Military ERP designs offer insight for private companies | The ...

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Though they can easily be adapted to fit the business practices of smaller companies, ERP systems were originally designed with large enterprises in mind. It will come as no surprise, then, to discover that the U.S. Military is currently engaged in a lengthy and expensive ERP implementation that is expected to automate all Defense Department systems across all divisions of the Armed Forces.

The larger an organization, the longer it will take to successfully customize and implement an ERP system. According to DefenseSystems.com, the military's implementation is actually taking place across nine ERP platforms originated from the Department of Defense's ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) decades ago. The depth and breadth of the U.S. Military's ERP installation offers many lessons in ERP planning and implementation that can be taken to heart by companies of any size.

The military's ERP system is being segmented into three major categories: Air Force, Navy and Army. This makes sense, given the different natures of these organizations. An entirely-unified system is probably a bit much, considering that the entire budget for the Department of Defense is $663 billion. However, further divisions might make for too much fragmentation. When one considers that the Marines are ground troops under the purview of the Navy, things begin to get complicated. Too much complexity (especially on the vast scale that these systems will exist on) can draw out an implementation period to the point where a system is obsolete before it goes online.

Large ERP implementations (especially those that are paid for by enormous amounts of taxpayer funds) require a great deal of planning. Consequently, it is probably not a good idea to try and implement everything at once. However, it is also not desirable to start and finish one system at a time because it will be more difficult to link them all up. A balance must be struck between synergistic automation and rapid deployment. Therefore, a hard look must be taken at the divisions within a proposed ERP system. For example, the U.S. Military's Naval systems are much further along than its Air Force platforms. The reasoning behind this is that the Navy is operating with legacy systems that are much more outdated and therefore require a first crack at the updated software. The Air Force can stand to wait, though work on those systems began in earnest before Naval programs were complete.

Source: http://blog.sageerpsolutions.com/military-erp-designs-offer-insight-for-private-companies/

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