The Enterprise Application- Virtual Mode

Last Saturday, we had a discussion on Enterprise Applications in business. The software tackled by these Enterprise Applications are very interesting in such a way that it can not just be applied on businesses, but also approximately on our everyday lives (although we don't use computers to compute for the total money that we are going to use for our everyday lives). Similar to the business process improvements, enterprise applications are the software counterpart of the business strategies.

As I analyzed the whole process of the Enterprise Application Software, it consists of the Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, and the Enterprise Resource Planning. Reading through it would leave you a lot of questions regarding these items since you can't have on your personal computer a software complexly designed for business purposes. You can't actually see these software into action without going in a company and actually using it, but doing so may alter the whole performance of a firm, since only trained professionals are allowed to touch it.

Since Sir Jan Pabellon has given us an idea on how these systems work on a business by comparing it to strategy games such as Starcraft and the like, I seriously tried applying them to my Red Alert 3: Uprising, just to see if the enterprise application would fit a comparison regarding the system and the strategy game. Yahoo!

So here's what I did to see the enterprise application in action in a virtual mode. AND IT DID WORK.

1. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Having a business for the first time of operations is comparable to having a simple base without any support from other structures, like this!

You have only a small portion of the battlefield as your "OWN" space. Moreover, you only have a limited amount of resources to use to expand (40000 dollars in this case).

As usual, businesses start to expand when they have collected information on how to establish foundations on their branches. They tend to expand and acquire more structures to increase efficiency and profitability. Of course, it will take time before they can upgrade their equipment and eventually, develop their site from a single structure to this!

Firms have a limited amount of resources to manage to be able to bring it to this condition. Enterprise Resource Planning actually helps a firm to manage its costs and resources. Similar to the notion of "maiximze proft and minimize costs", ERP serves as a financial system that checks and places expenses to the most optimal position. By this, the firm is able to maximize the use of its limited resources, like in this situation, wherein I was able to use the 40,000 dollars to construct this base with some dangerous units.

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Competition is surely evident, because there would not be only one firm who will take the market. There will be other markets who want a share in the market.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is another thing that must be given focus. Similar to Total Quality Management wherein "quality is a must", CRM focuses on customer relations, manager-employee connections, and coordination among development teams. No single manager can replace the job of a hundred employees. The manager and the employee must have cooperation for them to form development teams, and through these teams, shall the implementation be executed.

(if the units you control in a competition are well coordinated and well-combined, you can bring out the best of their abilities in any situation).

At first, the implementation may create big lags in the operation of the firm, but in the long run, it will surely show the benefits, although constant training is needed since a new system will create updates, thus, creating new processes which employees must know. If constant training, coordination, cooperation, and communication are present, then there is a big probability for a firm to actually withstand backtracks.

3. Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The resources a firm has are not fixed. It declines as the firm uses more and more of the resources for its expansion. The firm may acquire resources by investment, or by getting them from suppliers. The Supply Chain Management (SCM) carries them. It checks the chain of suppliers that a firm holds. Not all resources of a firm come from itself. It must acquire and reacquire resources to expand, and get a share of the market. Of course, market competition is different from a competition where countries or forces will fire bullets, missiles and even devastating weapons- a scenario similar to this!

Yes, we can't avoid competition to come in real-life situations. Sometimes, firms decide to collude and cooperate to be able to get a large share of the market. Smaller firms, on the other had, do not get a share in the market economy because of larger firms. All of these enterprise software, when properly implemented, will surely bring a firm to an efficient, profitable state. The only negative thing, is that implementing these software application programs are very costly and it requires a lot of effort.

Enterprise Application Software really helps a business perform its operations swiftly and accurately. It replaces a large amount of labor which makes work more efficient and at the same time, it can place more labor on a development team with the presence of these software. Although like what I said, implementing these kinds of software will surely be costly and expensinve, it it is well-maintained, it can create a large impact on the performance of the firm.

For sure, it is like a strategy game. I have clearly seen how it logically works (although it is NOT exact since you don't acquire units to destroy others.) But one thing is sure; with the best strategy and the best software implementation and maintenance, every firm would be victorious in overcoming difficult challenges. Like in a strategy game, if your units have good coordination, if you are planning and not doing a blitzkrieg, if you can manage your resources properly, and if you can acquire more from suppliers and sources, you're surely be VICTORIOUS...

-Agbayani, James Edward C.-
March 9, 2010