Strategic Use of Enterprise Resource Planning

Question: Write an essay about the "Strategic use of Enterprise Resource Planning". Answer: 1. Introduction ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning can be referred to as a program or software related to the business that helps in managing, collecting, storing and manipulating information as acquired from the various businesses activities of the firms (Akca and Ozer 2014). The management software is related to the business that helps in incorporating the various applications related to the effective management of the business functions relating to the technology, services and human resources as well. The ERP analystics can be referred to as the branch of science that deals in enabling the the business organizations to make better decisions by analyzing the efectes of the technology on the business development project. The ERP system includes the product planning and management, finance, development of business processes, sales, marketing, and product manufacturing (Monk and Wagner 2012). The ERP analytics also deals in analyzing the identification of the information and adaptation for enhancing the business productivity and gain (Candra 2014). The ERP analytics is the identification and analysis of the ERP implementation process within an organization for improving the perforce of the employees, controlling the costs, cash flows, supply chain and enhancing the overall business performance of the business processes (Encyclopedia of business analytics and optimization 2014). The ERP system also helps the organizations in covering the wide variety of services including the process distribution and management, price configuration, financial data improvement, critical assessment, project planning and standardization, reduction of redundancy, human resource management, cost reduction, business process automation and also in accounting and financial application (Hwang and Grant 2014). The project aims at formulating a report based on the strategies and approaches that are r equired for ensuring the successful implementation of the ERP subsystem within the business environment of the organizations. Background Verbatim is an Australian consumer based organization which expertise in incorporating considerable products value beyond and above its competitors to the media technology. Established in the year 1980, Verbatim has been one of the forefronts of the evolution in the data storage technology. At present, the company remains one of the most recognizable names in the global market (Johnson 2016). The company is now the leader in the distribution of the computer hardware, magnetic and optical media and computer systems. Being a pioneer in the industry, the company recognized for the role that it has been playing in the commercial production, predict development and introduction of new technologies. The leadership role of the company has been evident especially through its apparent in the evolution of the optimal media technology including the CD/DVD and MO family of products. The biggest challenge that the company is facing that it requires a new ERP system that could help the company in managing the growth and expansion of the plans which could enable the company to remain competitive and sustainable in the global market (Paul 2014). 2. ERP system 2.1 Business challenge As the business of Verbatim has been continuously increasing and growing on a global platform, the company requires the exploitation of the business systems that are scalable and robust. However, the company is flexible enough to meet up with the business requirements and objectives in the long run. The main objective of the company is to expand into more of its oviducts trance with the increase in the growth of the business on a global platform (Nair, Reddy and Samuel, 2014). Moreover, with the increase in the growth of the company has led it to analyses its business processes in a more detailed manure such that to meet up with the global operations with new operations in the market. In addition, the company also requires reducing the complexity of oats business process such that to be more consistent in the way the company does the things. Moreover, the mainframe computer system is very large, woeful, inadequate and old for a distribution and marketing organization in a global mark et (Paul 2014). However, the biggest challenge that the company is facing that it requires a new ERP system that could help the company in managing the growth and expansion of the plans which could enable the company to remain competitive and sustainable in the global market. The company has been looking for many different solutions where in the local products are not found to be non supportive with the SQL and have no connection with the Internet. Moreover, the products are also not quite available for the company where it had major concerns about the intensity of support that it could entertain (Johnson 2016). The company also has been looking for many ways to enhance its business porcess where it wanted to build a partnership with another company that could not only have progressive and better infrastructure in place to provide support but also have the product that is already in place in the market. Moreover, the company has been the looking for adopting a staged approach through the testing and implementation of each and every solutions for moving into the next step. The company has been constantly requiring achieving its objectives without any disruptions in its business processes. Thus, the company has been searching for a new system that could man age the internal communication reporting relationships for improving the internal processes and managing internal communication such that to improve the communication with all the stakeholders within the business environment. The biggest challenge that the company has been facing is the communication issues where in a lot of communication has been conducted with useless information (Olson and Staley 2012). The company is thus, planning to implement ERP system that would be aiming to help the organization to identify the most useful information relevant to the audience such that the decisions can be made quickly and alerted whenever it is generated. The company is currently requiring to escalate its system requirements in order to introduce new data warehouse such that to standardize the business processes all across its operating regions (Weli 2014). Moreover, the company is also requiring implementing tools which would ensure the consistency and standardization in the way it is doing the things. This new system would allow the company to retain and use the system differently in the different parts of the region where it is been working. This initiative to standardize with business processes would help in improving the consistency and quality of information across the entire business environment of the company. Without the standardization, the numbers and their performance results could be measured in a different way from different regions (Nazari, Mohammadipour and Namamian 2014). The data warehouse solution would be providing the company with greater tools to make comparison and thereby improving their business processes by s tandardizing the same. The company is also looking forward to host an improvement systems ranging from the projects that it has been implementing. The ERP implementation and the data warehouse system would be enabling the company in planning to experience greater productivity and standardization across its business environment. This implementation of the ERP will be helping the company in getting required consistent information through regeneration of the accurate results and analysis of the business processes. It has been found that the company has been excellent in various areas including the business efficiency which it is estimated to gain 30% that it has been able to achieve (Johnson 2016). The company has been looking for more potential benefits in respective of communication process and business environment such that to improve the efficiency in the future. The company is planning to expand business process application of the new system which could help it in getting greater accountability and bette r communication across the entire business culture and facilitating its business processes. 2.2 Applications of ERP The implemenation of the ERP system within a business environment helps a company to provide values and benefits to the organizations in four fundamental ways viz., automation of the business processes, advanced decision making, coneceting with the customers and suppliers, and innovation in the operating business models. The applications of the ERP can be illustrated below as: 2.2.1 Automation The ERP analytics would be helping in the identification and analysis of the ERP implementation process within the organization for improving the performance of the employees, controlling the costs, cash flows, supply chain and enhancing the overall business performance of the company (Nair, Reddy and Samuel 2014). The ERP system also helps the company in covering the wide variety of services including the process distribution and management, price configuration, supply chain management, improvement of financial information, critical assessment, standardization of business processes, redundancy reduction, project planning, human resource management, cost reduction, business process automation and also in accounting and financial application (Elragal and Haddara 2013). The project would also help in preparing the report relating to the strategies and approaches that are essential for ensuring the successful implementation of the ERP subsystem within the business environment of the org anization (Elragal and Haddara 2013). The ERP is a powerful technology that can make the business processes more efficient, reduce costs, improve usability and change the business processes of the company (Gelogo and Kim 2014). The solutions related to the ERP include many complex back and front office system ranging from inventory and accounting management to CRM and e-commerce, which the company needs to integrate in order to create valuable experience for its end users (Hilgefort 2012). This strategy takes careful execution and planning of time for accelerating the implementation process wherein the company need to ensure that the project is appropriately scoped through the expert knowledge on the ERP system. 2.2.2 Decision making The application of the ERP analytical system would be helping the managers to make faster decisions such that to enable them to make efficient decisions in order to run the business processes in a smooth manner (Dumas et al 2013). The ERP analytical system helps in building the information to be visible across the organization such that to increase the efficacy and efficiency of the business. The ERP analytics is still in its progress phase of development, there have to to be some limitations with the system. 2.2.3 Innovation The business process related to the ERP system can be comprised of two models namely BPR (Business Process Resourcing) and BPM (Business Process Management). The BPR is basically a radical approach from there curter business process system (Dumas et al 2013). The approach helps in removing all the unnecessary and redundant process flows in the business oppresses and thereby replacing the same with the better processes on time. The BPR process is the most suitable process for improving the design phase in order to adapt the changes that support the new objectives and strategies of the firms (Nazari, Mohammadipour and Namamian 2014). 2.2.3.1 Alternative for BPR The BPM is another innovative model with the softer approach to process the change instead of being rapid and radical change as can be seen in case of the BPR. BPM (Business Process Management) model incorporates thde management of the performace of the business processes on a continouos basis rather than replacing the business processes at once. The approach is suitable for designing the effective, efficient, and flexible management disciple for the analysis, redesigning, implementation, documentation, measuring, controlling and monitoring the automatic business processes of the firms (Idorn 2016). The BPM is the main attraction center for the business organizations as instead of creating the business processes for changing the nature of the business, it helps in advocating the focus of the change of the business processes in the world today. 2.2.4 Connectivity with the cutsomers Business process is the collection of the activities which are structured and which helps in producing the specific services or products for the particular organization in order to meet with the expectations of its customers. The business process can be comprised of the three types which can be described below as: Management process: The process helps in governing the operations of the system which includes the strategic management and corporate governance.. Supporting process: The process helps in supporting the core processes involved with the accounting and technical support (Olson and Staley 2012). Operational process: The operation process enables the organization in creating the primary value stream constituting the core business. As for example, the taking orders from the customers. The business process deals in the mission objective and completes with the achievement of the business objectives of the company. A complex business process could be broken down into various sub processes and attributes that contributes to the meeting up of the objectives of the business processes. 2.3 Relevance of business process with the ERP system The business process seeks after the ERP system and it implementation. The organizations are eager to adapt the system however, only few of them know the realistic understanding about how to exploit the new system (Kimberling 2016). The processes are best defined and incorporated prior to the implementation of the projector which the project team needs to be implying for the success of the implementation in the future. The implementation of the ERP system would be helping the faster implementation, reduction of expenses which is widely embraced within the business environment. 2.4 Strategy 2.4.1 BPR necessity prior to the implementation of ERP The implementation of the new ERP system within the business environment as selected by the organizations would help them in remaining competitive in the market as the Business process re-engineering is not constrained with any configuration. Moreover, the ERP system helps the companies to be more flexible in their business approaches (Candra 2014). The analysis of the ERP system helps in illustrating the capability to save the cost and time involved with the various ranges of their business processes. The integration of the ERP system within the business process can help the mangers to make faster decisions as well. The BPR is thus, an approach which is related to the ERP architecture. Each and every company wants to implement the system, however, only few of them have the appropriate knowledge of achieving the realistic understanding (Huijsman and Noordveld 2016). The processes are best defined and incorporated before the implementation of the ERP which is one of the most important factors fro the integration project to be successful. The implementation of the ERP would be helping the companies to incorporate faster implementation of the processes including the reduction of expenses, widely embraced by the workforce within the business environment. 2.5 Risks involved with the avoidance of BPR and ERP system Business process engineering intuitive helps in achievement of the improvements of the business processes. The time optimization, increasing productivity, service efficiencies and cost reduction are some of the major advantages of utilization the BPR project within the business environment of the organizations (Hirve and Sekar 2016). However, the avoidance of the BPR and ERP system involves some risks which can be described as follows: Technical risks: The ERP is based on the utilization of the Information technology. Thus, the avoidance of the BPR and EPR in the business environment would imply to take technical risks. Financial risks: The ERP and BPR system is related with the establishment of high returns on the investment. Thus, the avoidable of the ERP result in the financial risk for the firms (sagecrm.com 2016). Functional risks: The ERP and BPR system helps in reorganizing the financial plan such that it could be applicable to a wide variety of business processes. The avoidance of the BRP and ERP should be including the functional risks for the organizations. Analysis of the ERP system within the business processes of Verbatim would be enabling the company to make faster decisions (Rahnavard and Bozorgkhou 2014). Moreover, the system would also help the company to run its business oppresses in a smooth manner. The ERP would also help the managers to manage the information such that to make them transparent across the company. Besides, the ERP system would also helps the company to enhance the efficacy and efficiency of the business processes. Prior to the implementation of ERP, the company would be requiring implementing BPR system within its business processes (Dumas et al 2013). 2.6 Approach for implementing an analytical approach The analysis technique helps in providing the services to the business organizations by the approaches which can be described below as: Understanding the customers and their requirements Acquiring the knowledge of the company performs at all the levels of the business standards Identifying the products and services that have the better margin growths Indemnifying the worth of the stock of the company Deterring the approach to increase the stock of the company Analytical strategies for successful implementation of the ERP (Elragal and Haddara 2013) Implementation of the new system within the business infrastructure requires the appropriate planning, analysis, and making suitable strategies prior to the installment of the system. The implementation of the new system could be done in phases, in parallel or in the overall system of the busied process. Based on the stereos, the implementation of the ERP can be described below as: Instant Strategy: The instant strategy requires the integration of the ERP in the entire system which helps in leading to the establishment of an entire new system. Phased out strategy: The strategy is based on the requirements of the change process that is required to be integrated in phases over a certain period of time. Parallel strategy: The strategy includes the implementation of the new ERP system at the same time with the running of the traditional business processes and thus, providing the business managers to cope up with the system (Akca and Ozer 2014). Based on the above approaches, the business professionals are required to choose the units that suit the best for the respective companies. 2.7 Possible challenges with the implementation of the ERP The major issues relating to the implication of the ERP system within the organization can be: Customization of the ERP analytical system could be an issue as compared with the other management sustem program The ERP system is not compatible with the supply chain planning and prediction process The development of the ERP application requires a lot of effort in analyzing and planning the costs to implement The implementation of the ERP within the business process requires high investment in switching to the same High investment in switching to the ERP implementation (Weli 2014) 2.8 ERP technology help keep Verbatim ahead of the game 2.8.1 Implementation The company requires to implement the new ERP system within its business process the new system would be enabling the company to increase its productivity by providing more accuracy and consistency across the business. The system would help the company to enhance its business performance and automate the business processes. Before the integration of the ERP solution within the business environment, the company should be concerned more about the cost that should be demonstrating the return on investment in order to provide practical consideration about management of the process with in the business environment (Johnson 2016). The implementation of the ERP system requires commitment by the project item and is supported by the business leaders of the company in order to ensure that it would be successful in the future. With accurate execution and planning, the implementation of the ERP system would be a smooth process and would be helping the company in quickly improving the efficiency across the entire business processes of the company (enabling.net 2016). 2.8.2 Best practices The ERP implementation comes with a range of functions to choose from. The company needs to select its own custom ERP program. This complexity and cost of taking on such a huge project helps in exploiting on the advantage of implementing the system within every business processes (Elragal and Haddara 2013). The company can also opt for purchasing on-premise ERP software and install it within the computer and servers of the company. Prior to the investment on the investment on an onsite ERP solution, the company should be considering most important facts. One of the facts is that two thirds of the mid-size organizations are running in older version of the ERP software. These organizations decide to implement ERP software without updating it and this limitation employs business risks which could lose the critical customizations and integration of the organization (Nazari, Mohammadipour and Namamian 2014). Thus, keeping the technology with the latest version is the key to maximize the p otential of the company in the future. Another alternative would be the cloud based ERP solutions like Net Suite which could help the organization to manage entirely off site by the ERP vendors. Besides, it is the cloud based solution would not be costing theca company to make huge investment in the IT server and hardware. The implementation of the cloud based jobs in solution would enable the company to dedicate its personal resources in managing the same over the cloud. The implementation of the ERP system is usually easier and faster to deploy than the onsite deployment and maintenance as the cloud based ERP vendors are liable for keeping the technology to be updated (Elragal and Haddara 2013). Most importantly, the cloud technologies incorporates the customization and integration of the automatic system update which helps in ensuring the most advanced capability to be automatically upgraded to the latest version. 3. Recommendation The vendors of the ERP are meant to provide the data access and application through the published interfaces. If the vendors could be extending the data access with the third party software, some extra features could be added to the system and the analytical approach as well which would be including the data capturing, advanced scheduling, specialization, and beet management of the resources as well. The critical analysis of the ERP system shows that the program is bifacial in saving costs and time involved with the various stages of the business process. Although, the implementation of the system requires huge initiator investment. It could be helpful, in reducing down on the costs related to the business processes sic that it could. Be proved beneficial in the long run for the companies. The application of the ERP analytical system would be helping the managers to make faster decisions such that to enable them to make efficient decisions in order to run the business processes in a smooth manner. The ERP analytical system helps in making the information to be visible across the organization such that to increase the efficiency and efficacy of the business. The ERP has some limitations which however, are being recognized and despite being a huge task which requires a lot of effecter in planning the implementation of the ERP including the e-business suites, web enabled ERP, and inter e-Enterprises ERP has sparked new terns as the system is best suitable for the business. 4. Conclusion The analysis of the ERP system with the Verbatim would be enabling the company to save cost and time involved in the various ranges of the business process. Being in the development stage, the ERP system invokes some imitations. These limitations could be eradicated by the incorporation of the two basic approaches of the ERP including the BPR and BPM which help in making new trends that is best suited for nether business.. The ERP analytics would be helping in the identification and analysis of the ERP implementation process within the organization for improving the performance of the employees, controlling the costs, cash flows, supply chain and enhancing the overall business performance of the firm. The ERP system also helps the company in covering the wide variety of services including the process distribution and management, price configuration, supply chain management, improvement of financial information, critical assessment, standardization of business processes, redundancy re duction, project planning, human resource management, cost reduction, business process automation and also in accounting and financial application. 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