Executive summary
It has been found out that technology is the most important function that can provide the needed edge above the competition in this digital edge. Unfortunately, most organizations fail to use this concept in their business and to many; information technology is not taken as an important function in business. This trend, coupled with the presence of technology and the dynamic nature of technology, the improvement and the development of e-commerce shows that information system management has become a very important function of concern to many organizations. Give the significance of information management to many organizations, this paper will look at the rationale that Lidia Mobile Hairdressing Sydney will install and reap from this technology. The developments of information technology in organizations are usually seen to be growing in three areas, which are data processing, management information systems, and strategic information systems. Each of these IT functions has different roles that they play in business. Even though investment that are made in IT are meant to increase effectiveness and efficiency in business, the strategic information systems entails actively using management to look for opportunities to use information technology to bring out competitive advantage. For this reason, there is need to assess the function of information technology in business and to look at the alignment of IT/IS functions to bring out the best in business.
There are tools and methodologies, which have been developed to support the goals and objectives of the strategic information technology management use in business. Although this effort has been directed at the strategic information systems management, most organizations have shown little or no attention at all. This paper will look at the requirements that Cisco need in order to get the most out of information systems in their systems.
Thesis
With departments becoming scattered and independent and also with the need to integrate various functions from various departments in an organization, there has been the need to ensure use of collaborative technologies to achieve this success. ERP is handy in achieving all these strategies.
Introduction
Cisco Systems is the world’s best leading supplier of products which are used in the computer networking. The products which are sold by the company includes routers, switches, protocol translators and devices that are used by internet service providers; all these products link together LANs which are dispersed geographically, WAN and the Internet itself. There are three categories of clients that are served by Cisco Systems (Camp 72). These include big organizations like government entities and learning institutions, service providers which include ISPs, internet providers and telephone providers. The third category is small and medium-size organizations which will require basic networking from time to time. With the expansion of the client base of the company, there has been the growth of departments. There are also outlets which have been established outside the US. That is the reason as to why there is need to have a web-based ERP. This is being developed (Clemons and Row 72).
There are important benefits that the company attains with the use of ERP. To reduce the long process of opening files, writing the files, updating and reporting to the administrators, Cisco Systems had to install an integrated information system that will be used to get all the processes from system. This way, they were able to have one view of the systems of all the existing and potential branches that had been acquired or created from scratch. The new system helped Cisco Systems to achieve the processes that are outlined below:
Coming up with a database (this made it easier and faster to track the updates of the various instances that the client will have with both the staff and the administrators). The database was to be used to handle the transactions, which done in the organization.
There was the creation of a one-client encounter management system where all the encounters that the client has with the company personnel was handled. This was a reality where the use of smart cards are deployed. These cards contained the information of existing clients and that every time they make an inquiry, they will use the profile already created in the system. This helped the organization to better understand the various needs of the various clients. It is a requirement so that better customer data can be achieved which help the organization will learn more about it (Dhillon 82).
All the Cisco System branches were to have one system where the client management will be handled anywhere the patient feels they are comfortable visiting.
There was a reduction of costs that had been brought about by printing, buying files and sending emails to administrators.
Reducing paperwork.
Inside the industry
Cisco has been using ERP since 1995. The reason for the adoption of this is that of need of collaboration. As the departments and the operations at Cisco increased, there was then the need to have an ERP system which would enable various departments to work together by way of sharing data and information. Cisco initially did not use ERP. They had a common folder in the network where departments would get access to them if they had the rights to use the network and its resources. This was in the early 1990s. The problem with this process is that there was deadlock experienced most of the times when users would not access a given resources because two users tried to access at the same time. It is then that Cisco sought to solve this problem especially given the fact that the company was growing and expanding in operations.
Outside the industry
In the early1960’s, there was emergence of inventory management and control systems and their software were customizations for handling purely stock management. In 1970, the attention was towards planning and procurement for raw materials and finished products and hence the emergence material requirement planning (MRP). In 1980’s, MRP was upgraded and MRPII (manufacturing resource planning) evolved. To reengineer the activities within a business enterprise, MRPII was further expanded to become the Enterprise Resource planning (Kim and Solomon 12).
Opportunities for success
ERP systems have been the most reliable and trusted tools that can bring the information from various departments. The ERP system serves as a central database that is used for information feeding for the various modules that make the ERP system. With the advent of e-business, automation with the use of ERP is very important. The modules operate in a common platform. With the use of ERP systems, the data will have one uniform standard and format. They are entered only once to the company (Papadopoulos 91). In the work of the ERP system to maintain integrity of the data that has been stored in it. The ERP system, in this case, provide data which are consistent and of high integrity. One direct benefit if this feature is the fact that redundancy of data is eliminated and thus rationalization is achieved which reduces the cost of the operations within organization. Another benefit of an ERP system is the fact that communication is improved in the sense that the data modules which are spread across the organization are integrated to provide better communication and sharing of data (Kim and Solomon 92).
ERP integrates activities in the departments of Human Resource, Finance, payroll, production operations and transport. The ERP system gathers data and processes for the activities within the organization making it act as unit.
It makes it easy for solutions to be achieved since all the processes and data for the organization are assembled under centralized robust databases for the particular departments. This creates better interactions among processes therefore giving a dependable delivery of quality goods and services (Keri and Carol 82).
Challenges
ERP is a collection of software packages that should work in unison to bring a single result and any malfunctioning of one application or component may impair the implementation of the ERP system. Bruch and Vinnichenko (65) state that “some of the problems which are harbored by the ERP system occur mainly because of the inadequate investment within the involved information technology employees; this inadequacy includes deployment and testing of implementation”. This has been attributed to the lack of policy under the corporate umbrella which protects data integrity within the ERP system (Bruch and Vinnichenko 162).
Most of the disadvantageous aspects are usually attributed to the ERP system is due to the fact that as the system recognizes changes and reengineering so as to be able to fit in standardized ERP modules, it has led to competitive advantage. However through follow-up of process preparation ERP system is usually attributed to increased sustainable advantages which are competitive (Bakos and Brynjolfsson 82). ERP system integration is always met with stumbling blocks of various procedures and software. This limited the sales person from accessing finance database in order to know the status of billing for the client; this limitation is extended to the denied access of both warehouse and the delivery status of the order for the customer (Clemons and Row 72).
Conclusion
With the rise in information systems use, there is need to have organizations make use of information systems. This report has explored the benefits of using information systems to organizations like Cisco Systems. Cisco Systems has had a lot of benefits in improving their operations for the various departments. With the use of such systems, it is expected that the organization will make it easy to handle some tasks that they are doing. It is touted that implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning at Cisco Systems has been a success story. Whereas the implementation took a relatively shorter time, the several benefits which have been offered by the system increased user satisfaction. All users involved in the Enterprise Resource Planning implementation, at the critical success factors and failure factors had to be considered in advance.
Works Cited
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Bruch, M. and Sam Vinnichenko. ERPs in Europe and Asia . New York: Cengage Learning, 2007.
Camp, Olivier. Enterprise infromation systems V. New York: Springer, 2004.
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Clemons, E. K. and M. Row. "Limits to interfirm coordination through information technology: Results of a field study in consumer packaged goods distribution." Journal of Management Information Systems 10.1 (1993): 73-95.
Dhillon, Gurpreet. Information systems security and principles. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007.
Keri, Pearlson and Saunders Carol. Managing and using information systems. London: Wiley & Sons, 2009.
Kim, David and Michael Solomon. Fundamentals of information systems security. Texas: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2010.
Papadopoulos, Aron. Information systems development: Towards a service provision society. New York: Cengage Learning, 2009.
Smith, Sam and Willy Seifert. The effects of ERP in the working economy . Nova Publishers, Illinois .
