Building on a foundation
Like Thompson at Turner Industries, officials at Owens Corning said they wanted to make sure channel partners had up-to-date information online.
To that end, the company has been investing in allowing business customers and channel partners to access ERP information directly over the Web and to collaborate with the company online. Eventually, like many companies, the idea is to give supply chain partners direct online links to back-end systems and processes such as order and inventory management and customer relationship management.
The builder of material and composite systems, in Toledo, Ohio, began planning its ERP system back in 1995 and began deploying the projectââ,¬"-called Advantage 2000ââ,¬"-in 1996. The goal at that time was to build a common and global architecture that would tie the corporation's subsidiaries to one platform and one set of common business rules. Meeting Y2K compliance for a number of its systems was also a concern, said Paul Fortner, director of e-business and new digital technologies at Owens Corning. Now Fortner wants to build on those common processes and that common information.
"A quality ERP engine behind the scenes will allow us to be very effective in the integration of technology into all areas of operation," he said. "It really comes down to having a set of robust processes behind the curtain. When you don't have someone to translate that status code, it defeats the entire purpose of e-business."
Owens Corning's first step toward opening ERP systems and processes to online access by partners has been to upgrade its R/3 system to Version 3.1.1. The company has also added components of mySAP.com to its environment. Products such as SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer allow Owens Corning to share demand forecasts from its customer base with suppliers and partners online and participate in e-marketplaces. Customers are able to access the Owens Corning system to order new supplies and determine their delivery times.
Owens Corning's next step will be to move to SAP's fully integrated Internet-enabled platform, R/3 Release 4, next year. The company is looking at SAP's other portal products as well.
Already, the strategy is paying off. The company, Fortner said, is better able to anticipate and meet customer orders, and that's resulting in better customer service ratings.
"Our processes have enabled us to improve our ability to meet our customer commitments," he said. "ERP just seems to be a project that continues forever. The one lesson we've learned over time is that continuous improvement is always possible."
Even companies that have been subjected to ERP deployment hell say their investments will pay off and that ERP will be a key part of their e-business strategies.
Upsilon subsidiary Super Discount CDs & DVDs, for example, ended up suing the integrator it hired to help it deploy Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions' eEnterprise Version 5.5 ERP package in 1998. Still, CIO David Hurwitz said he's convinced that the Web-based suite will enable his company to reduce payroll processing costs and fulfill orders faster.
"I am always shocked when people don't look to develop ERP and add benefit to their system because there's so much you can do around collaborative commerce," Hurwitz said. "The people who think ERP is dead just don't understand what it's all about."
Katie Dailey, a project manager at Crestone International which will finish its upgrade from PeopleSoft 7.5 to the Web-based Version 8 in June, agreed.
"Rather than fade, ERP has become even more critical for us," Dailey said. "We operate over the Internet, and our consultants use it as their main means of communicating with us. It was a requirement to have an Internet-enabled suite in order to streamline the business."
