subject: What Color Is Your Next ERP System and Software Going To Be? [print this page] Just for a moment I would like for you to imagine yourself standing in your living room and you are about to give it a fresh coat of paint.
There is no furniture in sight, just a stepladder. There is absolutely nothing on the floor except for twelve one gallon cans of paint. The tops of the cans have all been removed and every can visibly displays its unique color. There is bright red, a brilliant blue, a yellow one and a four more containing all the remaining colors of the rainbow and five more of various colors no two are the same.
The paints are of various consistency and texture. You have been given the challenge of making them all work together, making up several different colors with which to paint the room.
There are just a couple of rules involved with the mixing of the paints. The cans cannot be picked up and dumped into each other in order to make your different colors. Hoses provide for the integration of required pigments etc. so as you can acquire the exact color and consistency of paint you need.
Sometimes the paints are pushed and at other times they are pulled. A hose connects each can to each and all of the others. Pulling deflates the hose so all pulls are on various lengths of thick walled hose that will not deflate. Every hose is also of a different and unique color.
When the paints are pushed, the hose expands and we cannot have expansion because when we have expansion, pressure is offset by volume and the desired color will not be realized. To counteract, we run yet another set of hoses, all different colors between all of the various cans. There are now, not a dozen hoses as one might expect for integrating the paints, but hundreds
When there is pulling involved, there is a small motor required at the destination point in every can. However, when pushing is required another small motor is placed in each source can.
Every motor is attached to a controller which may or may not be shared by other like motors.
You are now set and ready to go to work painting the room. What you have just done is build a simple model representing a typical ERP system and software complete with integration services.
Is it confusing?
You Bet!
Look across the room. A dozen or more cans, several dozens of different pieces of hose each of a different color. There are so many motors to access and there are all those slick controllers.
But yes!
You can paint your room. Your system is fully integrated!
Now, I invite you to go into your kitchen where the furniture has also been removed, ready for you to paint. The requirements here are for several different colors here as well, all the exact same colors you just finished using to paint all the different walls in the first room.
Conversely, on the floor there is only one can of paint. It looks white, but you cannot be absolutely certain.
However, this one can contains all the colors of all those cans you saw on your bedroom or living room floor. The difference is that the colors have all been mixed together. Your eyes see what looks like white paint. You look at the wall and glance at the specifications, then dip your paint brush or roller and commence painting,
The paintbrush or roller knows exactly which pigments to grasp and in what proportions. As your brush or roller gently and smoothly glides over the surface of the wall the exact color stipulated in the specifications flows out from behind each stroke.
You move to another, a different section of your kitchen and begin to paint again. You continue to use the exact same roller or brush you were using only moments ago. Like magic, this section of wall becomes a totally different color, but the color required exactly as per the required specifications.
Now you have just seen the unERP model of the ERP system and software.
You have seen the difference!
You have just witnessed in your mind the amazing beauty of having a seamlessly integrated workflow, all in your very own vivid colors!
Now that you have seen the difference, what colors would you like your next ERP System and Software to be featured in?
What Color Is Your Next ERP System and Software Going To Be?
