This book presents the old concept of Theory of Constraints (TOC) to fit the needs of an IT vendor environment. It is written in a ‘Business novel’ style, making the whole concept easy to read as well as easy to understand.
The primary focus is on ERP packages, so, the author uses a fictitious ERP product company & takes us on a journey through its problems. Most people who have been following the ups & downs of ERP firms like Oracle, SAP & Peoplesoft will easily relate to the problems presented in the book.
The contents of the book will be directly useful to the ES division of Infosys, but, other people can also benefit greatly since the concepts can be mapped to whatever software one is working on.
Initial chapters are quite light as they are only trying to set the context for upcoming problems. After about Chapter five, more issues are brought up & lead to some interesting reading.
The book brings up the topic of ‘Technology and Value’ & tries to point people in the direction of doing technology for the sake of bringing value to the end user & not doing technology just for the sake of doing it. The discussion also points to some common sense business questions like ‘What is the bottom line impact by introducing a new technology?’ & helps readers to think up solutions.
Further in the book, the author delves into manufacturing processes & topics like Inventory control. These topics give IT people like us, a good understanding of Manufacturing concepts & helps in case any of us work for Manufacturing clients.
Towards the end, there is a feeling that the book has either ended abruptly or the author is opening the door to write a sequel. Never the less, it is a good conceptual read & leads the way to some interesting ideas and possibilities in our thought process.