The Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application is a must for companies irrespective of whether it is a small or big enterprise; it is a tool that gives visibility to management regarding the enterprise's performance on all levels. People should be familiar with the ERP concept irrespective of who implements the solution or uses it (definitely, the level of detail varies between the user and the consultant, but the core is common). This chapter covers the following topics:
- Understanding the ERP characteristics
- Discovering the ERP implementation team
- Exploring the key intentions of ERP implementations
- Understanding the ERP module's integrations
- Exploring ERP and reporting
- Posting types in Microsoft Dynamics AX
- Exploring the common terms used in ERP implementations
- Exploring Microsoft Dynamics Implementation Methodology – Sure Step
- Exploring Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS)
- Looking at the Microsoft Dynamics AX user interface
The ERP is a mission-critical application for the business, as the day-to-day activities rely on this application where the end users enter the transactions, and the management is able to monitor the business performance on a daily basis and take decisions within a proper time period. The main characteristic that differentiates the ERP from other applications, as mentioned in the Wikipedia definition of the ERP, is as follows:
"A business management software—usually a suite of integrated applications—that a company can use to collect, store, manage, and interpret data from many business activities."
From this definition, the ERP is an integrated application. In the past, each business area had its own application, and this lead to creating isolated islands for each department in the same organization, which cost organizations a lot of time, effort, and money. This leads to lack of accurate information which directly affects management decision making, because of unavailability or redundancy of information; for example, the customer account in accounts receivable is different from the customer code in the sales department, so the management could not identify the balance of this customer. With the ERP, the data is unified, controlled, and classified. This gives the company the ability to transform this data into information that helps in the decision-making process.