Benefits of Cloud ERP System
Discuss About The Cloud Computing Enterprise Planningsystem.
With the technological advancements, company are moving their tactics to the cloud environment for enabling sharing of resources among the team members for improving the work efficiency of the employees to get better result. The companies want to transfer their traditional working approach with the ERP system. The inclusion of cloud service model with the ERP system helps in sharing of information among various business units and partners (Navneethakrishnan., 2013). The cloud service model is deployed in three structures according to the requirement of organization such as Software as a service model, platform as a service model, and infrastructure as a service model. The ERP system helps in finding strength and weaknesses of the different departments of the organization. The cloud ERP system is based on the Software as a service model to access the resources and software application of the organization among different business unit (Saini, Saini, Yousif, Khandage, 2011). The deployment of Cloud ERP system is helpful for managing hardware and software premises for reducing the cost of the project. In this paper, we are looking forward to focus on analysing the benefits and disadvantages of implementing ERP cloud in the working structure of the enterprise.
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the case study on the organization which have employed ERP cloud in its working environment. It helps in analysing the benefits and the risks associated with the transformation of the traditional operational working of the enterprise with cloud ERP environment. It focuses on the cross sectional overview of the enterprise for analysing the impact of cloud ERP in improving the technical advancement, new operational working plan, and elimination of the environmental hazard.
Astra private limited organization is the cotton textile manufacturing industries which have recently open its branches in Sydney and Queensland. The organization has transformed its traditional working environment with the cloud ERP system to improve flow of information between different units of the enterprise to increase the operational working environment of the enterprise. The Astra private limited organization is facing problem in aligning the strategic plan of the business with the operational branches at site location. The organization was inefficient in handling the tasks, resources, hardware, and software of the enterprise among the working employees of the business to manage and increase their working capabilities and productivity of the organization. The owner of the company had decided to change its operational plan and network connectivity among the business unit with the ERP cloud system. The organization is implementing software as a service cloud model for increasing the communication between varying units of the enterprise. The manufacturing process of the Astra enterprise can be effectively improved by minimizing the interruption which occurs due to the shortage of raw material. The analysis of the case study helps in demonstrating the benefits and risks associated with the ERP cloud environment.
Risks of Cloud ERP System
The manual working of the enterprise departments such as human resource, Account, production, inventory, and marketing was employed in the traditional working of Astra private limited organization. The company is facing problem of inaccuracy in managing the supply and demand of products, accounts information for getting knowledge of return on investment and profitability, retention bonus and promotion for HR, management of Inventory, and marketing policies. The inefficiency of the organization depends on improper management of resources and communication plan among the internal and external unit of the enterprise (Jia, 2015). It directly affects the declination of the return on investment, return on equity, return on assets, and profitability of the organization.
With the deployment of cloud ERP system the organization gains advantage by managing good communication platform between internal and external units of the business organization. The cloud ERP system increases the functionality and accuracy of the human resource, Account, production, inventory, and marketing department of the organization. The new system provides efficient facilities for improving the sharing of tasks, resources, hardware, and software of the enterprise among the working employees of the business to manage and increase their working capabilities and productivity of the organization (Hoesini, 2015). The deployment of the SAAS cloud model helps in lowering and minimizing the cost spent on managing the operational plan of the enterprise and provides an efficient platform for communication between site locations of the enterprise which directly results in aligning the strategic plan with the operational plan of site location. The Implementation of the ERP system helps in transforming manual working of the enterprise with the automation and computerisation of the whole firm.
Software as a service model is deployed as a cloud ERP by the organization to manage its working process (Habadi, Samih, Almehdar, Aljedani, 2017). The installation of the SAP system helps in bringing automation in different departments of the organization such as marketing, finance, accounting system, human resources, and others. It brings accuracy in the working procedures of the enterprise which in turn increases the profitability of the enterprise by reducing the administration cost associated with the project development.
From the analysis of the case study, we are able to conclude that the efficiency of the business organization can be effectively improved with the deployment of the cloud ERP system in the traditional working platform of the enterprise (Peng, and Gala, 2015). With the involvement of cloud ERP system, the organization successful manages its working business plan with its site locations located at Sydney and Queensland by interchanging of resources, information, network, hardware, software, and data between internal and external employees effectively. The planning and control policies framework used for managing the inventory and stock can by effectively handled by the inclusion of cloud ERP in the supply chain ERP system. The manufacturing process of the Astra enterprise can be effectively improved by minimizing the interruption which occurs due to the shortage of raw material. The global marketing of the products through e-business helps in managing good and healthy relationship with the customers from all over the world. The Implementation of the ERP system helps in transforming manual working of the enterprise with the automation and computerisation of the whole firm (Kiadehi, and Mohammadi, 2012). The requirement of the customers can be fulfilled by analysing the feedback and review system report of the enterprise. The formulation of ERP in the current working structure of the enterprise inclusive with cloud architecture helps the project manager to think beyond the expectation of the customers and provides them an effective product according to their need and requirement which helps in building strong bonding and relationship with the customers (Sharma and Keshwani, 2014). The application of the cloud ERP system helps in enhancing the working forum of the enterprise by increasing the efficiency of customer relationship management program, human resources management, supply chain management, decision support system, and others. Some of the benefits to the working culture of the Astra Enterprise are listed below:
Case Study: Astra Private Limited
The effective management of resources and data through the process of pooling helps in minimizing the software and the hardware cost incurred on the different premises of the enterprise. The deployment of cloud ERP system does not requires extra cost on changing the infrastructure of the organization. The cost required on monitoring and administrating different site locations can be minimized by developing the centralization system of monitoring the premises (Saa, Costales, Moscoco, and Mora, 2017).
The isolation of the business operation with the centralization of different units helps in reducing the operational cost of the working forum of the enterprise. The aligning of the strategic plan of the business organization with the operational plan of the site location helps in reducing the operational cost of the enterprise.
The implementation of the Cloud ERP system requires very less changes in the business unit of the enterprise. The traditional infrastructure can be effectively used for the deployment of cloud ERP system.
The expansion of the business unit can be easily upgraded with the cloud ERP system with negligible changes in the existing architecture. The resources of the current architecture can be effectively used with the addition of new site location in the working platform of the Astra enterprise. The deployment of cloud ERP system helps in providing centralization of the different working business units of the organization which helps in increasing decision making capability of the project manager.
The deployment of cloud ERP system helps in managing automation in the different departments of the enterprise such as finance, human resource, inventory, marketing, sales, manufacturing, and others. The automatic upgrading of the information helps in managing business operation with ease.
The deployment of the cloud ERP system helps in managing flow of information between internal and external parties. The employees and customers can fetch the required information effectively from the premises of the enterprise (Elragal and Kommos, 2012). The accurate information is provided to them.
The strong bonding between the customers and the enterprise helps in increasing the sale of the products with the inclusion of global customers from all over the world.
The key drivers of the cloud ERP system which helps in increasing and improving the operational plan and working criteria of the Astra enterprise are highlighted in the table below:
Key Drivers of Cloud ERP |
Description |
Valuation to the organization |
The deployment of the cloud ERP using SAAS model in the traditional on-premises of the Astra group helps in gaining advantage for increasing the valuation of the organization. The consistency in the departmental works can be improved by the deployment of cloud ERP on the on-premises of the enterprise. |
Innovations in the work practices |
The deployment of the cloud ERP system helps in managing open communication between internal and external partner of the enterprise. The communication platform helps in sharing ideas, thoughts, and opinion of the employees for increasing the working efficiency of the enterprise through the accumulation of new ideas and procedures (Elmonem, Nasr, Geith, 2016). |
Scalability |
The ERP cloud platform is scalable in working tactics which is useful for the expansion of the organization to other site locations. The growth of the organization can be easily handled with the scalable program of the ERP cloud. The success of the organization can be measured with the ease of handling business operations performed by the organization unit. |
Strategy and policies for globalization |
The business excellence can be achieved with the marketing policies for attracting customers from the global world. The globalization of the business unit helps in managing transparency in the working platform of the enterprise. The management of resources among the different units of the enterprise helps in increasing the working capability of the employees and the productivity of the organization. The consistency in the managerial functions can be effectively handled because of the synchronization of business activities into a single forum. |
Expansion of the business unit |
The Expansion of the organization can be easily handled with the scalable program of the ERP cloud. The success of the organization can be measured with the ease of handling business operations performed by the organization unit. The deployment of the cloud ERP system helps in synchronising the expanded units of the business into the single platform for increasing working efficiency of the enterprise (Salleh, Teoh, and Chan, 2015). |
Long term sustainable plan |
The deployment of the cloud ERP system opens door for achieving long term sustainability of the enterprise. The cloud ERP system is successful in managing scalability of the business expansion which helps in developing long term sustainability plan for the enterprise |
Centralization |
The deployment of cloud ERP system helps in providing centralization of the different working business units of the organization which helps in increasing decision making capability of the project manager (Singh and Nagpal, 2014) |
Specialization |
The division of tasks and responsibilities done according to the working efficiency of the labour helps in increasing the working capabilities and productivity of the enterprise |
Configuration |
The restructuring of the business units can be effectively done with the deployment of the cloud ERP in the working forum of the enterprise |
Flexibility |
The structure of the organization can be effectively flexible according to the organization need and changes required in the functional program of the enterprise (Cloud Security alliance, 2015) |
The analysis of the functionality and operational program of the Astra enterprise helps in analysing the challenges which the organization faced with the deployment of the ERP cloud architecture in the working forum of the enterprise. The technological advancement in the business organization increases the risks of security concern for handling business processes. Some of the challenges are listed below:
Key Drivers of Cloud ERP System
Extra cost incurred on License and subscription program: The subscription fees had to be paid for initializing the cloud ERP program in the working tactics of the business enterprise. The subscription fees add extra amount to the budget organized for completing the business activities.
Risks associated with the security of the enterprise: The deployment of cloud architecture increases the security risks of the enterprise because it deploys the information, data, resources, network hardware, and software on the public cloud for effective retrieving of the information which can give privilege to the hackers for hacking the information (Bjorn, Johnson, Alajbegovic, Amar, Alexopoulo, Vaseleios, Desalermos and Achilles, 2015).
Internet connectivity risks: The high speed broadband connectivity requires for the ERP cloud architecture for the enterprise. The inefficient internet connectivity can affect the working structure of the Astra Enterprise. The proper monitoring program have to be laid down for managing the high speed internet connectivity of the business organization.
Risks associated with the strategic plans: The strategic plans of the organization should aligns with the operational plan of the business units in different site location for providing effective results of the cloud ERP system.
Policy framework: The standard mechanism is not followed for handling tasks and resources from the cloud among the employees which creates the risks of compliance.
Service Level Agreement: It is a complex task to mention all the requirement of the business units associated with the ERP cloud on the service level agreements.
Controlling of Cloud ERP:The functional programs of the cloud ERP system are facing difficulty to control the geographically apart business units.
Inclusion of Hidden cost: The hidden costs associated with the deployment of the cloud ERP system increases the budget of the organization which can create complexity in the financial statement of the enterprise (Arora and Erturk, 2015).
The analysis of the case study on Astra enterprise helps in analysing the benefits which the organization gains in getting competitive advantage with the deployment of cloud ERP system in the traditional working platform of the enterprise and the challenges and weakness of the cloud ERP system in handling the business operation effectively. The examination of the on-premise SAAS implementation helps in bringing automation in the different departments of the enterprise. The transformation of the organization culture with the cloud ERP system helps in bringing automation in the collaboration of the different business units. The centralization of the different site location helps in increasing the efficiency of the project manager in taking effective decision in the betterment of the organization (Algarni, and Alsanad, 2015). The organization should look towards some cryptographic procedures and firewall protection system for preserving the premises of the enterprise from the data leakages through the inclusion of the third party. The security concern should be taken into consideration for increasing the efficiency of the enterprise. The deployment of the cryptographic procedures helps in storing the data and information in the cipher text form which reduces the risks of data leakages and the inclusion of firewall protection system restrict the unauthorised accessing of the information from the organization cloud environment from the third party. The organization security capabilities can be effectively improved with the deployment of security procedures such as cryptographic approach, encryption techniques, development of the virtual private network, and firewall protection system.
Challenges Faced by Astra Private Limited
Conclusion
The concluding remark of the case study analysis on the deployment of cloud ERP system in the Astra Enterprise is that the organization gain competitive advantage and increased profitability ratio with the deployment of the cloud ERP system in the working platform of the enterprise. The SAAS cloud model helps in increasing on-premise management of the resources and information among the participating units effectively. It is most economical solution for bringing automation in the working platform of the enterprise. It does not require much infrastructural changes in the traditional working platform of the enterprise. The deployment of cloud ERP system increases the flow of information between the site location of the enterprise located at Sydney and Queensland. The centralization of the different site location helps in increasing the efficiency of the project manager in taking effective decision in the betterment of the organization. The Expansion of the organization can be easily handled with the scalable program of the ERP cloud. The success of the organization can be measured with the ease of handling business operations performed by the organization unit. The deployment of the cloud ERP system helps in synchronising the expanded units of the business into the single platform for increasing working efficiency of the enterprise. The analysis of the functionality and operational program of the Astra enterprise helps in analysing the challenges which the organization faced with the deployment of the ERP cloud architecture in the working forum of the enterprise. The technological advancement in the business organization increases the risks of security concern for handling business processes. The organization should focus on the security concern associated with the cloud ERP model with the implementation of cryptographic procedures and firewall protection mechanisms. The secure transformation of the information without the possibility of data leakages increases the operational efficiency and profitability of the enterprise. The accuracy in the information retrieved from the business unit increases the decision making capabilities of the project manager with regards to the financial condition of the enterprise.
References:
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