Technology

The technology behind GFEBS is SAP—a commercial ERP financial management system.

What is ERP?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software packages that improve organizational performance in the following ways:

  • Provide enterprise view of data. Instead of having different parts of the organization using different systems which have to be aggregated, all users operate in the same system. This allows senior management to access information for the entire enterprise quickly and easily, resulting in better decision-making. In addition, data is used consistently across the enterprise, rather than having inconsistent data across multiple systems. Finally, data entry frequently is reduced, since users in one part of the organization easily can see and use data that is captured in another part of the organization.
  • Provide real-time data processing. Instead of requiring data to move through multiple systems and interfaces that may involve time lags, data in ERP systems is processed instantaneously. For example, the financial impacts of purchasing or receiving actions are immediately reflected in the general ledger, rather than waiting for an interface to run.
  • Standardize business processes. Because all users in the organization use the same system, this forces organizations to streamline and standardize their business processes. Organizations that undergo this process typically find that the reasons why different processes evolved in the past no longer exist, and there are significant cost savings to be realized through process standardization.
  • Implement best practices. ERP software brings with it recommended best business practices from thousands of successful implementations in both government and commercial organizations. While organizations can configure the software to operate differently due to unique requirements, most organizations that implement ERP systems adopt many of the best practices that are inherent in the ERP packages.

What is SAP?

Systems Application and Products (SAP) is the world's largest ERP software company and the world's third-largest independent software supplier overall. This company develops and supports a suite of ERP software components which typically are referred to simply as “SAP” or “SAP ECC.” Key components of SAP’s suite of software products which will be used for the GFEBS project.