An Analysis of ERP Architectures

Industry analyst firm, Robert Frances Group (RFG) (www.experture.com), has produced a new report that takes an in-depth look at the role architecture plays in how much an ERP system is going to cost year after year. The report cites the SOA-based architectures of traditional ERP systems as requiring significant, highly trained IT involvement every time a business change is undertaken. In contrast, RFG finds the VITA architecture from UNIT4 Agresso was designed specifically to accommodate business change and can reduce or eliminate much of the costly IT spend that many executives have come to take for granted. The report provides a comparison of these approaches from both a technical and business perspective and is appropriate reading for CFOs and CIOs who face frequent business change and want to avoid ongoing annual resource investments.

RFG states that SOA as it exists today is nothing more than a set of principles and interface adapters that enable disparate, disjointed applications to work together. “SOA, therefore, is a means by which business intelligence, ERP, and other application packages communicate with one another and support business needs.” RFG concludes that simply connecting disparate technologies via SOA frameworks will not support business change.

In contrast, RFG notes, “The Agresso model is unique in the world of ERP systems in that it is built from the underlying business processes on down, from the results backwards, and incorporates the flexibility commonly used in relational database models. Agresso uses a single data model for its business logic, data dictionary, information delivery, and process flow across all its applications – business process automation, field services and asset management, financial management, HR & payroll, procurement, project costing and billing, and reporting and analytics. This consistency and cohesiveness enables Agresso applications to seamlessly work with one another and adapt to change without customisation or programming modification. Agresso also supports SOA interfaces so that external SOA-enabled application plug-ins can communicate and provide application services.”

The report concludes: “RFG believes Agresso's VITA architecture brings a unique value proposition to businesses and corporate executives that is unmatched in the ERP world. It enables executives to become operational faster, more economically, and without a large staff of consultants and programmers. Furthermore, business people can be self-sufficient in its use and modification, allowing companies to respond almost instantaneously to changing business needs without the overhead and delay injected by programmers and other IT staff. These factors should make Agresso's ERP solution the preferred choice amongst organisations that are constantly changing to meet shifting business and environmental requirements.”