Automated Data Collection/Mobile Computing — The Promise And The Challenge Of ERP

One of the fastest growing segments of the information technology (IT) industry is that of enterprise resource planning (ERP). The ERP methodology holds that an enterprise can maximize its returns by maximizing the use of its fixed supply of resources. With increases in computing speed, power, and integration capabilities, ERP has proven to be the best tool to realize this goal.

Today, ERP represents an estimated $41 billion segment of the IT industry. This investment includes $14 billion in software, $17 billion in services, and $10 billion in hardware. Companies of all sizes represent the ERP market. The current ERP market is divided between the following: 30% in Fortune 500 companies, 40% in Fortune 500- 1000 companies, and 30% in the balance.

The success of ERP systems relies on accurate, timely, global information from across the entire organization. This data is critical not only for operational management, but also for executive management to make the right business decisions. However, it is common for management to focus on high- level applications such as financials and to ignore the foundational processes – how the raw data is actually input into the ERP system in the first place. A visit to a warehouse or factory floor, more often than not, reveals workers collecting data on clipboards, shop tickets, or a variety of other paperbased methods. Then, as a separate process, workers must input the data to the ERP system through a keyboard. The average keypuncher makes one error for every 300 keystrokes. With the average warehouse processing 10,000 order lines per day, this yields an average of 333 errors each day, or 17,000 errors per year.