Business
Summary
Pierse (2010) recommends that practitioners should advise clients while implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). He argues that vast amounts of resources have been wasted on poorly planned and unprofessionally implemented IT systems. Such mistakes occur due to certain reasons. First, such a mistake is bound to occur if the software vendor has not performed enough research on the clients business and as a result, may not know the kind of customization needed for the project. Secondly, if the client underestimates the complexity of what is needed to be done, the software vendor may fail to understanding the essentials needed for the ERP. In addition, if the right questions were not asked during construction, the implementation will not match up to the expectations of the client.
Over the years, Pierse (2010) has developed guidelines that give the developer a holistic foundation on which he should base his ERP regardless of the type of company.
Order management
This is a module that stores the customer order history and, therefore, revealing their preferences and order cycles. If properly developed, it should feed the sales team data related to product features, availability, pricing, and delivery times.
Production planning
This module organizes the stock, route, and packaging and dispatch to their respective dates of implementation. It should be able to differentiate between requested and promised orders and indicates customer confirmation for the sake of the sales team.
Resource management
Notably, the resource management module ensures timely production while taking into account all the other factors involved in the production process. It should be flexible and must have room for unscheduled events.
Production tracking
This enables a business to track everyone involved in any part of the running of the business. This way, the company, can keep track of all investments in terms of resources used for the production process. Therefore, the company can estimate the cost of production.
Dispatch
Dispatch takes care of all the complications that could arise in the dispatching process. The main advantage of the module is that the supervisors are able to access all the necessary shipping documents are available before partaking shipping.
Specification and recipes
Materials planning
Since materials are the heart of production in every enterprise, the material planning module ensures that all details regarding materials are recorded. They include material requirements, ordering, delivery, and trace-ability.
Customer customization
Remarkably, this module is one that identifies with the client’s customer. In most occasions, it is integrated with the customer relations management system, which reveals details on every unique information about packing and shipping preferences.
Quality control
Since every enterprise requires a quality control system, this module ensures that every ERP has one. Information contained here reveals production testing, laboratory reports, and customer feedback, which customers can access so as to increase confidence in the business.
Exception planning
This covers all the information recorded in reports, which promote sales and production. Reports that are included relate to sales numbers, warehousing, accounting, and management among other reports that would provide exception information that give the enterprise an edge in the market.
Choosing the right system for a client is a very delicate task since each system should be tailored specifically to meet the needs of each client. Pierse (2010) advertises agile methodologies that may be used in the developmental process. However, the most important necessity is to know the business of the client well enough so as to understand the complexity and uniqueness that should be showcased in the ERP.
Reflection of the paper
Overall, the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a dynamic and flexible system that can accommodate any type of enterprise. However, the developer must use the designated guidelines like the ones discussed above. Prathankiat (2010) argues that this ensures that though the systems may differ, the guidelines account for all the significant parts of a comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
It is also very important for the developer to understand that the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that they are entrusted to develop determine the future of the said enterprise. It is, therefore, very important to embrace each system as an aspect for improving the organization (Prathankiat 2010). Therefore, it should, have nothing but the best modules and should be fully efficient to accommodate the number of managing individuals of the company.
A highly efficient ERP should benefit the company by improving the performance of the workforce. For example, an ERP that eliminates redundant information in computer systems benefits an organization. It is, however, the work of the developer to identify the problems that need to be addressed in the client’s current system. Such benefits may be that the ERP may decrease the overall costs of the IT department of the company. Also, Prathankiat (2010) states that it ensures an up to date update of accurate data available for the company. Therefore, the company will be able to track inventories more efficiently and enable the company provides room for future inventory.
However, the ERP may have some few disadvantages. An example is that the cost of implementing a new ERP in the company may be very expensive. Such costs include training cost, testing, data conversion, among others. As a result, many companies fail to implement the ERP projects due to their complexity and difficulty in controlling.
References
Pierse, P. (2010). Assessing Enterprise Resource Planning Systems. Accountancy Ireland, 42(3), 45-47.
Prathankiat, P. (2010). Analysis of critical success factors in enterprise resource planning (ERP). Retrieved from: http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/Fall2010Papers/Prathankiat/
