Module Review Questions and Module Practice
Part A
When a department, team or group within an organization fails to interact with others, it is termed to as a functional silo. The lack of information sharing and internal processes and data makes the department act as a silo or an island. Functional silos have evolved in organizations. They have become more prevalent after the organizations became complex and large. A company can be termed as a large organization if there are many departments that have distinct duties and responsibilities. If the department in the organization operates separately and does not interact with others, functional silos exist. Departments have over time maintained autonomy and can function without the entire company being involved, and this has contributed to evolving of functional silos.
Distinguish Centralized, decentralized and distributed IT architectures
Centralized Information Technology architectures are those information technology architectures that are based on servers, supercomputers and mainframes. In this type of architectures, all the software, data and resources are located in the server. The information can be accessed via the computers. Under these architectures, no information is stored in the satellite computers. Decentralized architectures are the architectures that are characterized by many small computers. Each of these computers contains their own information and the software that they need to function properly. The autonomy gives the computers full control over what takes place in the organization. These architectures may result to less cooperation between departments and groups.
Decentralized architectures are applicable where each department requires t process its own information and data. Distributes Information Technology architectures are the combination of both decentralized and centralized architectures. In these architectures, there are small computers in departments. These computers access information from a primary source or server that is centrally shared in the organization.
Most Appropriate Architecture
The distributed architecture is recommended for Enterprise Resource Planning. This is because the architecture facilitates integrity and data consistency. After combination, the organization comes up with a system that incorporates all the necessities of the people. Data access is made simpler as the information is accessed from a single source due to centralization. In addition, there is less queuing by processing machines as each machine has its own software due to decentralization. Therefore, these qualities make the distributed architecture the most appropriate for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is accommodating and flexible, as well.
Explain Horizontal and Vertical levels of systems
The vertical levels of systems are those systems that go up and down. The vertical levels of systems that exist in organizations include the functional operations, tactical management, as well as strategic management levels of systems. The horizontal levels of systems are those systems that run across departments. These levels of systems include Human Resources, marketing systems, manufacturing, finance, accounting and management Information levels of systems.
There are five chief steps to pursue when doing systems integration. The first step is resource categorization. Under this step, the amounts of hardware and software that the organization requires is taken into stock. All that is needed is written. The step of resource allocation also involves seeking vendors who suit the specifications and technology levels to supply the organization with what it requires. The second step in systems integration is compliance and standards. The organization analyzes the system to ensure that it has complied with all the requirements and standards. This step is critical as it benchmarks the needs of the organization against those of existing firms and other legal standards.
As the company would not want obsolete or substandard hardware or software, compliance and standards are a vital step. The third step in systems integration is legacy systems support. When tackling this step, the people involved in system integration should ensure that the older systems are supported appropriately. The older systems may be of use to the new system and should, therefore, not be discarded without proper support. The development of support also provides for back up once it is needed. The fourth step in the system integration is the middleware tools. These are tools that are applied in supporting the older systems. These tools should be stored and preserved properly as they can be of huge assistance to fixing problems in the newer systems in the case of a breakdown.
Middleware tools must be preserved, in the same way that the legacy support systems are preserved as their importance is intertwined and related. The fifth critical step in systems integration is the authentication and authorization step. In this step, policies are authorized and authenticated. This helps in safeguarding the systems from unwanted and illegal access. The access may lead to data and information leakage that may cost the organization in a great way. High sensitive information is safeguarded and log in and log out information and security codes created.
Role of ERP in Systems Integration
Enterprise Resource Planning systems have a critical role to play during the process of system integration. Enterprise Resource Planning advocates for logical systems integration. The logical systems integration permits corporations to shift and accommodate business practices and processes as opposed to functioning alone. This assists in better system integration in the companies. Another role of Enterprise Resource Planning in the systems integration is that Enterprise Resource Planning Systems permits influence between departments. The forced interaction between departments is helpful in the elimination of functional silos as departments are forced to interact freely and, therefore, work together to achieve the goals of the organization. Moreover, with physical integration between the two systems, Enterprise Resource Planning systems influence corporations to improve fluidity and enhance flexibility throughout the system.
Part B
In the manufacturing company that I am working for, there were several issues that the company faced when it decided to integrate all systems and removed the functional silos that had been manifested in the organization. The issues were, as a result, of both logistics and physical nature of integrated systems. As a result of logical integration, we were forced to focus more on the processes and transactions that occur in the business. Emphasis was now on all processes that included purchases, sales, and monitoring of supply as the integrate systems provided a platform for monitoring all the occurrences at once from a central server. There was increased interaction between departments, as a result, of integration. This led to the collision of roles. Various departments did not understand their mandates, as a result, of the integration as many roles had been multiplied.
Another issue, as a result, of the interaction was the access of confidential information from other departments. The removal of functional silos permitted other people from foreign departments to access the information that was classified in others through the central server. This led to information leakage and loss of business secrets that were detrimental to some departments, and to the corporation as a whole.
References
Motiwalla, L. &. (2012). Enterprise Systems for Management. Upper Saddle River- New Jersey: Pearson.
Ohtonen, J. (2013). How to overcome silos foe process excellence. Process Excellence Network, 1.
Poole, D. (2011). Centralized vs Distributed. DR. Dobb's, 1.
Search IT Channel. (2014, June 9). Introduction to network centralization and decentralization. Retrieved June 9, 2014, from http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/Introduction-to-network-centralization-and-decentralization: http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/
