The Impact of IT on Logistics – Part 2
It is no secret that IT-supported logistics management in the average Polish enterprise, whether commercial or manufacturing, is implemented with a high degree of arbitrary interpretation of the concept of logistics. In the vast majority of cases, the IT systems operating there only touch upon problems typical of logistics. As I mentioned previously, their “handling” of logistics boils down to the ability to register material flows based on documents used in warehousing processes. In this column, I will try to present my subjective assessment of the situation, which is the result of my own experience and observations identified in numerous articles by various authors, presented in magazines addressing the problems of management supported by IT systems.
The ERP systems market is currently in a phase of stabilization and will remain in it for the coming years. This is related to the enterprise model that companies are striving for, i.e., an enterprise that reacts quickly to changes regardless of its size. The small and medium-sized enterprise market also requires software that will keep up with the changing form of doing business. Such software should have a reasonable price, low maintenance costs, and high effectiveness.
Small enterprises are easy to define; they are companies where several, e.g., 10, users use the IT system. On the other hand, medium-sized companies are already a relative concept. In Polish realities, 50 users of an IT management system can mean quite a large enterprise. Smaller companies are often perceived as troublesome clients. They expect solutions offering wide capabilities, but not requiring the employment of IT specialists. This is somewhat natural, as they operate at a certain distance from purely IT issues, essentially focusing on their core business, viewing information technology – and rightly so – merely as a tool to streamline work.
P05-02.pdf
