Summary: Enterprise systems pose something of a “Catch-22.” If you don’t customize the system, it won’t perfectly fit your needs. If you do customize it, you’re locked into that system. In this article, you’ll learn how to avoid these problems and customize your enterprise system without locking your company down.
If your company runs on an enterprise system (like an ERP, MRP, etc…), let me ask you a question: Does it perfectly fit your needs? Unless you’ve opted for extensive customization, the answer is probably “No.”
You see, while widely used, enterprise systems create something of a “Catch-22.” Unless you customize the package to fit your company, they will rarely fit your exact requirements. However, customizing the package locks your company down. You can’t move away from that system or even upgrade to the latest release in a few years without redoing all of those expensive customizations.
Therein lies the problem. On one hand, you get a custom system…but you’re locked down. On the other hand, you’re not locked down…but the system won’t include all of the features you need. What can you do?
One way around the problem
Creating web applications over your system–integrated with the underlying database–is perhaps the cleanest solution to this problem. It lets you build new features and capabilities that integrate with your system, without altering the underlying system at all.
If that sounds confusing, here’s a video that goes into more detail. It explains how our web application development platform, m-Power, helps you create web applications over enterprise systems–without altering the underlying system at all:
What types of things you can build
So, what types of web applications can you build over your existing system? There’s really no limit. For instance, I’ve seen companies build applications like:
- Reporting
- Dashboards
- Customer portals
- eCommerce applications
- Mobile applications
- and much more.
To get a better idea of the possibilities, we created a paper that outlines many of the most popular options. You can read it right here.
Example
Here’s a great example for you. A bicycle manufacturer needed a way to let customers place orders online, but their ERP system didn’t offer that capability. So, they turned to m-Power and built a real-time portal that integrated directly with their ERP system…in just three weeks. You can read the whole story right here.
Need help?
If you’d like to build new features over your existing enterprise system, let us know. Just fill out this short form and tell us what you’re looking for, and we’ll gladly show you how m-Power can help.