Week 10

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?

The case study is about the DOW CORNING CORP, the company is not only following its implementation with SAP’s business information warehouse, and in 1995, the company start its journey to its global business processes and improve its business intelligence capabilities with a decision to begin implementation of a basic ERP backbone. Step one was R/3, the ERP solution from SAP AG (Sumner, 2005).

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

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

Following on from the previous week develop a rough outline of your presentation. Post this rough outline to your blog.

The presentation is about the against of the assessment 3, from the assessment 3, the main idea of the case is about whether LMS is an enterprise system or not.

Introduction – outline 3 main points about: the definition between Learning Management System and Enterprise system; the function of enterprise system and learning management system and the relationship between organization and ES or LMS.

Conclusion – from the previous work, the point of this presentation is the Learning Management System is not an enterprise system.

Reference:

Sumner, M 2005, Enterprise resource planning, 1^st edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saddle River

Post an entry to your blog that answers the following questions:

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

The most difficult assessment item for me is the assessment 3 case study about whether LMS is an enterprise or not.

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

For my review I was misunderstand the main point for this case, because in my report I was use the define a lot of information about enterprise system, I haven’t write too much information about the LMS and Moodle system.

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

• Do the blog every week on time, do not leave the blog on the last minute;
• Read carefully on the every week revision work, and try to answer all of the questions in each week;
• Do more research about each assessment, take more responsibility about the work.

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

After finish this course, I found the course give more skills about how the enterprise resource planning work, give me more idea about how to be a good project management in the future.

Week 9

What external factors (non-implementation project related) could affect how and when an ERP goes live? Explain and justify.

The company with the ERP implementation all has the life cycle around 10-20 yrs. It will make the company change the old system to the new system. Through the change new system, the factors can affect the ERP going live.

The external factors affect the ERP are:

• ERP might have the difficult of reformatting data to store to the new system, the employee will confuse with the new system to change the data; At this point in the project, there should no longer be doubts about how the information will be loaded in the new system. In order to develop more efficiently, the work must be completed and all available information should once again be verified (p146, Lozinsky, 1998).
• Data conversion – does not always permit converting all the information from the old system into the new system (p146, Lozinsky, 1998). But there are various approaches of implementing a new software package. Such like: direct conversion, which the company turn off the old system on the day the new system goes into operation;  parallel conversion, is a more secure approach;  pilot conversion is based on the idea that parallel processing can involve processing a portion of the total business.

References:

Sumner, M 2005, Enterprise resource planning, 1^st edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saddle River

Lozinsky, S 1998, Enterprise wide software solutions, 1^st edn, Addison Wesley, Reading

Klee Associates, 2010, The ERP Training Life Cycle, viewed on 13/09/2010,

http://www.erptips.com/ERPTrainingLifeCycle.asp

Have a look at assignment 5Search the web or go to some other source to find some hits and tips on giving presentations. Post to your blog that you think was the most helpful and why.

• Eye Contact

Match eye contact with everyone in the room. It’s very important for doing the speech at this stage, because have the eye contact will makes people interest on your topic;

• Don’t read

Use the power point makes people easy to understand the main points about the presentation, but you can’t read through the power point, you have to understand all the slides, and give some examples to the audience;

• Body language

Standing, walking and moving about with facial expression are preferred to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a prepared speech. Make body language is help the audience to easily to understand your topic and make people focus on your presentation;

• Do not leave it to the last minute

If we leave the presentation to the last minute, it will be nervous to standing up in front of people. To get the better result, people have to spent some time to run through the slides;

• Always leave handouts

Leaving handouts will reinforce your messages, and will help them to remember your presentation when they look at them again Always include your contact details so that the audience can contact you;

References:

Stepcase Limited, 2008, 18 Tips for Killer Presentations, viewed on 13/09/2010, http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/18-tips-for-killer-presentations.html

Presentation magazine, Presentation hints and tips, viewed on 13/09/2010,

http://www.presentationmagazine.com/presentationtips.htm

Week 8

Q.1 Using Sumner (2005), answer questions 1 and 3 on pages 97 – 98.

P97.

1. Many people argue that MRP is a precursor to ERP, and that ERP systems were designed to integrate MRP systems with financial and accounting systems.
   1. Given the interrelationship between MRP and ERP, does it make sense for a non-manufacturing company to adopt an ERP system?

MRP (material requirements planning) can support to identifying stock, determining the lead time from the supplier, calculating stock levels, calculating cost effective and purchase the needed stock items in the right amounts(p91, Sumner, 2005). ERP modules can plan and manufacturing support materials requirements planning, shop floor control, inventory management, and capacity planning (p92, Sumner, 2005).

Therefore, given the interrelationship between MRP and ERP it will make sense for a non-manufacturing company to adopt an ERP system. Because the company will get the better result for their cost, it will control the transactions and reduce the time of making order of raw materials.

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

The design of manufacturing system is to integrate all software and hardware uses it by manufacturing database. The answer for manufacturing systems been the basis for all ERP systems is no, because it will not include the demand management for the operation planning (p93, Sumner, 2005).

P98.

1. 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:

 

Module	What information is shared with Production Planning and Materials Management
Human Resources	It will take the response of how the organization will finish their task. It determines the staff to focus on their specific task.
Sales and Distribution	When a Purchase Requisition is created, It will be a sales order (p95, Sumner, 2005). Therefore, the system will share the information about sales and distributed.
Financial Accounting	Purchasing maintains vendor data which are defined with financial accounting (p95, Sumner, 2005). Therefore, the system help the company how to manage the account about standard cost and actual cost.

 

Reference:

Sumner, M, 2005, Enterprise resource planning, 1^st, edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saddle River

Week 7

Q.3 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?

Phase 2 of the ERP implementation identifies how the final product will function, how it will be configured, what business processes need to be changed, added or deleted and what customisations need to be implemented. So This is very important phase during the ERP implementation. When I involved with this phase, but I have reluctant opinion to get involved with phase 2, Some issues, problems and risks would be present in short and long term.

Short term

• Issues: Modification ERP and change issue
• Problems: No any simulating and prototyping using some of the existing organisational data.
• Risk: Organisational risk, can’t meet customers requirement, because users reluctant to get involved with phase 2, so they don’t have accurate analyse the phase 2 implementation. So the organisation will get failure.

Long term

•   Issue: ERP vendors issue patches at regular intervals that improve the software and fix bugs.
•  Problem: No any simulating and prototyping using some of the existing organisational data. Some gaps and problems won’t be addressed
• Risk: For long term risk, when organisation make ERP implementation in phase 2, if organisation can’t seek any problems during the phase 2, organisation will follow the previous steps doing the business, so after a long time passed, the organisation will failure the goals, and all system need to be redesigned.

Reference:

Lozinsky, S 1988, Enterprise-wide software solutions: integration strategies and practices, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts.

Sumner, 2005, Enterprise resource planning, 1st edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saddle River.

Week 6

Q.3 Can an informed ERP adoption and selection decision be made without fully understanding the problem? Why or why not – justify your answer.

 ERP system is all about ensuring that operational systems being used by an organisation are fully integrated. The purpose of using ERP is to improve and simplify the internal business processed(Maguire, Ojiako & Said, 2010). ERP system should be integrated all the organisation internal department. Such as purchasing, production, fixed cost, inventory, transportation, finance and human resource. To get effective cooperation and increase profit activity. So from week 6 question, I think fully understanding the problem is very important for ERP adoption and selection decision. Because for adoption ERP software to implementation, first, organisation need to have understanding process. Evaluation what ERP can match the requirement. According to Lozinsky’s (1998) describe that high level of understanding of the problems, can selection high accurate ERP approach for implementation. Infromed ERP adoption and selection decision have high level of mismatch of ERP purchase decision. That can lead opposite activity. High level match of the ERP selection can have effective integrated all the organisation internal department for achieved the goals. So it can increase the performance, and gain the profit for their business. Mismatch ERP selection can make the organisation have wrong operation for performance their business objective. the problem is not understood, or there are doubts concerning the degree of fit between the ERP and the organisation, then the decision to proceed with the implementation should be reconsidered.  So fully understanding is very important for the organisation to ERP adoption and selection decision.

References: 

Maguire, S, Ojiako, U, Said, A(2010). “Manufacturing resource planning; Project management; Competitive advantage”. Industrial Management & Data Systems. Vol. 110. NO. 1. PP. 78-92.

Lozinsky, S 1988, Enterprise-wide software solutions: integration strategies and practices, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts.

Week 5

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

 Work plan is an important component of the management process for the implementation project. It is a detailing of all of the activities to be undertaken of the project (p86, Lozinsky). It is very important for the business activities. If the organization performs for the good work plans they will get the good result on their project, the project will achieve high benefit.

 On the other hand, if the company with the lower work plans, such as the manager is not control their group member work well on their project, makes the employee is not doing their work on time, and they haven’t communicate to each other about the project, it will be very hard for the team to achieve the high goals. However, the technical problem is also not able to perform the good result for the system, this will greatly affect the project.

 Reference:

Lozinsky, S 1998, Enterprise wide software solutions, 1^st, edn, Addison Wesley, Reading

 

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?

The case study is about the mid-sized manufacturing company called Wingate Electric, which makes small electric motors. Because of the company use the MIS systems at this stage so makes difficult to maintain and not use an integrated relational database. Also, the competitors industry are adopting ERP systems to their financial and manufacturing data, so the owner of Wingate Electric decided to issue a RFP for ERP system.

By using this new system the company can support their accounting and financial functions (p53, Sumner, 2005).  Also, the ERP system can support sales and marketing, human resources, CRM and e Business. However, use the ERP system it will cost more money to upgrade, in this situation, the Wingate Electric can use their current system to manage their business process and to work out the new solution which can provide the good result for their benefit.

Reference:

Sumner, M 2005, Enterprise resource planning, 1^st edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saddle River.

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.

If the organisation has their own business processes which do not match to the ERP system, they do not really have adopt an ERP system into their business processes, especially for the small business, their business activities not really depend on the ERP system, they can update their system more often, but they do not have to change the whole business system.  Because to change the company system which to build the new system to the business processes it will spent a lot of money to plan the new system, the manager have to spent more time to learn how to use the new system. However, ERP provides an opportunity to the business process, especially with the re-engineering, because re-engineering with ERP enables organizations to be more responsive to change the markets and to shifts the competitors’ strategies (p35, Sumner, 2005). 

 Reference:

Sumner, M 2005, Enterprise resource planning, 1^st edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saddle River

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?

Because of the information technology has been change quickly, many companies have to build the new system to beat the competitors for the business process. In this case, how to deal and use that old system is the key factor for build the new system affect. If the IT department recommends ES adoption, it will make the different levels of manager to spend more time about learn the new ES system. Therefore, it will increase pressure for reduce the number of people on the payroll and focus on the company’s core business, and it will come more difficult for the company of the total responsibility (p29, Lozinsky, 1998).

Reference:  Lozinsky, S 1998, Enterprise wide software solutions, 1^st edn, Addison Wesley, Reading.

Week 1

Q.2 ERPs are often touted as providing ‘best practice’ in functionality and business processes. However, many organizations have their own business processes and often do not want to change. If an organization is unwilling to change its business processes, can it gain any value from an ERP? How could this be achieved? What are the risks?

If the organization is unwilling to change its business processes, the company will waste a lot of resources and make less profit for their company. However, use the ERP system can help the company to provide the business benefits for sales, allocation the manufacturing, supply chain manage, financial management, transaction processing, and communication (p5, Sumner, 2005).

ERP (enterprise resource planning) is to handle the internal business activity for the company process. It works for the resources planning, management control and equipment control. Use the ERP system can help different levels of manager to make the decision for the company. The managers can use the system to clear make a plan for the business process from the dynamic and complex data on the business activities, also get more control and useful feedback for their business activities. To use the system can achieve lessen company resources, reduce inventory, reduce the amount of funds used to enhance the enterprise resilience, and improving market competitiveness and economic efficiency. The organization can use ERP system to manage access by the scientific management.

Enterprise resource planning has so many benefits to the company while there are number of disadvantages for the system. Suck like the company has to spent more money to buy the ERP system and the switching cost for the system is very high; the manager must have the higher knowledge to use the system.

Q.6 In recent times, there has been a trend away from total (or vanilla) ERP implementations towards ‘best of breed’ systems. Research this trend and describe how it differs from standard ERP implementations. Contrast the approaches and describe advantages and disadvantages. What are some of the considerations that would affect the decision to use the ERP or best of breed approach?

Total (or vanilla) ERP implementations are good at one or more applications, it complete the standard of business processes which based on the ERP system (p9, Sumner, 2005). It can use the vanilla ERP modules to support the core operation for the system and can be build the adapted modules to support the unique processes, make the advantage for the company by use the Total (or vanilla) ERP implementations (p13, Sumner, 2005).

The disadvantage for the company to build the total (or vanilla) ERP implementations is cost around $150 million and over 5 years to use this system (p9, Sumner, 2005).

The decision to use the ERP or best of breed approach it is can easier and faster to access and shared data, and if the system has the trouble access, the system can easier to deal with one vendor than other many different companies. 

Reference:  Sumner, M 2005, Enterprise resource planning, 1^st edn, Pearson Prentice Hall, Saddle River.