Case study: Aquatech International Corporation ERP implementation Aquatech International Corporation was established in 1981 and specialized in pure water systems for the power industry. The existing Aquatech information systems had begun to hinder the company’s growth. Most of the company’s data were on paper. As the company grew and expanded, it became a time-consuming and often a very complex process to develop strategic reports on business and personnel processes. To remedy this, the company decided to replace their legacy systems with an ERP system that would automate and integrate business processes and data to produce key management reports. Aquatech chose SAP as its ERP to implement. An external consultant evaluated the different ERP systems on the market. Aquatech initially believed that SAP was not a good fit, but as the company went through the evaluation process, with help from an external consultant, they decided SAP actually was the best system for them. The implementation took one year, and, similar to other implementations, issues were discovered as they went through the implementation process. “We thought we’d have a really easy time because we had no legacy system,” said Devesh Sharma, Aquatech’s vice president of products and services. “We were wrong.” The implementation suffered from not enough skilled and dedicated resources, a lack of project sponsorship and accountability, institutional resistance, less-than-adequate communications, and a lack of clear goals. Even with these issues, the system went live and the implementation one year later was a success. Case questions: You are required to perform “The value proposition” step of “Total Solution” rapid implementation approach to answer the following questions. Is the investment in new technology justified? Does the ERP solution match the company’s objectives? Does management understand what change means, and does that change have full support? Is value being delivered throughout the process?

 Case study: Aquatech International Corporation ERP implementation

Aquatech International Corporation was established in 1981 and specialized in pure water systems for the power industry. The existing Aquatech information systems had begun to hinder the company’s growth. Most of the company’s data were on paper. As the company grew and expanded, it became a time-consuming and often a very complex process to develop strategic reports on business and personnel processes. To remedy this, the company decided to replace their legacy systems with an ERP system that would automate and integrate business processes and data to produce key management reports.

Aquatech chose SAP as its ERP to implement. An external consultant evaluated the different ERP systems on the market. Aquatech initially believed that SAP was not a good fit, but as the company went through the evaluation process, with help from an external consultant, they decided SAP actually was the best system for them.

The implementation took one year, and, similar to other implementations, issues were discovered as they went through the implementation process.

“We thought we’d have a really easy time because we had no legacy system,” said Devesh Sharma, Aquatech’s vice president of products and services. “We were wrong.”

The implementation suffered from not enough skilled and dedicated resources, a lack of project sponsorship and accountability, institutional resistance, less-than-adequate communications, and a lack of clear goals. Even with these issues, the system went live and the implementation one year later was a success.

Case questions:

You are required to perform “The value proposition” step of “Total Solution” rapid implementation approach to answer the following questions.

1. Is the investment in new technology justified?
2. Does the ERP solution match the company’s objectives?
3. Does management understand what change means, and does that change have full support?
4. Is value being delivered throughout the process?