A.What aspects of BI have been employed in this case example?

Down Corning after implementing phase 1 of its decision to integrate its global business processes, progressed to phase 2.  Phase 2 consisted of fully automating and integrating business processes, the company wanted to share common data and practices across the entire global enterprise.  Dow Corning’s business intelligence strategy takes advantage of SAP’s Business Information warehouse.  The data warehouse paradigm allows known facts and related data to be used as a basis for making management decisions.  From the business intelligence vendor SAP, they believe the data warehouse is seen as vital business infrastructure bridging the gap between operations and strategy.

B. What would you expect to be the challenges facing the develoment of a BI approach for such a large organisation?

Dow Corning commenced phase 1, the implementation of an ERP system in 1995.  Implementations at the other sites were completed by the end of 1998.  Phase 1 was necessary in order to proceed to business information warehouse zone applying the business intelligence strategy.  There are many challenges facing a large organisation such as Dow Corning:

• Integrating a large organisation is a very substantial project
• Large projects may take a long time and can be very costly to the organisation
• Large projects require large investment in capital and staff time
• Organisational resistance to change may be high
• Ensuring all data input is correct and without errors

A large organisation will be required to assemble a knowledgeable and experienced change management team for the implementation process to be a success.

C.  Would Dow Corning be a suitable candidate for a shared services approach using an ASP? Justify and argue your answer.

ASP provides a simple “plug in” service to organisations over the web for a fixed monthly fee.  Netsourcing arrangements pose certain risks from the viewpoint of potential and exiting customers:

• Service and business stability
• Security and reliability
• Netsourcing’s longevity and existence
• Integrating netsourcing solution with existing applications

In netsourcing it is important to recognise that the ERP system runs the business.  With a large global organisation such as Dow Corning it would not be suitable for them to undertake a shared services approach.  There are risks associated with contracts, risk may occur during migration to the ERP system and risks may occur during post-contract operations.  In manging a netsourcing contract, it is important to work closely with the vendor and to take internal responsibility for ERP implementation.  Dow Corning is a large global organisation and this would prove difficult.  Should Dow Corning choose an ASP approach there would be sizeable issues arise around the security and maintenance of the system.

Develop a rough outline of your presentation.

• Develop a slide presentation covering topics:

-disadvantages of ERP

-alternative options

-Cisco’s current ERP situation

-concluding recommendation

• Develop an accompanying script to complement the slide presentation including topics:

-greet the audience

-introduction, stating purpose of presentation

-presentation of body and argument

-conlcusion and final position

-allowing question time

-delivery notes, room layout, body language, pronunciation and clear voice

• Develop handouts for audience to retain and review

1. What was the most difficult assessment item you compelted so far in COIS12073 this term?

I found assessment item 3 the case study report for Cisco the most difficult in this course.

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

There was a lot of research to be done and I found there was a lot of work in compiling the report.  This in turn is probably why there is so much work involved so that the knowledge learned is demonstrated within the assessment.  Howver, this assessment would have been less difficult if there was more information on the current situation at Cisco of how the management and staff felt towards their ERP system at its current position.  Most current research found on Cisco’s website of any upgrading on their ERP all seemed to be positive.

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

As there are many assessment pieces in this course it is vital to keep up to date with the study guide and if possible even ahead of the guide.  There are weekly blogs to publish and other assessment pieces to be considered including research.  Therefore my three pieces of advice would be:

1. Stick to the items on the study guide, don’t fall behind it is very hard to play catch up.

2.If possible plan ahead – including reading and research for assignments

3.If not sure of anything e.g. creating a blog, don’t hesitate to seek help.  Assistance is there if you are not sure of anything, so ask and don’t waste time.

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

Technology is advancing all the time.  In my present workplace (small organisation) I have not been exposed to ERP systems, so I was very interested in learning all about them.  The knowledge and skills that I have learned in this course will assist me in the future through many situations:

• Should my current workplace consider implemeting an ERP, I will be able to evaluate and supply a thorough pros and cons argument for consideration by management
• I will be able to assist in implementation to minmize resistance to change throughout the organisation.
• If I enter a new workplace in the future the skills and knowledge that I have gained will be able to assist in the same situations i.e. evaluation, implementation and research.

Prior to the ERP system going live, the environment is no longer in the future; it exists.  the following points must be monitored along the way so that the operating environment can be ready and available:

• Acquisition of workstations and their installation in appropriate locations
• The standardization of workstations
• Acquisition of all hardware
• Formalizing of backup and data recovery procedures
• Cleaning up any unnecessary databases and eliminating programmes that will no longer be used.

If the users of the system are not ready and fully trained this could result in the delay of going live.  When customers and suppliers are in contact with the organisation, they will still require the same level of prompt service without delays.  If the operators of the system are not proficient, this may cause distress to customers and suppliers and they may not be patient and understanding.  Technical support must be on hand to avoid delays on normal business processes.

There are a number of approaches to safely changing systems.  External factors such as customers and suppliers may influence that approach and may force management to change time expectations of going live.  The current market may also influence going live, if the organisation is really busy, the organisation may require all hands on deck to service customers.

Search the web to find some hints and tips on giving presentations.  Post to your blog what you think was the most helpful and why.

Subsequent to my research seeking tips on presentation i have found four articles and papers that I think will be most supportive in designing my presentation.

1. The first paper is by Dr Laurel Evelyn Dyson, University of Technology, Sydney.  This paper provides do’s and don’ts of how to carry out a presentation and are easily understood and presented in an easy to read manner.  Dr Dyson provides 12 tips with a brief description and explanation next to each one.
2. I found a website http://www.presentationhelper.co.uk/presentationtips.htm which illustrated lots of tips on how to prepare for a presentation.  This website also drew attention to things such as preparing the room, preparing yourself and ensuring that your presentation includes the right colours and fonts.  This website also identified that the three presentation essentials are:  use visual aids where you can, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse and the audience will only remember three messages.
3. The website http://www.premier-presentation.co.uk/TIPS.htm focused more on the content of the presentation:  graphics, templates, colours, sound and animation.  This website also made detailed suggestions on how best to present your body language during the presentation.
4. Another website I discovered: http://www.management-issues.com/2006/5/25/opinon/five-tips-for-giving-powerful-presentations summarised the essentials of a presentation.  These tips were in agreeance of the previous website that were much more detailed.  However, I found it was worth knowing that there were so many articles and papers that were consistent in content.  This website provided tips on preparing, content of presentation, body language, review and affirm the message in closing.

A. Given the interrelationship between MRP and ERP does it make sense for a non-manufacturing company to adopt an ERP system?

Although the interrelationship between MRP and ERP does offer manufacturing companies many advantages in business processes there are still advantages that an ERP system can offer a non-manufacturing company.  An ERP system offers integration of finance, marketing, human resource management and other business functions.  Any organisation would attain benefit from integration of these business functions.  Current up to date information on hand allows prompt business decisions to be made and provides an effortless transaction between organisation and customers.

B. Have manufacturing systems been the basis for all ERP systems?

History indicates that manufacturing systems shows the evolution of business systems.  Demand for increased flexibility, increased responsiveness to customer demand and increased integration are themes assoicated with the evolution of manufacturing systems.  By the late 1980s customers expected their suppliers to create new products and services to meet their needs.  Manufacturing execution systems provided continuous feedback and control of manufacturing processes, so changing market needs could be addressed.

In the 1990s ERP systems were instrumental in integrating manufacturing processes with other business processes.  ERP systems manage processes across the supply chain so that customers’ needs for information about products and services are met.  ERP systems achieve operational efficiency through integration of data.  So yes, history indicates that the demand for more from manufacturing systems does seem to of been the basis for the creation fo ERP systems.

Q.3 The production planning and materials management modules within ERP have interfaces to other modules, including human resources, sales and distribution, and financial accounting.  Describe these interfaces:

Production Planning:

The ideal computer-integrated manufacturing system is designed to integrate all software and hardware used in manufacturing by merging manufacturing databases.  This eliminates paperwork and bottlenecks associated with non-integrated data.  The objective is to decrease design costs, decrease lead time, increase productivity of engineering and design processes, decrease work in process inventory and to decrease personnel costs.  By integrating production planning with other modules sales forecasts can be used to determine production levels and develop a production plan.

Materials Management:

An ERP system provvides needed integration between the materials management subsystem and other subsystems.  The interfaces within the ERP interact as follows:

• All purchase orders are assigned to a cost center in the management accounting module.
• Purchasing maintains vendor data which are defined jointly with financial accounting
• When a purchase requisition is created, it is assigned to a sales order
• Inventory management posts components needed for production orders.

Purchasing and financial accounting share common vendor data.

If at the end of phase 1 some of the people at the company feel that the implementation project does not seem to reflect the needs of the company and are reluctant to get involved with phase 2 the company’s decision makers need to stop and rethink things.  The risk associated with continuing to develop the project without adequate experience and knowledge are very high:

• delays
• reworking
• underutilization of the chosen package
• user fustration
• package rejection

In phase 2 it is time to start to transform ideas and theory into practice and results; it is time to plan in detail how the package is going to work for the company.  It is very important at this stage to have the users’ first experience with the package occur in an environment that is conducive to good performance.  Talking about changes is difficult enough and usually faced with resistance.  Phase 2 is interactive and interdependent.  An environment that is unreliable or badly controlled can damage a good system and result in high costs to the company with no great advantage in their business processes.

Provide a rough draft of your introduction and your executive summary for assessment 3.

INTRODUCTION:

The purpose of this report is to investigate the situation of the implementation of an ERP sytsem at Cisco.  A thorough discussion of advantages and disadvantages of an ERP system will be presented.  Alternative options will be put forward to be included in the discussion.  To conclude this report, application of the results of the discussions will be applied to cisco’s situation and suggesting the best option for Cisco to proceed with and why.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

As an employee of the consultancy team engaged to investigae the state of affairs at Cisco in regards to there ERP system, research has established the following advantages and disadvantages of an ERP system:

• Advantages
• Disadvantages

The advantages and disadvantages found affect Cisco’s situation in different ways.  Cisco’s best option is to:

• Outline and advise best option

Recommendations also include suggestions that Cisco’s management should consider for future management of business processes.

No, an informed ERP adoption and selection decision cannot be made without fully understanding the problem within the organisation.  Identifying the problem area/s within the organisation is critical in selection and devising an implementation plan.  Each sector within the organisation must be defined and what the key elements of this sector are.  The relationships between the different sectors must be analysed and how they are required to interact for a successful outcome for the organisation.

Possessing a full understanding of the problem will greatly assist in how best the ERP should be implemented.  Targeting the areas with the most urgency will require the key figures in the targeted areas together with top management to work collectively.  The foundation of a successful implementation of an ERP will be attained with a full understanding of the problem.

Provide a rough skeleton of what ou are going to put in your conclusions and recommendations.

Conclusions:

• Identify the advantages of an ERP system in summary and why Cisco should continue with the ERP system
• identify the disadvantages of an ERP system in summary and why Cisco should not continue with the ERP system
• Identify alternative options to an ERP system available to Cisco

Recommendations:

• make a recommendation to Cisco regarding the benefits of an ERP system and why they should continue utilizing the system to its best capabilities
• Make a recommendation to Cisco regarding the disadvantages of an ERP system and why they should not continue with an ERP system and make recommendation of another system.
• Make any recommendation and opinion clear as to what Cisco management should do.

The planned budget for the project may run over prior to finalisation:

If the change committee has executed the planned regular meetings to discuss issues that arise during the project, exceeding the budget will be easily identified.  Full co-operation of mangement will be required in making the decision to proceed with the project.  All advantages, disadvantages and consequences will be presented to the committee by the project manager.  A proactive attitude and clear and honest presentation of the reason for going over budget must be presented to the committee to enable them to make an informed decision.

The project timetable has failed to be met:

The change committee and project manager may be required to renegotiate time frames and fees should te project not meet the planned progress stages.  The progress of the project will be discussed at regular intervals and if a problem with personnel or technology arises, management should be able to make an informed decision should any changes be required.

Minimizing the risks prior to commencing a project is the key to successful implementation.  Identifying each role and responsibility will ensure a smooth progress throughout each stage of the project.  A proactive attitude and problems to be discussed with the most common sense to ensure the right decision is made througout the project.

Provide a rough skeleton of information put in the main body of resport – assessment 3

• Summarise Cisco’s background from the initital installation of the ERP system
• Discuss the benefits of an ERP sytem
• Discuss the disadvantages of an ERP system
• Alternative options to an ERP system
• Identify the market Cisco operate in
• Apply the advantages and disadvantages discussed to Cisco’s situation and suggest the best option and why
• Make suggestions to Cisco’s management that they should consider in the future with regular management meetings

What advantages would an ERP provide to Wingate Electric?

Wingate Electric’s competitors have already commenced adopting ERP systems to integrate their business processes.  Wingate’s competitors are attending to the needs and requirements of their customers being able to offer web-based order processing, tracking and follow-up.  Should Wingate implement an ERP sstem to replace and integrate their current legacy systems the advantages would be:

• streamlining business processes with customers and suppliers
• streamlining organisational processes
• streamlining managerial processes and decision making

Wingate Electric have been in competition for 100 years, the implementation of an ERP system would allow Wingate to continue to be competitive in the market for the next 100 years.  Wingate have compiled the appropriate user managers to the panel for review.  This will ensure that the implementation process will be successful and the advantages of the ERP will be appreciated by all business functions of the organisation.

By implementing the ERP system module by module, Wingate’s cash flow of the organisation will be affected in a gradual process.  Each implementation of each module will be fully appreciated by the organisation.  The gradual process will allow Wingate to utilize personnel in other areas as the ERP system makes business processes more efficient.

What other options does wingate Electric have instead of adopting an ERP?

Wingate should perform a requirements analysis.  By analysing business processes Wingate will then be able to identify if an ERP system is what the organisation requires.  Wingate would have the following options:

• continue operating their legacy systems and perhaps further develop end-user development applications.  Advancing spreadsheets and database packages may assist wingate in meeting their customer’s requirements.
• Wingate may discover that maintaining their current legacy systems and adding ERP modules to support specific functions may be more time and cost effective option.  This option would be less disruptive to the organisation.

After undertaking the requirements analysis this will put Wingate Electric in a position to better discuss whether to implement an ERP system or not.

When an organisation seeks to evaluate an ERP system, they have probably come to the conclusion that there are some business processes within the organisation that don’t work to the best capacity they are capable of.  The organisation would be considering the re-engineering process.  The elements of the re-engineering process are:

• updating and integrate business processes
• utilise technology to re-design business processes
• implement improved processes to provide a competitive edge

If the organisation has business processes that do not match any commercially available ERP they should consider the following:

• cost of purchasing and adopting an ERP and customizing to suit organisation requirements
• the advantages and disadvantages of implementing an ERP and not implementing

The principles of engaging the re-engineering process is to organise the organisation around outcomes not tasks.  Capturing the information at the source and dispersing that information through resources will give the decision makers on time information from which to make those decisions therefofre decentralizing the organisation.  If the organisation cannot see the benefits of purchasing and implementing an ERP they may want to consider creating their own system in house.  Creating your own in house system or database can be very costly and time consuming however, it may give the organisation the competitive edge required.

Annotated Bibliography – Write an annotation on at least one source.

For my annotated bibliography I have chosen the following source from my research:

Gupta A, 2000, ‘Enterprise resource planning:  the emerging organisational value systems’, Industrial Management & Data systems, 100/3, pp.114-118 (online proquest).

This journal provides an overview of an ERP system and what effects it has on an organisation.  The journal then outlines the advantages and disadvantages of implementing an ERP system.  This journal provides actual survey results from organisations experiences of implementation.  Results from these surveys identify the keys to successful implementation of ERP are as follows:

• commitment from top management
• form a task force with personnel from all functional areas to foster ties between project management and business units.
• take an assessment of hardware requirements
• step by step introduction rather than all at once
• start early planning on user training and support
• streamline decision making so that implementation work can move quickly
• be patient because ERP implementation takes time.

Many organisations have personnel in their IT department that have the necessary knowledge in implementing an ES product to the organisation.  However, IT technicians are not usally the data input opertators or the managers who access the information in order to make business decisions.  When evaluating an ERP system there should be a decision making committee consisting of a representative of each department within the organisation who are recognised and respected as leaders and opinion makers.  Having this committee will ensure that the right questions will be asked to ensure the final recommendation of the ERP product is the right one.

Leaving the decision of recommendation to the IT department may result in the wrong recommendation.  The decision making committee will hold interviews with each department of the organisation to ensure that the ERP package is suitable for the business as a whole.  This is a very thorough process which the IT department will play a vital role, but it would be a mistake to leave the evaluation process to the IT department alone.

Try to find at least one example each that will help you convince your readers to adopt or reject the continuation of the ERP.  Write an annotation on these examples.

Adopt the ERP evaluation by IT:

Adopting an ERP system certainly holds many benefits to an organisaiton.  The IT department of an organisation will certainly be able to address the gathering of vital information about an ERP sytem.  Information such as:

• technical support offered by the vendor
• qualifications of the vendor’s support personnel
• reliability of the product
• vendor’s response time for technical support
• the product’s technical limitations

This information gathered is substantial in the evaluation process and may result in the right ERP system being recommended to the CEO.  Remembering that the perfect package does not exist.

Reject the ERP evaluation by IT:

Should the IT department commence the evaluation process there is the risk that they may only evaluate on the system requirements within the organisation.  This may result in a non-compatible ERP system being recommended and the organisaiton will suffer financially and not reap the rewards of an ERP system.  The IT department will be challenged in gathering important information to complete a proper evaluation due to the following items:

• product performance
• the product’s functionality strengths and weaknesses
• the product’s functional limitations
• the time required to implement the package.

Introducing an ERP system to a business allows mangers to make better decisions and improve responsiveness to customer needs.  An ERP system assists the business in dealing with the supply chain, receiving, inventory management, customer order management, production planning, shipping, accounting, human resource management, and other business functions.  To be competitive a business must improve their business practices and share information with their suppliers, distributors and customers.

From an overall business perspective, an ERP system achieves a number of important objectives providing timely information to the decision makers.  having this information allows the business to make the right decisions quicker and allows them to be more competitive in the market.

The business would first have to research the available ERP systems.  The major ERP systems support the major fuctional areas of the business however; the most popular modules which are implemented are financial and accounting modules.  It has been identified that most firms implement a single ERP package rather than selecting different moduels from different ERP systems.

ERP systems involve considerable time and cost.  A cost benefit analysis for an ERP sytem would have to be undertaken by the business before the decision to purchase a system.  Implementing the system into the business’s operations involves three stages: the project phase, the shakedown phase and the onward and upward phase.  The business would be required to have a proficient change manager employed to under go the implementation stage.  In the onward and upward phase is where the ERP system has been successfully integrated and the business can then review the actual business results.

Q6 In recent times, there has been a tredn away from total (or vanilla) ERP implementations towards best of breed systems.  Research this tredn and describe how it differs from standard ERp implementiatons. Describe advantages, disadvantages and wat considerations that would affect the decision to use vanilla or best of breed approach?

When an organisation implenents a “vanilla” ERP system, this is where the organisation implements a complete ERP system from one vendor.  This can be costly and time consuming but the end result would be a total integration of the organisation’s business processes.  when an organisation implements a vanilla system its competitors will also be able to achieve the same advantage as that vendor will be able to purchase that same system therefore achieving the same benefits.  The trend towards best of breed systems allows an organisaiton to be more competitive in the market.  By selecting the best of breed from several ERP packages give the organisation the upper hand.  However this can be a more costly process.

Before selecting vanilla or best of breed approach an organisation shold consider the market that they are competing in.  If they are in a market with little competition a vanilla appraoch would be more suitable as it would be less costly but still be able to provide the advantages to the organisation, suppliers and consumers.  If the market is highly competitive a best of breed approachwould be more suitable as this may give the organisation the advantage over another organisation.