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WHAT IS ERP? 289

claiming to offer ERP solutions include SAP, Baan, PeopleSoft, Oracle, J.D. Ed-
wards, and Lawson. One of these vendors presented the solution as follows:

The business world is moving increasingly toward a projects orientation of
operation to measure the true costs and profitability of any business en-
deavor. As this paradigm takes root even in industries not traditionally iden-
tified as project-driven, the need for a complete activity management
solution, integrated to a company’s core financial systems, has become more
critical. With leaner staff and more demand for performance, every activity
must add value.

You need, therefore, to be able to measure the true costs and added
value of any activity. And in tracking these factors, there can be no dispar-
ity between the line manager’s data and the corporate finance numbers,
because time spent reconciling this data adds no value. To allow for maxi-
mum productivity, this data must be collected with a minimum of adminis-
trative burden.

Oracle Projects is the bridge between Operations and Corporate Fi-
nance, maintaining the central repository of project information while shar-
ing it with other systems and varied users in the format that serves each
best. (Oracle Applications for Projects)

So what do we have here? We have more people jumping on the projects
bandwagon—realizing the need for and profitability in support for the projects
paradigm. And this should come as no surprise. The information in the projects
database must be able to flow freely, securely, and accurately to the corporate ac-
counting systems, and back.

The statement by Oracle seems to hit the nail on the head. It recognizes the
increased awareness of projects in the enterprise, and the value of measuring the
impact of projects on the overall operations. It further recognizes the necessity
for data consistency and integrity.

Frankly, this is not such a new theme. I personally was involved in promoting
connectivity and integration of projects and accounting data, more than a quar-
ter century ago, but was rebuffed by the (understandable) skepticism of the fi-
nancial analysts (the bean counters, we called them) that the projects people
couldn’t be counted on to contribute timely, consistent data. In the past 15 years,
as a consultant, connectivity and integration of projects and accounting data
were frequent requirements on a client’s system wish lists. But still, the question
of how to achieve timely, reliable, consistent data integration, together with the
question of who owns and controls the data, stands in the way of achievement of
this worthwhile goal.