In: Accounting
Conduct research on an ERP package, such as Microsoft Dynamics GP
or Microsoft Dynamics NAV, for small to medium-sized (SME)
organizations (between $30 million and $1 billion in revenues).
Compare that package to the SAP system in terms of available
modules, functionality, and so on.
Organizations take risks all the time but fail to monitor and manage risk effectively for the enterprise. A cavalier approach to risk-taking results in disaster, providing case studies for future generations on how poor risk management leads to the demise of corporations — even those with strong brands. Gone are the years of simplicity in business operations. Exponential growth and change in risks, regulations, globalization, distributed operations, projects, strategy, processes, competitive velocity, technology, and business data encumbers organizations of all sizes. Keeping this complexity and change in sync is a significant challenge for boards, executives, as well as risk management professionals throughout the business. Organizations need to understand how to monitor risk-taking, whether they are taking the right risks, and whether risk is managed effectively. Enterprise Risk management, in this context, is an integrated part of everyone’s job and not just for the back office of risk management.
The modern organization is:
Distributed. Even the smallest of organizations can have
distributed operations complicated by a web of global supplier,
agent, business partner, and client relationships. The traditional
brick and mortar business with physical buildings and conventional
employees have been replaced with an interconnected mesh of
relationships and interactions which define the modern
organization. Complexity grows as these interconnected
relationships, processes, and systems nest themselves in
intricacy.
Dynamic. Organizations are in a constant state of flux as
distributed business operations and relationships grow and change.
At the same time, the organization is trying to remain competitive
with shifting business strategies, technologies, and processes
while keeping pace with change to risk environments around the
world. The multiplicity of risk environments that organizations
have to monitor span regulatory, geo-political, market, credit, and
operational risks. Managing risk and business change on numerous
fronts has buried many organizations.
Disrupted. The explosion of data in organizations has brought on
the era of “Big Data” and with that “Big Risk Data.” Organizations
are attempting to manage high volumes of structured and
unstructured data across multiple systems, processes, and
relationships to see the big picture of performance, risk, and
compliance. The velocity, variety, veracity, and volume of data is
overwhelming – disrupting the organization and slowing it down at a
time when it needs to be agile and fast.
Understand the Interrelationship of Risk and Its Impact
Enterprise risk management is often misunderstood, misapplied, and
misinterpreted as a result of scattered and uncoordinated
approaches. Risk is pervasive; there are a variety of departments
that manage risk with varying approaches, models, needs, and views
on what risk is and how it should be measured and managed. These
challenges come at department and process levels, and build as
organizations develop operational and enterprise risk management
strategies.
Risk management silos — where distributed business units and processes maintain their own data, spreadsheets, analytics, modeling, frameworks, and assumptions — pose a major challenge. Documents and spreadsheets are not equipped to capture the complex interrelationships that span global operations, business relationships, lines of business, and processes. Individual business areas focus on their view of risk and not the aggregate picture, unable to recognize substantial and preventable losses. When an organization approaches risk in scattered silos that do not collaborate, there is no opportunity to be intelligent about risk as risk intersects, compounds, and interrelates to create a larger risk exposure than each silo is independently aware of. A siloed approach fails to deliver insight and context and renders it nearly impossible to make a connection between risk management and business strategy, objectives, and performance.
It can be bewildering to make sense of risk management and its varying factions across enterprise, operational, project, legal/regulatory, third-party, strategic, insurance, and hazard risks. This makes enterprise and operational risk management a challenge when risk management strategy forces everyone into one flat view of risk to conform and have significant issues in risk normalization and aggregation as they roll-up risk into enterprise risk reporting.
Providing 360° Contextual Awareness of Risk
Managing risk effectively requires multiple inputs and methods of
modeling and analyzing risk. This requires information gathering —
risk intelligence — so the organization has a full perspective and
can make better business decisions. This is only enabled through
strong business intelligence and analytics with a user experience
that is intuitive and relevant to varying levels of the
organization. This is an important part of developing a risk
analysis framework. Mature risk management is built on a risk
management process, information, and technology architecture that
can show the relationship between objectives, risks, controls,
loss, and events.
In light of this, organizations should consider:
Does the organization understand the risk exposure to each
individual process/project and how it interrelates with other risks
and aggregates in an enterprise perspective or risk?
How does the organization know it is taking and managing risk
effectively to achieve optimal operational performance and meet
strategic objectives?
Can the organization accurately gauge the impact risk has on
strategy, performance, project, process, department, division, and
enterprise levels?
Does the organization have the information it needs to quickly
respond to and avoid risk exposure, and also to seize risk-based
opportunities?
Does the organization monitor key risk indicators across critical
projects and processes?
Is the organization optimally measuring and modeling risk?
Gathering multiple perspectives on risk is critical for producing
effective relational diagrams, decision trees, heat maps, and
scenarios. This risk intelligence comes from:
The external perspective: Monitoring the external environment
for geopolitical, environmental, competitive, economic, regulatory,
and other risk intelligence sources.
The internal perspective: Evaluating the internal environment of
objectives, projects, risks, controls, audits, loss, performance
and risk indicators, and other internal data points.
Organizations are best served to take an enterprise and federated
approach to risk management that allows different projects,
processes, and departments to have their view of risk that can roll
into enterprise and operational risk management and reporting. This
is done through a common risk management strategy, process,
information, and technology architecture to support overall risk
management activities from the process level up through an
enterprise view. Organizations need to clearly understand the
breadth and depth of their risk management strategy and process
requirements and select the right information and technology
architecture that is agile and flexible to meet the range of risk
management needs today and into tomorrow. This architecture should
be intuitive and easy to use while providing a depth of analytics
and embedded business intelligence.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a complete enterprise resource planning
(ERP) software solution for mid-sized organizations that is fast to
implement, easy to configure, and simple to use. Microsoft Dynamics
NAV has more than 80,000 customers, over one million users
worldwide, and is available in more than 40 country versions.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV can provide your organization with value that extends across your operations and helps you:
•Simplify your business with a single solution
•Improve Productivity
•Make smart decisions
•Implement rapidly
Varied no. of industries are implementing NAV. Some of them are listed below:
-Healthcare
-Real Estate
-Manufacturing
Which Is the Best ERP Package for You?
TEC's specialists have explored the most important differentiating
factors between these two software in the Dynamics NAV vs. SAP ERP
Comparison Report. The comprehensive comparison chart enables you
to immediately evaluate the support for capabilities of two or more
software. However, this comparison is concentrated on
characteristics. It doesn't discuss the procurement project's
priorities, regardless of the effect they could have on the
selection of the ERP software that best matches the requirements.
Those priorities should be factored in if you need to run a more
meticulous comparison process.
This comparison report includes technical components such as:
Financials
Human Resources
Manufacturing Management
Inventory Management
Purchasing Management
Quality Management
Sales Management
Product Technology
An Overview of the Dynamics NAV vs. SAP ERP Comparison
Compared to Dynamics NAV, SAP ERP offers robustly higher support
for the 3,539 criteria that make up the eight sub-modules in the
ERP comparison matrix, regardless of how those functions are
offered (e.g. "out of the box", an integrated partner solution,
add-on products, etc.). Let's take a closer look at the eight
domains.
1. Financials
The comparison revealed that SAP ERP is a slightly more capable
contender than Dynamics NAV in features and functions related to
Financials.
2. Human Resources
In this module, SAP ERP has a formidable lead compared to Dynamics
NAV.
3. Manufacturing Management
Between the two software, SAP ERP scores slightly higher than
Dynamics NAV with regard to Manufacturing Management features and
functions. In this module, SAP ERP leads in terms of
functionalities which are available natively.
4. Inventory Management
In this module, SAP ERP has a vigorous upper hand compared to
Dynamics NAV. Here SAP ERP excels with regard to Inventory
Management features and functions which are supplied out of the
box.
5. Purchasing Management
When rating Purchasing Management features and functions, we see
that SAP ERP has a strong advantage over its competitor, leading in
functionalities which are offered out of the box.
6. Quality Management
Just like the preceding module, SAP ERP bests Dynamics NAV,
remarkably outranking Microsoft's software. In this module, SAP ERP
excels in built-in Quality Management characteristics.
7. Sales Management
SAP ERP is a marginally more capable option than Dynamics NAV in
the Sales Management module, excelling in characteristics that are
supplied natively.
8. Product Technology
SAP ERP receives a robustly higher score than Dynamics NAV in the
Product Technology module. Here, SAP ERP leads in terms of features
and functions which are supplied off the shelf.
Don't forget that the product comparison report is driven purely by data. It does not account for your individual requirements nor factors that can affect the price and implementation cost of Dynamics NAV or SAP ERP. If you would like to take a more nuanced approach to your selection process, you can do so using TEC Advisor.