Four reasons to switch from SAP to Microsoft Dynamics

Making the decision to change your company’s business management system is a process that requires research and foresight. Here are four reasons why businesses using SAP business management products have decided to make the switch to Microsoft Dynamics.

* Microsoft Dynamics can improve employee productivity. In a 2007 analysis that compared the impact of enterprise software applications on people’s productivity, Microsoft Dynamics users on average scored Microsoft Dynamics 18 percent higher than SAP users scored SAP applications. This Microsoft-sponsored study was conducted by Keystone Strategy, an independent research firm, and was supervised by Dr. Marco Iansiti, the David Sarnoff Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Download the full study (XPS 3.96).

* Microsoft Dynamics can scale with your business. Microsoft Dynamics provides affordable scalability for your growing businesses. With benchmarked performance up to 1,000 users and beyond and rich functionality across financials, supply chain management, and customer relationship management, you can be confident in the ability of Microsoft Dynamics to meet the needs of your growing business. Integrate your Microsoft Dynamics business management solution with Microsoft SQL Server to enjoy enterprise-level reporting, flexible decision-making support, and timely, relevant business insight at a low cost with significantly high usability and flexibility.

* Microsoft Dynamics provides a low cost of ownership. Microsoft Dynamics is engineered to cost-effectively support the changing requirements that are frequently necessary for customers to adapt, grow, and maintain a competitive edge in their business. Independent research has demonstrated that, on the whole, Microsoft Dynamics offers a higher return on investment (ROI) and lower overall costs than other major competitive offerings. Microsoft Dynamics licensing is designed to be cost-effective. It is based on concurrent users versus named users and has no imposed user minimum or maximum, so it evolves with you for the life of your business.

* Microsoft offers an industry-leading vertical partner ecosystem. Microsoft is in a position to deliver vertical solutions to hundreds of different industries on a local basis; it can bring these solutions to market on a local level. Microsoft’s Certified for Microsoft Dynamics program offers solutions designed to meet the needs of specific industries. It can provide customers with the benefits of a rich portfolio of tested, reference supported solutions developed by ISVs that have met Microsoft’s highest solution and organizational certification standards.

The Oracle Instance
An Oracle instance consists of:
A) five processes: system monitor, process monitor, db writer, checkpoint, and log writer.
B) data files which contain the tables and other data objects, control files which contain configuration information, redo log files for transaction processing, and archive files for recovery purposes.
C) configuration files which contains the instance attributes, and external security information

Memory Model
The Oracle memory model consists of:
A) the SGA, which contains executable program code (min 8 meg);
B) the shared pool, which is split between the library cache and data dictionary cache, optimized queries are stored here;
C) the redo log buffer, which is where transactions are stored before they are written to the redo logs;
D) the db buffer cache, which is where database operations are stored before they are written to the data files.
The Oracle dataserver runs as a multiple processes within the operating system; the number of users connected to the database is reflected in the number of processes managed by the OS. Each Oracle user connection requires 1 meg of server memory.

Transaction Processing
Transactions are written to the redo log buffer, where they advance to the redo logs, data file buffer, and data files. When a rollback occurs, block images are discarded from the redo log buffer; as the previous block data is held in the rollback segment blocks. Committed transactions are promoted to the archive logs. Archive logs are used to restore the data in the event of a hardware failure. A checkpoint operation flushes all updated (committed) memory blocks from the log buffer and database buffer pool.
Note that transaction logging is optional, on a table by table basis, and archive logging is also optional.
During an update transaction, record locking provides prevents data block collisions from occurring. Access to the “before” image of the record(s) is made available during this time, which reduces contention. This is a patented record locking mechanism.

Backup Procedures
Previous to Oracle 8, the only way to back up the database was through a “cold” backup. This involved shutting down the Oracle instance, backing up the data files, and restarting upon completion.
Oracle 8 has the Recovery Manager package which facilitates backing up data files on-line.

Recovery Procedures
Recovery is achieved by restoring the data files, and verifying the control files are synchronized properly.

Security and Account Setup
Oracle is shipped with several built-in accounts: system, internal, and sys. Operating system authentication is required in order for a login to be created with similar privileges. After a login is created, access is then granted to the tables within schemas as needed.

Database Creation
Databases are initialized with the “create database” command. In most (99.9%) cases the database name is the same as the instance name, and there is only one database per instance.
Within an Oracle instance, schemas are created which contain the tables for an application. Tables are referenced by schema_name.tablename. Each user is assigned a default schema upon creation; this schema name is the same as the user name. In order for tables to be referenced without the schema name, they must be owned by the user, or in the “system” schema. “Synonyms” can be created to bypass the prefix requirement. Typically, an “internal” or “system” level login will be used to access the database.
A typical Oracle instance will have 12 data files, 6 redo log members, 6 archive files, and 4 control files, all spread across various disk subsystems.

Data Types
Supported data types include number, char, varchar2, date, long raw, clob, and blob.
Blob and clob (Oracle 8 only) datatypes are implemented via pointers within the physical record structure ; the field contents are stored in dedicated blocks. As a result, each blob or clob field requires at least 2K of storage (depending on the database block size). Long raw datatypes are stored in-line, and are discouraged.
For string data, the varchar2 type can be used for lengths up to 2000; the clob type can be used for longer field data.
( ** blob = binary large object, clob = character large object)
Date fields are represented as a number of days, along with a decimals fraction (accurate to the minute). Additional accuracy can be obtained by purchasing a separate module.
Sequences provide a means of autoincrementing an ID column – selecting sequence_name.NEXTVAL automatically increments the sequence and returns the new value.

Storage Concepts
Tables are stored in tablespaces; a tablespace is made up of one or more data files. Although it is possible to use raw devices within Oracle, it is not recommended. Control files, rollback segments, and redo logs are all stored in separate files within the operating system.

PL-SQL
PL-SQL is a robust programming language in which stored procedures can be written. The procedures are stored in a compiled format, which allows for faster execution of code. Cursors are supported for row by row processing. Arrays are supported (using the table datatype), as well as structures (the record type). Since PL-SQL procedures cannot return a result set, returning rows to a calling application requires implementing arrays as “out” variables.
One powerful feature of PL-SQL is the ability to create custom functions which can be used within SQL statements.

Performance and scalability
Oracle has always been known for its speed and performance. Oracle 8 supports over 15,000 active user connections. The patented record locking scheme made it an attractive candidate for canned applications marketed by Peoplesoft and the like. The ability to turn transaction logging on and off at will allows Oracle squeak by competitors during benchmark analysis runs.
Coming soon: benchmarks on Solaris and Linux machines.

Price and Support
Price per seat is relatively high, compared to other vendors.
Support is achieved by opening “TAR” cases with the support team. Response is usually within 48 hours.

Management and Development Tools (for Windows)
SQL-Plus is the interactive query tool used with Oracle; it is useful for entering queries and stored procedures. Complex reporting capabilities are available for those willing to learn SQL-Plus extensions.
Oracle Enterprise ships with Enterprise Manager, a full featured front end to the intricacies of Oracle. The main areas of the system (security, storage, schemas) are managed by totally separate applications, which is cumbersome at times.
The “best of breed” product in this category is DB-Artisan by Embarcadero Technologies.

Other Oracle system management tools (like the GUI manager for Context) have a lot to be desired.

Oracle gained a reputation for poor quality development tools with the release of Oracle Forms for windows. Renamed Developer 2000, it is gaining acceptance within pure Oracle shops.

SAP the company was founded in Germany in 1972 by five ex-IBM engineers. In case you’re ever asked, SAP stands for Systeme, Andwendungen, Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung which – translated to English – means Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing. So now you know! Being incorporated in Germany, the full name of the parent company is SAP AG. It is located in Walldorf, Germany which is close to the beautiful town of Heidelberg. SAP has subsidiaries in over 50 countries around the world from Argentina to Venezuela (and pretty much everything in between). SAP America (with responsibility for North America, South America and Australia – go figure!) is located just outside Philadelphia, PA.

The original five founders have been so successful that they have multiplied many times over such that SAP AG is now the third largest software maker in the world, with over 17,500 customers (including more than half of the world’s 500 top companies). SAP employs over 27,000 people worldwide today, and had revenues of $7.34 billion and Net Income of $581 million in FY01. SAP is listed in Germany (where it is one of the 30 stocks which make up the DAX) and on the NYSE (ticker:SAP).

There are now 44,500 installations of SAP, in 120 countries, with more then 10 million users!

So what made this company so successful? Back in 1979 SAP released SAP R/2 (which runs on mainframes) into the German market. SAP R/2 was the first integrated, enterprise wide package and was an immediate success. For years SAP stayed within the German borders until it had penetrated practically every large German company. Looking for more growth, SAP expanded into the remainder of Europe during the 80’s. Towards the end of the 80’s, client-server architecture became popular and SAP responded with the release of SAP R/3 (in 1992). This turned out to be a killer app for SAP, especially in the North American region into which SAP expanded  in 1988.

The success of SAP R/3 in North America has been nothing short of stunning. Within a 5 year period, the North American market went from virtually zero to 44% of total SAP worldwide sales. SAP America alone employs more than 3,000 people and has added the names of many of the Fortune 500 to it’s customer list (8 of the top 10 semiconductor companies, 7 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies etc). SAP today is available in 46 country-specific versions, incorporating 28 languages including Kanji and other double-byte character languages. SAP also comes in 21 industry-specific versions.

SAP R/3 is delivered to a customer with selected standard process turned on, and many many other optional processes and features turned off. At the heart of SAP R/3 are about 10,000 tables which control the way the processes are executed. Configuration is the process of adjusting the settings of these tables to get SAP to run the way you want it to. Think of a radio with 10,000 dials to tune and you’ll get the picture. Functionality included is truly enterprise wide including: Financial Accounting (e.g. general ledger, accounts receivable etc), Management Accounting (e.g. cost centers, profitability analysis etc), Sales, Distribution, Manufacturing, Production Planning, Purchasing, Human Resources, Payroll etc etc etc. For a full description of the modules included in SAP, see the related articles. All of these modules are tightly integrated which – as you will find out – is a huge blessing … but brings with it special challenges.

SAP are maintaining and increasing their dominance over their competitors through a combination of
- embracing the internet with mySAP.com (a confusing name we believe) to head off i2 etc
- extending their solutions with CRM to head off Siebel
- adding functionality to their industry solutions

Small and mid-size companies may not treat an ERP implementation with as much thought as a larger corporation. Smaller businesses may feel the cost of implementation in a smaller company is not as troublesome or as expensive compared to a larger company. However, this way of thought is very flawed.

ERP implementations are long and costly procedures that make it difficult, even for smaller businesses. On average, SMB implementations can take 10 months, but installation continues to go on even when the solution is implemented. Financial costs are large for SMBs, although they can pale in comparison to larger companies. However, ERP Software can be a significant cost, potentially costing SMBs as much as $300,000 per year. With lower revenues than larger companies, this can be a significant chunk of a SMB’s budget.

With this much budget dedicated to an ERP solution, it is definitely a wise decision to consider the cost/benefits of an ERP solution. Figuring out the anticipated ROI can be crucial in determining whether or not to pursue a specific ERP solution. Although ERP Software may be viewed as a necessity for small companies, the numbers may not justify the investment and could potentially save the company from making a big mistake.

It is important to take all the precautions when making such a significant business decision. However, it may not be wise to also completely cut out an ERP solution from the budget. Take the time to consider the many options and the many outcomes from an ERP solution. Considering all information is the best route a company can tkae when deciding upon ERP Software.

ERPs best hope for demonstrating value is as a sort of battering ram for improving the way your company takes a customer order and processes that 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 the order. When a customer service representative enters a customer order into an ERP system, he has all the information necessary to complete the order ( the customers credit rating and order history from the finance module, the company’s inventory levels from the warehouse module and the shipping docks 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 to 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 not so rosy.

Lets 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 departments walls, it was somebody else 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 customers credit rating from the finance department and the product inventory levels from the warehouse. Did the customer pay for the last order yet? Will we be able to ship the new 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 its 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 screens will show low inventory levels and reps will tell customers that the 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 and manufacture, ship and bill for goods, you will see value from the software. If you simply install the software without trying to improve 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.

Source: http://www.cio.com/article/40323/ERP_definition_and_solutions#erp_improve