Configuring an ERP system is largely a matter of balancing the way you want the system to work with the way the system lets you work. Begin by deciding which modules to install, then adjust the system using configuration tables to achieve the best possible fit in working with your company’s processes.
Modules - Most systems are modular simply for the flexibility of implementing some functions but not others. Some common modules, such as finance and accounting are adopted by nearly all companies implementing enterprise systems; others however such as human resource management are not needed by some companies and therefore not adopted. A service company for example will not likely need a module for manufacturing. Other times companies will not adopt a module because they already have their own proprietary system they believe to be superior. Generally speaking the greater number of modules selected, the greater the integration benefits, but also the increase in costs, risks and changes involved.
Configuration Tables – A configuration table enables a company to tailor a particular aspect of the system to the way it chooses to do business. For example, an organization can select the type of inventory accounting – FIFO or LIFO – it will employ or whether it wants to recognize revenue by geographical unit, product line, or distribution channel.
So what happens when the options the system allows just aren’t good enough? At this point a company has two choices, both of which are not ideal. It can re-write some of the enterprise system’s code, or it can continue to use an existing system and build interfaces between it and the new enterprise system. Both options will add time and cost to the implementation process. Additionally they can dilute the system’s integration benefits. The more customized the system becomes the less possible seamless communication becomes between suppliers and customers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_resource_planning
EAI can be used for different purposes:
Data (information) integration: ensuring that information in multiple systems is kept consistent. This is also known as EII (Enterprise Information Integration).
Process integration: linking business processes across applications.
Vendor independence: extracting business policies or rules from applications and implementing them in the EAI system, so that even if one of the business applications is replaced with a different vendor's application, the business rules do not have to be re-implemented.
Common facade: An EAI system could front-end a cluster of applications, providing a single consistent access interface to these applications and shielding users from having to learn to interact with different applications.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_application_integration
AmpliGrid-System - The art of downscaling biological reactions
With the AmpliGrid system Olympus has introduced a superior PCR platform for ultra low volume applications in the 1µL range, based on a chemically structured microscope slide. With this innovative system, sensitivity, efficiency and reproducibility are reliable constants for single cell analysis, low-copy number approaches and ultra low volume amplification techniques.
Due to the two-dimensional layout of the AmpliGrid, single cells can easily be deposited on the slide surface, e.g. by a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS), micromanipulator or by microdissection, rendering a variety of single cell applications possible as well as providing full access to the “one-cell genome”. For quantification purposes the AmpliGrid system can be combined with any commercial real time PCR instrument. This allows verifying established population results from one single cell.
The AmpliGrid system is complemented by the AmpliSpeed slide cycler, a compact instrument specifically designed for performing thermal cycling reactions on glass slides.
The AmpliGrid system allows multiple options for single cells, such as:
Genetic typing of single cells
Single cell sequencing
Copy number variations in single cells and
Combined immuno-phenotyping and single cell expression analysis
http://www.bionity.com/products/e/77449/
