ERP, CRM, $500,000 and $700,000, I must have been nuts
I was going through some of my old business plans today and was shocked and amazed of how much things have changed in the web world. One section of my business plan caught my attention more than others; Technology. You can read it below.
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3.4 Technology
Our technology investments will be concentrated in four areas, ERP systems for e-commerce fulfillment and business automation, CRM for customer relationship management, profiling, and site customization, site hosting, and Web Design/Development.
Our first phase ERP and CRM technologies are currently being implemented by eQuarius, Inc. in Seattle, Washington. The platforms for ERP and CRM are Great Plains and Onyx respectively. EQuarius is one of the top e-business implementers of both Onyx and the Great Plains products in the country. Both Great Plains and Onyx lie on top of the Windows NT operating system, and both software vendors have very strong ties with Microsoft. The site itself will be hosted on Microsoft’s Site Server platform. Equarius has conducted many successful similar implementations, and the risk of cost overruns due to technical snags is minimal.
The site and all critical applications will be hosted by Futurelink Corporation of Irvine, California. Futurelink will be responsible for all hardware, backups, security, upgrades, and ensuring the proper functioning of all applications. They will maintain a redundant copy of the site at another one of their hosting facilities in Canada. In the event that local conditions have a significant impact on the performance of the California site, the Canadian site will act as a backup.
Our first phase architecture will consist of a hybrid 2-tier/N-tier architecture. Great Plains has developed a series of COM objects enable a robust and cost-effective 2-tier implementation with Site Server. Our initial implementation of Great Plains will make use of these standard objects. Equarius will build an middle tier on the front end of Onyx as part of the Phase I project. Phase II will expand this middle tier to Great Plains. The creation of a comprehensive middle tier reduces the likelihood of site downtime, eases the integration with drop-shippers’ systems and other systems, and speeds up the response time from the consumer’s perspective. Assuming adequate financing, we expect to have this tier in place and tested prior to the Christmas shopping season. We estimate that the total cost for implementing Phase II will range between $500,000 and $700,000. This includes approximately $200,000 for integrating suppliers’ warehouses. This will cover the integration of anywhere from 2-7 warehouses, depending on the state of their existing systems.
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This is definitely one of those hindsight things. If I knew then what I know now, well, let’s just say, I would have done things a whole hell of a lot differently. What were we thinking; ERP, CRM, N-tier architecture. Even then we could have gotten by with much, much less. Today, I could certainly build a robust e-commerce (front and back end) web site for next to nothing. Live and learn.
technorati tags: erp, crm, ecommerce, greatplains, onyx
