Enterprise Resource Planning

Transcription

1 Alta Dirección y Tecnologías de la Información Carolin Bieler Nan Zhang

2 Contents I. Explanation of the Exercise II. Positive Points of the Presentation III. Possible Improvements of the Presentation 1. Improvement of the Layout and the Comprehensibility 2. Improvement of the Contents IV. References

3 I. Explanation of the Exercise Elaborate a suggestion for the improvement of the document Aplicaciones empresariales. ERP with the help of the following two documents: a) Kuldeep, Hillegersberg (2000) b) Página web ERP, Definitions and Solutions: II. Positive Points of the Presentation - In general the presentation about ERP is very easy to understand and gives a good introduction into the extensive topic of enterprise resource planning systems. - The given information is presented by graphics or short bullet points in order to get the most important information at first sight. - Many information given in the presentation can be found in both resources, the CIO web page and the article of Kuldeep and Hillegersberg. Out of this it can be concluded that the contents of the presentation is up to date and very reliable. - On slide number 32 and 38 the tasks of the CEOs and the change management when implementing an ERP system are considered. The CIO web page mentioned that it is a necessity that the employees change the way of doing their business. They have to adapt to the new processes to make good use of the ERP system. Their participation helps not only to shorten the length of the implementation phase, but it also helps that the project will be a successful project and doesn t fail. Due to these aspects I think that the change management is a really important fact that can t be neglected on it is good that it is mentioned in the presentation. - The CIO web page also talks about the costs of an ERP system and the timeframe in which these high sums will be paid back. In order to give a first introduction into the complex topic of ERP I think that this point is not that important and doesn t have to appear in the presentation. This point is getting more important when you already know what an ERP is and when you want to go into more detail, e.g. when you are thinking about implementing it in your company. 1

4 III. Possible Improvements of the Presentation 1. Improvement of the Layout and Comprehensibility - At the beginning of the presentation an overview of the contents would be helpful in order to get a first insight of what the topic is about. - Furthermore, not every slide has a heading. This would help to see at the first sight what the slide with its different graphics is talking about. Additionally the design of each slide should be the same. A harmonic view reflects order and makes it easier to read the slides. - Some images are unsharp and hard to read. It would be advantageous to improve the quality of copied images. An indication of the source would also be helpful if someone wants to have further information and explanations about the graphic. - As already mentioned in the previous bullet point, there are missing quotes and references that allow the student to search for further additional information if needed to understand the topic better. 2. Improvement of the Contents - Giving some different definitions of ERP would be helpful to introduce this extensive topic. Here you can see the definition of Kuldeep, Hillegersberg (2000): Enterprise resource planning systems are configurable information systems packages that integrate information and information-based processes within and across functional areas in an organization. Another definition of the CIO web page ERP, Definitions and solutions is: Enterprise resource planning software, or ERP [...] attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all those different departments particular needs. - In order to understand the model of an ERP it would also be helpful to add the evolution of the ERP starting with the standard inventory control (IC), going on with the material requirement planning and materials resource planning (MRP I and II), followed by the enterprise resource planning systems (ERP I and II). Also important concerning the evolutions is that first, there has been an internal optimization of the supply chain 2

5 followed by an external optimization of the value added chain (see Kuldeep, Hillegersberg (2000)). - There are no examples of how an ERP works, e.g. an example of a customer order like given on the CIO web page. Examples would help to understand what an ERP is, how it works and makes it more comprehensible and tangible for people who didn t work with it yet. Additionally, it helps to understand why a company should implement it, what kind of problems could be solved and how it can improve the overall business performance. - Furthermore, there are no examples of different ERP system providers or the most famous ones like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Peoplesoft etc. Maybe a student already worked with such a system but didn t realize that it is an ERP system. A distinction between free and open-source ERP software and proprietary ERP software could be added, too. - The CIO web page also mentions the five major reasons why companies undertake ERP. These reasons are that to integrate financial information, integrate customer order information, standardize and speed up manufacturing processes, reduce inventory and standardize HR information. To fix these problems an ERP can be very useful and these examples help to understand why a company implements such a system. 3

6 - Slide number 12 shows graphics of two different ERP models. One new trend, a cloud computing model is missing. This means that the ERP system will be provided in the cloud. This trend is called on-demand or software-as-a-service (SaaS). The web page CIO explains in a very simple way what it is and how it is working. One more graphic showing this model could be added. - Slide number 9 shows the challenges of an ERP and of its implementation. Hidden costs could be added to this point. Everyone knows that the implementation of an ERP system in a company is very expensive. However, many people don t see the hidden costs that can occur after its implementation. This can be additional costs for training, integration and testing, customization, data conversion, data analysis, consultants etc. These costs make the actual ERP project much more costly than it seemed to be at the beginning of the project and it is very important that you take these additional costs into account in order to make your ERP project being successful. - One big factor of whether the ERP implementation will be successful or not depends on the organization of the ERP project. There are different forms how you can implement an ERP, these are big bang, franchising strategy, slam dunk and ondemand. On the CIO web page the different strategies are explained by giving advantages and disadvantages and telling which strategy suits most to which kind of business. The organization of the project is an important success factor that should be 4

7 mentioned in the presentation. In addition, an alternative strategy to reduce the challenges and disadvantages of the implementation of the ERP can be added. According to Kuldeep, Hillegersberg (2000) the idea of software components is a strategy that relies on composing large systems from largely independent components that are assembled to meet situation-specific requirements. - The slides have a relatively complete description of an ERP but a conclusion is missing. Furthermore, a perspective of future trends has been made in the article of Kuldeep, Hillegersberg (2000). It s better to include a conclusion with some points of those possible changes or improvements in the future. These future trends could be for example to provide the platform for decision support, data mining and executive systems. Or that enterprise-wide information is likely to expand to include multimedia documents such as engineering drawings, scanned documents and audiovisual product descriptions. IV. References - Kumar, Kuldeep; Hillegersberg, Jos van (2000): ERP, Experiences and Evolution. Communications of the ACM, 43 (4), pp , Date of reference , kumar.pdf?ip= &id=332063&acc=active%20service&key=c2716feb FA981EF16EC87D357F680533D3A982125F01EECE&CFID= &CFTOKEN= & acm = _0a446b dc e - Wailgum, Thomas (2008): ERP Definitions and Solutions - ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) topics covering definition, objectives, systems and solutions. Date of reference , Carolin Bieler Nan Zhang 5