Challenges Faced By Southern Cross Travel Agency (SCTA) And The Need For ERP Solutions

Background of SCTA

The uncertain atmosphere caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has rendered many of the existing system and practices of businesses to become redundant. According to Akpan, Udoh and Adebisi (2020), the halting of the global operations for different business has along with the health problems and restrictions of movement has fuelled impetus to technological innovations to be adopted. Travel companies operate in the service industry that requires personal human touch for most effectiveness. As stated by Sørheller et al., (2018) opined that the use of the cloud ERP solutions has the benefit of improving divisions and productivity of the business operations through the process of simplification of the complex relationship between the various functional departments of the company. However, the current context of social distancing and trans-border movement calls for unification of the operational and functional activities of businesses to add value and satisfy the needs of the customers. Southern Cross Travel Agency (SCTA) is an international travel agency headquartered in Melbourne. It has also faced severe problems due to the pandemic. This report would analyse the problems and challenges that are faced by SCTA to find the opportunities. It would discuss such issues to find potent ERP solutions and make recommendations on its basis.

Southern Cross Travel Agency was constituted in 2002 with its corporate headquarters in Melbourne and operational activities in China, New Zealand, Nepal and other countries. The company employs more than 400 employees with annual sales of $ 240 million. The company operates in the tourism industry and offers affordable holiday experiences primarily for the international students and their families. Despite the existence of online booking and communication system in the business, the COVID-19 pandemic has showcased the need for an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for interoperability and providing efficient services to their customers. The systems and databases that are utilized by the different branches of the company are highly segregated with no points of commonality and accessibility to customer information. The delay and budget overrun for the transformation and integration of online services has produced distrust among the management of the company. However, the existing conditions of the business environment calls for successful migration of the operational activities into online and digital platforms.

Southern Cross Travel Agency (SCTA) primarily faces the challenges of integrating their operational and functional activities into cloud systems through the integration of technological innovations and ERP. According to Sternad Zabukovšek et al., (2019), the implementation and integration of ERP systems within business organization requires extensive training and a simulation of complex systems in order to provide effective outcomes a simulation of complex systems in order to provide effective outcomes. One of the challenges faced by the company is to extract customer information which is crucial for making evidence-based decisions. The company also has operations in different geographical locations which makes it difficult for collecting and analyzing the information through a centralized system. The complexity of the system itself and the training that are required for operating the system is also a detriment for integrating ERP within the organizational framework. The current system that are utilized by the company primarily caters to communication and online bookings that are required by the customers which is very limited in its functionality. In a nutshell, the pandemic has aggravated the existing problems and showcased the weaknesses such as inability to assimilate customer information to make accurate forecasts for their businesses. The prior experience of technological innovation being implemented within the organization in relation to overbudget and delays has also contributed to the challenges and problems faced by the company. The primary challenges faced by SCTA can be summarised as follows:

• Lack of trust in the ERP due to previous experiences of over budget and project delay while implementing technological innovation
• Inability of the company to integrate customer information from their different offices in different geographical locations to make informed decisions through analysis and forecasting
• Restrictions of social distancing and limited travel has also challenged the functional and operational activities of the company due to concerns of safety as well as dissemination of up to date and current information to customers and other stakeholders
• Diversification of the company to offer new services has rendered the existing system redundant as it does not have the facility and functionality of expansion such as integrating multi way communication

Challenges Faced by SCTA in Integrating ERP

It is necessary for a business organization to assess the needs of the functional and operational requirement of the business in order to understand the implications of the various actions that are undertaken by the company as well as its employees. As stated by Ashiru-Oredope et al., (2020), the needs assessment helps in the identification of particular requirements by the business as well as integrating them in order to fulfil them and aid to reach a desired outcome. In accordance with the challenges and problems that are faced by SCTA, the most critical need of the companies in regards to the implementation of ERP solutions that will enable continuous and seamless integration of consumer information for making informed decisions. It would also help in streamlining the operational activities with specific focus and purpose of providing efficient information and services to the customers and the business partners that are relevant to the service is being provided by the company. According to Iordache and Iacob (2019), taking decisions on the basis of existing conditions and information about the business operations significantly improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the business as well. On the other hand, the company also needs to continuously inform and make changes that is reflective of the volatile conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic. The highly unstable and ever-changing directions that are provided by the government of various countries in order to curb infections also impacts the travel plans of the customers before, during and after the trip as well. This requires an integrated system of two-way communication that offers succinct overview of the existing information based on the geographical locations of travel that would help the customers and partners to make required changes to their plans as well. The existing booking and communications system does not respond to such changes and requires considerable overhaul of the innovative solutions and IT requirements of the company that requires to be changed. According to Lysytsia and Martynenko (2020), the implementation of innovative solutions within the organizational framework also requires sufficient training for the employees to maintain sufficient training for the employees to maintain and manage the systems. Hence, SCTA also needs to train their employees in the ERP systems to be implemented within the organization in order to effectively maintain and manage that continuously aligns with the requirements of the customers and partners and continue to provide the efficient outcomes expected.

Savla and Churi (2019) opined that the premise of rising digital presence for different companies as well as expected notions of customer experience calls for successful enterprise planning that will offer competitive advantage for business organizations. The decentralized system of operational activities for multinational organization needs to have technological perspectives that are capable of integrating information from different geographical locations in order to make evidence-based decisions that are successfully implemented for improved efficiency and effectiveness of the business decisions. It should also be mentioned in this regard that there are several cloud ERP solution providers in the market with differentiated features and characteristics for satisfying the needs of different businesses as well. While the basic features of the ERP solutions are similar in nature, the personalized requirements of a business also needs to be considered for selecting cloud ERP solution provider. As stated by Huang et al., (2021), the points of differences, niche market they operate in, different types of ERP services, business continuity and other factors are necessary to be considered that has significant impact on the success of the ERP system. Some of the most prominent ERP service provider in the market are Oracle ERP Cloud, NetSuite, SAP Business ByDesign and others. While they provide cloud ERP systems services, they have points of difference which needs to be discussed in detail before the selection of the final service provider.

Critical Requirements for Effective ERP Implementation

A detailed consideration of different factors for various service providers of cloud ERP solutions are as follows:

Table 1: Comparison of different ERP vendors

(Source: Created by the author)

Conclusions

It can be concluded from the above discussion that significant challenges and problems are faced by SCTA such as scalability of the current system, distrust in ERP implementation, lack of data analysis and centralized system for making relevant business decisions. The discussion also suggests there are several ERP service providers within the country that can fit with the profiles and requirements of the company in order to successfully implement an ERP system within the organizational framework. The implementation of customizable ERP system within the organization will help alleviate the problems and challenges as well as offer distinctive advantage for market positioning and making insightful decisions that will significantly allow the company to continue its operation in the uncertain environment of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as business sustainability in the future.

In accordance with the discussion that has been made above, it is believed that the ERP software of Oracle Cloud ERP system would be best suited for the company. The recommendations that can be made to the company for its successful implementation and integration are as follows:

• It is recommended for SCTA to consider training of the employees of the organization in order to equip them with the necessary skills and abilities to handle, manage and maintain the implemented ERP software. The training of the employees will also improve the capabilities of the workforce to extract information and insights from the software itself to make informed decisions.
• The implementation of this software requires significant changes to be made within the organizational framework that enables a centralized system of data management and analysis for understanding the inclinations and preferences of the customers. The uncertain business context created by the COVID-19 pandemic can be handled through digital presence and successful communication and dissemination of information in relation to the travel restrictions required by partners and customers alike.
• It is recommended for the company to collect viable customer information from its different branches around the world in order to feed the ERP system with the necessary information to make recommendations on the basis of it as well as analysis for accurate forecasting targeted at specific geographical locations.
• Oracle is a large and internationally renowned business organizations with significant customer satisfaction. Hence, it is recommended for the company to utilize the ERP system software provided by Oracle in order to avoid cost overruns and delays that have significant impact on the budget and operational activities of SCTA as well. 

References

Akpan, I.J., Udoh, E.A.P. and Adebisi, B., 2020. Small business awareness and adoption of state-of-the-art technologies in emerging and developing markets, and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, pp.1-18.

Ashiru-Oredope, D., Chan, A.H.Y., Olaoye, O., Rutter, V. and Babar, Z.U.D., 2020. Needs assessment and impact of COVID-19 on pharmacy professionals in 31 commonwealth countries. Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice, 13(1), pp.1-11.

Huang, Q., Rahim, M., Foster, S. and Anwar, M., 2021, January. Critical Success Factors Affecting Implementation of Cloud ERP Systems: A Systematic Literature Review with Future Research Possibilities. In Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (p. 4683).

Iordache, A.M.M. and Iacob, I., 2019. USING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PROCESS OF TAKING DECISIONS IN BUSINESS. Journal of Information Systems & Operations Management, 13(2), pp.87-99.

Lysytsia, N.M. and Martynenko, M.V., 2020. Features of employees training in the conditions of development of digital economy.

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<https://www.netsuite.com/portal/platform/infrastructure/availability.shtml> [Accessed 16 January 2022].

Oracle.com. 2022a. Business Continuity | Risk Management Resiliency Program | Oracle. [online] Available at: <https://www.oracle.com/corporate/security-practices/corporate/resilience-management/business-continuity.html#:~:text=Business%20Continuity%20is%20a%20key,Business%20Continuity%20Management%20Systems%20guidance.> [Accessed 16 January 2022].

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Savla, Y. and Churi, P.P., 2019. An era of cloud ERP: Significant differentiation with premise ERP. Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology.

Sørheller, V.U., Høvik, E.J., Hustad, E. and Vassilakopoulou, P., 2018. Implementing cloud ERP solutions: a review of sociotechnical concerns. Procedia computer science, 138, pp.470-477.

Sternad Zabukovšek, S., Picek, R., Bobek, S., Šišovska Klan?nik, I. and Tominc, P., 2019. Technology acceptance model based study of students’ attitudes toward use of enterprise resource planning solutions. Journal of Information and Organizational Sciences, 43(1), pp.49-71.

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