ERP SOFTWARE FOR SME :- "MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAVISION"

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAVISION

 The product is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises. Value-added resellers (VAR)s can have full access to the business logic source code, and it has a reputation as being easy to customize.  NAV is licensed using the "Business Ready License" (BRL) model. The customer purchases user sessions, which have access to certain parts of the system included. There are two types of user - Business Essentials (BE) and Advanced Management (AM); AM provides access to more functionality than BE. Under the previous licensing model, "Module Based License" (MBL), users came with no functionality - this all had to be bought separately. Microsoft offers a path for customers to transition from MBL to BRL licensing.

          Dynamics NAV's sector is distribution and manufacturing companies that want more than "out of the box" functionality. The solution has a standard feature set, but it can also be thought of as an "ERP System construction set". The Pascal-like development language is easily accessible to appropriate developers and is designed for rapidly customizing the software. There is no need for complex server side Transact-SQL stored procedures as the one language manages the application and database.

                          According to Microsoft, Dynamics NAV is being used by approximately 65,000 companies, with over 1.3 million end user licenses, throughout the world. Approximately 13,000 of those companies are in the US. It was the first and only mid-market ERP application to break one-million end user licenses.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV delivers integrated functionality to provide support for:-
• Financial management
• Supply chain management
• Manufacturing
• Distribution
• Customer relationship management
• Sales and marketing
• Service management
• Human resource management

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Add-ons are software products supplementing NAV functionality. Add-on solutions are developed and distributed by Microsoft Partners worldwide network as granules or modules to improve functionality of NAV system or make it applicable in some business spheres. Microsoft Dynamics Solution Finder is an online tool to search for solutions within vertical markets, with an up-to-date overview and identifying solutions that are Certified for Microsoft dynamics.

There are vertical and horizontal add-on solutions. Horizontal add-on solutions supplement one of the NAV functions or add new function (e.g. financial management, human resources management etc.). Vertical (or industry-specific oriented) add-ons expand NAV functionality to support some industry (e.g. health care, brewery, financial services etc.)  The majority of add-on solutions are multilingual with most supporting English. Microsoft Dynamics NAV utilities are small software modules for Microsoft Dynamics NAV improving programmers and database administrators work convenience and effectiveness. Also it makes program development and implementation processes faster and their cost lower. Eventually utilities will be developed by the NAV developers/implementers for their own needs and will then be distributed as a commercial software product.

                     It fulfils the basic requirement of SMEs. Cost and time is the first concern point for SME. They are more focused on quality software at lower cost and implementation in lesser time and Microsoft Dynamics Navision provides this facility to the SMEs.

STRENGTHS OF MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAVISION:-
• Large user base worldwide
• Good user interface
• Large partner base
• Good brand value

WEAKNESSES OF MICROSOFT DYNAMICS NAVISION:-
• Heavy license cost
• It does not support Linux
• Implementation by partner- Microsoft does not take responsibility of implementation
• Customization is costly and is difficult

DIFFERENT ERP SOFTWARE PACKAGES FOR SMEs

Small organisations have fewer requirements as compared to large organisations. To keep this thing in mind some vendors have started to sell ERP for SMEs. Earlier these softwares were made for large organisations but nowadays small and medium sized organisations can also think for the same. Number of SME customer is in million and to capture this segment nearly all vendors have launched ERP for SME. Even big players like SAP, Oracle and Microsoft have launched their integrated system for this segment.


The different ERP software packages which are available in the market for SMEs are:-

1) Microsoft Dynamics Navision
2) Microsoft Dynamics Axapta
3) SAP (mySAP)
4) SAP B1
5) ERPNEXT
6) HeliumV
7) OFBiz
8) Tally
9) Oracle E-Business Suite
10) BaaN/LN
11) Godrej Encompass
12) Ramco (e-works)
13) Syscon Cronus
14) Eresource
15) KServe ERP 'Lite'

ERP EVOLUTION IN SME SECTOR

Earlier ERP solutions were considered only for the larger companies as they only had the resources required to deploy the ERP solutions. But in recent years ERP solutions have become effective business solutions for SME’s as well. Due to the increasing tough nature of modern day business competition, small & medium-sized businesses are continuously in search of better ways to improve their processes and achieve competitive advantage in their domain. With the advent of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, they have turned to this integrated information system as a means of acquiring this competitive advantage in the industry.


The three main drivers which led to the Evolution of ERP in SME Sector are:-

• Since most large companies have already implemented ERP solutions, software companies have had to look to smaller organisations to continue their revenue growth.
• The increased number of niche and industry specific vendors is causing lower software prices and thus making it affordable for smaller companies to go for this change.
• As many smaller companies embark on aggressive growth strategies, they are finding that ERP solutions provide them with a strong business process and technology infrastructure to support growth.


Enterprise Resource Planning Software’s are no longer viewed as extremely complicated and expensive Business Software that is difficult to understand and Implement in a SME. Most SME Owners and Management are becoming more aware of the benefits of ERP. They are more willing to adopt an ERP for not only running the Business Operations, but also to reap benefits in terms of Cost Cutting and increased Operational Efficiencies. The Enterprise Applications like, Business Intelligence, CRM, Payroll, HRMS, Customer Service Software, Accounting Packages, SCM Software, Warehouse Solutions, Office Collaboration, and Project Management Software etc. have evolved over the past few years from just being transactional software.


The cost of implementing ERP has been reduced to a great extent past few years. ERP Vendors have started licensing Products at much lower rates, which can cater to the requirements of the SMEs. Also Industry and localization specific features in the ERP packages have reduced the cost of customizations. Better and fast implementation techniques developed by the partners of these Vendors has also lead to reduction in the costs for investments. ERP uptake for a company is no longer a decision that is perceived as a ‘High Risk-Low Return’ investments.


POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF ERP IMPLEMENTATION IN SME SECTOR :-

• Reduction in cost of operations
• Greater visibility of financial and operational processes
• Reduced errors
• Improved efficiencies
• Better management of customer relationships
• Improved reporting to support managing the business

Increase in Product awareness among the SMEs of the developed countries have lead to increase in Market Size for ERP in such countries. Success in developed countries have inspired the ERP Vendors like Microsoft, Oracle, Sage and Infor to position the benefits of their products for the SME sector in Developing countries like India. With the help of a well-spun partner network these companies have launched aggressive marketing campaigns to educate the SMEs and create awareness about the benefits of ERP.