Discrete Enterprise Resource Planning (Discrete ERP) RFP Template Sample

1.1

General Ledger

General ledger (GL) keeps centralized charts of accounts and corporate financial balances. It supports all aspects of the business accounting process. In this module, financial accounting transactions are posted, processed, summarized, and reported. It maintains a complete audit trail of transactions and enables individual business units to view their financial information, while parent companies can roll up all business subsidiaries and view the consolidated information. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the functionality such as chart of accounts structure; ledger development and maintenance; financial consolidation and reporting; journal entry; journal voucher ledger transactions; project cost ledger; ledger controls; multicurrency accounting and conversions; on-line inquiry reporting; financial statement reporting; financial report writer; variance analysis; and additional financial reporting.

1.2

Accounts Payable

Accounts payable (AP) schedules bill payments to suppliers and distributors, and keeps accurate information about owed money, due dates, and available discounts. It provides functionality and integration to other areas such as customer service, purchasing, inventory, and manufacturing control. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the following functionality: AP company policies and procedures; suppliers/voucher master data; payment controls; invoice processing and aging analysis; payment processing; journal voucher processing; AP ledger posting; check processing; AP transactions and controls; and AP reporting.

1.3

Fixed Assets

Fixed assets (FA) manages depreciation and other costs associated with tangible assets such as buildings, property and equipment. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the following functionality: fixed assets records; asset transactions; asset depreciation; depreciation books; revaluation and interest calculation; and tax reporting.

1.4

Cost Accounting

Cost accounting analyzes corporate costs related to overhead, products, and manufacturing orders. It provides a variety of costing approaches such as standard, FIFO, LIFO, average, target, and activity-based costing (ABC). 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the following functionality: cost data; cost allocation definitions; cost allocation process; cost management; cost and sales price calculation; activity based costing (ABC); and activity based cost tracing and tracking.

1.5

Cash Management

Cash management involves the capability of the system to record cash charges or deposits, recording of cash payments and receipts, cash projection reporting, calculation of expected cash uses/sources, current cash availability, etc. It monitors and analyzes cash holdings, financial deals, and investment risks.

1.6

Budgeting

Budgeting involves budgetary controls, budget accounting, budget development, and budget allocation. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should provide sufficient tools to enable detailed budget development and analysis. Additional functionality should be available to integrate with project management software applications either natively or with external interfaces.

1.7

Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable (AR) tracks payments due to a company from its customers. It contains tools to control and expedite the receipt of money from the entry of a sales order to posting payments received. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the following functionality: AR company policies and procedures; customers/voucher master data; bill processing and aging analysis; credit management; cash/payment application, receipt processing; journal voucher processing; AR ledger posting; multicurrency accounting and conversions; AR transactions and controls; and AR reporting.

1.8

Financial Reporting

Financial reporting enables robust analysis of company performance through delivered reports. These reports will allow individual business units to view their financial information, while parent companies can roll up all business subsidiaries and view the consolidated information. 

Additionally, discrete ERP solutions should provide user-generated reporting tools that are easy to use and provide sufficient depth of and access to the financial data to permit comprehensive analysis.

1.9

Project Accounting

Project accounting monitors costs and work schedules on a project-by-project basis. It usually includes the following sub-modules: project control, project analyzer, project budgeting, project timekeeping, project billings, contract management, and workflow communicator.

2.1

Personnel Management

Personnel management automates personnel processes including recruitment, personnel profile, organizational structure, career development & training, reward management, job position and wage profiles, and business travel and vacation allotments. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the following functionality: recruitment management; personnel information and tracking; organizational structuring; lob position and salary profile; career development, training and performance management; compensation management; budgeting and cost control; government compliance reporting; expenses management; union information; discipline actions and grievances tracking; and employment history/personnel reporting.

2.2

Benefits

The Benefits section administers a diverse range of benefit plans such as health and medical, life and supplemental life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D), disability plans, flexible benefits, 401(k) plans, profit sharing plans, stock plans, retirement plans, and leave plans including vacation and sick leave accruals. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the following functionality: base benefits; employee benefit plan profile; benefits administration; and pension administration.

2.3

Payroll

Payroll handles accounting and preparation of checks related to employee salaries, wages, and bonuses. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should support the following functionality: employee payroll profile; earnings and deductions; eligibility controls; user balances; tax deductions and calculation; payroll calculation; payroll and payment processing; check processing and printing; labor distribution and accounting; payroll and regulatory reporting; IRS documentation; security and audit; and automated timesheets.

2.4

Employee Self-Service

Employee self-service lets workers access their personal information and benefit allocations on-line to manage life events and benefit selections without having to send forms to human resources. 

The Discrete ERP software solution should also support benefit enrollment programs and new hire initiation.

2.5

Data Warehousing

Data warehousing simply defined, is a place for data, whereas data warehousing describes the process of defining, populating, and using a data warehouse. Creating, populating, and querying a data warehouse typically carries an extremely high price tag, but the return on investment can be substantial.

2.6

Health and Safety

Health and safety provides the tools to administer compliance with the health and safety regulations, accident and injury reporting, and tracking of lost time by employee.

3.1

Product Costing

Product costing analyzes product costs related to overhead, labor, material, and manufacturing costs. It provides a variety of costing approaches such as standard, actual, and average.

3.2

Shop Floor Control

Shop floor control provides control and tracking of the status of production orders in the plant. It involves production orders dispatching, capacity planning, resource allocation, production tracking and reporting, and waste/reject tracking.

3.3

Field Service and Repairs

Field service and repairs administers installed-base service agreements and checks contracts and warranties when customers call for help.

3.4

Production Planning

Production planning performs capacity planning and creates a daily/weekly/monthly production schedule for a company's manufacturing plants. It involves forecasting, production scheduling, and material planning.

3.5

Project Management

Project management monitors costs and work schedules on a project-by-project basis. It usually includes the following sub-modules: project control, project analyzer, project budgeting, project timekeeping, project billings, contract management, and a workflow communicator.

3.6

Product Data Management (PDM)

Product data management (PDM) provides the ability to integrate at the engineering level to ensure accurate updated product information. It involves bills of materials and routings creation, and engineering change management. It also provides a consolidated view of the product.

3.7

Product/Item Configurator

A product/item configurator is a software tool that simplifies order entry by asking which options the customer needs, then applies predefined rules to correctly configure the end products. The configurator then populates the attributes of the newly configured item, tests for conflicts, and generates the appropriate bill of material, routing, and price based on rules and calculations. As configurators have grown to include more sales, marketing, and financial functions such as pricing, cost analysis, and order status, the term "sales" configurator is being applied to more aptly describe their extended role. What began as a need to reduce the amount of manual engineering design processes and verification of configuration accuracy regarding complex products has exploded into a rich set of functions designed to better manage customer-supplier relations as well as streamline the sales cycle. As a result, today's "to-order" manufacturers have tools to determine much more than whether or not a configuration can be built. They can control the entire order-management process. By solving possible manufacturing incompatibilities up-front during order entry, and providing costing, pricing, and other sales analysis data, companies can make better decisions earlier, which eliminates errors and speeds time-to-market.

4.1

Inventory Management On-line Requirements

4.2

Processing Requirements

4.3

Data Requirements

4.4

Reporting and Interfacing Requirements (Inventory Management)

4.5

Locations and Lot Control

4.6

Forecasting

4.7

Reservations and Allocations

4.8

Inventory Adjustments

5.1

Vendor and Supplier Profile

5.2

Supplier Rating and Profile

5.3

Requisitions and Quotations

5.4

Purchase Orders

5.5

Prices and Discounts

5.6

Vendor Contracts and Agreements

5.7

Purchase Order Management

5.8

Procurement Reporting, On-line Reporting Capability

5.9

Repetitive Vendor Procurement

5.10

Procurement Receipts

5.11

Purchasing Management On-line Requirements

5.12

Reporting and Interfacing Requirements (Purchasing Management)

6.1

Defective or excess material return processing must update on-hand

6.2

Customer return file: awaiting disposition

6.2

Damaged material--corrective action and failure analysis available to vendor on-line

6.3

Inspection required indicator by supplier and by item

6.4

Pre-inspection receipts registered as "inventory on hold"

6.5

On-line inquiry of inspection and material review board (MRB) queue

6.6

Validation against automated inspection criteria

6.7

Inspection disposition with audit trail

6.8

Disposition delinquency report

6.9

Quantity rejected

6.10

Reject reason codes

7.1

On-line Sales Management Requirements

7.2

Reporting and Interfacing requirements

7.3

Available-to-Promise (ATP)

Automated available-to-promise (ATP) is achieved by giving order takers access to inventory and capacity information, and in some cases even vendor information, so that they are able to commit to reliable delivery dates while the customer is still on the phone.

7.4

Pricing and Discounting

Pricing and discounting modules help automate the data entry process of customer orders and track the status of orders. It involves order entry, order tracing and status reporting, pricing, and invoicing. 

It also provides basic functionality for lead tracking, customer information, quote processing, and pricing and rebates.

7.5

Customer Service and Returned Goods Handling

7.6

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and E-commerce Requirements

Ranges from simple, off-the-shelf contact management solutions to high-end interactive selling suites that combine sales, marketing, and executive information tools. These include product configuration, quote and proposal management, and marketing encyclopedias. 

Some Discrete ERP systems extend functions to include complex pricing, promotions, commission plans, team selling, and campaign management. Enterprise-level solutions installed at large companies with hundreds or even thousands of users have capabilities for call centers/help desks, field service, forecasting, and analysis.

8.1.

Architecture

8.2.

User Interface

8.3.

Platforms

8.4.

Application Tools

8.5.

Workflow and Document Management

8.6.

Reporting