Clearly "chasing the deer" ERP

China's ERP market, from high-end to mid- and low-end, from deserted to hot, has become a scorched earth of price wars in just a few years. Some domestic suppliers even launched 20,000 yuan boxed products. How much potential is there to tap in such a market? What are the odds of entering this market?

This kind of question should be the most suitable to ask BenQ Zhulu Software Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as BenQ Zhulu). In early 2005, Ye Yushun, known as the "Godfather of Taiwan's ERP", joined BenQ to compete, sounding the horn for BenQ to compete in the ERP market. This is a tough battle that Li Kunyao insists on fighting. Not only was the market environment bad, but 80% of the people voted against it when evaluating the internal project. Two years from now, however, those who held the objections may have to reassess the future of the ERP project. At the beginning of 2007, Ye Yushun, who is already the general manager of BenQ's development-oriented enterprise service department, said that among the 8 ERP product orders it competed with its competitors recently, BenQ's competition has won 7 orders.

Finding value in the scorched earth, how did BenQ do it? Ye Yushun believes that recognizing the market situation, unique ERP products and the characteristic marketing of the products, make BenQ's competition full of confidence in the future of the ERP market.

Understand the difficulties of small business ERP

Why did BenQ choose to enter the competitive ERP market?

Ye Yushun: Currently, the competition in the ERP market in mainland China is indeed very fierce. Foreign software suppliers have established a firm foothold, and the competition among domestic suppliers is fierce. However, although foreign suppliers occupy the high-end market, their competitive advantages are not obvious for cost-sensitive SMEs. This part of the enterprise is BenQ's target customers.

On the other hand, although the ERP market is maturing, there is still a lot of room for development. Recently, everyone is talking about "the rise of great powers". Behind the rise of great powers is actually the rise of China's manufacturing industry. Without competitive factories, China's manufacturing industry will be threatened by Vietnam and India. To be competitive, a factory must have a mature ERP system. The next ten years will be the golden decade of China's development. The further development of many small and medium-sized enterprises will provide a very potential market for ERP products.

What do you think of the phrase "going to ERP to seek death, not going to ERP to wait for death"?

Ye Yushun: In the past, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises has just started, the strength is not strong, the system is not sound, and there will be many difficulties after the ERP is launched. After the small and medium-sized enterprises gradually matured, coupled with the popularization of basic informatization, this sentence should be a thing of the past.

This stage of development has also been experienced by manufacturing companies in Taiwan. Now, the penetration rate of Taiwanese enterprise ERP systems has reached 80-90%. In fact, the overall connotation of ERP includes supply chain software, financial software, production management software and cost management software. From my experience in Taiwan, if any of these components are missing, a set of software cannot be sold.

Currently, most companies in mainland China only have financial software. However, from the perspective of development trend, enterprises must upgrade from financial software to production management software and to a more complete ERP system if they want to seize the opportunity of China's rise.

What kind of enterprise is suitable for ERP?

Ye Yushun: Actually, not all companies need ERP systems. Only when the enterprise reaches a certain scale, such as annual sales of 10 million yuan, 30 million yuan or more, need to consider implementing ERP. The scale of the enterprise is not enough to support, the turnover is insufficient, the process is not complicated, and the financial resources are not allowed, so it is not suitable to blindly go to ERP.

When an enterprise reaches a certain scale, no matter how well the previous management is in place, most of them will have problems in resource allocation and collaboration between departments. For example, each department has a set of inventory orders, but each account is wrong. Because the data between various departments has not achieved timely communication and timely update. At this point, the enterprise will feel the need for software to help. But the question is whether it is enough to use financial software, or does it require production management software or a full set of ERP. This is a new problem now, and it is also related to the problem of "going to ERP for death, not going to ERP to wait for death".

The characteristic of financial software is that the certificate can be written publicly, and the report can be analyzed and output through the computer. However, this role of financial software has now been completely defeated by automation. If you use production management software, plus supply chain software and cost software, then the financial management part behind it, that is, all the vouchers for lending rules, cost management vouchers, etc., will be automatically analyzed and processed. After the back-end work is automated, managers' energy can be released to the front-end of factory operations. This is the biggest shift so far. If the company does not follow the trend and insists on financial software to dominate the world, then financial software is likely to become the "sinner" of China's rise.

What are the main difficulties faced by SMEs in implementing ERP?

Ye Yushun: Small and medium-sized enterprises are very sensitive to cost. How to choose a suitable software supplier is the first question. There are also some enterprises, which are running very well after they have just been launched, but will have problems after a period of time. Why? One is that the employee responsible for the operation has left, and other people are not familiar with it; the other is that the process of the enterprise has changed, and the system cannot keep up. In fact, when enterprises implement ERP, suppliers provide software and services, but do not transfer knowledge to enterprises.

Although there are various customized software to provide personalized systems, once the enterprise changes, the ERP system still cannot adjust accordingly. To solve this kind of problem, when choosing software, it is necessary to consider not only the problem of personalization, but also the problem of self-adjustment for long-term use. In addition, in addition to the selection of suppliers, it is also necessary to pay attention to the training of employees. If one employee cannot be removed, the entire ERP will not be transferred.

Nowadays, the main trend is to upgrade from financial software to production management software or even a full set of ERP. As a result, small and medium-sized enterprises will find that ERP has too many modules and is too complicated to operate. In the past, whether it was financial software or eHR, it was a single module, or two to single modules. Now, it is necessary to mobilize the core processes of enterprise operation, and the operation will be more complicated. How to go online easily is actually a matter of simplifying learning, that is, how to make it easy for employees to learn and master ERP operation knowledge easily. In response to this situation, BenQ Zhulu put forward the concept of "letting you easily become an ERP expert" to help enterprises simplify the complexity.

Understand the features of ERP products

What is the core competitiveness of BenQ's ERP products?

Ye Yushun: BenQ put forward the concept of "letting you easily become an ERP expert", which includes two connotations. The first is "easy", easy to learn, easy to operate, easy to go online. To achieve everything "easy", it is inseparable from the cultivation of talents. This enters the second level of connotation: "expert". BenQ's ERP products not only help companies successfully launch ERP systems, but also cultivate a team of ERP talents who can operate proficiently.

The quality of human resources in most manufacturing companies is not high, and some employees don't even know how to use computers. BenQ Zhulu has adopted a "practice manual" to carry out "Step by Step" training, allowing employees to learn to operate in 3 days, and then through further training, plus repeated assessments, to make employees become ERP experts. When an employee leaves, when he hands over the job, he is actually training the next employee. In this way, it can be ensured that the resignation of employees does not affect the operation of the ERP system. With the establishment of BenQ's ERP training network, enterprises can reduce the cost of ERP system by choosing network training and unified assessment.

In addition, BenQ's ERP products attach importance to the transfer of knowledge, which also provides human resources guarantee for the realization of product differentiation. In addition to the problems of cost sensitivity, follow-up weakness, and complicated operations, SMEs need to solve the problem of system flexibility when using ERP systems. BenQ's F1-ERP approach to this problem is to provide "highways" and "side roads", that is, process-level operation manuals and standard operating procedures, while also providing companies with fine-tuning manual tools. This allows businesses to adjust after process changes. With flexible implementation methods, and ERP experts on staff, companies can independently implement adjustments to their ERP systems even after a six-month implementation cycle.

BenQ Zhulu ERP products also have a very unique advantage, that is, BenQ Zhulu also has two star products, eHR and SCM (production management software). BenQ's eHR and SCM are already very mature and successful products. Together with F1-ERP, BenQ's can provide a complete solution for enterprises.

Understand ERP's market strategy

What is BenQ's market strategy?

Ye Yushun: Now the focus of enterprise competition is actually the competition of talents. F1-ERP system not only integrates resources for enterprises, but also cultivates talents. In the enterprises that have adopted the F1-ERP solution at present, in addition to receiving training and assessment, employees can also participate in the national "big competition", and gradually grow from primary to practical experts in ERP applications.

In addition, BenQ Zhulu also plans to cooperate with the school to launch a training program on ERP system operation and issue a grade qualification certificate. On the one hand, it can enhance the competitiveness of students' employment; on the other hand, it also provides mature human resources for enterprises.

In the future, F1-ERP products will not only be able to cooperate with other competitive products to provide a complete solution for enterprises, but also it will be integrated into the overall industrial chain of BenQ Group. When there is an abnormality in the operation of the enterprise, such as changes in orders or inventory, or problems that need to be solved immediately, the information will be sent to mobile terminals such as laptops or smartphones through network or wireless communication, no matter where the manager is, it can be easily Take control.

SAMANTHA ZHANG is the Associate Editor of the CEConlines website.