Different needs – Different Environments

People have different needs with regard to processing and reviewing data based upon their roles in the organisation. Therefore it may be preferrable to have different environments (user interfaces) in which to enter, process and analyse business information. More and more software vendors (try to) embrace this philosophy.

Traditionally IT business solutions (e.g. ERP and CRM) were the central repository of entering and source of getting information out to analyse the business.

The last couple of years software vendors have been focussing on getting the information out of the IT Business Solution in such a way that it provides benefits to organisations such as:

• Enabling confident decision making in an environment that is easy and familiar to use;
• Fitting with IT systems that business already have invested in such as Microsoft Office and Server systems and therefore reinforcing and leveraging your existing IT investments;
• Supporting collaboration to enable people to work more effectively across departments, companies and supply chains.

In 2005 AMR brought a report out and stated based on a study that 85% of the staff in an organisation are Non-ERP users however need information out of the ERP system to perform their job more effectively.

For example since 2004 SAP and Microsoft have been working hard on letting SAP and the Microsoft Office system working closer together. More information on this you can find here: http://www.duet.com/about/index.aspx

And since 2000 Microsoft has been working hard on letting their Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM applications natively work together with the Microsoft Office and Server systems. More information on this you can find here: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/us/fits-systems.aspx

The diagram shows the mapping of an ideal solution environment based on the different needs people have. The challenge that software vendors have is to let information entered in the IT business solution seamlessly flow through to other solution environments. Out of the box interoperatibility, choice of platform and security methods are key to this.

The diagram might help you to evaluate how software vendors that you have selected embrace this strategy and what the skill sets are of your implementation partner(s) to realise this within your organisation.