At the beginning of the 21st century we can recognize the trend in international business. Multinational corporations are moving their manufacturing facilities and sales operations to Brazil. Typical scenario: the regional office is established in Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro and the manufacturing plant in Salvador, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Recife, Manaus, etc. The first step to establish controllable operations is the implementation of the ERP system, which formalizes the chain of command, decision making and management. In this short article, we will give you an overview of the Brazilian ERP market for medium and large companies. We will compare Microsoft Business Solutions, Oracle, SAP and local ERP providers: Microsiga and RM. Let’s get to the topic:
o Local brand versus international. We do not claim to be the judge, just pros and cons. Local brand ERP has local market experience, taxes, typical chart of accounts, payroll specs in place. They are probably very competitive if you are a Brazilian business. However, if you represent a multinational business or corporation, you need to think about user experience for your international management team, centralized IT support, and things like that.
or SAP. If you are committed to the SAP solution, SAP Business One is probably the system of choice, it has transaction integration with SAP, CRM, MRP/Production, POP, SOP, HR, multilanguage, multicurrency. SAP Business One is only localized for the Brazilian ERP market, especially we must mention the localized tax engine. SAP tested their localization with 7 pilot implementations in 2005. You should look for an SAP Business One Customization Partner (who is licensed to develop customizations and integration into the SAP Business One SDK). SAP Business One is on Microsoft SQL Server and is written in C++; also has integration with MS Office at the COM object level
or Oracle. Oracle E-Business Suite, also known as Oracle Financials (as part of Oracle E-Business Suite) and Oracle Applications is the natural choice if your headquarters in Europe, US, Australia or elsewhere are committed to the Oracle platform . Oracle has had a long-standing presence in Brazil and is a very good option.
or Microsoft Business Solutions Navision and Axapta. Currently, Microsoft is on its way to merge/integrate its applications; this is known as Project Green, a new trade name was introduced in September 2005: Microsoft Dynamics. Microsoft Navision and Axapta became Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics AX respectively. The most traditional solution for the Brazilian market is Navision. It has a very strong position in both Europe (where Microsoft recommends it in all countries except the UK where both Navision and Great Plains are used) and the US, especially in the manufacturing sector. Axapta, however, is newer and, respectively, its design should be more oriented towards new technological trends. Axapta should be available for the Brazilian market in 2006
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