Comparative ERP Implementation Strategies -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Comparative ERP Implementation Strategies? Answer: Introduction Before an organization considers developing a system to implement, it may consider sourcing for a system that fits their description of requirements from the vendors. These applications or system s are often referred to as vendor-off-the-shelf applications. The factors considered by the organization depend on the type of organization in question. In this case, the organization in question is business oriented organization and its requirements must be viewed in a business perspective or angle Nagpal et.al (2015, May). In case of accounting, resources, labor, customers and decision making are put into consideration. They are well specified and documented before sourcing for a system. The will act as a score card during the search and implementation of a suitable system for the organization. Business Requirements and challenges The following are the business requirements an ERP should accommodate or cover in its scope Amid et.al (2012): Finance revolves around money and accounting. This involves financial, managerial accounting, treasury, asset management, control of budget, expenditure, and control of the enterprise. Logistics. It is based on the flow of activities in a business firm or organization. For instance production planning, material, project and events management. Human resource management which revolves around the management of employees and personnel of a given organization or facility. It also involves personnel training where employees are trained on new emerging technologies and ways of tackling new issues. Supply involves activities like Inventory control, purchase and order control, supplier scheduling, planning that requires delivery, delivery modes and services offered to the customers of a business premise. Allocation of work. This is responsible for the allocation of jobs or tasks. Giving responsibilities for tasks ensures accountability on the same when something goes haywire about the task. Challenges of a business according to Patel et.al (2012). Training of employees on a new system is very costly as it requires an expert on the system who would take the employees through the system. It also requires time and the employees willingness to adjust to the new system. Competition. A major threat to businesses is competition from other business firms. Each business firm striving to obtain monotony over the market. This calls for strategic decision making which is where the introduction of the ERP system may come in. Government policies. Some government policies may tend to infringe the operation of a business which may be a major drawback to business firms. Management. A business firm may have a wide range of properties or facilities, employees, and machinery which needs supervision for the operation and good performance of the firm. Decisions that propel the business firm are also done by the management. This calls for the best decision making which may require the deployment of an ERP system. Potential ERPs and their vendors. SAGE south Africa software solutions for any business size. Odoo software solutions ERP. IQMS Manufacturing ERP Netsuite ERP Exact Macola ERP. Ecount ERP E2 Shop system. ERP analysis and Evaluation. SAGE ERP Vendors financial issues. There is no quotation of the price but on can pay through the accounting portal where one can negotiate on the price. Philosophy support issues. They state their contacts where one can contact them, for instance, they have provided an e-mail address in case a customer experiences difficulties with the system. They have provided their support page, their twitter, and Facebook and LinkedIn contacts. Physical contact through their offices is also availed for instance regional offices, middle east offices, and African offices. The support team provides support with sage enterprise, evolution, intelligence, pastel accounting, pastel payroll and sage VIP. Hardware and software infrastructure. There are no hardware or software infrastructure specifications for this system. SAGE does not specify what hardware components, for example, the processor, the peripheral devices, are required for the implementation of the system. The operating system to be used in the implementation of the system. SAGE ERP modules. Business Management Solutions which has the following features: It is easy to implement, offers a wholly integrated business intelligence system, graphical analysis of data and management of work allocation and is compatible with any law, language and currency. Accounting software which is designed to meet most user needs. It revolves around: controlling income and expenses, a client can be able to make a choice whether to take a desktop or cloud-based application, calculate automatically Value Added Tax returns, review bank statements and produce invoices. Customer Relationship Management which enables the organization to develop the intimacy between the Organization and the customers. It also equips staff with proper tools for providing better services to the customers. Business Intelligence Management. It uses Excel which is easy to write and edit reports. There is an automatic analysis of information and report production. Inventory Management. This minimizes the tendency of being out of stock without knowledge. It also enhances first placement of orders. Release Strategies Sage offers regular updates and upgrades on the software they sell to their customers. They produce regular newsletters on the upgrade and updates of their software. The users or customers who want the features contact Sage. User needs that customers request through the support forum are implemented in the updates and upgrades where possible. Implications SAGE ERP offers a variety of modular functions: Business management where it is a vital element in decision making, Accounting for management and control of the accounts, Customer Relationship Management which enables the development of business intimacy between the customers and the organization, Inventory management for easy and fast order requests and processes and the Business intelligence management which is a key role player in an organizations decision-making. Odoo ERP Vendors financial issues. There is a button for pricing on their website where they have provided the quotation for all the enterprise applications they offer either monthly or annually. Philosophy support issues. They state their contacts where one can contact them, for instance, they have provided mailing lists in case a customer experiences difficulties with the system. They have a help/support forum where a client can be helped. They also provide documentations and developer guides. Hardware and software infrastructure. There are no hardware or software infrastructure specifications for this system. Odoo does not specify what hardware components, for example, the processor, the peripheral devices, are required for the implementation of the system. The operating system to be used in the implementation of the system. Odoo ERP modules. Sales and Marketing. Odoo offers a forum for selling and marketing e-commerce using the ERP application or system. Accounting. Odoo offers an accounting system that enables accountants to manage an organizations funds. From the payment of salaries, allocation of funds to projects, management of expenses and management of profits and shares. Inventory Management System. Order offers a subsystem that manages inventories for faster delivery and management of orders. Point of sale terminal. Odoo gives the cashiers of an organization or a business firm as it provides a subsystem that manages the sales of the organizations sales. All the prices are in the system, this fastens selling and buying of products as manipulation of figures is made simple. Business intelligence Management. This is where a system analyses the information in an organizations database and gives a report. This report is used by the managers to make strategic decisions for the organization. Business Management. Odoo offers a subsystem that provides managers in a business-oriented organization to manage or control the resources of the organization. For instance work flow and responsibilities in an organization. Release Strategies Odoo offers demos to be tried out by customers. This demonstration is provided on Odoo website where users, clients, and customers test the functionalities of the ERP system. Module demonstrations of how the modules work are available on the website. This enables the customers to know whether to acquire the software or not because the demos illustrate almost every aspect of the ERP system. After a customer has acquired the system Odoo keeps informing them of the updates and the upgrades the development team is doing or does to the system. If one is interested one can acquire it. If it is cloud-based updates and upgrades on the system are automatic and if it is desktop the development team has to go physically to the client and upgrade the system to the newer version. Odoo ERP Architecture Schniederjans Yadav (2013). Odoo ERP offers additional subsystems which come with the ERP system. These modules include Business management which controls the conduct of business resources, Accounting which covers the monetary aspect of the business organization, business intelligence subsystem which is a vital role player in decision making, Customer relationship to manage the relationship between the organization and the customers, Electronic commerce and point of sale which enable the organization market and sell their products. Vendor financial issues: No quotation of pricing is mentioned but a customer can visit the contacts docket and call them for more information on the product that he or she would like to be provided with. Philosophy support issues: There is a contact us button on their website where a customer or client can view the telephone number one can call for help. It also provides a form where the website prompts the customer to enter his or her details and the email address in order to get messages and notifications from the EXACT MACOLA ERP vendors. Hardware and software infrastructure They have apps for three categories of hardware and software infrastructure: that is a desktop for windows operating systems, smartphones and the mobile phones using android operating systems. This enables customers to use the MACOLA ERP application on any hardware and software infrastructure. Exact Macola ERP modules. In built Customer relationship Management. This enables the business organization to control and manage the relationship between the organization and the customers. For instance, by awarding the most frequent customers who are automatically identified by the system. Workflows. This enables the .human resource manager to allocate resources and responsibilities to employees and workers of the business organization. Enhances allocation of jobs, tasks, responsibility, and accountability. These aspects promote organization growth. Business intelligence. This does analysis on the organizations data and information and produce automated reports to be used in the organizations decision making. This is done by the management t. Business forecasting. This module analyzes data and information of an organization and gives suggestions on how a certain decision would affect the running of an organization either in months or a years time. This feature enables the management to identify the mistakes, wrong decisions they made and rectify them before they become a disaster to the organizations performance. Internet-access. This web access facilitates sales and marketing of an organizations products through the electronic commerce. This platform enables the business to grow as it also advertises it through the internet. Inventory management. This makes it easier for the request and delivery of orders. Accounting. Deals with the management and control of funds. Exact Macola ERP architecture Customer Relationship Business intelligence Accounting Inventory Management Work flow Web Access MALOCA ERP Implication of the Exact Maloca ERP The Exact Maloca ERP is installed with inbuilt Business intelligence, customer relationship, Web access, workflow management subsystem, accounting system, forecasting system and inventory management system. Release Strategies for Exact maloca ERP system Exact maloca provides the videos of how the system works on the website. This enables customers to observe the features which they are in need of. It also offers to upgrade to the present system that the clients have. This implicates that the Exact Maloca vendor adds the functionalities that the users would like to have for the system. They involve the clients or users in the release and deployment of the system. ERP Evaluation Criteria Does the ERP have the accommodating capacity Liu et.al (2014) . Can it accommodate all the features needed by the organization? Does the system have a perfect integration of activities Hailu Rahman (2012, June).? Does the ERP system provide for management of the organizations business resources? Does the system produce reports on the systems integrated information management? Does the system accommodate the management of supply? Does the system value integration of data Aversano Tortorella (2013).? Does the system offer maximum security to data and information on the organizations customers and the resources of the organization? Fit and gap analysis. Feature System requirements SAGE ERP ODOO ERP EXACT MALOCA ERP Customer relationship A customer relationship module should be present to manage customer organization intimacy Provides the CRM module for the customer-organization intimacy. Provides the CRM module for the customer-organization intimacy. Provides the CRM module for the customer-organization intimacy. Provides opening of accounts by customers. Accounting The system should be able to perform accounting management operations and manipulations. Provides an accounting module Provides an accounting module Provides an accounting module Business intelligence The ERP system should analyze information on the systems database and produce reports to help in decision making. Provides a BIM module. Provides a BIM module. Provides a BIM module. Workflow Management The system should enable managers to allocate resources and tasks. Do not offer workflow management Do not offer workflow management Offers workflow management with the managers allocating the tasks. Business forecasting The system should be able to generate reports indicating how certain decisions would affect the business aspect of the organization. Does not provide the business forecasting module. Does not provide the business forecasting module. Provide the business forecasting module for the system. Pricing The pricing should be known for pricing Does not provide quotation of the price but one can contact the relevant people for inquiries Provides quotations of the prices for various modules either monthly or annually. Does not provide a quotation for the prices but one can contact the relevant personnel for price inquiries through the contacts provided. Hardware and software specification Should specify which OS and hardware should be used Does not specify Does not specify Specifies the OS and hardware infrastructure. Implications of the differences SAGE and Odoo ERP system do not have the workflow management system which is required for the management of the jobs, tasks and ensure there is the flow of work. This means that the organization cannot manage the tasks, jobs and its business activities. This leads to poor business performance due to inadequate responsibility and accountability for certain jobs and tasks that go wrong. The missing forecasting feature for SAGE and Odoo ERP systems makes it difficult for the management to figure out where they went wrong in the decision making process. The errors may propagate and the business may not be able to sustain and maintain it-self in the near future. The missing quotation of pricing for the SAGE and Exact Malloc may discourage the organization from buying their ERP systems. It also does not offer the organization a chance to compare and contrast prices of ERPs in the market which may make them buy those systems that do not cater for their needs properly. Conclusion The best ERP system that this business organization can acquire and implement for it business activities is that that accommodates all the functions that the organization wants to achieve with the ERP Nagpal et.al (2015, May). These activities are accounting, sales and marketing, customer relations management, workflow management, business intelligence and business forecasting. The ERP version that meets all these requirements is the perfect one to be chosen by the organization because the performance of a business-oriented organization is inclined to these functionalities. Recommendation From the above considerations of ERP systems and their vendors, the Exact Macola ERP fits the implementation of the needs of the organization. First, demonstrations of the system are offered by the Exact Macola which enables clients to view the functionalities of the system. Moreover, the Exact Macola system offers most of the services required by the organization. For instance, the forecasting feature which the other two SAGE and Odoo are not able to offer. The forecasting feature enables the organization to forecast future needs, wants and also make decisions that will propel the organization forward business wise. The workflow subsystem enables job or task allocation promotes responsibility and accountability of employees in the business organization. Accountability and responsibility are the key features that enable prosperity of an organization in business. There is hardware and software infrastructure specification for different hardware and software specification. There is a software version for a smart phone and a desktop hardware specification. The various versions of the Operating System upon which the system will be deployed to are also specified through the mentioning of the smart phone and the desktop which use the android and the windows Operating Systems respectively. References Amid, A., Moalagh, M., Ravasan, A. Z. (2012). Identification and classification of ERP critical failure factors in Iranian industries. Information Systems, 37(3), 227-237. Patel, V. K., Pieper, T. M., Hair, J. F. (2012). The global family business: Challenges and drivers for cross-border growth. Business Horizons, 55(3), 231-239. Liu, L., Zhang, G., Zhou, R., Wang, Z. (2014). Motivational intensity modulates attentional scope: evidence from behavioral and ERP studies. Experimental brain research, 232(10), 3291-3300. Nagpal, S., Khatri, S. K., Kumar, A. (2015, May). Comparative study of ERP implementation strategies. In Systems, Applications and Technology Conference (LISAT), 2015 IEEE Long Island (pp. 1-9). IEEE. Schniederjans, D., Yadav, S. (2013). Successful ERP implementation: an integrative model. Business Process Management Journal, 19(2), 364-398. Hailu, A., Rahman, S. (2012, June). Evaluation of key success factors influencing ERP implementation success. In Services (SERVICES), 2012 IEEE Eighth World Congress on (pp. 88-91). IEEE. Aversano, L., Tortorella, M. (2013). Quality evaluation of floss projects: Application to ERP systems. Information and Software Technology, 55(7), 1260-1276.