AMR Research Announces Evolution of ERP to Network Business Systems (NBS)

AMR Research Inc. (Boston), an industry and market analysis firm specializing in enterprise applications and enabling technologies, revealed findings of the Enterprise Application Strategies Conference, hosted by AMR Research at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, AZ on June 2-4.

More than 500 industry leaders gathered to hear presentations by AMR Research's senior research staff and executives from businesses achieving best practices within their organizations. Highlights of the conference included the firm's bullish assessment of the enterprise applications market during the next five years, analysis of the extended Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) market and the natural progression into the Network Business Systems (NBS) model.

Backed by customer case studies, the conference identified NBS as the next generation of ERP. NBS encompasses more enterprise applications aimed at delivering results by empowering the employee and remaining customer-centric. The framework merges ERP and the Internet via portals and business communities, through excellence in collaboration, imagination in re-engineering and seamless integrations.

"Cause and effect relationships among packaged applications offer enormous opportunities for users to leverage infrastructure and drive ROI," said John Bermudez, group VP, enterprise strategies of AMR Research. "As exemplified by the case studies presented at the conference, customers are truly receiving substantial ROI and deriving positive, tangible benefits from their ERP application investment."

Many companies used enterprise software implementations as a springboard to achieve best practice-level improvements in key business processes. AMR Research sees the logical progression to NBS from extended ERP as the framework of the future as companies strive to remain competitive and achieve best results with ERP applications.

The NBS model acknowledges ERP provides the system foundation to support advanced applications and drive enterprise wide integration. Standard ERP functions expanded to include Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Warehouse Management, and International Trade Logistics. With the advent of the Internet and intranets, extended ERP applications will influence employee self-service, analytical applications, advanced procurement, knowledge management, and more remote access. NBS brings re-engineering to a new level, focusing on ease of use through collaboration and seamless integration with the Internet. The new Web interface is a fundamental shift in how customers were serviced in the past.