Web Navigation, MRP, ERP, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning

Companies are becoming more distributed or virtual in their working environments and organizational structures. Their Information Technology delivery systems have to become more distributed and scalable as well. Many of Web Navigation's customers are also trying to navigate a path to new ERP systems or adding major functionality to their current environments. This makes managing an IT department difficult if not impossible in growing companies. Just finding and hiring the right IT professionals and maintaining hardware and service levels can be daunting for companies.

This describes the service that Web Navigation can offer our customers who are considering one of two strategies for IT delivery. The first kind of customer who might make use of our service is the customer who is moving to a new platform for their ERP system over the next few years. The second kind of customer is the one who is growing geographically and wants to set up a mostly virtual information technology system that can service the distributed company.

The first kind of customer faces some difficulty in handling the transition from the current system to the target system. This customer usually does not have extra IT staff to handle both the current system and the new system. Usually the ideal situation is to retain their current staff and have them retrained on the new system. This prevents turnover and helps the company's familiarity with the new system. The problem is the current staff is fully employed in dealing with the current system. This makes it tough for them to deal with the various challenges of the new system.

The second type of customer is facing another set of challenges. They have to hire and train new IT staff to handle the growing needs of the company. They have to manage a growing infrastructure as the company grows. They have to implement a common IT organization as they acquire new plants and phase out old systems. All of these challenges require a distributed, scalable approach to information technology delivery.

One of the solutions for these kinds of business pains is called Application Service Provider or ASP Services. IDC Corporation defines this service as: "service firms that provide a contractual service offering to deploy, host, manage, and lease what is typically packaged application software from a centrally-managed facility. Customers gain access to the applications through the Internet or dedicated leased lines."

Web Navigation's solution is to provide access to their applications and third party systems to customers over the Internet. This requires hardware farms and software compatible with the needs of Web Navigation as well as the customer. The solution involves combining the most secure Internet technologies and the most reliable hardware with advanced management and monitoring software. This solution is hardware and software compatible with the virtual office solution that Web Navigation will set up for its own use.

Customers have the benefit of moving forward on their system migrations and growth plans without having to shoulder the entire burden of infrastructure necessary to support those plans. They also get the advantage of a professionally run operation. A managed approach to providing information technology without the start up costs involved in expanding their own systems. Since Web Navigationis using the same technology, both hardware and software, to run the virtual operations, the customer can have high confidence that their needs are being met with experienced and dedicated concern for quality.