What was the most difficult assessment item you completed so far in COIS12073 this term?

Answer: The assessment item -1 where I had to create an annotated bibliography was a new thing to me and was a bit difficult as well

What was difficult about it and how would you suggest it could be improved?

Answer: The word limit imposed and the referencing style was a bit confusing for me as I was collecting information from various types of sources. Well, if the word limit is removed it can become a bit easier.

If you could provide three (3) pieces of advice to a student who will be doing this course next term what would they be?

Answer: Always do their weekly question answers for the blog in weekly basis and start the annotated bibliography and the case study report well before the date of submission. Also discuss the assessment items with their course mates.

How will you be able to use this knowledge/these skills in your future career?

Answer: What I have learnt from this course will be very helpful for me in the future to work in an ERP system environment and managing implementation projects of ERP systems.

Q.2 Using Sumner (2005), read the article on pages 149 – 150. Answer the following: a. What aspects of BI have been employed in this case example? b. What would you expect to be the challenges facing the development of a BI approach for such a large organisation? c. Would Dow Corning be a suitable candidate for a shared services approach using an ASP? Justify and argue your answer

My response:

a) Dow Corning is planning to adapt a Data Warehouse and they are going to do so by using SAP’s Business Information Warehouse module  

b) The Dow Corning is a global organization and is operating world wide. The problem might arise when the organization will try transferring data within their branches and manufacturing plants situated in different parts of the world to the data warehouse system. Sophisticated computer programs and high performance server systems will be required to support the transfer process. However, prior to the establishment of the Data Warehouse the company will have to standardize their business practices and functions through all their branches and divisions to make sure a common data type is used.  

c) The advantages of adapting ASP:

a)  The company will not have to pay for expensive computer and servers anymore as they would if an ERP system was adapted

b)  Lower maintanence cost.

c)  Avoid upfront payment as it is required for an ERP system.

d)  Save money on consultation fees as ASP will take care of such matters.

On the other hand, there are some risks associated as well with the adaption of ARP.

a)      Depent on the reliability of ASP

b)      Data security

d)      Service quality.

e)      Flexibility

f)      Integration might become difficult.

At the end I would like to conlcude by saying that leaving the data in control of an external party is always a tough decision to make.

Rough outline of the presentation:

1. Introduction.
2. Purpose of the presentation and the topic of it.
3. The problems faced by RMIT with their People Soft ES.
4. My arguments toward selecting the option for RMIT.
5. Concluding with my recommendation.
6. Thanking the audience and welcome questions from them.

My response:

There are few external factors that can affect how and when an ERP system goes live. For the related organizations it is very important for them to keep close eyes on these factors.

Government policies:

Government policies may have an effect on the system goes live date. For example, if the government changes the tax payable rate for some items then the ERP system has to make changes within the system to perform accurate and valid calculations.

Infrastructural changes:

Change in the infrastructure can effect the go live date. For instance, a transport company adopting an ERP system is heavily dependent on the routes it takes for a truck to travel within the cities. For any reason if a major high-way is closed for a month then their cost of travel will increase and they will not be able to offer their service as they used to before. However, power suppliers and internet service providers can also delay the date by failing to supply the power or related service.

Unavoidable circumstances:

Natural digesters such as storm or flood can also delay the date of system going live and apart from the god’s will there are other situations like a bomb or terrorist threat or employees going on strikes can have an effect on the system go live date as well.

Presence of provisioning team:

The consultants or the people related to the provisioning team sometimes leave the project intentionally or unintentionally just before a day or two of the system going live and any problem occurring within that time can force the system to select a later go live date.

Users and their frame of mind:

Sometimes the training can not be finished within the anticipated date because of the skill level of the users. It is common that the users require additional training along with the training to work with the new ERP system. On the other hand, the frame of mind of the users can become an obstacle itself if the accept prejudice from their mates like using an ERP system is too difficult and stressful.

Tips for a good presentation

1)      Know the target audience and their background.

2)      Do plenty of auditions before the actual presentation

3)      Easy language to be used

4)      Speak to the audience and make eye contacts

5)      Pictoral and visual presentation of information

6)      Avoid jargon and too much information in one slide

7)      Use of appropiate humor and no generalized comments to be made on    sensitive    issues such as religious and racial issues.

8)  Use of good contrast in the slides and appropiate font size that is good to the eyes.

9) Welcome questions from the audience and answer them according to the context of the presentation.

My response:

1.

a) In my opinion a non manufacturing can also earn benefits by adapting an ERP system. Today, the ERP systems available in the market offer systems for manufacturing businesses using the manufacturing modules together with the other modules like accounting and finance, sales and order processing, stock and inventory, purchase and customer records etc. So, business which does not manufacture goods can still adapt an ERP system and use the other modules as per their requirement. ERP systems offered by Oracle are module based and have different modules for different business operations allowing all sorts of businesses to facilitate themselves by adapting ERP system. For instance a retailing business can decide to adapt an ERP system and implement the modules like accounting, purchase, sales or more only. It does not have to buy an entire ERP suit which includes the manufacturing module as well.  

b)

It was 1960’s when the ERP systems evolved for the first time. However, the systems developed during 1960’s had inventory management facilities only. In 1970 Material Requirement Planning (MRP) came into the market in which inventory modules became a part of it. The MRP systems provided various other facilities such as production scheduling, sales planning, order processing etc. Then in 1980’s MRP-II systems became available which introduced other modules like financial accounting, materials management to the world of business. Finally in 1990’s the modern ERP systems evolved and brought facilities such as human resource, customer profile and included the existing ones previously offered by MRP II systems.

So, looking back into the history tells us that the MRP system was the mother of the modern day’s ERP systems.

3.

Human Resources: this link is very important. A HR system usually provides information on the total human resource available to the business. The system takes employee skill level, area of work, and experience in the field all into consideration. So, there is also a need of regular updates to be performed so the business can use this information efficiently.

Sales and Distribution: is very important to the production and material management system. A business needs accurate information on sales forecast to maximize its profit. This link will help the system by providing accurate information about purchasing raw materials for production and will make the business avoid any over stocking. This module will help the business from over production in the same way. However, the module also records the buying patterns of the customers. For example, a buyer from Australia buying sports goods every year will not buy the same product throughout the year but buy it for the season when a particular sport is played in Australia.

Financial Accounting: the material management system update the accounting system regularly so that the suppliers can receive their payments correctly and on time. It helps the business not to make unnecessary payments for faulty or damaged material supplied and also enables the business to keep track of its production cost at all times.

Imagine that in the ERP implementation you are involved with, users that are reluctant to get involved with phase 2. What issues, problems and risks, both short and long term, does this present?

My response:

The involvement of the users is a necessity for a successful implementation of any ERP project. The information provided by the user is required by project implementation team to make sure that the project ERP system will serve its purpose. However, the involvement of the users is needed in before, during and even after the implementation. Otherwise if the ERP system is not able to serve its purpose efficiently it will result in employee frustration and they might even reject it at some stage.

It is hard for me to agree that total involvement from the end users is not a must during all the stages of the implementation phase. There might be different issues, problems and risks arising from the users not being involved. A few of them are discussed as the following:

Interfacing:

This is an area which is usually covered in the phase 2 of the implementation of an ERP system. Sometimes, the organizations are quite reluctant about considering the user involvement thinking that interfacing is a technical issue and the IT professionals will take a good care of it by themselves but this does not make much sense to me. Because interfacing sets up connection within two systems to communicate and transfer data in between. The user involvement will guarantee accurate data format and the correct gap in time intervals necessary in transactions was taken care of during the implementation phase. The users are the only ones who know what type of data format they are using and the variety of them in different operations. If users are not consulted it may happen that, data supplied by one system is not compatible by the other one or may result in incorrect billing to the customers of the organization.

Prototyping:

When it comes to prototyping the consultants and the IT professionals create an live environment very similar to the actual system but simulation based to demonstrate the use of live data in various functions and process cycles of the business. This simulation allows the user to see the system for the first time and the users can match their expectations and needs by participating in this process. If the users are unwilling to participate then the consultants will never know what the users were expecting from the system or whether the ERP system is well enough to face the needs of the business. The inputs from the users are very crucial to justify the role of the system according to the business flows, cycles and functionalities. It also makes sure that new problems will not be arising on or after the event of the system going live.

Business process re-engineering:

The involvement of end users is required in business process re-engineering because without taking the inputs from the users there is no way that a business process re-engineering can be brought to a success. Users are needed to be involved because they are the ones who experiences problems when the system goes live and they know about the business more than anyone else. Consulting the users encourages them to adapt a new a system and pass their views on how the business processes can be re-engineered to work more efficiently. If they are not considered as a part of the process and a re-engineered system is offered to them to use they might think there is too much to do with the re-engineered system and reject it at some stage if they are not familiar with it from before.

So, at the end I would again like to mention the involvement of the users is very much important in the implementation process of an ERP system. Organizations which have been successful in implementing an ERP system always had the user involvement before, during and after the implementation process.

Question:

Can an informed ERP adoption and selection decision be made without fully understanding the problem? Why or why not – justify your answer.

My response:

An informed ERP adoption and selection decision can not be made without a complete understanding of the problem. The professionals who are responsible for making decisions on an ERP system adoption need to recognize a company’s functions before they can step any further. Usually the professionals get to see a list of possibilities only after they have started to evaluate the scenario of a project.

However, before going any further the consultants need to identify all the problems with the current or the manual system in use. They also need to know what about the expectations from a new system and in order to do so and to improve the different functionalities of the business a clear understanding is a must.

The consultants or the company’s professionals have to take the responsibility for the work they do and they can only do so when they have a complete understanding about the company and its business and also what kind of activities will be required for the adoption of an ERP system. It is very common that the professionals need to talk to someone who is very closely related to the company in order to understand the scenario of the ERP project they work on.

The team of the professionals needs to learn how each sector of a business performs its operation, the characteristics of the business, the key people in the organization for individual functions of the business, how the current system of the company is operating, get to know the bottlenecks and their positions, what time in the year is the busiest for the business and the reasons for that, how tax issues are dealt and how to handle the customers of different kind who are related to the business etc.

However, the project team also has to maintain their efficiency according to the time frame given to them and make sure that all the resources required for the project will be available at all times.  

Q.2 Provide examples of events that you think may trigger alterations in a work plan. What would the consequences of such events be?

My response:

During the ERP implementation in different phases various events can force the project plan to be changed or altered. However, the consequences of these changes may vary and can result in acceptable to  serious damage to the ERP system provider and the company organization where ERP is being implemented. There are few common events which are responsible for project plan alterations:

1.Computer systems and other devices: it is very common that the organization where ERP is being implemented do not always have compatible computer hardware or other devices for the ERP software package. Sometimes, the company does not have a budget ready for a hardware upgrade and it is quite time consumable process to go through the decision process and get the fund ready for the required hardware. The consequences of a work plan alteration in this case is usually in a range of minimal to medium in monetary terms for the ERP provider but quite serious when time factors are considered.

2.Non-functional System: this this also a common event which occurs during ERP implementation. Sometimes the customer and the provider agrees to do some customization on the ERP system after the pre-implementation phase and the ERP vendor finds out that all the parts of the ERP system is working properly except the customized one, which makes the total system non-functional. This can cost the ERP provider a lot of money as the organization will hold them responsible for that and ask them to pay for the sufferings that the customer had experienced due to the delay of ERP system being full-functional.

3.Employee training and facilities required: it is not very uncommon that the employees of an organization are not skilled enough to use an ERP system and refuse to go for a training as they do not feel comfortable. The employees might have gone through the User Acceptance Test process but later became too busy with their work or think they might start thinking that the training required will be just a bit too much for them to learn. However, it is also common that the organization do not have enough training facilities for the ERP provider to train their staff or the employees might not co-operate because of their team leaders being absent. The consequences of this kind of event are normally overcome easily and do not always do a big damage to the ERP provider or the customer or the organization adopting the ERP system

4.However, sometimes the change in the requirements of the organization can stop the ERP system provider making the ERP software go live and can be proven costly to the ERP vendor.

5.There is also another event which occurs very often that the ERP adopting organization needs its’ other branches of business to be linked and work parallel with the ERP software and the ERP system vendors find it hard to make that possible because the other business might work under a different platform or may not compatible with their ERP system.

Week 4

Q.2 Read the Sumner (2005) case study on pages 52 – 56. Address the following questions: b. What advantages would an ERP provide to Wingate Electric? What other options does Wingate Electric have instead of adopting an ERP?

My response:

In the case of Wingate Electric the organization is struggling with data redundancy and also facing trouble to make queries into its’ database to prepare reports and their entire system is not integrated at all. However, Wingate Electric is willing to move into the e-commerce environment to cope up with the company’s competitors. In a situation like this, adopting an ERP system will help the company get rid of the problems it has at the moment and benefit Wingate with e-commerce and all other aspects of its’ business process.

1.An ERP system can provide integration for the whole business process of Wingate Electric. ERP can bring the finance, sales, payroll and stock available etc. departments all together and the different departments can share data amongst them without requesting or waiting for each other to respond.

2.If an ERP system is adopted by Wingate Electric it can make the database make changes or update in a real time environment. Which will provide updated information to everyone related to the company and save them from receiving invalid data about its products. However, this is very important when the company will be operating in an e-commerce environment.

3.ERP system can definitely make it easier for the company to pass queries to the database and help it to prepare standard reports without spending too much time.

4.With the help of an ERP system Wingate will be able to reduce its’ business cycle time and do their business more efficiently and maximize profit.

5.However, ERP can also allow Wingate Electric to do re-engineering of their business process if the decision makers of the organization consider that appropriate for their business.

Week 3

Q.3 If an organisation has business processes that do not match any commercially available ERP, should the organisation adopt an ERP? Provide factors for and against and suggest other possible considerations that would factor in your reasoning.

My response:

It is not necessary that the business process of an organization will have to match the ERP systems offered in the market. However, if it is the case then it is not very easy for to decide whether to adopt an ERP or continue operation without it. Usually adopting an ERP system provides an organization with many benefits which are not possible without the help of ERP. But, if an organization’s operating process does not match with the ERP systems currently available then there are only two options that the organization will have to choose from. One of these is, re-engineering the business process and the other is customizing the ERP system according to the needs of the business if the organization really wants to adopt an ERP system and this is the most difficult decision to make for an organization as there are advantages and disadvantages resulting both from the business re-engineering and ERP system customization.

Advantages:

A business can still adopt an ERP system even if its’ operation process does not match with the ERP systems offered. As discussed before, one way of doing that re-engineering the business process to suit the ERP system.

1.     The leaders of ERP system providers like Oracle seldom apply the best practices method for designing an ERP system. The best practice method simply means the best possible way of performing a process. The ERP vendors do it from their experience from the past and making judgment on the business size, operation process and the needs mentioned by the organization. However, best practice method applied for an ERP system can add speed to business process, reduce cycle times and save money to the organization by inventory reduction and all together result in generating more profit for the business compared to when ERP was not adopted.

2.     An ERP system can provide a business with a feature of data sharing which is very important for the decision makers of a business. The decision maker can access all the data related to the business and avoid waiting for other departments to respond.

3.     ERP systems also allow business to work under a real-time environment, which is quite helpful for time factors related information update within the business. This reduces errors occurring from wrong information provided to the people involved with the business. For an example, if a product has been sold and if it was the last item left in the stock, soon the item is sold the ERP will show item no more available to all users and save them making the mistake of selling the item again.

4.     People outside the business but related to it can access information according to their level of importance and they can also receive quicker responses than before with that feature being present.

5.     ERP system keeps business up to date with its inventory and helps it to get rid of them quickly which results in greater profit for the business.

Disadvantages:

When it comes to re-engineering a business process there are risks involved with it as well. Business process re-engineering can limit a business process in flexibility. To suit an ERP system a business might need to compromise with a change in the process which they were doing in a better way before. On the other hand, if an organization prefers to customize an ERP system rather than changing its’ business process and builds an “in-house” system it can be very time consuming and expensive.

Week 2

Q.4 Stuff-Up.Org (fictitious organization at the time or writing) has an ailing set of in-house developed legacy systems (if you don’t know what a legacy system is – look up the term on the web). It has been decided that the IT department will be tasked to investigate the possibility of adopting an ES. If they recommend ES adoption, then it has also been decided that they will be tasked with evaluating products and recommending a product to the CEO. What might be wrong with this situation? What problems do you see arising?

My response:

An “in-house” developed legacy system does not allow the business to perform a re-engineering of the business process and can not take the competitive benefits of data integration and standardization. However, a business having a legacy system can decide to adopt an Enterprise System (ES), but it will entail many stakeholders ranging from top executives to data entry operators. In a situation like this Stuff-Up.org has decided its IT desk to investigate the possibilities of adopting an ES. However there are a few things which can go wrong in this particular case.

Firstly, the personnel of the IT department will be the only people doing the investigation on the feasibility of adopting an ES and it is quite impossible for the IT department to understand the operation of the business in detail when all the working processes of other departments as administration, human resources, accounting etc are concerned. On the other hand, the possible perspective that will be resulting from the investigation of the IT department being working as an individual group will be more technology focused and might loose the touch of actual real life scenario and complications involved with various departments’ working process and their expectations.

Secondly, without taking opinions of other departments of the business and having them involved in the investigation will leave a big gap between what is going to be done and what is actually required by the end users. So, once the new ES has been designed and it is ready to be implemented, there will be problems. So, if it becomes difficult to implement the ES, it might need to be re-designed or discarded then it will cost money to Stuff-Up.org in will be proven as a business loss.

Finally, the stakeholders typically have multiple and often conflicting objectives and priorities and rarely agree on a set of common aims. Even if the IT department recommends the adoption, there are a few things yet to be considered before the adoption of ES. Such as the new ES proposal may include an upgrade of the company’s existing computer hardware and the stakeholders may disagree with that thinking that it will to expensive to buy new computer hardware for the system. Last but not the least; the new ES might require employee training to use a new system and the employees who will be operating the system might come up with a denial of going under the training process.