Microsoft, CGEY develop smart client for ERP

Stanley Glancy / Mumbai

In an effort to drive the functionality of Office, Microsoft, in partnership with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY), has developed Office as a smart client (OSC) for ERP users in India. The OSC, which has been specifically developed keeping Indian conditions in mind, uses Microsoft Office XP as the front-end and SAP at the back-end. The OSC is the first product to be jointly developed by the global partners for the Indian market. For Microsoft, which has primarily been an OEM supplier, the development of the solution is a big foray into the business solutions area.

Reduced costs, ease of deployment, ease of developing customised reports, reduced employee time in manually generating reports and greater flexibility in viewing data from the ERP system are some of the benefits promised by the OSC. Thanks to the familiar interface, OSC cuts down on the cost of training end-users. Additionally, the familiar interface helps reduce any inhibitions that some end-users typically have with respect to the adoption of new systems. Said N B Sundar of Microsoft India, “The smart client can significantly cut down on costs by reducing dependence on expensive ERP licenses. The total cost of ownership (TCO) is one-third that of any traditional ERP product currently available in the market. And in terms of ease of use and integration with the existing system OSC is way ahead of comparable products.”

Added Animesh Parihar of CGEY, “Time to information is the biggest benefit. In traditional ERP systems the front-end is typically not user friendly. But the smart client leverages the strength of Office as a front-end and can significantly improve the speed and quality of the decision-making process. The solution provides a user with more flexibility in viewing and interacting with data by leveraging tools such as Excel, which helps in easier data analysis.” Since it sits right on SAP it reduces the pressure on the main system as otherwise SAP has to generate the report. Since all the reports are generated outside of the main system the system is left free to focus solely on transactions.

Initially, the solution will be offered only on the SAP platform but according to Sundar, the product works equally well with any ERP platform. The companies plan to offer the product on JD Edwards, Siebel and even on Navision by the end of the year. The partners are targeting between 20-25 companies by end-September.