POS to ERP?

[emre]

Today I did some research about ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.
The writing about characteristics of an ERP system looks like my "new requests" list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning#Characteristics

Is it possible to simplify this list for a restaurant business?

[endrju]

It looks like much more sophisticated system but you think that this is what restaurants owners need?

[endrju]

It looks like much more sophisticated system but you think that this is what restaurants owners need?

but I think that should be great oportuninty to open the gate for bigger companies and thad would help us for sure

[emre]

Hello; To make terms simpler to understand I'll try to describe which ERP module solves what from a restaurant owners perspective...

Finance/Accounting

General ledger: Credit / Debt status of each accounts we're tracking...

Payables: How much we'll pay? (to personnel, vendors, partner businesses like Groupon, electricity, bank loans, etc)
Cash management: Our cash status. What we paid? What received?
Fixed assets: How much we paid for things we use: Furniture, Forks, Glasses, etc..
Receivables: How much we'll receive? (from customers, partner businesses)
Budgeting: We do a financial plan and compare it with reality.
Consolidation: Things we do for centralizing data.

Human resources

Payroll: How much we'll pay to personnel? How much we paid in advance?
Training, Benefits, 401K, recruiting, diversity management: Not related...


Manufacturing

Engineering: May not be related...
Bill of materials: Recipes. What we use for cooking?
Work orders: What ordered? What is ready to Serve? Kitchen monitors.
Scheduling, capacity: Reservations?
Workflow management: How much does it takes to serve xxx?
Quality control: Voids? Reasons?
Cost management: How much does xxx cost?
Manufacturing process, manufacturing projects, manufacturing flow, activity based costing, Product lifecycle management: Related but may not be too important for small businesses.


Supply chain management


Order to cash: What we may sell next month?
Inventory, Order entry, purchasing : Self descriptive..
Product configurator: What we do with modifiers in more detail.
Supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, inspection of goods: Who sells cheapest? Who delivers fastest? Our purchase orders.
Claim processing: Useful for businesses primarily works with reservations.
Commissions: ?


Project management

Costing, billing, time and expense, performance units, activity management: Tracking time & attendance, personnel sales performance, tips, etc..

Customer relationship management
Sales and marketing, service, customer contact, call center support: Phone ordering, online ordering, promotions, membership management, gift card tracking, etc.. How much we paid for marketing?
Commissions: If we work with agencies or sites like Groupon how much commission do we pay or paid?


---------------


OK. I know I'm not Superman or Houdini On the other hand when we sum up requests I can see every modules of a similar system requested. Things may seem simple when thought individually but when we look at the big picture it looks like for big businesses.


I just wanted to write about it. I have no point for now other than trying to see what I'm on at.

[endrju]

yeah this make sence to me.
I think that all restaurant owners has stored the infomation in excel or google docs but this will help to store information in one place.

You just simplified it Emre

[CafeCuppio]

Emre, what a great To Do list!! When are you starting, hehehehe

and no, you are not Superman .... you are SuperEmre!!!

Okay, seriously ... Like you said, thinking about each aspect on it own does not seem like such a big thing, but I tell you, when this is done, it will be one hell of a turnkey solution for every restaurant. Just do not ask me to write the documentation, lol.

I have so many excel sheets for a lot of these components and to have them consolidated in one application will be a dream.

You have my support on this all the way!

PS: Can I just have one thing added, something to help me work out the shift for my staff, lol

[alberto_lc]

Hi,
making i have wrk with erp. It is a big undertaking, I think the best thing to do its probably a report that generated by samba or a sql script that can be imported to a current opensource ERP. there are several good ones out there. Of course a script or app that can automatically do this would be even better.
I dont know if this help, but i have seen it done with openbravo erp and a local made POS.
Regards,

[emre]

I don't know if generic ERP solutions will be fine for restaurants. We have to try that.

[CafeCuppio]

I am sure we all understand that this time of move will not be an overnight thing, but it sure is a great direction to go into.

Personally I am against using application to plug into another application that plugs into something else just to get remotely what you might need. So for me to have all in one like a good old Swiss Army knife is the best!

[JohnS]

As you all have guessed, I've been quiet on this

Still thinking about the requirements, and then implementation issues due to various accounting and tax rules for different countries. We are lucky having just one tax at 10% across everything.
Would you create a separate module for this or integrate directly into SambaPOS?

Maybe start with Finance & HR, and then customer management.

Why not run a poll for each section, and see where the demand is and also in which countries to get an idea of diversity needed.