The Technological Issues Faced By Companies Dealing With Erp Systems

Making decision of what to select between “best of breed” and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are never easy. There are many controversy or chaos issues surrounds this thought and debate. Which one is better? What factors need to be considered? This paper will address the difference between “best of breed” and ERP System that needs to be considered, such as the definition, advantages and disadvantages each of them.

Implementing an ERP system is not easy and can be very challenging. Managers should be able to recognize and implement strategies to minimize risk, if they recognize the nature and magnitude of the risks they face in the implementation process, they are able to minimize the risks by employing project management and control strategies to address the challenges they face. There are some risks involved with ERP implementation, which involve technology, organization, people, and project size.

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) implementation is regarded as complex, cumbersome and costly, and, very often, it exceeds the initial estimated resources. The process involves a thorough examination of the business processes in the organisation; selection of the best available software solution that matches the requirements of the enterprise; configuration of the selected systems;, training of staff; and customisation of the selected software solutions including

Re-engineering of business processes to fit the "industry standard" prescribed by the ERP system may lead to a loss of competitive advantage.

Enterprise resource planning systems provide functions for managing business areas such as production, distribution, sales, finance and human resources management. Through Thick & Thin Sauces company my benefit from implementing ERS in their enterprise from better decion making to integration of all internal and external processes. The other benefits such as better sharing of information within the organisation, simplified support and maintenance which result in increased efficiency and quality of customer service. However ERP systems are high in costs charged by suppliers for what is a large complex system, also implementation of the major organisational change required by the systems-a major planning, training and development effort is needed to successfully introduce a system which would radically change both the information systems and the business processes of the organisation. Such a systems may be suitable for Through Thick & Thin Sauce, through the use of application programing interfaces ERP systems which allow for some customisation without requiring a whole new system. This customisation may provide a standard method of exchanging data between software and allow programmers some access to ERP software package. Mixed systems can provide capability by defining standards at the communications interface level and all software must work to a common interface. However, the choice made should be directed by the

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).

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an enterprise system that serves as the technological backbone of many businesses today. Through a framework of integrated software modules, ERP provides employees and managers with real-time data across business units. For businesses that have successfully implemented ERP, the benefits can be amazing. Significant improvements in quality, efficiency, decision support, along with decreased costs and enterprise agility, are all tremendous benefits to any business. Those benefits don’t come without a price. The implementation of an ERP system is an enormous undertaking that can be extremely expensive. Maybe this is the reason IT managers are reluctant to move

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

Since early 1990s, most firms around the world have changed their information technology (IT) strategy from in-house developing information systems to purchasing application software, such as ERP systems. IT managers responsible for managing their organization’s ERP implementation view their ERP systems as their organizations. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have come out as the key success of information management and the enterprise backbone of organizations. The trouble of ERP implementations have been widely cited in the history, but research on the critical factors for ongoing and initial ERP implementation success is fragmented and uncommon.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, as a software package or one integrated system, is designed to standardize the collection of organizational data resources and to permit these resources can be shared throughout the company, which finally support the management of companies (Klaus et al., 2000; Mabert et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2008; Ifinedo, P., 2011). Since this kind of systems allows inputting and outputting information and the information could be shared across the whole organization in time, companies all over the world are now utilizing the ERP systems to improve operational efficiency (Davenport, 1998; Klaus et al., 2000).

Information technologies are becoming an inseparable part of today’s business world.ERP systems is one such example as they have become an important instrument without which the majority of enterprises could no longer function(Pabedinskait,2010).Successfully implemented ERP systems generate organisational synergy, which provides a motivation for the improvement of particularly efficient processes necessary for the success of an organisation. ERP implementation systems have become more popular within the last 15 years. They are now a common way of implementing organisational changes today. Organisations that successfully employ ERP systems, such as software and industry processes have enormous benefits such as greater efficiency. Companies that have succeeded in their respective ERP implementation include Cisco, Tektronix and Harley Davidson Motor Company.

It can be said that the vulnerability of the economy across the globe has made most consumers and customers very unwilling to pay more even for high-quality products and services. This general feeling coupled with competition among various organizations has compelled them (organizations) to develop strategies that would enable them reduce costs so as to offer consumers competitive prices, while improving efficiency, performance, and quality. As a way of enhancing organizational performance, most contemporary organizations are relying on technology, such as the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Basically, the ERP is intended to streamline and integrate the operations of various departments or units within an organization into a

-large scale shared, IT infrastructure is available over the internet and it is transforming the way corporate IT services are delivered and managed. In this report the focus is based on ERP systems and the result of this report are intended to facilitate a more detailed understanding of the recent transformation in the whole process as compare to contemporary organisations, then it will further discuss the techniques which are adding value to the value chain with the help of Enterprise resource planning.

The main purpose of this paper is to give further bits of knowledge into the selection of enterprise resource planning systems and the effects on hierarchical execution. ERP is the most recent innovative incarnation in the formative history of arranging and control based frameworks, which were initially intended to adapt to the troublesome errand of viably dealing with the data assets of firms. By using the ERP software data can be incorporated flawlessly in an organization.

ERP can be a difficult task, it takes more than months to setup and it costs more than software and hardware, but if everything is prepared with proper resources than implementation of ERP system can be completed with in budget in a proper or required time frame and deliver