Adoption of Open Source and conventional ERP solutions for small and medium enterprises in manufacturing

Many studies on the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) market have indicated that very few ERPs have succeeded to fully meet the expectations of an organisation in particularly the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This is usually due to commercial reasons, because most of the ERP systems are primarily designed and developed for large corporations which is not suitable for simplified and rapidly changing SMEs. With the arrival of licence free open source ERPs and at an affordable price, the problem of capital shortage in SMEs is partially resolved while flexibility remains a problem. In order to solve the flexibility issue, this paper presents methods of (a) an industrial survey and (b) a multistage initiation model to compare open source ERPs and the advantages of conventional ERP’s modular structure to propose an alternative ERP platform. The finding concludes that this alternative platform is feasible to be developed by users as well as flexible enough for growing SMEs in manufacturing

Policy, economic, and industry repercussions of current e-business diffusion rate In European food industry

European policy is focussed on promoting the business techniques and new ways of working which will provide the economic and social foundation of the information society in Europe. To help policy makers define their programmes, and to monitor the effectiveness of these policies, it is essential to examine progress as well as identify areas requiring active support. This study examined the repercussions of e-business progress in the food sector based on the findings of a large quantitative survey that investigated the extent, scope, nature of and factors affecting the speed of e-business development in Europe for the Food, beverages and tobacco sector. For this purpose a pan European survey was conducted by EU market observatory called “European e-Business Market Watch” during the period February and March 2003. This study is based on the findings and reports of “European e-Business Market Watch” which can be accessed in the Internet (www.e-businesswatch.org). This study discusses the economic implications for the individual enterprise, the industry structure as well as policy issues such as quality assurance, promotion of ICT education, training and “cultural” change. Regarding economic implications, e-business has played a indirect role because it has significantly involved only in Large Scale Enterprises which proportionally are a small percentage in food industry. For SMEs, the impact of e-business was mainly to the ICT facilities currently at their disposal: websites, the Internet, and e-mail. Regarding industry implications, e-business has not led to significant structural changes, but it has steamed up certain processes. E-business has armoured supply chain management with advanced but sophisticated network technologies. Regarding policy issues, an e-business solution capable of guaranteeing food safety to consumers and vertically integrating business operations across the supply chain would have a good chance of extraordinary diffusion in the food industry

Strategic entrepreneurship: an integrated innovative entrepreneurial process for CRM implementation at Indian SMEs

The purpose of this theoretical framework is, to provide a better understanding of the prospects, process, problems, usage and issues related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in Indian SMEs so that it may help to implement, adopt and use CRM as an interactive entrepreneurial tool for strategic and successful customer relationship management at Indian SMEs. To reach this understanding this research can starts with three dimensions or group of respondents like CRM Vendor (CRM professionals, academics and experts), CRM Client/ CRM Customer (Indian SMEs, Indian entrepreneur) and CRM Beneficiary (regular customer/ consumer/ buyer/ common men). Based on the developed theory and literature review research questions can be answered to achieve this purpose (understanding). The major area of concern for all three group of respondents can be CRM (Awareness, Interest level), CRM (Planning, Strategy level), CRM Expectation (Objectives, Need level), CRM Implementation level, CRM Adoption and Updating (Maintenance, Stabilization level ), CRM Measurement (Satisfaction, Feedback level), CRM Challenge (Problem, Issue, Risk, Disadvantages level), CRM Deliverables (Benefits, Advantages level ), CRM Control level and CRM Forecasting (Future Prospects, R&D, Improvements level) levels for the successful CRM implementation, adoption and usage at Indian SMEs. Using the developed theory and literature review about these research objectives, a framework of the reference can be developed to collect the information from three different groups of respondents. These groups can be studied through Case analysis and BBP (Best Business Practice) Survey. Primary data can be collected from Semi Structured Questionnaire (Based on open ended as well as close ended questions), Semi Structure Interview supported by Content Analysis and Grounded Theory