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From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Wed Nov  3 14:10:37 2004 -0700
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Subject: 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
Cc: ldesilva@iscea.com
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Dear Sales and Marketing Team:

 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition will be held at Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. We hope 400 to 500 of our 17,000+ ISCEA members will attend our inaugural conference and expositions.

 Our Conference is somewhat different from other conferences. Since we are an educational organization, our members will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days (TOC, Lean. CPIM Certification Review, etc) and attend that workshop track during the conference. They will all come together at lunchtime and in the evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM for a networking and Vendor exhibition. In addition to the education workshop tracks, we have one track where we will host industry experts to present relevant topics. Morning and afternoon session each day, totaling 6 sessions.

 PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt, and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters at the conference. All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA - Executive Director of Education & Certification Programs. Dr Watts is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 Our Key Note Speaker is Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.  Ms. Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for Manufacturing and Distribution Industries. She holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University.  Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and nine APICS International conferences.  She is the author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools, Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain.  Her latest work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim
 
 If you are interested in booth space at our vendor exhibition on
Monday and Tuesday evening, sponsorship or presentation opportunities please let me know of your interest.

 We appreciate your valued time so when you get a chance please visit http://www.iscea.com for more information about the Conference and sponsorship opportunities. You may also contact me personally at 972.567.1969. Attached is the sponsership order form with more information as well as a link to learn more for your convenience.

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/pdf/04-2005-EXPO-Conference%20sponsorship%20Order%20Form1.pdf

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
2005 ISCEA Conference & Exposition

Tel: 972.567.1969
E-mail: cruzr@iscea.com
Web: www.iscea.com














From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Fri Nov  5 13:58:15 2004 -0700
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Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 12:58:15 -0800 (PST)
Subject: RE: Respons to Presentation Opp.(ISCEA)
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
Cc: ldesilva@iscea.com
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   Hi,
 Presentation opportunities are welcomed as long as the topic is supply
chain oriented. You would need to send us the name and picture of the speaker as well as the topic of the presentation and a one-paragraph overview of the presentation. Our expo committee will then review and approve. The times available for presentation are 8:30am-9:45am and then also 10am-11:15. giving the presenter 1hr 15min. However because there are may educational workshops tracks being held many will see the presentation and some will not therefore it would be wise to also sponsor a booth to provide information and literature about your product(s)at the end when everyone comes together. It is also very effective if you take a representative of a company who is already using the product(s) to your companys presentation to provide a case study. Please inform me if there are other questions you may have. Look forward to hearing from you.
 Thanks,
        Cruz



From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Wed Nov 10 14:59:18 2004 -0700
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Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 13:59:18 -0800 (PST)
Subject: 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
Cc: ldesilva@iscea.com
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Dear :

  I want to take the time to personally invite  to our very
exciting 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition that will be held at the Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. We hope 400 to 500 of our 17,000+ ISCEA members will attend our inaugural conference and expositions.

 Our Conference is somewhat different from other conferences. Since we are
an educational organization, our members will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days (TOC, Lean. CPIM Certification Review, etc) and attend that workshop track during the conference. They will all come together at lunchtime and in the evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM for a networking and Vendor exhibition. In addition to the education workshop tracks, we have one track where we will host industry experts to present relevant topics. Morning and afternoon session each day, totaling 6 sessions.

 PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt,
and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters at the conference. All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA -
Executive Director of Education & Certification Programs. Dr Watts is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 Our Key Note Speaker is Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.  Ms.
Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for
Manufacturing and Distribution Industries. She holds an MBA from
Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University.  Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the
Netherlands and nine APICS International conferences.  She is the author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools,
Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain.  Her latest work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim

 If  is interested in booth space at our vendor exhibition on
Monday and Tuesday evening, sponsorship or presentation opportunities please let me know of your interest.

 We appreciate your valued time so when you get a chance please visit
http://www.iscea.com for more information about the Conference and sponsorship opportunities. You may also contact me personally at
972.567.1969. Attached is the sponsership order form with more
information as well as a link to learn more for your convenience.

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/pdf/04-2005-EXPO-Conference%20sponsorship%20Order%20Form1.pdf

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
2005 ISCEA Conference & Exposition

Tel: 972.567.1969
E-mail: cruzr@iscea.com
Web: www.iscea.com

















From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Tue Nov 16 13:22:18 2004 -0700
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Message-ID: <46480.205.188.116.139.1100636538.squirrel@www.supplychaineducationalliance.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:22:18 -0800 (PST)
Subject:  More info on ISCEA Convention/conference
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
Bcc: ldesilva@iscea.com
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Dear:

 Thank you very much for the interest in the 2005 ISCEA Conference and
Exposition. Just to give you more information.

 The conference attendees will all come together at lunchtime and in the
evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM for a networking and Vendor exhibition.  THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO PROMOTE YOUR COMPANY. PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt, and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters/sponsors at the conference.

 Exhibition will be on Monday and Tuesday from 5:00PM to 8:00PM. We expect
close to 400 mid to upper executives in Supply Chain/Operation/IT areas to attend the EXPO. To bring in more traffic to the Exhibition floor, we are having the evening reception at the exhibition floor. We have limited the number of exhibitors to be 40. In addition to the conference attendees, we will promote exhibition only attendance to our members in the area, and to members of partner organizations, such as PMI.

10X10 Booth Space, table tops: ($1,000)
8' table, skirted in black
2 ballroom chairs
1 wastebasket
2 Expo only passes.
List you in our website with a link

10X10 Booth Space:
Exhibitor to bring in the Custom display
8' table, skirted in black
2 ballroom chairs
1 wastebasket
2 Expo only passes.
List you in our website with a link

Lunch Sponsorship: ($2,500)
We expect close to 250 to attend lunchtime events.
Keynote lunch 11:30 to 1:30

 Each day two companies will sponsor the lunch. If you want to be the only
sponsor for that day's lunch, it will cost $5,000. We will have a 4'X15' banner promoting your company at the keynote hall where we will host the group for lunch. You will get to hand out promotion material about your products and services during lunch. Also, a tabletop display thanking you for sponsorship of that lunch, and a message promoting your company. In addition to all of this you can play an 8-minute promotion video about your company, product, and service just prior to the keynote. (You will have to provide us the video). Two Lunch and EXPO only passes. And saving the best for last a 75% discount on any other sponsorship.

 If is interested in becoming a presenter, please send us the
presentation topic, summary of the presentation, and bio of the
presenter. When the EXPO committee approves the presentation, we will assign a time slot. At this particular time we will only consider presentations from Sponsor companies.
08:30 to 09:45
10:00 to 11:15
01:45 to 03:00
03:15 to 04:30

For more information here are two links to our website:

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/pdf/04-2005-EXPO-Conference%20sponsorship%20Order%20Form1.pdf

Please feel free to contact me anytime at (972) 567-1969 or via email.

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
ISCEA






From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Tue Nov 16 13:52:42 2004 -0700
Received: from 205.188.116.139
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        Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:52:42 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <56214.205.188.116.139.1100638362.squirrel@www.supplychaineducationalliance.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 12:52:42 -0800 (PST)
Subject:  More info on ISCEA Convention/conference#2
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
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Dear:

 Thank you for the interest in the 2005 ISCEA Conference and
Exposition. Ill tell you alittle more then you can click on the links provided.
 Our Conference is somewhat different from other conferences. Since we are
an educational organization, our members will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days (TOC, Lean. CPIM Certification Review, etc) and attend that workshop track during the conference. In addition to the education workshop tracks, we have tracks where we will host industry experts to present relevant topics. Morning and afternoon session each day.

 The Conference attendees will all come together at lunchtime and in the
evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM for a networking and Vendor exhibition. THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO PROMOTE YOUR COMPANY. PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt, and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters/sponsors at the conference.

 All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA
faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA -
Executive Director of Education & Certification Programs. Dr Watts is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 Our Key Note Speaker is Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.  Ms.
Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for
Manufacturing and Distribution Industries. She holds an MBA from
Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University.  Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the
Netherlands and nine APICS International conferences.  She is the author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools,
Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain.  Her latest work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim

 Exhibition will be on Monday and Tuesday from 5:00PM to 8:00PM. We expect
close to 400 mid to upper executives in Supply Chain/Operation/IT areas to attend the EXPO. To bring in more traffic to the Exhibition floor, we are having the evening reception at the exhibition floor. We have limited the number of exhibitors to be 40. In addition to the conference
attendees, we will promote exhibition only attendance to our members in the area, and to members of partner organizations, such as PMI.

10X10 Booth Space, table tops: ($1,000)
8' table, skirted in black
2 ballroom chairs
1 wastebasket
2 Expo only passes.
List you in our website with a link

10X10 Booth Space:
Exhibitor to bring in the Custom display
8' table, skirted in black
2 ballroom chairs
1 wastebasket
2 Expo only passes.
List you in our website with a link

Lunch Sponsorship: ($2,500)
We expect close to 250 to attend lunchtime events.
Keynote lunch 11:30 to 1:30

 Each day two companies will sponsor the lunch. If you want to be the only
sponsor for that day's lunch, it will cost $5,000. We will have a 4'X15' banner promoting your company at the keynote hall where we will host the group for lunch. You will get to hand out promotion material about your products and services during lunch. Also, a tabletop display thanking you for sponsorship of that lunch, and a message promoting your company. In addition to all of this you can play an 8-minute promotion video about your company, product, and service just prior to the keynote. (You will have to provide us the video). Two Lunch and EXPO only passes. And saving the best for last a 75% discount on any other sponsorship.
 If your organization is interested in becoming a presenter, please send
us the presentation topic, summary of the presentation, and bio of the presenter. If the EXPO commoitte approves the presentation, we will assign a time slot. At this particular time we will only consider
presentations from Sponsor companies.
08:30 to 09:45
10:00 to 11:15
01:45 to 03:00
03:15 to 04:30

For more information here are two links to our website:

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/pdf/04-2005-EXPO-Conference%20sponsorship%20Order%20Form1.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/

Please feel free to contact me anytime at (972)567-1969 or via email.

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
ISCEA






From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Tue Nov 30 13:28:27 2004 -0700
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Message-ID: <1328.66.14.16.154.1101846507.squirrel@www.supplychaineducationalliance.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 12:28:27 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Fwd: New Customer Relationship Management System and  Article 
     about ERP]
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The ABCs of ERP
By Christopher Koch

What is ERP?
How can ERP improve a company's business performance?
How long will an ERP project take?
What will ERP fix in my business?
Will ERP fit the ways I do business?
What does ERP really cost?
When will I get payback from ERP-and how much will it be?
What are the hidden costs of ERP?
Why do ERP projects fail so often?
How do I configure ERP software?
How do companies organize their ERP projects?
How does ERP fit with electronic commerce? 

     
           
     
     


What is ERP?
Enterprise resource planning software, or ERP, doesn't live up to its acronym. Forget about planning-it doesn't do much of that-and forget about resource, a throwaway term. But remember the enterprise part. This is ERP's true ambition. It attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all those different departments' particular needs. 

That is a tall order, building a single software program that serves the needs of people in finance as well as it does the people in human resources and in the warehouse. Each of those departments typically has its own computer system optimized for the particular ways that the department does its work. But ERP combines them all together into a single, integrated software program that runs off a single database so that the various departments can more easily share information and communicate with each other. That integrated approach can have a tremendous payback if companies install the software correctly. 

Take a customer order, for example. Typically, when a customer places an order, that order begins a mostly paper-based journey from in-basket to in-basket around the company, often being keyed and rekeyed into different departments' computer systems along the way. All that lounging around in in-baskets causes delays and lost orders, and all the keying into different computer systems invites errors. Meanwhile, no one in the company truly knows what the status of the order is at any given point because there is no way for the finance department, for example, to get into the warehouse's computer system to see whether the item has been shipped. "You'll have to call the warehouse" is the familiar refrain heard by frustrated customers.

ERP vanquishes the old standalone computer systems in finance, HR, manufacturing and the warehouse, and replaces them with a single unified software program divided into software modules that roughly approximate the old standalone systems. Finance, manufacturing and the warehouse all still get their own software, except now the software is linked together so that someone in finance can look into the warehouse software to see if an order has been shipped. Most vendors' ERP software is flexible enough that you can install some modules without buying the whole package. Many companies, for example, will just install an ERP finance or HR module and leave the rest of the functions for another day.



How can ERP improve a company's business performance?
ERP's best hope for demonstrating value is as a sort of battering ram for improving the way your company takes a customer order and processes it into an invoice and revenue-otherwise known as the order fulfillment process. That is why ERP is often referred to as back-office software. It doesn't handle the up-front selling process (although most ERP vendors have recently developed CRM software to do this); rather, ERP takes a customer order and provides a software road map for automating the different steps along the path to fulfilling it. When a customer service representative enters a customer order into an ERP system, he has all the information necessary to complete the order (the customer's credit rating and order history from the finance module, the company's inventory levels from the warehouse module and the shipping dock's trucking schedule from the logistics module, for example).

People in these different departments all see the same information and can update it. When one department finishes with the order it is automatically routed via the ERP system to the next department. To find out where the order is at any point, you need only log in to the ERP system and track it down. With luck, the order process moves like a bolt of lightning through the organization, and customers get their orders faster and with fewer errors than before. ERP can apply that same magic to the other major business processes, such as employee benefits or financial reporting. 

That, at least, is the dream of ERP. The reality is much harsher.

Let's go back to those inboxes for a minute. That process may not have been efficient, but it was simple. Finance did its job, the warehouse did its job, and if anything went wrong outside of the department's walls, it was somebody else's problem. Not anymore. With ERP, the customer service representatives are no longer just typists entering someone's name into a computer and hitting the return key. The ERP screen makes them businesspeople. It flickers with the customer's credit rating from the finance department and the product inventory levels from the warehouse. Will the customer pay on time? Will we be able to ship the order on time? These are decisions that customer service representatives have never had to make before, and the answers affect the customer and every other department in the company. But it's not just the customer service representatives who have to wake up. People in the warehouse who used to keep inventory in their heads or on scraps of paper now need to put that information online. If they don't, customer service reps will see low inventory levels on their screens and tell customers that their requested item is not in stock. Accountability, responsibility and communication have never been tested like this before.

People don't like to change, and ERP asks them to change how they do their jobs. That is why the value of ERP is so hard to pin down. The software is less important than the changes companies make in the ways they do business. If you use ERP to improve the ways your people take orders, manufacture goods, ship them and bill for them, you will see value from the software. If you simply install the software without changing the ways people do their jobs, you may not see any value at all-indeed, the new software could slow you down by simply replacing the old software that everyone knew with new software that no one does.


How long will an ERP project take?
Companies that install ERP do not have an easy time of it. Don't be fooled when ERP vendors tell you about a three or six month average implementation time. Those short (that's right, six months is short) implementations all have a catch of one kind or another: The company was small, or the implementation was limited to a small area of the company, or the company used only the financial pieces of the ERP system (in which case the ERP system is nothing more than a very expensive accounting system). To do ERP right, the ways you do business will need to change and the ways people do their jobs will need to change too. And that kind of change doesn't come without pain. Unless, of course, your ways of doing business are working extremely well (orders all shipped on time, productivity higher than all your competitors, customers completely satisfied), in which case there is no reason to even consider ERP.

The important thing is not to focus on how long it will take-real transformational ERP efforts usually run between one and three years, on average-but rather to understand why you need it and how you will use it to improve your business. 


What will ERP fix in my business?
There are five major reasons why companies undertake ERP. 
Integrate financial information-As the CEO tries to understand the company's overall performance, he may find many different versions of the truth. Finance has its own set of revenue numbers, sales has another version, and the different business units may each have their own version of how much they contributed to revenues. ERP creates a single version of the truth that cannot be questioned because everyone is using the same system.

Integrate customer order information-ERP systems can become the place where the customer order lives from the time a customer service representative receives it until the loading dock ships the merchandise and finance sends an invoice. By having this information in one software system, rather than scattered among many different systems that can't communicate with one another, companies can keep track of orders more easily, and coordinate manufacturing, inventory and shipping among many different locations at the same time.

Standardize and speed up manufacturing processes-Manufacturing companies-especially those with an appetite for mergers and acquisitions-often find that multiple business units across the company make the same widget using different methods and computer systems. ERP systems come with standard methods for automating some of the steps of a manufacturing process. Standardizing those processes and using a single, integrated computer system can save time, increase productivity and reduce head count.

Reduce inventory-ERP helps the manufacturing process flow more smoothly, and it improves visibility of the order fulfillment process inside the company. That can lead to reduced inventories of the stuff used to make products (work-in-progress inventory), and it can help users better plan deliveries to customers, reducing the finished good inventory at the warehouses and shipping docks. To really improve the flow of your supply chain, you need supply chain software, but ERP helps too.

Standardize HR information-Especially in companies with multiple business units, HR may not have a unified, simple method for tracking employees' time and communicating with them about benefits and services. ERP can fix that. In the race to fix these problems, companies often lose sight of the fact that ERP packages are nothing more than generic representations of the ways a typical company does business. While most packages are exhaustively comprehensive, each industry has its quirks that make it unique. Most ERP systems were designed to be used by discrete manufacturing companies (that make physical things that can be counted), which immediately left all the process manufacturers (oil, chemical and utility companies that measure their products by flow rather than individual units) out in the cold. Each of these industries has struggled with the different ERP vendors to modify core ERP programs to their needs.


Will ERP fit the ways I do business?
It's critical for companies to figure out if their ways of doing business will fit within a standard ERP package before the checks are signed and the implementation begins. The most common reason that companies walk away from multimillion-dollar ERP projects is that they discover the software does not support one of their important business processes. At that point there are two things they can do: They can change the business process to accommodate the software, which will mean deep changes in long-established ways of doing business (that often provide competitive advantage) and shake up important people's roles and responsibilities (something that few companies have the stomach for). Or they can modify the software to fit the process, which will slow down the project, introduce dangerous bugs into the system and make upgrading the software to the ERP vendor's next release excruciatingly difficult because the customizations will need to be torn apart and rewritten to fit with the new version.

Needless to say, the move to ERP is a project of breathtaking scope, and the price tags on the front end are enough to make the most placid CFO a little twitchy. In addition to budgeting for software costs, financial executives should plan to write checks to cover consulting, process rework, integration testing and a long laundry list of other expenses before the benefits of ERP start to manifest themselves. Underestimating the price of teaching users their new job processes can lead to a rude shock down the line, and so can failure to consider data warehouse integration requirements and the cost of extra software to duplicate the old report formats. A few oversights in the budgeting and planning stage can send ERP costs spiraling out of control faster than oversights in planning almost any other information system undertaking.


What does ERP really cost?
Meta Group recently did a study looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of ERP, including hardware, software, professional services and internal staff costs. The TCO numbers include getting the software installed and the two years afterward, which is when the real costs of maintaining, upgrading and optimizing the system for your business are felt. Among the 63 companies surveyed-including small, medium and large companies in a range of industries-the average TCO was $15 million (the highest was $300 million and lowest was $400,000). While it's hard to draw a solid number from that kind of range of companies and ERP efforts, Meta came up with one statistic that proves that ERP is expensive no matter what kind of company is using it. The TCO for a "heads-down" user over that period was a staggering $53,320. 


When will I get payback from ERP-and how much will it be?
Don't expect to revolutionize your business with ERP. It is a navel-gazing exercise that focuses on optimizing the way things are done internally rather than with customers, suppliers or partners. Yet the navel gazing has a pretty good payback if you're willing to wait for it-a Meta Group study of 63 companies found that it took eight months after the new system was in (31 months total) to see any benefits. But the median annual savings from the new ERP system were $1.6 million.


What are the hidden costs of ERP?
Although different companies will find different land mines in the budgeting process, those who have implemented ERP packages agree that certain costs are more commonly overlooked or underestimated than others. Armed with insights from across the business, ERP pros vote the following areas as most likely to result in budget overrun. 

  1.. Training 
  Training is the near-unanimous choice of experienced ERP implementers as the most underestimated budget item. Training expenses are high because workers almost invariably have to learn a new set of processes, not just a new software interface. Worse, outside training companies may not be able to help you. They are focused on telling people how to use software, not on educating people about the particular ways you do business. Prepare to develop a curriculum yourself that identifies and explains the different business processes that will be affected by the ERP system. 

  One enterprising CIO hired staff from a local business school to help him develop and teach the ERP business-training course to employees. Remember that with ERP, finance people will be using the same software as warehouse people and they will both be entering information that affects the other. To do this accurately, they have to have a much broader understanding of how others in the company do their jobs than they did before ERP came along. Ultimately, it will be up to your IT and businesspeople to provide that training. So take whatever you have budgeted for ERP training and double or triple it up front. It will be the best ERP investment you ever make.

  2.. Integration and testing 
  Testing the links between ERP packages and other corporate software links that have to be built on a case-by-case basis is another often-underestimated cost. A typical manufacturing company may have add-on applications from the major-e-commerce and supply chain-to the minor-sales tax computation and bar coding. All require integration links to ERP. If you can buy add-ons from the ERP vendor that are pre-integrated, you're better off. If you need to build the links yourself, expect things to get ugly. As with training, testing ERP integration has to be done from a process-oriented perspective. Veterans recommend that instead of plugging in dummy data and moving it from one application to the next, run a real purchase order through the system, from order entry through shipping and receipt of payment-the whole order-to-cash banana-preferably with the participation of the employees who will eventually do those jobs.

  3.. Customization 
  Add-ons are only the beginning of the integration costs of ERP. Much more costly, and something to be avoided if at all possible, is actual customization of the core ERP software itself. This happens when the ERP software can't handle one of your business processes and you decide to mess with the software to make it do what you want. You're playing with fire. The customizations can affect every module of the ERP system because they are all so tightly linked together. Upgrading the ERP package-no walk in the park under the best of circumstances-becomes a nightmare because you'll have to do the customization all over again in the new version. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. No matter what, the vendor will not be there to support you. You will have to hire extra staffers to do the customization work, and keep them on for good to maintain it.

  4.. Data conversion 
  It costs money to move corporate information, such as customer and supplier records, product design data and the like, from old systems to new ERP homes. Although few CIOs will admit it, most data in most legacy systems is of little use. Companies often deny their data is dirty until they actually have to move it to the new client/server setups that popular ERP packages require. Consequently, those companies are more likely to underestimate the cost of the move. But even clean data may demand some overhaul to match process modifications necessitated-or inspired-by the ERP implementation.

  5.. Data analysis 
  Often, the data from the ERP system must be combined with data from external systems for analysis purposes. Users with heavy analysis needs should include the cost of a data warehouse in the ERP budget-and they should expect to do quite a bit of work to make it run smoothly. Users are in a pickle here: Refreshing all the ERP data every day in a big corporate data warehouse is difficult, and ERP systems do a poor job of indicating which information has changed from day to day, making selective warehouse updates tough. One expensive solution is custom programming. The upshot is that the wise will check all their data analysis needs before signing off on the budget.

  6.. Consultants ad infinitum 
  When users fail to plan for disengagement, consulting fees run wild. To avoid this, companies should identify objectives for which its consulting partners must aim when training internal staff. Include metrics in the consultants' contract; for example, a specific number of the user company's staff should be able to pass a project-management leadership test-similar to what Big Five consultants have to pass to lead an ERP engagement.

  7.. Replacing your best and brightest 
  It is accepted wisdom that ERP success depends on staffing the project with the best and brightest from the business and IS divisions. The software is too complex and the business changes too dramatic to trust the project to just anyone. The bad news is a company must be prepared to replace many of those people when the project is over. Though the ERP market is not as hot as it once was, consultancies and other companies that have lost their best people will be hounding yours with higher salaries and bonus offers than you can afford-or that your HR policies permit. Huddle with HR early on to develop a retention bonus program and create new salary strata for ERP veterans. If you let them go, you'll wind up hiring them-or someone like them-back as consultants for twice what you paid them in salaries.

  8.. Implementation teams can never stop 
  Most companies intend to treat their ERP implementation as they would any other software project. Once the software is installed, they figure the team will be scuttled and everyone will go back to his or her day job. But after ERP, you can't go home again. The implementers are too valuable. Because they have worked intimately with ERP, they know more about the sales process than the salespeople and more about the manufacturing process than the manufacturing people. Companies can't afford to send their project people back into the business because there's so much to do after the ERP software is installed. Just writing reports to pull information out of the new ERP system will keep the project team busy for a year at least. And it is in analysis-and, one hopes, insight-that companies make their money back on an ERP implementation. Unfortunately, few IS departments plan for the frenzy of post-ERP installation activity, and fewer still build it into their budgets when they start their ERP projects. Many are forced to beg for more money and staff immediately after the go-live date, long before the ERP project has demonstrated any benefit. 

  9.. Waiting for ROI 
  One of the most misleading legacies of traditional software project management is that the company expects to gain value from the application as soon as it is installed, while the project team expects a break and maybe a pat on the back. Neither expectation applies to ERP. Most of the systems don't reveal their value until after companies have had them running for some time and can concentrate on making improvements in the business processes that are affected by the system. And the project team is not going to be rewarded until their efforts pay off. 

  10.. Post-ERP depression 
  ERP systems often wreak cause havoc in the companies that install them. In a recent Deloitte Consulting survey of 64 Fortune 500 companies, one in four admitted that they suffered a drop in performance when their ERP system went live. The true percentage is undoubtedly much higher. The most common reason for the performance problems is that everything looks and works differently from the way it did before. When people can't do their jobs in the familiar way and haven't yet mastered the new way, they panic, and the business goes into spasms.


  Why do ERP projects fail so often?
  At its simplest level, ERP is a set of best practices for performing different duties in your company, including finance, manufacturing and the warehouse. To get the most from the software, you have to get people inside your company to adopt the work methods outlined in the software. If the people in the different departments that will use ERP don't agree that the work methods embedded in the software are better than the ones they currently use, they will resist using the software or will want IT to change the software to match the ways they currently do things. This is where ERP projects break down. Political fights break out over how-or even whether-the software will be installed. IT gets bogged down in long, expensive customization efforts to modify the ERP software to fit with powerful business barons' wishes. Customizations make the software more unstable and harder to maintain when it finally does come to life. The horror stories you hear in the press about ERP can usually be traced to the changes the company made in the core ERP software to fit its own work methods. Because ERP covers so much of what a business does, a failure in the software can bring a company to a halt, literally.

  But IT can fix the bugs pretty quickly in most cases, and besides, few big companies can avoid customizing ERP in some fashion-every business is different and is bound to have unique work methods that a vendor cannot account for when developing its software. The mistake companies make is assuming that changing people's habits will be easier than customizing the software. It's not. Getting people inside your company to use the software to improve the ways they do their jobs is by far the harder challenge. If your company is resistant to change, then your ERP project is more likely to fail.


  How do I configure ERP software?
  Even if a company installs ERP software for the so-called right reasons and everyone can agree on the optimal definition of a customer, the inherent difficulties of implementing something as complex as ERP is like, well, teaching an elephant to do the hootchy-kootchy. The packages are built from database tables, thousands of them, that IS programmers and end users must set to match their business processes; each table has a decision "switch" that leads the software down one decision path or another. By presenting only one way for the company to do each task-say, run the payroll or close the books-a company's individual operating units and far-flung divisions are integrated under one system. But figuring out precisely how to set all the switches in the tables requires a deep understanding of the existing processes being used to operate the business. As the table settings are decided, these business processes are reengineered, ERP's way. Most ERP systems are not shipped as a shell system in which customers must determine at the minutia level how all the functional procedures should be set, making thousands of decisions that affect how their system behaves in line with their own business activities. Most ERP systems are preconfigured, allowing just hundreds-rather than thousands-of procedural settings to be made by the customer.


  How do companies organize their ERP projects?
  Based on our observations, there are three commonly used ways of installing ERP.

  The Big Bang-In this, the most ambitious and difficult of approaches to ERP implementation, companies cast off all their legacy systems at once and install a single ERP system across the entire company. Though this method dominated early ERP implementations, few companies dare to attempt it anymore because it calls for the entire company to mobilize and change at once. Most of the ERP implementation horror stories from the late '90s warn us about companies that used this strategy.Getting everyone to cooperate and accept a new software system at the same time is a tremendous effort, largely because the new system will not have any advocates. No one within the company has any experience using it, so no one is sure whether it will work. Also, ERP inevitably involves compromises. Many departments have computer systems that have been honed to match the ways they work. In most cases, ERP offers neither the range of functionality nor the comfort of familiarity that a custom legacy system can offer. In many cases, the speed of the new system may suffer because it is serving the entire company rather than a single department. ERP implementation requires a direct mandate from the CEO.

  Franchising strategy-This approach suits large or diverse companies that do not share many common processes across business units. Independent ERP systems are installed in each unit, while linking common processes, such as financial bookkeeping, across the enterprise. This has emerged as the most common way of implementing ERP. In most cases, the business units each have their own "instances" of ERP-that is, a separate system and database. The systems link together only to share the information necessary for the corporation to get a performance big picture across all the business units (business unit revenues, for example), or for processes that don't vary much from business unit to business unit (perhaps HR benefits). Usually, these implementations begin with a demonstration or pilot installation in a particularly open-minded and patient business unit where the core business of the corporation will not be disrupted if something goes wrong. Once the project team gets the system up and running and works out all the bugs, the team begins selling other units on ERP, using the first implementation as a kind of in-house customer reference. Plan for this strategy to take a long time.

  Slam dunk-ERP dictates the process design in this method, where the focus is on just a few key processes, such as those contained in an ERP system's financial module. The slam dunk is generally for smaller companies expecting to grow into ERP. The goal here is to get ERP up and running quickly and to ditch the fancy reengineering in favor of the ERP system's "canned" processes. Few companies that have approached ERP this way can claim much payback from the new system. Most use it as an infrastructure to support more diligent installation efforts down the road. Yet many discover that a slammed-in ERP system is little better than a legacy system because it doesn't force employees to change any of their old habits. In fact, doing the hard work of process reengineering after the system is in can be more challenging than if there had been no system at all because at that point few people in the company will have felt much benefit.


  How does ERP fit with e-commerce?
  ERP vendors were not prepared for the onslaught of e-commerce. ERP is complex and not intended for public consumption. It assumes that the only people handling order information will be your employees, who are highly trained and comfortable with the tech jargon embedded in the software. But now customers and suppliers are demanding access to the same information your employees get through the ERP system-things like order status, inventory levels and invoice reconciliation-except they want to get all this information simply, without all the ERP software jargon, through your website.

  E-commerce means IT departments need to build two new channels of access in to ERP systems-one for customers (otherwise known as business-to-consumer) and one for suppliers and partners (business-to-business). These two audiences want two different types of information from your ERP system. Consumers want order status and billing information, and suppliers and partners want just about everything else.

  Traditional ERP vendors are having a hard time building the links between the Web and their software, though they certainly all realize that they must do it and have been hard at work at it for years. The bottom line, however, is that companies with e-commerce ambitions face a lot of hard integration work to make their ERP systems available over the Web. For those companies that were smart-or lucky-enough to have bought their ERP systems from a vendor experienced in developing e-commerce wares, adding easily integrated applications from that same vendor can be a money-saving option. For those companies whose ERP systems came from vendors that are less experienced with e-commerce development, the best-and possibly only-option might be to have a combination of internal staff and consultants hack through a custom integration.

  But no matter what the details are, solving the difficult problem of integrating ERP and e-commerce requires careful planning, which is key to getting integration off on the right track.

  One of the most difficult aspects of ERP and e-commerce integration is that the Internet never stops. ERP applications are big and complex and require maintenance. The choice is stark if ERP is linked directly to the Web-take down your ERP system for maintenance and you take down your website. Most e-commerce veterans will build flexibility into the ERP and e-commerce links so that they can keep the new e-commerce applications running on the Web while they shut down ERP for upgrades and fixes.

  The difficulty of getting ERP and e-commerce applications to work together-not to mention the other applications that demand ERP information such as supply chain and CRM software-has led companies to consider software known alternately as middleware and EAI software. These applications act as software translators that take information from ERP and convert it into a format that e-commerce and other applications can understand. Middleware has improved dramatically in recent years, and though it is difficult to sell and prove ROI on the software with business leaders-it is invisible to computer users-it can help solve many of the biggest integration woes that plague IT these days.


  Senior Editor Christopher Koch can be reached at ckoch@cio.com.




  Related article: The ABCs of Supply Chain Management

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<DIV><FONT face="Arial Narrow">Here is a article about EPR. Some of the people 
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<H2>The ABCs of ERP<BR><FONT size=-1>By Christopher Koch</FONT></H2><BR><FONT 
size=-1><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_abc">What is 
ERP?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_improve">How can 
ERP improve a company's business performance?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_length">How long 
will an ERP project take?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_fix">What will ERP 
fix in my business?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_fit">Will ERP fit 
the ways I do business?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_really">What does 
ERP really cost?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_payback">When will 
I get payback from ERPand how much will it be?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_costs">What are 
the hidden costs of ERP?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_fail">Why do ERP 
projects fail so often?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_config">How do I 
configure ERP software?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_organize">How do 
companies organize their ERP projects?</A><BR><A 
href="http://www.cio.com/research/erp/edit/erpbasics.html#erp_ec">How does ERP 
fit with electronic commerce?</A> <BR><BR><!-- Box Ad  -->
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<H4>What is ERP?</H4>
<P>Enterprise resource planning software, or ERP, doesn't live up to its 
acronym. Forget about planningit doesn't do much of thatand forget about 
resource, a throwaway term. But remember the enterprise part. This is ERP's true 
ambition. It attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a 
company onto a single computer system that can serve all those different 
departments' particular needs. </P>
<P>That is a tall order, building a single software program that serves the 
needs of people in finance as well as it does the people in human resources and 
in the warehouse. Each of those departments typically has its own computer 
system optimized for the particular ways that the department does its work. But 
ERP combines them all together into a single, integrated software program that 
runs off a single database so that the various departments can more easily share 
information and communicate with each other. That integrated approach can have a 
tremendous payback if companies install the software correctly. </P>
<P>Take a customer order, for example. Typically, when a customer places an 
order, that order begins a mostly paper-based journey from in-basket to 
in-basket around the company, often being keyed and rekeyed into different 
departments' computer systems along the way. All that lounging around in 
in-baskets causes delays and lost orders, and all the keying into different 
computer systems invites errors. Meanwhile, no one in the company truly knows 
what the status of the order is at any given point because there is no way for 
the finance department, for example, to get into the warehouse's computer system 
to see whether the item has been shipped. "You'll have to call the warehouse" is 
the familiar refrain heard by frustrated customers.</P>
<P>ERP vanquishes the old standalone computer systems in finance, HR, 
manufacturing and the warehouse, and replaces them with a single unified 
software program divided into software modules that roughly approximate the old 
standalone systems. Finance, manufacturing and the warehouse all still get their 
own software, except now the software is linked together so that someone in 
finance can look into the warehouse software to see if an order has been 
shipped. Most vendors' ERP software is flexible enough that you can install some 
modules without buying the whole package. Many companies, for example, will just 
install an ERP finance or HR module and leave the rest of the functions for 
another day.</P><BR><A name=erp_improve></A><!--- <TABLE WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="100" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" BORDER="0" ALIGN="right">
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    <td valign="middle" align="center"><font size="-1" face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">For an expanded overview of this topic, read the <a href="http://www.cio.com/summaries/enterprise/erp/index.html">ERP Executive Summary</a>.</font></td>
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<H4>How can ERP improve a company's business performance?</H4>
<P>ERP's best hope for demonstrating value is as a sort of battering ram for 
improving the way your company takes a customer order and processes it into an 
invoice and revenueotherwise known as the order fulfillment process. That is 
why ERP is often referred to as back-office software. It doesn't handle the 
up-front selling process (although most ERP vendors have recently developed CRM 
software to do this); rather, ERP takes a customer order and provides a software 
road map for automating the different steps along the path to fulfilling it. 
When a customer service representative enters a customer order into an ERP 
system, he has all the information necessary to complete the order (the 
customer's credit rating and order history from the finance module, the 
company's inventory levels from the warehouse module and the shipping dock's 
trucking schedule from the logistics module, for example).</P>
<P>People in these different departments all see the same information and can 
update it. When one department finishes with the order it is automatically 
routed via the ERP system to the next department. To find out where the order is 
at any point, you need only log in to the ERP system and track it down. With 
luck, the order process moves like a bolt of lightning through the organization, 
and customers get their orders faster and with fewer errors than before. ERP can 
apply that same magic to the other major business processes, such as employee 
benefits or financial reporting. </P>
<P>That, at least, is the dream of ERP. The reality is much harsher.</P>
<P>Let's go back to those inboxes for a minute. That process may not have been 
efficient, but it was simple. Finance did its job, the warehouse did its job, 
and if anything went wrong outside of the department's walls, it was somebody 
else's problem. Not anymore. With ERP, the customer service representatives are 
no longer just typists entering someone's name into a computer and hitting the 
return key. The ERP screen makes them businesspeople. It flickers with the 
customer's credit rating from the finance department and the product inventory 
levels from the warehouse. Will the customer pay on time? Will we be able to 
ship the order on time? These are decisions that customer service 
representatives have never had to make before, and the answers affect the 
customer and every other department in the company. But it's not just the 
customer service representatives who have to wake up. People in the warehouse 
who used to keep inventory in their heads or on scraps of paper now need to put 
that information online. If they don't, customer service reps will see low 
inventory levels on their screens and tell customers that their requested item 
is not in stock. Accountability, responsibility and communication have never 
been tested like this before.</P>
<P>People don't like to change, and ERP asks them to change how they do their 
jobs. That is why the value of ERP is so hard to pin down. The software is less 
important than the changes companies make in the ways they do business. If you 
use ERP to improve the ways your people take orders, manufacture goods, ship 
them and bill for them, you will see value from the software. If you simply 
install the software without changing the ways people do their jobs, you may not 
see any value at allindeed, the new software could slow you down by simply 
replacing the old software that everyone knew with new software that no one 
does.</P>
<P><A name=erp_length></A>
<H4>How long will an ERP project take?</H4>
<P>Companies that install ERP do not have an easy time of it. Don't be fooled 
when ERP vendors tell you about a three or six month average implementation 
time. Those short (that's right, six months is short) implementations all have a 
catch of one kind or another: The company was small, or the implementation was 
limited to a small area of the company, or the company used only the financial 
pieces of the ERP system (in which case the ERP system is nothing more than a 
very expensive accounting system). To do ERP right, the ways you do business 
will need to change and the ways people do their jobs will need to change too. 
And that kind of change doesn't come without pain. Unless, of course, your ways 
of doing business are working extremely well (orders all shipped on time, 
productivity higher than all your competitors, customers completely satisfied), 
in which case there is no reason to even consider ERP.</P>
<P>The important thing is not to focus on how long it will takereal 
transformational ERP efforts usually run between one and three years, on 
averagebut rather to understand why you need it and how you will use it to 
improve your business.</> 
<P><A name=erp_fix></A>
<H4>What will ERP fix in my business?</H4>
<P>There are five major reasons why companies undertake ERP. <BR><B>Integrate 
financial information</B>As the CEO tries to understand the company's overall 
performance, he may find many different versions of the truth. Finance has its 
own set of revenue numbers, sales has another version, and the different 
business units may each have their own version of how much they contributed to 
revenues. ERP creates a single version of the truth that cannot be questioned 
because everyone is using the same system.</P>
<P><B>Integrate customer order information</B>ERP systems can become the place 
where the customer order lives from the time a customer service representative 
receives it until the loading dock ships the merchandise and finance sends an 
invoice. By having this information in one software system, rather than 
scattered among many different systems that can't communicate with one another, 
companies can keep track of orders more easily, and coordinate manufacturing, 
inventory and shipping among many different locations at the same time.</P>
<P><B>Standardize and speed up manufacturing processes</B>Manufacturing 
companiesespecially those with an appetite for mergers and acquisitionsoften 
find that multiple business units across the company make the same widget using 
different methods and computer systems. ERP systems come with standard methods 
for automating some of the steps of a manufacturing process. Standardizing those 
processes and using a single, integrated computer system can save time, increase 
productivity and reduce head count.</P>
<P><B>Reduce inventory</B>ERP helps the manufacturing process flow more 
smoothly, and it improves visibility of the order fulfillment process inside the 
company. That can lead to reduced inventories of the stuff used to make products 
(work-in-progress inventory), and it can help users better plan deliveries to 
customers, reducing the finished good inventory at the warehouses and shipping 
docks. To really improve the flow of your supply chain, you need supply chain 
software, but ERP helps too.</P>
<P><B>Standardize HR information</B>Especially in companies with multiple 
business units, HR may not have a unified, simple method for tracking employees' 
time and communicating with them about benefits and services. ERP can fix that. 
In the race to fix these problems, companies often lose sight of the fact that 
ERP packages are nothing more than generic representations of the ways a typical 
company does business. While most packages are exhaustively comprehensive, each 
industry has its quirks that make it unique. Most ERP systems were designed to 
be used by discrete manufacturing companies (that make physical things that can 
be counted), which immediately left all the process manufacturers (oil, chemical 
and utility companies that measure their products by flow rather than individual 
units) out in the cold. Each of these industries has struggled with the 
different ERP vendors to modify core ERP programs to their needs.</P>
<P><A name=erp_fit></A>
<H4>Will ERP fit the ways I do business?</H4>
<P>It's critical for companies to figure out if their ways of doing business 
will fit within a standard ERP package before the checks are signed and the 
implementation begins. The most common reason that companies walk away from 
multimillion-dollar ERP projects is that they discover the software does not 
support one of their important business processes. At that point there are two 
things they can do: They can change the business process to accommodate the 
software, which will mean deep changes in long-established ways of doing 
business (that often provide competitive advantage) and shake up important 
people's roles and responsibilities (something that few companies have the 
stomach for). Or they can modify the software to fit the process, which will 
slow down the project, introduce dangerous bugs into the system and make 
upgrading the software to the ERP vendor's next release excruciatingly difficult 
because the customizations will need to be torn apart and rewritten to fit with 
the new version.</P>
<P>Needless to say, the move to ERP is a project of breathtaking scope, and the 
price tags on the front end are enough to make the most placid CFO a little 
twitchy. In addition to budgeting for software costs, financial executives 
should plan to write checks to cover consulting, process rework, integration 
testing and a long laundry list of other expenses before the benefits of ERP 
start to manifest themselves. Underestimating the price of teaching users their 
new job processes can lead to a rude shock down the line, and so can failure to 
consider data warehouse integration requirements and the cost of extra software 
to duplicate the old report formats. A few oversights in the budgeting and 
planning stage can send ERP costs spiraling out of control faster than 
oversights in planning almost any other information system undertaking.</P>
<P><A name=erp_really></A>
<H4>What does ERP <I>really</I> cost?</H4>
<P>Meta Group recently did a study looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) 
of ERP, including hardware, software, professional services and internal staff 
costs. The TCO numbers include getting the software installed and the two years 
afterward, which is when the real costs of maintaining, upgrading and optimizing 
the system for your business are felt. Among the 63 companies surveyedincluding 
small, medium and large companies in a range of industriesthe average TCO was 
$15 million (the highest was $300 million and lowest was $400,000). While it's 
hard to draw a solid number from that kind of range of companies and ERP 
efforts, Meta came up with one statistic that proves that ERP is expensive no 
matter what kind of company is using it. The TCO for a "heads-down" user over 
that period was a staggering $53,320. </P>
<P><A name=erp_payback></A>
<H4>When will I get payback from ERPand how much will it be?</H4>
<P>Don't expect to revolutionize your business with ERP. It is a navel-gazing 
exercise that focuses on optimizing the way things are done internally rather 
than with customers, suppliers or partners. Yet the navel gazing has a pretty 
good payback if you're willing to wait for ita Meta Group study of 63 companies 
found that it took eight months after the new system was in (31 months total) to 
see any benefits. But the median annual savings from the new ERP system were 
$1.6 million.</P>
<P><A name=erp_costs></A>
<H4>What are the hidden costs of ERP?</H4>
<P>Although different companies will find different land mines in the budgeting 
process, those who have implemented ERP packages agree that certain costs are 
more commonly overlooked or underestimated than others. Armed with insights from 
across the business, ERP pros vote the following areas as most likely to result 
in budget overrun. 
<OL>
  <LI>Training 
  <P>Training is the near-unanimous choice of experienced ERP implementers as 
  the most underestimated budget item. Training expenses are high because 
  workers almost invariably have to learn a new set of processes, not just a new 
  software interface. Worse, outside training companies may not be able to help 
  you. They are focused on telling people how to use software, not on educating 
  people about the particular ways you do business. Prepare to develop a 
  curriculum yourself that identifies and explains the different business 
  processes that will be affected by the ERP system. </P>
  <P>One enterprising CIO hired staff from a local business school to help him 
  develop and teach the ERP business-training course to employees. Remember that 
  with ERP, finance people will be using the same software as warehouse people 
  and they will both be entering information that affects the other. To do this 
  accurately, they have to have a much broader understanding of how others in 
  the company do their jobs than they did before ERP came along. Ultimately, it 
  will be up to your IT and businesspeople to provide that training. So take 
  whatever you have budgeted for ERP training and double or triple it up front. 
  It will be the best ERP investment you ever make.</P>
  <LI>Integration and testing 
  <P>Testing the links between ERP packages and other corporate software links 
  that have to be built on a case-by-case basis is another often-underestimated 
  cost. A typical manufacturing company may have add-on applications from the 
  majore-commerce and supply chainto the minorsales tax computation and bar 
  coding. All require integration links to ERP. If you can buy add-ons from the 
  ERP vendor that are pre-integrated, you're better off. If you need to build 
  the links yourself, expect things to get ugly. As with training, testing ERP 
  integration has to be done from a process-oriented perspective. Veterans 
  recommend that instead of plugging in dummy data and moving it from one 
  application to the next, run a real purchase order through the system, from 
  order entry through shipping and receipt of paymentthe whole order-to-cash 
  bananapreferably with the participation of the employees who will eventually 
  do those jobs.</P>
  <LI>Customization 
  <P>Add-ons are only the beginning of the integration costs of ERP. Much more 
  costly, and something to be avoided if at all possible, is actual 
  customization of the core ERP software itself. This happens when the ERP 
  software can't handle one of your business processes and you decide to mess 
  with the software to make it do what you want. You're playing with fire. The 
  customizations can affect every module of the ERP system because they are all 
  so tightly linked together. Upgrading the ERP packageno walk in the park 
  under the best of circumstancesbecomes a nightmare because you'll have to do 
  the customization all over again in the new version. Maybe it will work, maybe 
  it won't. No matter what, the vendor will not be there to support you. You 
  will have to hire extra staffers to do the customization work, and keep them 
  on for good to maintain it.</P>
  <LI>Data conversion 
  <P>It costs money to move corporate information, such as customer and supplier 
  records, product design data and the like, from old systems to new ERP homes. 
  Although few CIOs will admit it, most data in most legacy systems is of little 
  use. Companies often deny their data is dirty until they actually have to move 
  it to the new client/server setups that popular ERP packages require. 
  Consequently, those companies are more likely to underestimate the cost of the 
  move. But even clean data may demand some overhaul to match process 
  modifications necessitatedor inspiredby the ERP implementation.</P>
  <LI>Data analysis 
  <P>Often, the data from the ERP system must be combined with data from 
  external systems for analysis purposes. Users with heavy analysis needs should 
  include the cost of a data warehouse in the ERP budgetand they should expect 
  to do quite a bit of work to make it run smoothly. Users are in a pickle here: 
  Refreshing all the ERP data every day in a big corporate data warehouse is 
  difficult, and ERP systems do a poor job of indicating which information has 
  changed from day to day, making selective warehouse updates tough. One 
  expensive solution is custom programming. The upshot is that the wise will 
  check all their data analysis needs before signing off on the budget.</P>
  <LI>Consultants ad infinitum 
  <P>When users fail to plan for disengagement, consulting fees run wild. To 
  avoid this, companies should identify objectives for which its consulting 
  partners must aim when training internal staff. Include metrics in the 
  consultants' contract; for example, a specific number of the user company's 
  staff should be able to pass a project-management leadership testsimilar to 
  what Big Five consultants have to pass to lead an ERP engagement.</P>
  <LI>Replacing your best and brightest 
  <P>It is accepted wisdom that ERP success depends on staffing the project with 
  the best and brightest from the business and IS divisions. The software is too 
  complex and the business changes too dramatic to trust the project to just 
  anyone. The bad news is a company must be prepared to replace many of those 
  people when the project is over. Though the ERP market is not as hot as it 
  once was, consultancies and other companies that have lost their best people 
  will be hounding yours with higher salaries and bonus offers than you can 
  affordor that your HR policies permit. Huddle with HR early on to develop a 
  retention bonus program and create new salary strata for ERP veterans. If you 
  let them go, you'll wind up hiring themor someone like themback as 
  consultants for twice what you paid them in salaries.</P>
  <LI>Implementation teams can never stop 
  <P>Most companies intend to treat their ERP implementation as they would any 
  other software project. Once the software is installed, they figure the team 
  will be scuttled and everyone will go back to his or her day job. But after 
  ERP, you can't go home again. The implementers are too valuable. Because they 
  have worked intimately with ERP, they know more about the sales process than 
  the salespeople and more about the manufacturing process than the 
  manufacturing people. Companies can't afford to send their project people back 
  into the business because there's so much to do after the ERP software is 
  installed. Just writing reports to pull information out of the new ERP system 
  will keep the project team busy for a year at least. And it is in 
  analysisand, one hopes, insightthat companies make their money back on an 
  ERP implementation. Unfortunately, few IS departments plan for the frenzy of 
  post-ERP installation activity, and fewer still build it into their budgets 
  when they start their ERP projects. Many are forced to beg for more money and 
  staff immediately after the go-live date, long before the ERP project has 
  demonstrated any benefit. </P>
  <LI>Waiting for ROI 
  <P>One of the most misleading legacies of traditional software project 
  management is that the company expects to gain value from the application as 
  soon as it is installed, while the project team expects a break and maybe a 
  pat on the back. Neither expectation applies to ERP. Most of the systems don't 
  reveal their value until after companies have had them running for some time 
  and can concentrate on making improvements in the business processes that are 
  affected by the system. And the project team is not going to be rewarded until 
  their efforts pay off. </P>
  <LI>Post-ERP depression 
  <P>ERP systems often wreak cause havoc in the companies that install them. In 
  a recent Deloitte Consulting survey of 64 Fortune 500 companies, one in four 
  admitted that they suffered a drop in performance when their ERP system went 
  live. The true percentage is undoubtedly much higher. The most common reason 
  for the performance problems is that everything looks and works differently 
  from the way it did before. When people can't do their jobs in the familiar 
  way and haven't yet mastered the new way, they panic, and the business goes 
  into spasms.</P>
  <P><A name=erp_fail></A>
  <H4>Why do ERP projects fail so often?</H4>
  <P>At its simplest level, ERP is a set of best practices for performing 
  different duties in your company, including finance, manufacturing and the 
  warehouse. To get the most from the software, you have to get people inside 
  your company to adopt the work methods outlined in the software. If the people 
  in the different departments that will use ERP don't agree that the work 
  methods embedded in the software are better than the ones they currently use, 
  they will resist using the software or will want IT to change the software to 
  match the ways they currently do things. This is where ERP projects break 
  down. Political fights break out over howor even whetherthe software will be 
  installed. IT gets bogged down in long, expensive customization efforts to 
  modify the ERP software to fit with powerful business barons' wishes. 
  Customizations make the software more unstable and harder to maintain when it 
  finally does come to life. The horror stories you hear in the press about ERP 
  can usually be traced to the changes the company made in the core ERP software 
  to fit its own work methods. Because ERP covers so much of what a business 
  does, a failure in the software can bring a company to a halt, literally.</P>
  <P>But IT can fix the bugs pretty quickly in most cases, and besides, few big 
  companies can avoid customizing ERP in some fashionevery business is 
  different and is bound to have unique work methods that a vendor cannot 
  account for when developing its software. The mistake companies make is 
  assuming that changing people's habits will be easier than customizing the 
  software. It's not. Getting people inside your company to use the software to 
  improve the ways they do their jobs is by far the harder challenge. If your 
  company is resistant to change, then your ERP project is more likely to 
  fail.</P>
  <P><A name=erp_config></A>
  <H4>How do I configure ERP software?</H4>
  <P>Even if a company installs ERP software for the so-called right reasons and 
  everyone can agree on the optimal definition of a customer, the inherent 
  difficulties of implementing something as complex as ERP is like, well, 
  teaching an elephant to do the hootchy-kootchy. The packages are built from 
  database tables, thousands of them, that IS programmers and end users must set 
  to match their business processes; each table has a decision "switch" that 
  leads the software down one decision path or another. By presenting only one 
  way for the company to do each tasksay, run the payroll or close the booksa 
  company's individual operating units and far-flung divisions are integrated 
  under one system. But figuring out precisely how to set all the switches in 
  the tables requires a deep understanding of the existing processes being used 
  to operate the business. As the table settings are decided, these business 
  processes are reengineered, ERP's way. Most ERP systems are not shipped as a 
  shell system in which customers must determine at the minutia level how all 
  the functional procedures should be set, making thousands of decisions that 
  affect how their system behaves in line with their own business activities. 
  Most ERP systems are preconfigured, allowing just hundredsrather than 
  thousandsof procedural settings to be made by the customer.</P>
  <P><A name=erp_organize></A>
  <H4>How do companies organize their ERP projects?</H4>
  <P>Based on our observations, there are three commonly used ways of installing 
  ERP.</P>
  <P><B>The Big Bang</B>In this, the most ambitious and difficult of approaches 
  to ERP implementation, companies cast off all their legacy systems at once and 
  install a single ERP system across the entire company. Though this method 
  dominated early ERP implementations, few companies dare to attempt it anymore 
  because it calls for the entire company to mobilize and change at once. Most 
  of the ERP implementation horror stories from the late '90s warn us about 
  companies that used this strategy.Getting everyone to cooperate and accept a 
  new software system at the same time is a tremendous effort, largely because 
  the new system will not have any advocates. No one within the company has any 
  experience using it, so no one is sure whether it will work. Also, ERP 
  inevitably involves compromises. Many departments have computer systems that 
  have been honed to match the ways they work. In most cases, ERP offers neither 
  the range of functionality nor the comfort of familiarity that a custom legacy 
  system can offer. In many cases, the speed of the new system may suffer 
  because it is serving the entire company rather than a single department. ERP 
  implementation requires a direct mandate from the CEO.</P>
  <P><B>Franchising strategy</B>This approach suits large or diverse companies 
  that do not share many common processes across business units. Independent ERP 
  systems are installed in each unit, while linking common processes, such as 
  financial bookkeeping, across the enterprise. This has emerged as the most 
  common way of implementing ERP. In most cases, the business units each have 
  their own "instances" of ERPthat is, a separate system and database. The 
  systems link together only to share the information necessary for the 
  corporation to get a performance big picture across all the business units 
  (business unit revenues, for example), or for processes that don't vary much 
  from business unit to business unit (perhaps HR benefits). Usually, these 
  implementations begin with a demonstration or pilot installation in a 
  particularly open-minded and patient business unit where the core business of 
  the corporation will not be disrupted if something goes wrong. Once the 
  project team gets the system up and running and works out all the bugs, the 
  team begins selling other units on ERP, using the first implementation as a 
  kind of in-house customer reference. Plan for this strategy to take a long 
  time.</P>
  <P><B>Slam dunk</B>ERP dictates the process design in this method, where the 
  focus is on just a few key processes, such as those contained in an ERP 
  system's financial module. The slam dunk is generally for smaller companies 
  expecting to grow into ERP. The goal here is to get ERP up and running quickly 
  and to ditch the fancy reengineering in favor of the ERP system's "canned" 
  processes. Few companies that have approached ERP this way can claim much 
  payback from the new system. Most use it as an infrastructure to support more 
  diligent installation efforts down the road. Yet many discover that a 
  slammed-in ERP system is little better than a legacy system because it doesn't 
  force employees to change any of their old habits. In fact, doing the hard 
  work of process reengineering after the system is in can be more challenging 
  than if there had been no system at all because at that point few people in 
  the company will have felt much benefit.</P>
  <P><A name=erp_ec></A>
  <H4>How does ERP fit with e-commerce?</H4>
  <P>ERP vendors were not prepared for the onslaught of e-commerce. ERP is 
  complex and not intended for public consumption. It assumes that the only 
  people handling order information will be your employees, who are highly 
  trained and comfortable with the tech jargon embedded in the software. But now 
  customers and suppliers are demanding access to the same information your 
  employees get through the ERP systemthings like order status, inventory 
  levels and invoice reconciliationexcept they want to get all this information 
  simply, without all the ERP software jargon, through your website.</P>
  <P>E-commerce means IT departments need to build two new channels of access in 
  to ERP systemsone for customers (otherwise known as business-to-consumer) and 
  one for suppliers and partners (business-to-business). These two audiences 
  want two different types of information from your ERP system. Consumers want 
  order status and billing information, and suppliers and partners want just 
  about everything else.</P>
  <P>Traditional ERP vendors are having a hard time building the links between 
  the Web and their software, though they certainly all realize that they must 
  do it and have been hard at work at it for years. The bottom line, however, is 
  that companies with e-commerce ambitions face a lot of hard integration work 
  to make their ERP systems available over the Web. For those companies that 
  were smartor luckyenough to have bought their ERP systems from a vendor 
  experienced in developing e-commerce wares, adding easily integrated 
  applications from that same vendor can be a money-saving option. For those 
  companies whose ERP systems came from vendors that are less experienced with 
  e-commerce development, the bestand possibly onlyoption might be to have a 
  combination of internal staff and consultants hack through a custom 
  integration.</P>
  <P>But no matter what the details are, solving the difficult problem of 
  integrating ERP and e-commerce requires careful planning, which is key to 
  getting integration off on the right track.</P>
  <P>One of the most difficult aspects of ERP and e-commerce integration is that 
  the Internet never stops. ERP applications are big and complex and require 
  maintenance. The choice is stark if ERP is linked directly to the Webtake 
  down your ERP system for maintenance and you take down your website. Most 
  e-commerce veterans will build flexibility into the ERP and e-commerce links 
  so that they can keep the new e-commerce applications running on the Web while 
  they shut down ERP for upgrades and fixes.</P>
  <P>The difficulty of getting ERP and e-commerce applications to work 
  togethernot to mention the other applications that demand ERP information 
  such as supply chain and CRM softwarehas led companies to consider software 
  known alternately as middleware and EAI software. These applications act as 
  software translators that take information from ERP and convert it into a 
  format that e-commerce and other applications can understand. Middleware has 
  improved dramatically in recent years, and though it is difficult to sell and 
  prove ROI on the software with business leadersit is invisible to computer 
  usersit can help solve many of the biggest integration woes that plague IT 
  these days.</P><BR><I>Senior Editor Christopher Koch can be reached at</I> <A 
  href="mailto:ckoch@cio.com">ckoch@cio.com</A>.<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>Related 
  article: <A href="http://www.cio.com/research/scm/edit/012202_scm.html">The 
  ABCs of Supply Chain Management</A></LI></OL></FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
------=_20041130122827_90520--


From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Thu Dec  2 11:25:50 2004 -0700
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Dear:

  Your products are impressively in demand in the supply chain world. For
this reason I want to take the time to personally invite to our very
exciting 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition that will be held at the Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. This is a perfect
opportunity for . We hope 400 to 500 of our 17,000+ ISCEA members will attend our inaugural conference and expositions.

 Our Conference is somewhat different from other conferences. Since we are
an educational organization, our members will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days (TOC, Lean. CPIM Certification Review, etc) and attend that workshop track during the conference. They will all come together at lunchtime and in the evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM for a networking and Vendor exhibition. In addition to the education workshop tracks, we have one track where we will host industry experts to present relevant topics. Morning and afternoon session each day, totaling 6 sessions.

 PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt,
and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters at the conference. All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA -
Executive Director of Education & Certification Programs. Dr Watts is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 Our Key Note Speaker is Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.  Ms.
Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for
Manufacturing and Distribution Industries. She holds an MBA from
Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University.  Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the
Netherlands and nine APICS International conferences.  She is the author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools,
Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain.  Her latest work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim

 If  is interested in booth space at our vendor exhibition on
Monday and Tuesday evening, sponsorship or presentation opportunities please let me know of your interest.

 We appreciate your valued time so when you get a chance please visit
http://www.iscea.com for more information about the Conference and sponsorship opportunities. You may also contact me personally at
972.567.1969. Attached is the sponsership order form with more
information as well as a link to learn more for your convenience.

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/pdf/04-2005-EXPO-Conference%20sponsorship%20Order%20Form1.pdf

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
2005 ISCEA Conference & Exposition

Tel: 972.567.1969
E-mail: cruzr@iscea.com
Web: www.iscea.com




















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Dear :

  I recently spoke to you on the phone and want to first thank you for
your time because I know how valuable it must be with the holidays quickly approaching. Your company's services are impressively in demand in the supply chain world. For this reason I want to take the time to personally invite  to our very exciting 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition that will be held at the Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. This is a perfect opportunity for . We hope 400 to 500 of our 17,000+ ISCEA members will attend our inaugural conference and expositions.

 Our Conference is somewhat different from other conferences. Since we are
an educational organization, our members will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days (TOC, Lean. CPIM Certification Review, etc) and attend that workshop track during the conference. They will all come together at lunchtime and in the evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM for a networking and Vendor exhibition. In addition to the education workshop tracks, we have one track where we will host industry experts to present relevant topics. Morning and afternoon session each day, totaling 6 sessions.

 PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt,
and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters at the conference. All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA -
Executive Director of Education & Certification Programs. Dr Watts is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 Our Key Note Speaker is Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.  Ms.
Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for
Manufacturing and Distribution Industries. She holds an MBA from
Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University.  Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the
Netherlands and nine APICS International conferences.  She is the author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools,
Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain. Her latest work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim

 If  is interested in booth space at our vendor exhibition on
Monday and Tuesday evening, sponsorship or presentation opportunities please let me know of your interest. Classes and sponsorship opportunities are quickly filling up so don't wait too long.

 We appreciate your valued time so when you get a chance please visit
http://www.iscea.com for more information about the Conference and sponsorship opportunities. You may also contact me personally at
972.567.1969. Attached is the sponsership order form with more
information as well as a link to learn more for your convenience.

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/pdf/04-2005-EXPO-Conference%20sponsorship%20Order%20Form1.pdf

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
2005 ISCEA Conference & Exposition

Tel: 972.567.1969
E-mail: cruzr@iscea.com
Web: www.iscea.com

























From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Thu Jan 13 15:43:50 2005 -0700
Received: from 205.188.116.139
        (SquirrelMail authenticated user 
     cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com)
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        Thu, 13 Jan 2005 15:43:50 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <33974.205.188.116.139.1105656230.squirrel@www.supplychaineducationalliance.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 15:43:50 -0700 (MST)
Subject:  2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition Clss Inv.
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
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Dear:

  The perfect opportunity to improve knowledge and create new avenues for success is here. Your company is invited to our very exciting 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition that will be held at the Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. It is just what you've been looking for.  This is your opportunity to train everyone in your organization who can help increase profit by removing profit barriers. And best of all you can do it in a lucrative and expedient way. 
 
  During our 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition you will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days. The workshops at the conference will cover Supply Chain Management, Theory of Constrains, ERP System Implementation, Lean Manufacturing, APICS-CPIM Exam Reviews, ISCEA- CSCM Reviews, RFID Technology as well as interesting keynote speakers, networking opportunities and vendor exhibitions. 
 PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt,
and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters at the conference.  In addition presentations from industry experts such as Ms. Carol A Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP, will be given. Ms.Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for Manufacturing and Distribution Industries.

 We appreciate your valued time so when you get a chance please visit
http://www.iscea.com for more information about the Conference and the classes. You may also contact me personally at 972.567.1969. The attached link is your detailed invitation for your convenience. Please click on it first to learn more. 

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

 Classes are quickly filling up so don't wait too long! Signing up before January 31st will give you an early bird discount and a free gift when you show up.

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
2005 ISCEA Conference & Exposition

Tel: 972.567.1969
E-mail: cruzr@iscea.com
Web: www.iscea.com


























From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Fri Jan 28 13:29:37 2005 -0700
Received: from 205.188.116.139 (proxying for unknown)
        (SquirrelMail authenticated user 
     cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com)
        by www.supplychaineducationalliance.com with HTTP;
        Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:29:36 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <55710.205.188.116.139.1106944176.squirrel@www.supplychaineducationalliance.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:29:36 -0700 (MST)
Subject: 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
To: ken.wright@bakeroiltools.com
Bcc: ldesilva@iscea.com
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Dear Ken:

   Thank you for your time on the phone today. The detailed invitation is the link at the bottom. Ill go ahead and tell you a little bit about it.
  The perfect opportunity to improve knowledge and create new avenues for success is here. Bakers Oil Tools is invited to our very exciting 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition that will be held at the Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. It is just what you've been looking for.  This is your opportunity to train everyone in your organization who can help increase profit by removing profit barriers. And best of all you can do it in a lucrative and expedient way. 
 
  During our 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition you will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days. The workshops at the conference will cover Supply Chain Management, Theory of Constrains, ERP System Implementation, Lean Manufacturing, APICS-CPIM Exam Reviews, ISCEA- CSCM Reviews, RFID Technology as well as interesting keynote speakers, networking opportunities and vendor exhibitions. 
 PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt,
and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters at the conference.  In addition presentations from industry experts such as Ms. Carol A Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP, will be given. Ms.Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for Manufacturing and Distribution Industries.

 I appreciate your valued time so when you get a chance please visit
http://www.iscea.com for more information about the Conference and the classes. You may also contact me personally at 972.567.1969. The attached link is your detailed invitation for your convenience. Please click on it now to learn more. 

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

 Classes are quickly filling up so don't wait too long! Signing up before January 31st will give you an early bird discount and a free gift when you show up.

Best Regards!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
2005 ISCEA Conference & Exposition

Tel: 972.567.1969
E-mail: cruzr@iscea.com
Web: www.iscea.com



























From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Fri Feb 11 13:40:58 2005 -0700
Received: from 64.12.116.204 (proxying for unknown)
        (SquirrelMail authenticated user 
     cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com)
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        Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:40:58 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <41050.64.12.116.204.1108154458.squirrel@www.supplychaineducationalliance.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:40:58 -0700 (MST)
Subject:  2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
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Dear Cincom Sales and Marketing


   Your products are impressively in demand in the supply chain world. For
this reason I want to take the time to personally invite Cincom to our very exciting 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition that will be held at the Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. This is a perfect opportunity for Cincom. It is less than 3 months away. Our members, who are attending this conference are Global 2000 mid to upper managers and will be a very good target audience for your products and services.


 Our Conference is somewhat different from other conferences. Since we are
an educational organization, our members will select an educational workshop track for all 3 days (TOC, Lean. CPIM Certification Review, etc) and attend that workshop track during the conference. They will all come together at lunchtime and in the evening from 5:00PM to 8:00PM for a networking and Vendor exhibition. In addition to the education workshop tracks, we have one track where we will host industry experts to present relevant topics. Morning and afternoon session each day, totaling 6 sessions.

 PeopleSoft, Loftware, Zebra technologies, Texas Instruments, John gAlt,
and Trivalent Solutions are some of the presenters at the conference. All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA - Executive Director of Education & Certification Programs. Dr Watts is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 Our Key Note Speaker is Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.  Ms.
Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, The Educational Society for Resource Management for the year 2000. She is currently employed by PeopleSoft as Vice President and Global Industry Executive for Manufacturing and Distribution Industries. She holds an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology and completed the EMPO program at Stanford University.  Ms. Ptak is a frequent educator at the university level and presents at many key technical conferences around the world including South Africa, France, Israel, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands and nine APICS International conferences.  She is the author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools, Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain.  Her latest work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim

 If Cincom is interested in booth space at our vendor exhibition on
Monday and Tuesday evening, sponsorship or presentation opportunities please let me know of your interest.

 We appreciate your valued time so when you get a chance please visit
http://www.iscea.com for more information about the Conference and sponsorship opportunities. I encourage contacting me personally at 972.567.1969. Attached is the sponsership order form with more information as well as a link to learn more for your convenience.

http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf

http://www.iscea.com/pdf/04-2005-EXPO-Conference%20sponsorship%20Order%20Form1.pdf

Seize The Day!

Cruz Ramirez
Account Executive
2005 ISCEA Conference & Exposition

Tel: 972.567.1969
E-mail: cruzr@iscea.com
Web: www.iscea.com






















From cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com@hwd3.heritagewebdesign.com Fri Feb 11 13:50:14 2005 -0700
Received: from 64.12.116.204 (proxying for unknown)
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     cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com)
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        Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:50:14 -0700 (MST)
Message-ID: <47604.64.12.116.204.1108155014.squirrel@www.supplychaineducationalliance.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 13:50:14 -0700 (MST)
Subject: [Fwd: US Bank]
From: cruzr@supplychaineducationalliance.com
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Dear Cincom Sales and Marketing


   Your products are impressively in demand in the supply chain world. For
this reason I want to take the time to personally invite Cincom to our very exciting 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference & Exposition that will be held at the Chicago Hilton from April 25-27, 2005. This is a perfect opportunity for Cincom. It is less than 3 months away. Our members, who are attending this conference are Global 2000 mid to upper managers and will be a very good target audience for your products and services.

 
When & Where:

April 25-27, 2005

Hilton Chicago

 

Our conference will cover these tracks:

Supply Chain Management

Project Management

ERP

RFID Technology

LEAN Manufacturing

Featured Presenters:
Dana Anderson, President and CTO - Loftware, Inc.
Luis Solano, Principal and founder - Trivalent Solutions
William R. Allen, Manager of Communications and Marketing - Texas Instruments - RFid Systems Matt Ream, Senior Manager, RFID Systems - Zebra Technologies
Michael Wohlwend, Director, RFID Systems - Manhattan Associates, Inc. Kai Trepte, VP Sales and Operations - John Galt Solutions, Inc.
Harold G. Clampitt, CEO & Founder - American RFID Solutions
Joseph LaMantia, Managing Partner, e-Ventus Corporation.


All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA - Executive Director of Education & Certification Programs. Dr Watts is a Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

 Our Key Note Speaker is Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.  Ms. Ptak was the President and CEO of APICS, She is the author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools, Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain.  Her latest work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli Schragenheim.

 Here is a link for more information about the conference: 
http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf
 

If you are interested in presenting or exhibiting at our vendor Conference, please let me know of your interest.


Best Regards!

 

Linda Madison

Executive Director - Events

ISCEA

 

Tel: 440.376.0222

Fax: 440.708.2641

Web: www.iscea.com
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Cruz:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Please call US Bank/Rower Track unit and find out 
if they are willing to come to the conference to demo their system.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here is there number : </FONT><SPAN 
class=contentcopy><FONT face=Arial>1.800.417.1844 </FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=contentcopy><FONT face=Arial></FONT></SPAN>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=contentcopy><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is what Power track Do 
and I think this will be very good item for our members:</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=contentcopy>
<P><FONT face=Arial>Power collaboratively stores contract, catalog, and pricing 
information </FONT>
<UL class=contentcopy>
  <LI><FONT face=Arial>Power electronically submits purchase order, invoice, and 
  receipt information </FONT>
  <LI><FONT face=Arial>Power automatically audits every invoice before payment 
  is made </FONT>
  <LI><FONT face=Arial>Power collaboratively resolves invoice exceptions </FONT>
  <LI><FONT face=Arial>Power makes and receives electronic payments </FONT>
  <LI><FONT face=Arial>Power automatically links payments to G/L systems </FONT>
  <LI><FONT face=Arial>PowerTrack has real time visibility to operations, 
  logistics and financial information </FONT>
  <LI><FONT face=Arial>PowerTrack Integrates data from enterprise systems - 
  including contracting, pricing, order, invoice, A/P, and A/R systems - for a 
  seamless information management loop for both buyers and sellers</FONT> 
</LI></UL></SPAN></DIV>
<P><SPAN class=contentcopy><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN>&nbsp;</P>
<P><SPAN class=contentcopy><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></SPAN>&nbsp;</P>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- 
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A 
title=Linda.Madison@iscea.com href="mailto:Linda.Madison@iscea.com">Linda 
Madison</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=info@powertrack.com 
href="mailto:info@powertrack.com">info@powertrack.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, February 09, 2005 10:54 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Join the 2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference &amp; 
Exposition</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>Dear&nbsp;US Bank/PowerTrack:<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>2005 ISCEA Supply Chain Conference &amp; Exposition is less than 3 months 
ways. We have few openings&nbsp;few good presenters and exhibitors. Our members, 
who are attending this conference are Global 2000 mid to upper managers and will 
be very good target audience for your products and services.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3></FONT></SPAN>&nbsp;</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3><STRONG>We are interested in PowerTrack, the internet-based B2B payment 
system. Can you demo this at our conference?</STRONG></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3><STRONG>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></STRONG></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>When &amp; Where:<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>April 25-27, 2005<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>Hilton Chicago<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>Our conference with cover these tracks:<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>Supply Chain Management<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>Project Management<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>ERP<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>RFID Technology<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>LEAN Manufacturing<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><FONT 
size=3><STRONG>Featured Presenters:</STRONG><BR>Dana Anderson, President and CTO 
- Loftware, Inc.<BR>Luis Solano, Principal and founder - Trivalent 
Solutions<BR>William R. Allen, Manager of Communications and Marketing - Texas 
Instruments - RFid Systems<BR>Matt Ream, Senior Manager, RFID Systems - Zebra 
Technologies<BR>Michael Wohlwend, Director, RFID Systems - Manhattan Associates, 
Inc.<BR>Kai Trepte, VP Sales and Operations - John Galt Solutions, 
Inc.<BR>Harold G. Clampitt, CEO &amp; Founder - American RFID 
Solutions<BR>Joseph LaMantia, Managing Partner, e-Ventus 
Corporation.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><BR><FONT 
size=3>All of the educational workshop track sessions will be conducted by ISCEA 
faculty headed by Dr. Charles A. Watts, DBA, CPIM, Jonah. ISCEA - Executive 
Director of Education &amp; Certification Programs.<STRONG> Dr Watts is a 
Professor in the Department of Management, Marketing, and Logistics at John 
Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.<BR></STRONG><BR>&nbsp;Our Key Note 
Speaker is <STRONG>Ms. Carol A. Ptak, CFPIM, CIRM, Jonah, PMP.</STRONG>&nbsp; 
Ms. Ptak was the <STRONG>President and CEO of APICS</STRONG>,&nbsp;She is the 
author of numerous articles and the books MRP and Beyond and ERP, Tools, 
Techniques and Applications for Integrating the Supply Chain.&nbsp; Her latest 
work, Necessary but not Sufficient was co-authored with Dr. Eli Goldratt and Eli 
Schragenheim.<BR><BR>&nbsp;Here is a link for more information about the 
conference:&nbsp;<BR></FONT><A 
href="http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf"><FONT 
size=3>http://www.supplychaineducationalliance.com/pdf/2005-hilton.pdf</FONT></A><BR></SPAN><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN 
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><FONT 
size=3>If you are interested in presenting or exhibiting at our vendor 
Conference, please let me know of your interest.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial></FONT><FONT 
face=Arial></FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial size=3>Best Regards!</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial><FONT 
size=3>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial size=3>Linda 
Madison</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial 
size=3>Executive Director  Events</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial 
size=3>ISCEA</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial><FONT 
size=3>&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial size=3>Tel: 
440.376.0222</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Arial size=3>Fax: 
440.708.2641</FONT></P><SPAN 
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