IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (39 page)

Read IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done Online

Authors: Bill Holtsnider,Brian D. Jaffe

Tags: #Business & Economics, #Information Management, #Computers, #Information Technology, #Enterprise Applications, #General, #Databases, #Networking

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It's also important to note that there are several ways to approach the integration:

•
Your v-mail vendor may sell a system that integrates to your e-mail environment.

•
Your e-mail vendor may have an add-on to integrate with your v-mail.

•
A third-party vendor may offer a product to tie the two messaging systems together.

Unified messaging can be complex and may be costly. It also increases the storage requirements greatly, as users will have a greater amount of flexibility in saving and forwarding voice mail messages. Even if you aren't planning to implement unified messaging immediately, however, you may want to consider it as an issue if you're evaluating new e-mail systems. As
voice-over-IP
(
VoIP
) grows, both for consumer and for corporate use, unified messaging is growing as new features, functionality, and vendors are emerging.

Directory Services

When new users join an organization, it's common to find that they may need access to 10 or 20 applications. Sometimes, this means creating a separate account for each application—oftentimes, each with a different ID and password for the user to deal with.

Not only does this become an administrative nightmare for IT (going to each individual application to create the appropriate IDs) and a burden for the user (remembering the different IDs and passwords, changing them, etc.), but it can be a security risk to ensure that all the appropriate IDs are deleted when the user leaves the organization. The issue related to accounts and IDs is referred to as identity management.

Moving toward a Single ID and Password

The goal of directory services is to greatly reduce the administration, user burden, and security risk that can be associated with multiple IDs.

A directory service is essentially a system application and database that is used by all other applications. By using just a single set of ID and password credentials, called single sign on (SSO), users can sign on to the network, e-mail, and all the business applications they need to access.

Single sign on and identity management are also discussed in
Chapter 8, Security and Compliance
on
page 205
.

Directory Structure

Directories are set up in a hierarchical or tree fashion, very similar to an organizational chart. Some of the elements found in a directory include the following.

•
Objects (directory entries).
Virtually everything in a directory is an object. An object could be a person (i.e., user), a computer, or a device. A directory “container,” which can hold a collection of objects, is also an object. Objects are often referred to as directory entries.

•
Organization unit.
This is comparable to a folder in a file system. It simply holds other objects and may also hold other organization units.

•
Attribute.
This provides some specifics about an object. For example, if the object is a user, there could be an attribute for the user's phone number. If the object is a printer, there might be an attribute for the printer's IP address. Some attributes may have more than one value. In the case of a phone number attribute, it's entirely possible that someone may have more than one phone number. An attribute type is the kind of information (e.g., phone number), whereas the attribute value refers to the specific content (e.g., 212-555-1212).

•
Object class.
This defines which attributes are required/optional and allowed in an entry. For example, the object class for a printer may indicate that the IP address attribute is allowed and required. Essentially, the object class defines the rules associated with different types of objects. A directory entry may be assigned to more than one object class. For example, a directory entry for a user may be assigned to object classes for an e-mail user, an employee, a T&E user, etc. Also, each of those object classes would have attributes appropriate for its need.

5.7 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

ERP has a broad definition; it's used in a variety of ways to mean the set of activities that a company engages in to manage its resources across the entire enterprise. This can mean activities as diverse as product planning, sales programs, materials purchasing, maintaining inventories, and performing classically defined HR functions. Major software companies in the ERP space include SAP, Lawson, SSA Global, and Oracle. ERP is a very hot topic in corporate circles.

Prior to ERP, companies would use different packages for various business functions: inventory, sales and distribution, financials, HR, and so on. Different packages were used simply because no vendor had a product offering that could cross all these various disciplines. The various packages might be purchased or homegrown. To pass data among the various functions, a company would write numerous interface programs (middleware) to extract data from one application's database for use in another application.

The Value of ERP Software

With the introduction of ERP, a company can essentially have a single application (or a single set of applications provided by a single vendor) and database for all its vital business functions. The value of this can be enormous. Because all the applications are integrated, a change in activity in one area of the company ripples through the system to all affected departments so that they could react accordingly. A sudden spike in sales notifies the Purchasing department to increase orders of raw materials, the receiving department to look out for these deliveries, the manufacturing department to gear up for increased production, HR that more labor will be needed to fulfill the demands of the increased sales, and so on.

ERP solutions for the supply chain (manufacturing, purchasing, logistics, warehousing, inventory, distribution, etc.) are a large portion of the market. Solutions for the supply chain often extend to include links and interfaces with suppliers and partners. ERP vendors also have different offerings for different industries.

General ERP Implementation Issues

There are several elements of ERP to keep in mind when considering implementing an ERP system.

•
ERP isn't a trivial-sized activity. True ERP systems run across the entire enterprise and, as such, literally affect every aspect of a company's business.

•
Because the scope of an ERP implementation can be so far-reaching, it acts as a magnifying glass. Problems are quickly seen throughout the organization. Also, problems no one knew about suddenly become very exposed.

•
Implementation of an ERP system is a gut-wrenching experience for a corporation. Some companies thrive on the new system, embrace it as the salvation of their business, and explode forward. Others find the difficult medicine of ERP a very hard pill to swallow and eventually bail in midstream, leaving unhappy employees, customers, and vendors screaming in their wake (to say nothing of opening the gate to lawsuits). Trade journals are equally filled with success and failure stories of companies that have gone through ERP implementations.

Costs of Implementing ERP

In addition to the upheaval an ERP implementation can cause, the cost of implementing ERP will easily be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and could go to the tens of millions for larger and more complex environments. Usually, the biggest costs of an ERP implementation are the consultants that you will need to assist in the implementation. Because of the complexity of installing an ERP package, it's common for consulting costs to total two to three times the cost of the actual software package. Many very large consulting firms (e.g., PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Accenture, Ernst & Young) have entire divisions dedicated to ERP implementations.

In addition to consultants, a good portion of the budget will also go to training, support, and a large investment in additional hardware.

Major Changes Required

In many cases, the organization may find that it actually has to change the way it does business in order to implement an ERP package. While the traditional approach of implementing a package is to tailor it to your organization's needs, it's not uncommon to have to use the reverse approach when implementing an ERP package.

Many core activities associated with ERP are software related, although the thrust of the implementation is often not only software. It can include changing the way departments function, organization, procedures, employees' roles, and a sea change in the way the company operates.

As the person responsible for a large part of the software and hardware health and well-being of the corporation, your job, your responsibilities, and your entire skill set are going to be radically affected by any ERP motions your company undertakes.

It Isn't Only IT's Decision

It's likely that you won't be the only one consulted before your company decides to implement an ERP system. Most likely, you will be part of a group or committee making that decision. Because implementing an ERP system is almost always a multiyear adventure, you may join a company in mid-implementation. Your decisions won't be “Should my company do this?” as much as “How can I help my company do this in the most efficient manner possible?”

ERP may be the single largest IT project your company has ever undertaken. Its success or failure may lead to the success or failure of many executives and departments. Stories abound of ERP implementations that led to enormous cost overruns, 20-hour days, 7-day weeks, loss of key team members, implementation delays, and more.

If you're involved in an ERP implementation, chances are you will be making more use of some of the topics in this book (project management, budgeting, etc.) than with any other project you'll ever be involved in.

You, as well as everyone else involved, should look at an ERP implementation as the single greatest opportunity to reengineer the way your organization works and to have a huge beneficial impact that will probably live on for many years.

Disadvantages to ERP

ERP isn't without its risk and detractors. There can be disadvantages and pitfalls to it.

•
The very rigid structure of an ERP solution oftentimes makes it difficult to adapt to the specific needs of individual organizations.

•
Because ERP software is enormously sophisticated, there is often a tendency to implement more features and functions for a particular installation than are actually needed. This drives up costs and may reduce usage if the system proves too complex to use.

•
The cost to implement and maintain ERP systems is very high and can challenge ROI calculations.

•
Some departments and users may be hesitant to agree to the implementation if they feel they're giving up control of their data by switching from a department application to an enterprise-wide solution.

As the name implies, an ERP implementation is a decision that needs to be supported and embraced by the entire organization. If not, the odds of success will be severely limited.

5.8 Further References

Websites