>I think ERP systems are held in high esteem because they have a reputation for providing mature data models with mature front ends that can be used to integrate many of a business's data systems on a large scale. For the most part, I think that SAP and PeopleSoft and the others accomplish this.

Are you talking about the same system that I am using?? The GUI is really quite poor, according to all users here, not just me. "Mature" is not even close to a word I would use to describe the front-end. Awkward, incomplete, and buggy is more like it, though how much of this is customized I don't know.

I think your DB model statement may be accurate, however, I have not heard any complaints from our Financial DB staff here.