Introduction
The world has obviously been undergoing a rapid transition from industrial to the digital age for the past years, even decades. Before, during the industrial age, the major capitals of the world are money and human resource. However, in this transition to the digital age, information has become the main capital of the world. During the industrial age, industries and businesses with the most number of employees and labor force are the ones who become great. In this digital age, industries and companies who hold the largest knowledge banks are the ones who are considered great. The vast improvement and development of technology has caused this transition to become more evident in almost all types of industries in the world. Technology has brought forth automation, and has slowly taken over manually operated machineries. This just shows how important information are in companies. This calls for systematic collection and storage of information, and the strategic dissemination of information within groups through communication.
Body
Information collection, storage, and dissemination is a very crucial part in every system. This is because one small miscommunication or improper dissemination can cause a huge chaos in an organization. Knowing that every organization is, and should work as a system, it is essential that negentropy, which is the process of “debugging” systems, is observed to ensure a centralized and unified circulation of information within organizations (Wylie et al., 2000). One way by which companies can negate entropy, is through the use of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. An ERP system is a software system that enables huge companies to monitor and observe the operations of their branches. This helps in ensuring the uniformity and centralization of all the operations in each company, regardless of location. ERP systems make it easier for companies, especially those with international branches, to watch over the operations and procedures done by overseas companies in order to ensure quality and stability within the work place (Gargeya & Brady, 2005).
In the case of Vodafone Group PLC, being the world’s largest mobile service provider with several branches in different countries in the world, having the ability to observe and control their international branches has become a problem that cause a decentralized and chaotic operation system within the company. There are two main factors affecting this issue. The first is the management factor. Having more than 83,000 employees working in several countries worldwide have caused the company to lose control over their operations as a whole. Rather than functioning at a centralized system, each branch has become like a separate entity working in just one company. The second contributing factor to this issue is the technological factor. In this case, Vodafone’s problem came in when the company was not able to utilize the advancements in technology in setting up systems that could help and make it easier for them to monitor the real time performance of all their branches.
Applying the ERP System was the most appropriate decision and solution that Vodafone did in addressing this case. Having mentioned the purpose and nature of the ERP system, it is absolutely the most optimal option that could address the main issue, and almost all of the issues that emerged with it, because first, the ERP system paved the way for Vodafone to have a centralized operation system that made it easier for them to work on their branding, and also made it more efficient for the whole company. Another reason why the ERP was the necessary information system is because Vodafone needed a system in which they are able to monitor everything that is happening to all of the branches, therefore enabling them to see and solve problems more easily and efficiently. As for the implementation, Vodafone had clearly utilized the ERP system very well, for they were able to address the issues that the company was facing. Another good point about the implementation was the company’s way of dealing with the resistance that the employees might show towards the new system. The implementers definitely did well in planning the necessary measures that needed to be done in such cases. However, one recommendation that could possibly improve the system, is a frequent evaluation in order to know and prevent small problems from becoming huge and disrupt the system.
Conclusion
The new ERP system that Vodafone employed in its operations is definitely of high value. Not only was the system able to fix thee companies problem with regards to centralization in their operations, the new system has also enabled the company to improve the quality of their services. Lastly and more importantly, the new ERP system has enabled the company to ensure the quality of work that the employees in all its branches are topnotch. This is the most important value that the new system has added to the company since this will highly affect the value of work and services that the company is offering the public.
References
Gargeya, V. B., & Bradey, C. (2005). Success and failure factors of adopting SAP in ERP system implementation. Business Process Management Journal, 11(5), 501-516. Retrieved August 9, 2016, from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vidyaranya_Gargeya/publication/241711633_Success_and_Failure_Factors_of_Adopting_SAP_in_ERP_System_Installation/links/555f0c9f08ae6f4dcc8e3812.pdf.
Wylie, J. J., Bigrigg, M. W., Strunk, J. D., Ganger, G. R., Kılıççöte, H., & Khosla, P. K. (n.d.). Survivable Information Storage Systems. Retrieved August 9, 2016, from http://wenke.gtisc.gatech.edu/survivable-systems-readings/PASIS.pdf
