Justification
Many businesses still embrace old technologies despite advances in Information Technology. As business needs continue to evolve, old technologies lack the capabilities to support new business practices as well as make the business compete effectively in a dynamic business environment. Outdated technologies often experience shortfalls because it does not cover all significant aspects of the operational requirements of the firm. Challenges such as reliability in providing accurate information, lack of useful information to facilitate decision making and being a standalone system are among the challenges of old technologies used in managing a business. ERP is a technology which renders efficient services to business. It delivers services based on the firm’s objectives and goals. Once an ERP is commissioned, it minimizes costs and time; this is in relation to costs of employing more staff and the system operations (Bansal, 2009).
The ERP provide accurate reports in a secure environment and enhance safe management practices within and across the business platform with a high level of professionalism. Besides, an ERP system shapes the way the human resource departments executes its operations. It is important to note that ERP assist businesses merge their processes from all departments within the organization and consolidate it into a central database. This is achieved without incurring more costs and time hence making it easy for accessibility and smooth flow of work (Bansal, 2009). Merging is accomplished by building a database repository that allows integration with a variety of application software presenting business statistics and other information to various departments within the organization.
Methodologies for implementing ERP
This report began with searching scholarly sources on ERP. The articles were credible and had an unbiased coverage on ERP. The articles were analyzed and their contributions and importance highlighted as they relate to this project. The first article demonstrated despite ERP facilitating optimal performance necessary for attaining organizational objectives; it is hampered by implementation challenges such as lack of proper coordination within the project team and loss of project control. The second article highlighted the challenges of managing ERP implementation using a case study on user requirement. The case showed that organization’s challenges can hinder smooth ERP implementations. Challenges in the organization such as changes of goals, lack of management support and poor planning may contribute to the failure of ERP implementation in an organization. The last article looked at ERP implementation in educational organizations. The education sector is the largest consumer of ERP; hence, implementing an ERP poses a major challenge because most Technical Education Institutes uses dedicated systems, unlike businesses.
The report also pointed out the justification for implementing an ERP. Businesses are growing, and the old system no longer supports modern and dynamic business processes. ERP system is an agile technology; hence, it plays an integral role in enhancing organizations businesses growth. Organizations’ which has endeavored to follow designated steps in implementation accrue more benefits such as fast delivery of services and centralized services to meet the challenging needs of today’s competitive nature of businesses.
In conclusion, the report finds out that implementing an ERP is a complex activity. Risks should be identified and possible risk mitigation plans put in place to avert failure during the implementation process. However, for successful execution, the process requires planning, technical expertise, and management support to increase the chances of success.
References
Bansal, S. (2009). Technology Scorecards: Aligning IT Investments with Business Performance, John Wiley and Sons
Lutovac, M. (2012). The Successful Methodology for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation. Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing, 8(12), 1838-1847
