Erp as Software as a Service (Saas) for Smes

Enterprise resource Planning (ERP) is any integrated cross-functional software that reengineers manufacturing, distribution, finance, human resources and other basic business processes of a company to improve its efficiency, agility and profitability.1 On an initial view, an ERP system appears to be the cure for any company’s issues. The installation of such a system offers an organization the opportunity to re-structure their procedures, to coordinate branches’ systems in other geographic locations, unify information and inspire employees via granting them permission to company information. Now these chances exist at heightened costs financially. There are also implementation horrors and labor issues with which must be dealt with. A

Kumar, P. (2010). Successful implementation of ERP in a large organization International journal of engineering science and technology. Vol. 2(7), 3218-3224. Retrieved from http://www.ijest.info/docs/IJEST10-02-07-151.pdf

An extensive research was done to fetch the historical background of company, the functioning of its legacy systems, and the issues that are being faced by the company as a result of ERP implementation. However, there are only few studies that showed ERP case studies for the company relative to the ERP issues.The web searches provided a restricted account of data on company’s ERP profile. In order to find details of the issues that are being faced by the

Foremost among these is that the ERP implementation efforts of many of their larger counterparts have resulted in partial failure, and in some cases total abandonment. Moreover, small manufacturers tend to lack the financial resources to adopt the entire system and may be forced to adopt a piecemeal approach to integrating the typically expensive ERP systems into their services. It is also felt that the lower staff levels in smaller enterprises when compared to their larger counterparts are inadequate for the rigorous and extensive IT training and development requirements for implementing an ERP project. It is however important for these firms to ensure that they make adequate studies of ERP systems before deciding to do away with them altogether because it has been found that they can be of use to the success of the business, especially after successful

Today Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is extensively adopted by many organizations regardless of kind and size, mainly because it provides enterprise-wide view of information across all their business operations and help organizations achieve consistency across all their functional departments. The potential benefits of ERP system implementation include improved coordination across functional areas, increased efficiency, reduced operational costs, rapid access to information for decision making, managerial control and support for strategic planning.

ERP implementation is unlikely experience that any company will have. It has to be planned prepared and stimulated from the entire stakeholder otherwise it will sunk the millions of dollar and it drain the companies market. In case of Nestle USA, it confronted a lot of difficulties due to improper implementation plan yet be able to recover as a successful project. Many organisations have gone through the similar situation that there are plenty of lesson to be learned. We can conclude that ERP implementation needs big consideration on business requirement, business process reengineering, stakeholder’s involvement, hardware and software and other units.

The problem presented by Joseph-Armand Bombardier is the upcoming third round of ERP implementation in his organization. Even though a big improvement over the efficiency and success of execution between the first ERP round (Mirabel plant) and second round (Saint-Laurent plant), there is still room for improvement.

It was stated that an adequate training that is provided to end users can increase the likelihood of ERP implementation success, whereas the lack of suitable training may cause ERP system implementation failure (Nah et al., 2003). Moreover Khandekar & Sharma (2005), Tharenou et al. (2007) argued that in order to achieve the organisation’s financial, managerial and performance objectives from the ERP implementation, training programs that are designed to enhance users’ skills and develop human resource capabilities are vital. In addition, training and education reduces user resistance and increases ease of use, as the result, increases the chances of ERP systems success and willingness to use (Bradley, 2008). An implementation an ERP system without sufficient training possibly will have a negative impact on the organisational performance (Somers & Nelson, 2004).

With the industry showing no signs of slowing down in SaaS, the key principle of successful SaaS business is often based on understanding the market and being able to offer the right type of product with a higher-value pricing model that brings more revenue in the long haul.

ERP systems not only differ by the size of businesses but also by industry in the sense that different industries use different ERP software’s.

First, it is important to understand what an Enterprise Resource System (ERP) is and how it affects an organization. An ERP will integrate the organizational data across all functions; one only needs to enter data once, which is used by all through a single database. (Wailgum, 2007) This is significant because it will align the business processes by integrating the functional areas of finance, sales, supply chain, manufacturing, quality, and shipping and all users of the system. (Web4ERP, 2012) The success or failure of an ERP implementation is the alignment and direction of senior business executives with the IT implementation team, and business users whose job it is to interface with the new system. IT cannot and should not be making all the key design and configuration choices, the business must take the lead and own every aspect of the implementation. As it was shown in the “Why ERP” book, little effort was made to include all the people using the system. They went with the implementation decisions of the IT person who had implemented it in Mr. McDougal’s brother’s company with little regard for understanding how the business operated or what

Enterprise Resource Planning is a term formerly invented in 1990 by The Gartner Group to describe the next generation of MRP II software. The purpose was to integrate all facets of the professional creativity under one group of software requests. The meaning of ERP would be broadened to include almost any type of large integrated software package. Webopedia offers a widespread description of ERP as a occupational organization system that integrates all facets of the occupational, with planning, trade, sales, and marketing. About of the additional well-known ERP software designers contain SAP, Oracle, and PeopleSoft.

Anderson (2014) said “ERP implementations rarely fail in formulation; however, they frequently fail in implementation.” It does not in with just purchasing an ERP system. A well designed implementation plan is the company’s ticket to success. A well designed implementation plan addresses all potential bottlenecks like execution problems such as lack of training, attitude and participation of the entire workforce from leaders to staff, and member selection for the whole ERP project implementation team. An ERP project is

Enterprise resource planning (ERP), when implemented successfully ,can be linked to all departments of the organization to access, share and collect information. It has many functions such as, order administration, manufacturing, human resources, financial systems, and customers into a tightly integrating system with sharing data and visibility and distribution with external suppliers. (Injazz, 2001).

Enterprise system promises to greatly change four dimensions of business: firm structure, management process, technology platform, and business capability. At present in Bangladesh, companies can use ERP to support organizational structures that were not previously possible or to create a more disciplined organizational culture. The working force or the employees in the country are not technologically sound enough to get adapted with ERP at this moment, which is a great constraint in ERP investment. But effective measures like training, organizational development, proper management and education can be helpful in the development of the digital firms in the country.