The Enterprise

Article written in 1999The key word to 'Exist' is 'Strategic thinking'. The
Every Enterprise has a purpose to exist - the purposegreatest challenge facing Managers today arises from
being to achieve a leading role in competition with othertheir responsibility for identifying the changing long-term
Organisations. The purpose is to be the best. In orderbusiness needs and for planning effectively, to meet
to be the best, there must be a Strategy, whichthem. Today the Managers are expected continually to
explains the principles around which the Organisationidentify future opportunities, to monitor and
will reap the results it desires. The Strategy is going tocommunicate risks, to take corrective action to avoid
define the business that the Organisation is toexcessive exposure.
compete in, the position that the Organisation plans toDo you play Golf? Golfers who ignore the mechanics
hold in that business environment and the distinctiveof their swing and note only how far the ball has
competence or competitive advantage that thetraveled are routinely confounded by their inability to
Organisation has or plans to create. The requirementpredict or control the outcome of their efforts. The
of having a Mission Statement becomes very vital.same can be said for Enterprises whose Management
Many Organisations misuse Mission Statements byonly cares only about results. That is the reason why
articulating high sounding values that are unrealistic orWorld Class Enterprises continually tap into their
not part of the day-to-day behaviour. Theperformance information - the data that provide them
Mission for any Organisation should evolve from itswith Intelligent Business Decision support.
character, its identity and the reason for its existence.A study of the enterprise application software market
Where do we start?predicts that enterprise resource planning (ERP)
In most Organisations there is no shortage of data tosoftware will lose much of its current market share
support these decisions. On-line transaction processingover the next few years, while other types of
systems designed to run the day-to-day businesspackages will see significant gains. A conducted the
have been gathering detailed financial, operational, andstudy, defines 'enterprise application' software as
sales transactions. The real challenge for anenterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise
Organisation is to intelligently sift through the heap ofrelationship management, supply chain management
this historical data to find answers in order to support(SCM), and electronic commerce programs.
their cause in making a Strategy to work for theirThe study shows that ERP software's share of
values.market will fall from an estimated 64 percent of the
Business intelligent systems, which provide the path tototal market in 1999 to just 28 percent in 2005.
a business Strategy, is all about using the cumulative(ERP-once the dominant business software
intelligence in the Organisation's databank to meet oneapplication-provides financial and manufacturing
of the needs of a Mission Statement of thatapplications that double as a corporate platform for
Organisation. The requirement of Enablinginformation technology.) And it appears that the slide
Technologies becomes very vital. The results fromwill be irreversible.
such reporting are very useful to the Management ofSimply "The ERP market will not revive,"
an Organisation for prioritising the areas in theirPrabir Sen.
formation of a business Strategy.M.