Erp Best Practices

As a result of technological advancements, modern businesses seek new and improved methods of conducting their business processes. Systems have been designed to augment and manage core business functions such as production, accounting, procurement, and human resources. However, even with these systems in place, information is unreliable and inconsistent if they are on disparate platforms. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software tackles this problem by integrating business processes into a centralized system.

Bombardier is the world’s only manufacturer of both planes and trains, it is present in more then 60 countries and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Both Bombardier Aerospace & Bombardier transportation employ over 70 000 and posted a revenue of over 18.3 billion in the fiscal year ended December 31,2011.

In today’s business environment, companies use integrated information systems to gain competitive advantages. The primary objective of senior management is to generate a 10% profit to reinvest into the enterprise and expand their divisions. Several of Bandon’s competitors have implemented ERP with integrated CRM solutions. In order for Bandon Group, Inc. to compete with businesses such as Xerox, it is necessary to integrate the business applications. According to Monk, Ellen, & Wagner, “increasing information system efficiency often results in the effective management of business processes, which is essential to maximizing profit and sustainable growth” (2009). Bandon Group has common critical problems and issues within the organization today; there are also opportunities and challenges that need to be addressed. The technology department is small and strained. With the range of various technical solutions that have been implemented across the divisions it has become very difficult to provide data migrations, network support, technical support and training (Sumner, 2005). An ERP system can dramatically reduce costs and improve operational efficiency as it removes feudal decision-making and facilitates data integration and transparency between business units

Symptoms: A few symptoms mentioned was that specialized knowledge was concentrated in a few individuals, embellishing the scorecards to mask some of the issues, gaps in understanding of priority between project team and actual business, and finally some feedback on wanting SAP to have done more for an individual’s current job.

Keys to Success: Identify potential management issues (e.g., motivation problems, conflicts) that are likely to arise in completing this project. What should you, as the project manager, look out for in managing this project? What are the keys to success?

The adoption rate of ERP systems have drastically increased over time as it offers a vast amount of benefits to organizations. Hau and Kuzie defined an ERP system as a “multi-module, packaged business application solution that enables an organization to automate and integrate business processes and practices within the firm, share common data, manage resources, and provide access to information in a real time environment” (2010, p. 178). One major advantage of an ERP system is the integration of all the functions of an organization into a single system which brings about the smooth flow of information within the organization. The implementation of ERP ensures information shared by different functions such as accounting, distribution, manufacturing and human resources is seamless and can be accessed at any time by authorized employees only. However, the implementation of ERP systems is complex, costly and often leads to failure. Most organizations tend to modify the ERP system’s functionalities to fit into their existing business process but often end up running into challenges and sometimes failure of the ERP implementation. In the case where the features of an ERP system has been modified, a particular module or program might have an update which is not compatible with the existing system and this could lead to challenges in a production environment. These types of issue are usually encountered when the changes that occurs within the operating process of an

In business, it is important for companies to be able to communicate effectively. Each department of a company relies on the other departments as they add to the value chain. One way for a company to integrate its different departments is enterprise resource planning. ERPs are software programs that allow companies to join together data across operations on a company wide basis (Jessup and Valacich 248). ERPs store company information in a common database and allow all departments to access it from one central location (Koch). Companies without ERPS may contain many legacy systems, each operating with different

Note (for educational purpose only): In order to make every group member well aware of project management techniques and responsibilities, we are switching the role of project manager among all team members as and when needed under the designation of “Temporary Project Manager”.

To uphold a good relationship with them is the answer to minimise the risk. Thus, offering them the new integrated online system which will ease and simplify their deal, will be very advantageous.

“In the mid-to-late 1990s, companies began implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to automate, standardize, and integrate their business processes for effective planning and control.” (Bradford, 2015) A major component of this ERP system is a single all-encompassing database that Bradford refers to as, “a single source of the truth.” (pg. 1) Essentially, what this means is that employees in various departments of an organization will input data essential to their core activities; and this data can be utilized to help other departments perform their activities faster and more efficiently. The idea is to have all aspects of an organization work from the same data. Organizations have abandoned the legacy systems of the past

Ultimately the success or failure of any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is the contribution it makes to a company's attainment of strategic objectives, strategies and plans while unifying the many diverse systems and processes in use throughout an enterprise (Ifinedo, 2011). The very nature of ERP systems continues to go through a rapid evolution, migrating from rigid, difficult-to-use platforms into more distributed order management, supply chain management, fulfillment and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems all unified with accounting and financial performance information (Ifinedo, 2011). ERP systems are making it possible for companies to gain a much greater level of 360-degree insight into their supply chains, value chains and most importantly, their prospects and customers. While there are a myriad of factors that contribute to the failure of ERP systems, the lack of 360-degree views of customers and the lack of senior management support can cripple even the most potentially valuable ERP implementation (Krisgman, 2010). Alleviating an ERP failure is in the inherent interest of any vendor; they however do not have the most critical knowledge for ensuring ERP implementation success. The senior management teams and IT departments at customers do. The insights into how to best navigate change management requirements have a much greater impact on the success or failure of any ERP implementation

Organizations face numerous challenges to survive in today’s volatile global market. Some of the common challenges are for example - to constantly adapt themselves to the evolution of technology, peer competition, different customer relationship and business cultures in different countries, keeping up to the demanding customer expectations, etc. These challenges faced by global organizations, often help to understand more clearly the approaches that are helping them to thrive as well as precautionary policies or practices designed to lower total costs, shorten throughput times, ensure more dependable delivery dates , superior customer service, quality, and professionally organize global demand, supply, and production. Most of these challenges can be addressed with the help of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. ERP is business process management software, which allows an organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and automate many back office functions related to technology, data warehouse, finance, human resources and other services.

Riordan Manufacturing Inc. is a global plastics manufacturer that was founded in 1991 and employs 550 people. They have since expanded to three locations in the U.S. and one in China. Due to these expansions the company is now experiencing communication and processing issues. Each system needs to be connected to the others in order to improve the tracking and productivity as well as communication between systems. We have been asked to develop a plan to implement a system to connect all of the people and locations into one enterprise system that will give the company access to information from any location at any time. This document covers our

Company A being a leading value added distributor for Telecom hardware platform and services in APAC can benefit largely from the implementation of an ERP system. The ERP system will be their business management tool to assist them to use a system of applications which are integrated to manage their regular activities. The ERP system will incorporate all aspects of the entire organization including finance and accounting, human resources, manufacturing and supply chain management, project management, customer relationship management, data services and control of access ADDIN EN.CITE Wallace2001619(Wallace & Kremzar, 2001)6196196Wallace, T.F.Kremzar, M.H.ERP: making it happen : the implementers' guide to success with enterprise resource planning2001New YorkWiley9780471392019http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Wa3vIn5DKc8C( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_10" o "Wallace, 2001 #619" Wallace & Kremzar, 2001).

An ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning, system is a business management software that integrates all levels of operations. It can include product planning, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing. The goal of a successful ERP is to improve the flow of all shared information and data across the entire organization. In the past, Johnson & Johnson have used an ERP developed by SAP, a German multinational software company and one of the worlds largest. More recently J&J took on a massive project to consolidate and harmonize their ERP landscape. J&J 's global enterprise supply chain included 120 manufacturing sites, over 500 external manufacturers, 450 distribution centers, and over 60 ERP systems that support about 275 operating companies (Dignan, 2013). This project was initiated because J&J was finding that they were having trouble keeping some products on shelves which affected sales. They saw an opportunity to better meet the evolving needs of customers and hopefully improve the cost of goods sold efficiently to