The Business-Critical Need of ERP TESTING Today

Gartner, Inc., the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, first used the acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, in the early 1990s. ERP originally encompassed Materials Resource Planning, Manufacturing Resource Planning and Computer-integrated Manufacturing—an application integration that went beyond manufacturing. Over the years, requirements for ERP as well as their utilization have transformed as businesses shifted to the digital operations.

The older ERPs worked well with mainly manufacturing business units where machine products were designed and the cost of raw materials was relatively constant. The new-age business units, however, use data extensively, making the older ERPs nearly redundant. Subsequently, big data is also being used to forecast demand accurately using various channels to collect customer data. In addition, more manufacturers today are using 3-D printers, thereby eliminating several steps in complex supply-chains.

Cloud computing now enables businesses to use big data without having massive storage data facilities. The four big data infrastructure building blocks can be said to be: (Source)

• Data Collection
• Data Storage
• Data Analysis
• Data Visualization/ Output

In order to obtain information that best suits businesses, data analysis demands a necessity for updated ERPs. Increasingly, ERPs are not being bought from vendors as a unified system. Use of various types of applications demand organizations to come up with a distinct and specific strategy.

Consequently, it is becoming difficult to find vendors who support this shift in ERP functionality, because most of their ERP data models do not support these data elements. ERPs built for organizations running in today’s digital world would require utilizing big data better. They are also required for providing a firmer support of corporations’ strategic business goals prior to, during and after application integration. ERP systems are known for their robustness and enabling changes in updates, immediately after business processes are updated.

A successful ERP implementation, however, requires continuous testing of the system processes. Flaws must be detected early and fixed immediately in order to guarantee quality reporting and apt decision-making. Automation testing is essential when it comes to dealing with ERP systems containing vast amount of data. Manual testing leads to complexity due to the tight integration of ERP systems with other systems in the network.

User acceptance testing is a crucial point for testing a new ERP system. For testing to be successful, the implementation team would need to work with the project development team. It is essential to understand the desired end design and ensure that all parts of the system are tested.

The new buzzword doing the rounds in today’s technological world is postmodern ERP. Subdivided into two categories (Administrative ERP and Operational ERP), postmodern ERP talks about constant updating of the software system. Instead of buying new ERP software over a period, it talks of modifying the existing ERP through rigorous updates, depending on application requirements. Hence, availability of testing frameworks that enable reusable and scalable components is essential.

More organizations are beginning to transition to postmodern ERP systems and they remain caught in processes that deal simultaneously with both traditional and postmodern ERP software. This results in a hybrid mode of operation, and leads to complexities, thereby escalating the threat of malfunction.

In Conclusion:

Cigniti Technologies takes pride in stating that it offers in-depth ERP testing services to its clients. Cigniti’s ERP Testing processes and frameworks are designed to guarantee high-speed and accurate results, with a reusability index for its components as high as 70%. Cigniti works with the client’s team to understand, analyze, plan, design, execute, document, and roll out a future ready test strategy that saves time and ensures a faster time to market.

For more information, please visit: https://www.cigniti.com/erp-testing