Analysis Of ERP Implementation And Project Management In Worknet Technologies

Current State of the Organization and Need for New ERP System

The principal purpose of this report is to find out the effects after the implementation of the new ERP modules in the Worknet Technologies located in Australia. All the factors which have a positive and negative role in the implementation of the ERP modules are considered in this report. Prime importance is given to the current condition of the organisation and the areas in which the ERP system are implemented. The issues related to the quality of ERP systems which are implemented are analysed and discussed in this document with prior importance. The leadership style adopted by the organisation which helped them to effectively implement such a huge change into their systems are briefed in this paper. The different effective management techniques which are used to motivate the employees regarding the changes and the different methods by which stakeholder identification is conducted are stated in this document. The different types of communication strategies adopted by the organisation for communication between all the stake holders of the organisation is described in this section of the paper which helps in understanding the roles and responsibilities of a project manager. The different tools used for conducting the procurement process are discussed in this paper and their effects on the Worknet Technologies are also highlighted in this report (Mills & Wiser, 2013). All the probable risks involved in the implementation of the new ERP module are examined and the resolving techniques are also discussed so that it is easier for the readers to understand about all the risks involved in this process. The report concludes with a section mentioning my personal and professional opinion as an employee after the implementation of the ERP module.

The chosen organisation Worknet Technologies is an Australian IT company working on various types of IT projects based in Australia as well as the all over the world, established in 2010 founded by Mr. Michael Richardson it is one the most famous IT organisations in Australia. The company is presently located all across Australia and mainly focuses on outsourcing IT projects all over Australia and all over the world. The different working modules of this IT organisation are the development of software, development of websites, development of games and mobile applications development. The total number of employees working in this organisation all around Australia is about and due to its vast size, the management of the team was not being able to cope up with the present marketing conditions with their old conventional systems (Burke, 2013). The management team thereby decided to implement a new management information system in the form of ERP system or Enterprise Resource Planning. The project management team chose this management information system as this was the system that would be helpful in solving the resource related issues that the company was facing before its successful implementation. The principal aim of this section of the document is to examine the current state of the organization and the need of proposed new ERP system which can effectively impact the productivity of the organisation.

Quality Issues of Implemented ERP System

The implementation of the new ERP system in the Worknet Technologies organisation had several issues related with it however effective strategies were adopted to overcome those issues this document will be highlighting those issues. The management of this corporation used several advanced tools and techniques for overcoming these problems. The foremost issue regarding the implementation of the new ERP system is the selection of the most appropriate resources regarding any department. The different types of estimation techniques are conducted by the professional of the organisation so the new system achieves maximum efficiency within the given time period.

As discussed by Monczka et al., (2015), the roles and responsibilities of the resources were effectively balanced so that they can work freely and complete their respective tasks with maximum efficiency. The type, size, scope of the new system was prenasalised before being incorporated in the corporation so that they can avoid the negative parameters having the capability affect the effectiveness of the ERP system. The different types of technical issues which arrived after the systems were installed in the organisation were also resolved using specific methods. All the functionalities of the workstations and servers were revised and made compatible with the ERP system systems so that it fulfils the purpose for which the new systems were introduced in the organisation.

According to Sadgrove, (2016), the internal network security of the organisation was analysed and modernised with latest technologies. The entire internet facilities of the organisation were formatted so that any previous complication was avoided in the new set of systems. The existing hardware and software of the organisation was replaced by new systems so that the company can achieve the maximum efficiency of the new systems. The other issue of this change is to maintain the data quality of the organisation.

 According to Aubert, Hooper & Schnepel, (2013), the most crucial problem of this organisation was to transfer their important data from their previous systems to the new systems effectively so that the quality of the data is completely preserved. The data integrity and data quality were needed to be maintained as it would help the organisation to maintain their quality of services after this technological change. The planning regarding the implementation of the changes is one of the important challenges of this organisation and it was handled quite affectionately by the management of the organisation. All the entities which were involved after the change were examined in the first place so the corporation could adopt effective risk techniques to deal with them. The level of responsibility of the internal and external stakeholders were modified after the technology was incorporated into the system. According to (Chang, 2016), the understanding of the technology was given to the employees in the form of advanced techniques which made them understand its specifications in a better way.

Leadership Style and Conflict Management Approach of the Project Manager

The project manager of this organization is a very impacting factor after the change was incorporated into the system. The extensive leadership qualities of project manager helped the organization very much to deal with the technologies. The instrumental role of the project managers is discussed in this section of the document. According to Marcelino-Sádaba et al., (2014), the knowledge and experience of the project managers were applied well by the organization in dealing with the issues associated with the ERP system. His dynamics and motivation to the employees provided a huge source of motivation to all the concerned employees of the organization who are associated with the new advanced ERP system. The way he handled the roles of employees is really appreciable as this sensitive issue might have a direct negative impact on the employees who might have mishandled the situations in a complicated way.

 Project managers of this organization always provided a sense of support to the employees; he created a very great working environment which helped the employees to get used to the systems. The activities of the team members were tracked and managed by the managers so that he can examine all the minute issues which might come in a larger form in the future. He provided advanced optimizing techniques of using the new system to the employees which impacted positively in the accomplishment of the business objectives of the organization.

 According to Zach, Munkvold & Olsen, (2014), the project managers of this corporation started an effective directional platform for the communication process between all the stakeholders of the organization. This resulted in the clarity of the overall process and also helped the organization to grow by considering the changes as suggested by the stakeholders. The project managers set a realistic goal for each employee so that he can tract their task updates each day and provide better guidelines to them so that they can work more effectively and passionately.

According to Nour & Mouakket, (2013), the monthly review analysis started by the project managers helped the organization to a great extent in knowing whether the new technology is correctly implemented or not. The staring of the new appraisal schemes for the employees who are meeting their targets was an added advantage behind such an effective working of the ERP system. He maintained better relationship with all the stakeholders of the organization in order to make them work for the betterment of the association.

Stakeholder Identification and Effective Communication Methods

According to Shatat, (2015), the conflict management strategies adopted the project managers of Worknet Technologies helped the organisation to work more freely as he divided the duties of the employees in a graphical method. His unorthodox method of dividing the larger tasks in smaller modules helped the employees to a lot. His project planning, project execution, project close down methods were really updated and easy to follow for the employees of this organisation. He developed an approached within the employees to face any type of complicated situations. The project scheduling and controlling methods incorporated by him helped to overcome all the issues related with the systems (Harwood, 2017).

The identification of the correct stakeholders was very important for this organisation as it involves many vendors due to its outsourcing projects. The organisation deals with a lot of third parties and there was a need of advanced and improved communication platform which was stated by the organisation after the incorporation of the advanced ERP technology (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). The various parameters evaluated by the project managers are based on their interest on the ERP modules and all other approaches features associated with this technology helped in minimizing the negative impacts.

 According to Panayiotou et al., (2015), the criteria of the stakeholder identification involve the knowledge of the stake holders regarding the ERP system. The authorities straight away rejected the proposals of the external stakeholder whose associated might prove to be costly for the organisation due to their ineffectiveness so they stressed on the identification of the popular stakeholders who have a good reputation on the market. Sometimes like every other organisation, this organisation also dependent on the judgement of the stakeholders in a particular business situation so there is a need for choosing the perfect business stakeholders is important for every business corporations.

According to Aapaoja & Haapasalo, (2014), the different mapping techniques used in the stakeholder’s analysis of Worknet Technologies helped them to understand the differences between the good and bad stakeholders. The dynamics matrix methods are utilised in this organisation for the stakeholder’s analysis techniques.

Fig: 1 Created by the author

The different kinds of stakeholders associated with this organization are managed well by this method. When the dynamism is low the position of the stakeholder is predictable whereas the high dynamism states about the danger coming from the stakeholders. The predictability and expectations of the stakeholders of this organisation is calculated with the help of this matrix. The corporation adopted effective communication among all the stakeholders so that they can understand the ERP modules in a better way. According to Bourne, (2016), the effective communication had an influence on the functionality of the ERP system, strong relationships are formed among the stakeholders for better productivity.

Planning and Conducting Procurements

The methodology applied by the organization after the incorporation of the new ERP system and its effectiveness is examined in this section of the document. The procurement plan incorporated in Worknet Technologies involve steps such as the details of the contracts of all the stakeholders. It helps in providing job security to them as the restrictions, limitations, all other parameter which are included in their job are clearly stated there and it cannot be changed by them under any circumstances. It helps in the working purposes of the ERP systems also as it functions on the basis of the algorithm proposed by their users.

 According to Furnell, Emm & Papadaki, (2015), the different specific data of Worknet Technologies are stored, managed and retrieved by this process. Different types of contracts are used for different persons working in the organisation. Those contracts were either personally signed or authenticated using a digital signature so the data cannot be altered for personal benefits. Delivery dates of each module, standard rules and regulation documents, co-ordination papers, the impact of the constraints were clearly examined in the procurement plan adopted by the Worknet Technologies.

According to Masterman & Masterman, (2013), the most used contract in that office after the implementation of the ERP was the fixed price contract between the company and their outsourcing partners stated the quality of the products along with the deliverables and the timelines related to each module of the project. The scheduled projects and quality can be tracked with the help of specific tools used by the management of this organization.

According to Nwankpa & Roumani, (2014), the procurement risk managing is the other intriguing feature of the procurement plan adopted by Worknet Technologies which helps in understanding different types of risks which can happen while the project is underway. The procurement plan adopted by this organisation also helped them in the cost determinations process by effectively scheduling all the costs involved in the organization in a balanced way keeping the management in a much-secured position as compared with the previous situations where it was difficult for them to control the financial flow. According to Kerzner & Kerzner, (2017), the vendor management portions of the procurement process have the most influence among all its properties. Advanced biometrics are introduced along with the ERP systems so that the project scheduling can be done in a more effective way. The data compilation was done in a much-enhanced way rather the conventional techniques.

Risk Assessment and Management Strategy

This section of the document will be revolving around the risks involved after the incorporation of the new ERP system; it also gives us an idea about the risk evaluation techniques and the tools which are used for the risk analysis. According to Nwankpa, (2015), the most important factors which have a direct negative factor on the development of the company is the misunderstanding of the impact of the technology, users feel so much insecure about the new methods so they are given proper advanced trainings. The selection of the wrong software is the other major type of risk involved in the organisation and its impact can be reduced significantly by making the employees aware of the issue. The ERP systems should be effectively customized so that it does not create any issue after the services are provided by the organisation.

According to Rajnoha et al., (2014),  the services provided by the company such as a game or a website which are given to clients having a completely different environment so the environment in the production process should be well managed with a lesser amount of risks. The transfer of data from the legacy systems to the new advanced systems should be secured so that it can minimize all the risks involved in the process (Schniederjans & Yadav, 2013). The other risks associated with this organisation is the resistance to change so this corporation adopted specific techniques such as which helped them to deal with this issue. The other type of risks associated with the organisation is the behavioural risks and the risks involving the stakeholders of the corporation.

According to Jackson, Mun & Park, (2013), the acceptance regarding the new ERP system is one of the main issues for this corporation which are reduced by the implementation of the user acceptance document. The technical risks involved in this organisation such as the knowledge required to use the advanced ERP system is solved with the help of advanced and improvised training methods involving all the stakeholders of the organisation (Dey, Clegg & Cheffi, 2013).

The application of the new ERP system in the Worknet Technologies has a major role to play in my life. Both my personal and professional life was impacted due to its effect. All my daily activities in my company is much easier now, many complexities associated with my schedule was reduced to a greater extent now. As my professional life got easier it directly impacted my personal life also and I became very much secured about my job as well as my personal life. The significance of the leadership skills, effective team management methods, effective stakeholder communication strategies have a great impact on me as well. I understood the importance of customer satisfaction, previously I always thought about me and my necessities in the organisation now after knowing all the essentials.  

Personal and Professional Impact of Studying Project Management

Conclusion

This report concludes with the fact that the effect of globalisation has resulted in the creation of new technologies which actively helps the organisations in different types of ways. These technologies have a direct impact on both the personal and professional life of the employees of any organisation. The complex conventional systems used in the Worknet Technologies was modified with advanced ERP systems which provide more efficiency to the organisation. The cost analysis of the company after the introducing of the new technology stated about the effectiveness of the ERP systems. A better data security was formed to protect all the information about the company. Looking into the future prospects of this implementation, there will be a growth in the revenue of the company and proper business strategies could assist in the growth of the company. The risk mitigation approaches followed by the organisation in this case for controlling the risks should be highly appreciated and followed by another organisation that are planning to incorporate the new ERP system on their organisation.

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