ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning. One system that holds the whole business instead of eleven that each hold a bit of it. The name is dreadful; the idea is not.
Glossary
The jargon you didn’t ask to learn, explained the way we’d explain it on a call.
13 terms. Zero buzzwords.
Dry where it can be, honest where it matters. If a word is missing, tell us and we will add it.
Go-live
The day the new system becomes the real system. Traditionally accompanied by biscuits and a slight air of dread. Our job is to remove the dread.
BOM
Bill of Materials. The recipe. What goes into the thing, in what quantity, in what order.
Integration
Two systems agreeing on something. Where there’s no integration, there’s usually a person with a spreadsheet doing it by hand, and they know exactly who they are.
SLA
Service Level Agreement. A promise about how quickly we answer, written down so you can hold us to it. If a supplier won’t give you one, that’s the answer.
Legacy system
Software that works, that nobody understands, and that one person is quietly terrified of touching.
Go-live minus one week
The period in which everyone discovers the thing they forgot to mention in eight months of meetings.
MRP
Material Requirements Planning. The system works out what to buy and make, and when, so that somebody does not have to do it in a spreadsheet at 11pm. It is only as good as your lead times, which is a polite way of saying please check your lead times.
Traceability
Being able to answer “which batch, from which supplier, went into which order” without anyone going to the filing cabinet. Dull right up until the day it is the only thing that matters.
Customisation
Changing the software to fit your business. Sometimes essential, sometimes an expensive way of avoiding a conversation about the business. We will tell you which one we think it is.
“Quick win”
A change that is quick, or a change that wins. Occasionally both.
Best practice
What worked somewhere else. Worth knowing, not worth obeying.
The spreadsheet
Every business has one. It runs something important, only one person understands it, and it is not backed up. You know the one.