction is still dead, for ex-ample ^ but if you look at areas likemanufacturing, distribution, thereis definitely a lot of business outthere.’’SAP Business One is an inte-

grated enterprise resource planning(ERP) systemwhich is used by over30,000 customers around the world.Its functions include automating fi-nancial and accounting processes,customer relationship manage-ment, and warehouse and produc-tion management.According to Browne, the system

is suitable for companies with em-ployee numbers ranging from just ahandful to around 200. ‘‘One of itskey benefits is that it’s a pre-tem-plated solution,’’ he said.

‘‘That means that it can be de-ployed very rapidly, but it alsomeans it is a much more affordableERP solution for a large number ofcompanies. We’ve been workingwith it since 2003, and we’ve de-ployed it in most industries at thisstage. Even though it’s pre-tem-plated, it is still very flexible becauseof the applications that can beadded on, and that can be tailoredto different needs.’’According to Browne, SAP Busi-

nessOne’s users tend to fall into twocategories. ‘‘First of all you’ve gotcompanies who are starting up whoneed a solution now, or who willneed one in a year or two becausetheir process are complex and re-quire some significant traceability,’’he said.

‘‘Then you have slightly largerSMEs which have expanded butare currently using multiple appli-cations that aren’t tied together, andnow want tobring everything underone application, rather than havinga series of disparate systems.’’For both of these customer

groups, the ability to save moneyand make their businesses more ef-ficient is one of the main attractionsof the software.‘‘But they’re not the only ones,’’

he said. ‘‘You will also have bettervisibility because your data is storedin one location and you no longerhave toworry about managing mul-tiple systems. Integration is also be-coming a key issue for a lot ofpeople.‘‘They want cloud-based solu-

tions as well as on-premises solu-tions. They’re looking for mobilityso that they can make decisions onthe road, they’re looking at integra-tion with other applications, theywant to be able to offer self-servicefor their customers online. Theseare some of the main reasons whycustomers are investing at the mo-ment.’’

According to Browne, the appli-cations that are currently being de-veloped for SAP Business One cannow meet those needs.

‘‘Because of what’s possible withthe applications, companies are ableto empower their staff on the road.The mobility that’s now availablethrough the applications lets themview their business partner infor-mation and process their transac-

tions through their iPad,’’ he said.‘‘And then of course you’ve got

analytics in the cloud as well, so theapplications enable staff to have vis-ibility of information remotely.There’s been a lot of pent-up de-mand in Ireland in recent years.There are a lot of companies whoneed this kind of product, and haveneeded it for a while now, butthey’ve been putting it off becauseof the recession. Now they are feel-ing abit more confident about mak-ing that move.’’According to Browne, the soft-

ware can be deployed in as little as20 days, but the actual time it willtake will depend on how compli-cated the business is, and the levelof resources that are available in-ternally.For companies currently running

older, less integrated systems, con-templating a move can seem a littledaunting, especially at a time whenmany business budgets are still un-der pressure.But Browne said that, in some

cases, the cost of managing some ofthose legacy systems could be con-siderably higher than a fresher solu-tion.‘‘There are people out there who

have systems running on non-sup-ported softwarewhoare now in a si-tuation where they feel the need toupgrade. On average, they can beup and running with something likeSAP Business One within threemonths.Whenyou consider the sav-ings they couldmake,that’s not a lotof time,’’ he said.

ERP

from page 31

The Microsoft offer ing isequally suited to small busi-nesses as it is large enterprise,according to O’Leary. ‘‘We be-lieve we can empower a user ina small business through con-necting the individual throughtheir ERP system to the orga-nisation.The solutions in Dy-namics ERP also grow withbusiness,’’ he said.Companies could use the

cloud to support core business

processes with ERP systems,and the technology was notcomplex or time-consumingto implement, saidO’Leary.‘‘With our roadmap, we are

delivering scalable, cost-effec-tive solutions for ERP, so com-panies can take on board newbusiness and opportunities,and not be held back by thecomplex build and configura-tion of an ERP solution,’’ hesaid.‘‘By leveraging cloud com-

puting, ERP can be a service

that is activated as a companypursues new opportunities,opens a new office in a differ-ent country or starts a new lineof business.’’He said the technology

could also help companies tocut costs. ‘‘We have five indus-try pillars that make it easy todeploy an ERP solution quick-er with business processes outof the box, making for a moreeffective and quicker return oninvestment. They are retail,manufacturing, distribution,

professional services and pub-lic sector,’’ he said.‘‘I have seen companies mi-

grate to Dynamics ERP andget a return in six months.There are productivity im-provements of 40 to 50 percent. Basically, Dynamicsmakes people more produc-tive, giving them back ten to20 hours per week.Visibility isalso boosted.Companies usingDynamics ERPgetgreater vis-ibility and save between 65 and95 per cent of time that they

used to spend producing re-ports.’’O’Leary advised companies

to consider cost of ownershipcarefully when investing inERP. ‘‘Look at how it fits withall other tools and applicationsthey use. Ask yourself whetheryou can leverage the invest-ments already made to make iteasy to train people, make thecompany more agile, and en-sure high adoption and inter-action with the system,’’ hesaid.

‘‘Sometimes companies seeERPas a silo, a standalone ap-plication, and don’t connect orfully integrate it in a way thatmakes it easy to use, regardlessof how complex their businessis,’’O’Leary said.‘‘When implementing ERP

in a small business, I always ad-vocate taking a templated ap-proach in terms of leveragingas much of the standard func-tionality as possible. For a big-g e r , m o r e c o m p l e ximplementation, I would defi-

nitely take a more industry ap-proach, getting best-in-classprocesses for your industryfrom the product.’’O’Leary said Microsoft in-

vested roughly e9 billion ayearin research and development.‘‘With all of our releases, weare levering connectivity withERP and, from an infrastruc-tural point of view,we are fullyleveraging cloud computing tomake it easier for companies toadapt world-class ERP,’’ hesaid.

‘‘The removal of geographicboundaries is really cominghome to Irish businesses whichare now becoming globalplayers.‘‘They need to be in a posi-

tion to effectively sell into dif-ferent countries with differentlanguages. They need to ser-vice customers,work with sup-pliers and partners, and reallycollaborate very effectively 24/7. Ireland’s recovery is going tobe driven by exports and inno-vative solutions.’’

Softwarefirmsturn thecornerDemand for SAPsoftware hasboomed recently, which means moreIrish jobs, writesAlexMeehan

Morgan Browne, managing director of Intelligent Information Systems MAURA HICKEY

‘Always on’ feature is a significant attraction

Enterprise Resource Planning

‘People arespendingbecause theydon’t want tohave to hirestaff’

B usinesses used tohave separate sys-tems for finance,human resources

and payroll, which inevitablyled to a spread of informationand a lot of data rekeying.Dueto the time it takes to gather in-formation and compile re-ports, the data was often out-of-date, potentially hinderingbusiness decisions.That has now all changed

with organisations demandingsimplicity through integratedbest-of-breed systems.It is rare for companies to

purchase an accounting sys-tem in isolation ^ they want asolution that is going to fit theneeds of the entire organisa-tion. Effective, enterprise-widesolutions can improve servicedelivery allowing the staff andmanagement to focus on thecore business.Today’s solutions offer an

end-to-end system encompass-ing finance, CRM, human re-s o u r c e s , p a y r o l l a n dmanufacturing. These inter-linked systems allow all de-p a r t m e n t s t o a c c e s sinformation to see what is hap-pening in the business.‘‘Today’s systems are now ef-

ficient, fast-moving solutions

which allow the information toflow through them and be ac-cessed throughout the com-pany,’’ said Gary Bai ley,director of operations for Du-blin-based Access. ‘‘It’s nolonger a case of waiting forhard-copy reports to be gener-ated and compiled. Organisa-tion-wide systems now deliveranalysis in real time, allowingmanagement to view wherethere business is at right now.’’

Business benefitsHaving your business informa-tion centrally located elimi-nates the need for rekeyinginformation, saving time andresources,while reducing man-power costs. By entering infor-mation just once, the potentialfor human error is also greatlyreduced.The information thenflows through the different sys-tems, providing consistent andaccurate data.Integration also increases

productivity. By extending theuse of central financial systemsinto every area of the businessusing workflow forms, all ofthe information entered orma inta ined by workers ,whether remote or office-based, can be captured, vali-

dated and then integrated withthe core business data.If all systems are success-

fully integrated, each timetransactions are entered liveupdates occur right across thesolution so that everyone hasthe same view of the businessdata.

‘‘All organisations rely onmanual processes to a certainextent, but they are labour-in-tensive andoften accompaniedby paperdocuments andphysi-cal flows of information whichare susceptible to error,’’Baileysaid. ‘‘An organisation-widesolution streamlines processes,delivering cost savings through

productivity gains and reducederror rates and alsoproviding aplatform for business growth.’’The availability of informa-

tion goes beyond being just atool for the board and can beused by everyone right acrossthe company.The flowof infor-mation in and out of the fi-nance system can be tailored,and by setting up differentviews for different peoplethroughout the organisation,it’s possible topresent the infor-mation in a different way de-pending on job role andresponsibility.

Flow ofinformationThis constant flow of real-timebusiness information enablesthe board to manage key per-formance indicators (KPIs),conduct analys i s and bealerted about any issues or op-portunities that may affect op-erations, profitability and sales.It provides management withthe fundamental drivers forchange and decision-making.‘‘By having the opportunity

to view information from rightacross the business, managersand directors can make quick

decisions and respond tochanges,’’ Bailey said. ‘‘Notonly in terms of the organisa-tion’s financial position butalso the opportunity to seewhich customers, productsand services are most profit-able, where efficiency can beimproved and the status of cur-rent orders.’’

Effective andefficientManagement rely on businesssystems for working capitalmanagement, such as balan-cing debtor and creditor days,timely reconciliations, pur-chasing policy, expense man-a g e m e n t a n d k e e p i n ginventory to optimum levels.Furthermore, integrated HRplanning and payroll allowbusinesses to keep a carefulwatch on employee costs andheadcount.Businesses do not have to

rely on a big ERP solution,overhauling their entire ITop-erations in the process.By link-ing up and integrating existingsystems and allowing informa-tion to flow through the busi-ness, mid-market enterprisescan benefit from ERP in a

cost-effective way which is bet-ter suited to the size of their or-ganisation.Integratedbest-of-breed sys-

tems help to drive efficiencythroughout an organisation bystreamlining processes, redu-cing administrative burdensand giving real-time informa-tion, enabling the board to re-a c t a n d make s u i t ab l edecisions.

‘‘Joined up enterprise-widetechnology puts businesses inapositionwhere they canmakethe most of the opportunitiesavailable to them,’’ Bailey said.‘‘They have control over thebusiness and the ability to geta view of the whole organisa-tion, not just one departmentor process.We’re seeing moreand more of our customers de-manding an organisation-wide

solution so they canmaintain acompetitive position.’’

To request information orfind out more, contact Accesson tel: 01-8855577, email:info@theaccessgroup.ie orvisit www.theaccessgroup.ie

Gaining efficiency through anorganisation-wide approach

‘managersand directorscan makequickdecisions andrespond tochanges’

Commercial Profile: Access

Gary Bailey, operations director, Access

n32 commercial report THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POSTMAY 13 2012