Cloud ERP system in existing IS/IT
Question:
Discuss about the Cloud ERP system in Existing IS/IT.
Cloud computing is considered to be one of the fastest growing part of IT industry. Cloud-based ERP has emerged as alternative to traditional model of ERP (Dwivedi & Sharma, 2016). The marketing of cloud depended ERP states that adaptation needs low amount of amount of investment and can easily be implemented as this service is provided over the cloud. In the domain of IT, there are no one size which fits the all kinds of solution (Ramasamy & Singh, 2017). Various organization around the globe takes up decision-based on IT system, like availability of resources for investing, a functional requirement which the organization can easily serve.
In the coming pages of the report cloud ERP system in existing IS/IT has been discussed in details. A proper discussion has been provided for cloud ERP in relation to IS definition. Four key advantages of cloud ERP system has been discussed in details. After that key advantages of cloud ERP system has been discussed in details.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been adopted on commercial off the shelf software. But at present, this type of system is considered to be attractive for delivering cloud-based delivery model. ERP system is considered risky, time taking and expensive IT investment made by a company.
ERP system constitutes the basic kind of information which is needed in present business environment (Jain & Sharma, 2016). It also provides a well-known model of computing in the various organization. This kind of system offers the best way for efficient planning and managing of resources for an organization by integration of its information and information based platform for various kinds of platform-based areas (Haddara, Fagerstrøm & Mæland, 2015). There is a large number of benefits of adaptation of ERP like reduction of cost, providing better service, improvisation of productivity, enhancing the resource management, better planning, and taking of decision.
The computing of the system that is dependent on the cloud infrastructure is known to be the Software as a Service. The software as a Service leads to the fact that platform allows the clients to use the cloud-based applications that run on the computing resources with the help of the internet (Jalil, & Bakar, 2017). This resources that are related to the com putting services are maintained in the remote data centers which are dedicated to the applications that intend on hosting the application on multiple platforms.
Cloud Enterprise resource planning is cost effective and the cost of the front end of the server is leased by the month rather than purchased. The maintenance of the product is least with respect to the fact that there has been the main concern for the platforms that are not using the platform of cloud Enterprise Resource Planning. Cloud enterprise Resource Planning also gives them access to the services that the company provides form any location that the client is located. The differentiation of the services due to the location of the client is avoided by using the platform of Cloud ERP (Bento et al., 2015). The cloud computing finds its use in small-scale enterprises. The medium-sized business enterprises are also well-benefitted by this technology. The reason for their utility in the small and medium-sized business is that the cost of the setup is for user-friendly and also does not have any sustainable expenditure for the front end of the system. using these features of the cloud computing the company can reach heights of productivity as the management of the organization gets prolific hence a positive node in the turnover of the organization is noticed.
Advantages of cloud ERP system
Reduced IT costs: Shifting to the infrastructure of cloud computing from the traditional data storage systems reduces the cost of the managing the IT systems of the organization the managing of the Cloud computing infrastructure is easier to maintain the traditional infrastructure of the It systems that were previously installed in the organization. Another important aspect of using the cloud computing is that the maintenance cost of the cloud computing is cheaper than the traditional information systems of the business organization. The entire cost of the Information Technology solution decreases with the aspect of using the framework of the cloud computing is by the decreasing the cost of purchasing g expensive information technology and installing the same by using the resources that are provided by the cloud computing (Chang et al. 2015). The expenses of paying extra money to the staffs of the company are reduced due to the usage of the cloud computing. The energy consumption cost of the organization is also reduced due to the fact of installing the cloud computing platform in the business organization. The time delay is also managed well due to the usage of the cloud computing platform.
Empirical examples: Daimler Finance services and the NetApp private limited were affected positively due to the usage of the cloud computing in the infrastructure of their business organization.
The flexibility of work practices: The major advantage of using the cloud computing network is the flexibility of the e-services that the networking system receives due to the fact that connectivity of the cloud computing infrastructure has been immensely dependable in case of the communication between the computing systems despite the location of the systems. Cloud computing gets the benefit of stronger connectivity as the computing systems that are present in the network is connected on the web platform which helps the employees well as the higher hierarchy of the organization to have an access to the computing systems of the organization (Gangwar, Date & Ramaswamy, 2015). This facility that is provided by the cloud computing provides services to the clients who are based differentially and acts as the global connectivity of the business organization. This ensures that the clients who are seeking for the service get proper service from the employees even in terms of location deformities that is present between the client and the employees. The flexibility in the work practices enables the fact that the organization gains the efficiency in the performance of the product. The efficiency that is applied in the framework of the managerial field of the organization helps in increasing the productivity of the company. this feature ensures that the goodwill of the company is maintained along the global audience of the company.
Empirical Examples: Autodesk and Addeko have been benefitted as they installed cloud computing in their organization and enjoyed the performance and the efficiency due to the reason of the flexibility in their working infrastructure.
Access to automatic updates: Another major feature of installing cloud computing in the business organization is that the cloud computing infrastructure enables the company to gain the updates of the software that is installed in the infrastructure of the cloud computing system automatically. Manual functioning of the framework of the cloud computing is lest necessary for the updating of the software’s of the cloud computing (Awad, 2014). This fact ensures that the expenses related to the maintenance of the framework of the cloud computing. The fact that the cloud computing of the infrastructure is auto updated helps the infrastructure to stay protected from the cybercriminals as it is easier for the cybercriminals to attack the source of the framework that is not updated to the latest versions of the potential updates. The potential updates that are provided to the infrastructure of the cloud computing provide the robustness of the framework of the cloud computing.
Uses of Cloud ERP system
Empirical examples: Dell EMC and the SAS Institute are the organizations that have been benefitted by the automatic update feature of the cloud computing
Collaboration efficiency: The collaboration with other organization also acts as the major reason for the application of the cloud computing in the business organization. This aspect deals with the fact of connectivity facilities that the business organization gets due to the usage of the cloud computing (Awad, 2014). The clients of the organization are well-searched and the technology of cloud computing helps in the detecting the potential clients of the organization. This aspect helps the organization in increasing the proficiency of the marketing strategy that is provided by the cloud computing framework for the company.
Empirical examples: HCL and Belcorp have been benefitted due to the collaboration efficiency that is provided by the cloud computing infrastructure.
There is a large number of benefits of using cloud ERP system in terms of ERP benefit taxonomy like:
Lower upfront cost: As a result of the separation of various computing resources from various enterprise location (AlBar & Hoque, 2015). The enterprise does not need to pay for a large number of building the proper environment needed for computing. It only pays off for the access to the environment over the internet.
Lowering of operation cost: Cloud service providers (CSP) are generally responsible for operating and providing cloud services which will lead to the isolation of various operating environments processes (Seethamraju, 2015). It will ultimately cut down enterprise as well as various kinds of operational cost. Various kinds of in-house ERP software needs hardware and human resource for maintaining it. In addition to license and ERP software will increase the IT budget of the organization. Cloud ERP solution comes up with monthly subscription option which can easily tailor the need for the initial cost. The implementation cost is considered to be lower the overall operational cost. The building of solution can easily form a great platform for development required for construct program from scratch (Peng & Gala, 2014). It focuses on making use of resources which is considered to add the more challenging domain of business. Business can easily exploit platform and can add customization at much lower cost for the organization.
Rapid Implementation: CSP offers a wide range of ERP solution, this solution can easily satisfy the needs of various enterprise (Khot et al., 2017). Choosing between various solution and product takes place just as per the need of business enterprise.
Scalability: Cloud services are considered to be highly elastic which ultimately relates to the fact that enterprise can easily scale up or down of various resources as per the needs or requirements.
Core competencies: Cloud ERP system will help the various enterprise in proper managing of their business in the much efficient way (Johansson et al. 2015). It has provided the enterprise to easily access and specialization of technology and advanced kind of resource which are available in the cloud.
Using of advanced technology: Working on cloud allows various kinds of enterprises to easily access and make use of specialized technology and advanced computing resources which are available in the cloud.
Examples of Cloud ERP system
Rapid updates and Upgrades: Update or upgrade on cloud solution is accomplished at a much faster rate than any traditional ERP (Kulkarni et al. 2015). CSP perform all necessary kind of upgrade as per the need of enterprise.
Easily adding with cloud service: There is a large number of cloud application which is offered for satisfying the needs of the enterprise (Gupta et al. 2017). As a result of ERP system which connects different parties inside and outside an enterprise, the integration with another kind of cloud service becomes much easier.
Adding up with various cloud service: There is a large number of cloud application which is offered for satisfying the needs of the enterprise (Weng & Hung, 2014). As a result of ERP system, which helps in easily establishment with various parties inside and outside the organization. The integration with another kind of service providers becomes much easier at the cloud.
Better reliability and cloud services: CSP’s provides proper policies and plans for restore, recovery and backup and another kind of function which are designed for availability and disaster recovery.
Cost of transparency: ERP system comes up with an option where enterprise pays for what they use and they do not need to pay for the thing they do not use.
Sales Automation: In many cases, it is seen that there is a geographical separation between client and CSP’s which ultimately relate to issues which can accomplish in the cloud.
Using of Security standard: Some of the CSP’s is used as a standard kind of encryption and decryption which ultimately leads to removal of issues of security form various client to CSP’s.
Free trials: Many kinds of cloud provider around the globe provides a platform where the client can easily try to implement their ERP system before buying it. This trial ultimately increases the certainty of Cloud ERP usability.
Improved ERP performance: Moving the ERP to cloud easily removes the essential kind of computational power and resources which is considered to be necessary for deploying of ERP solution (Weng & Hung, 2014). This is considered as good news for small IT organization which cannot afford the heavy infrastructure because it is the only thing which is considered to be important for cloud ERP for a function that is nothing but a steady internet connection. Salesforce app cloud platform provides a new kind of help for building and updating their cloud ERP on the interval of six-month. A various organization like Sage are already making use of SaaS platform.
Enhancement of security: The data which is going into and out of ERP system is mainly considered to be confidential and so needs to be protected (Usman, Ahmad & Zakariya, 2016). Cloud-based ERP solution generally offers much better security solution which can easily ensure that information is mainly encrypted and protected. Access to the user to the cloud-based system generally allows tracking of various activities. It focuses on control with respect to the accountability of user.
Real-time analytics: Contemporary industry models generally needs real-time analytics for providing optimization of process and business intelligence (Chang et al. 2014). Cloud ERP generally comprises of API links to various kinds of the platform which allow customers for scaling report and analytical needs. Cloud-based ERP generally focuses on improvisation of platform-based applications and also supports API development and integration.
Reduced IT costs
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that this report is all about ERP cloud computing. A discussion has been provided regarding cloud ERP in existing IS/IT. In the above pages of the reported cloud ERP with respect to IS definition has been provided. Four benefits of Cloud ERP like reduction of IT cost, the flexibility of work practices, access to automatic updates, efficient collaboration has been discussed in details. Various kinds of benefits of using Cloud ERP like lower upfront cost, lowering of operation cost, rapid implementation, core competencies, easier integration with the cloud, upgradation of security and lastly real-time analytics. Cloud ERP acts as the Software as a Service which allows the users to deal with the accessing of the Enterprise Resource planning of the system. this methodology is chosen over the internet that is not as efficient as the cloud computing for the specific task that is to be performed.
References
AlBar, A. M., & Hoque, M. R. (2015, April). Determinants of cloud ERP adoption in Saudi Arabia: an empirical study. In Cloud Computing (ICCC), 2015 International Conference on(pp. 1-4). IEEE.
Awad, H. A. (2014). Cloud computing as an operational model for ERP services: Definitions and challenges. International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, 8(2), 499.
Bento, R., Bento, A., Bento, A., & ISTM, M. (2015). How fast are enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems moving to the cloud. Journal of Information Technology Management, 26(4), 35.
Chang, B. R., Tsai, H. F., & Chen, C. M. (2014). High-performed virtualization services for in-cloud enterprise resource planning system. Journal of Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing, 5(4), 614-624.
Chang, B. R., Tsai, H. F., Chen, C. Y., & Tsai, Y. C. (2015). Assessment of in-cloud enterprise resource planning system performed in a virtual cluster. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2015.
Dwivedi, K., & Sharma, M. (2016). Virtual Investigation of Grouping of on Premise and Cloud ERP. International Journal of Research and Development in Applied Science and Engineering, 9(1).
Gangwar, H., Date, H., & Ramaswamy, R. (2015). Understanding determinants of cloud computing adoption using an integrated TAM-TOE model. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 28(1), 107-130.
Gupta, S., Misra, S. C., Singh, A., Kumar, V., & Kumar, U. (2017). Identification of challenges and their ranking in the implementation of cloud ERP: A comparative study for SMEs and large organizations. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 34(7), 1056-1072.
Haddara, M., Fagerstrøm, A., & Mæland, B. (2015). Cloud ERP Systems: Anatomy of Adoption Factors & Attitudes. Journal of Enterprise Resource Planning Studies (JERPS), 22.
Jain, D., & Sharma, Y. (2016). Cloud computing with ERP-A push business towards higher efficiency.
Jalil, D., & Bakar, M. S. A. (2017). Adapting Software Factory Approach into Cloud ERP Production Model. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, 15(1), 221.
Johansson, B., Alajbegovic, A., Alexopoulo, V., & Desalermos, A. (2015, January). Cloud ERP adoption opportunities and concerns: the role of organizational size. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 4211-4219). IEEE.
Khot, N., Mudur, K., Thorat, O., & Doulatramani, Y. (2017). Information Intendance System on Cloud.
Kulkarni, A., Hegde, N., Sharma, M., Kulkarni, A. A., Hegde, N., & Sharma, M. (2015). Educational ERP systems in the market–a comparative study. International Journal of Innovative Research Science in Technology, 1.
Peng, G. C. A., & Gala, C. (2014). Cloud ERP: a new dilemma to modern organisations?. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 54(4), 22-30.
Ramasamy, M., & Singh, R. P. (2017). BENEFITS, CHALLENGES AND SELECTION OF CLOUD ERP SYSTEMS USED IN SMEs.
Seethamraju, R. (2015). Adoption of software as a service (SaaS) enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Information systems frontiers, 17(3), 475-492.
Usman, U. M. Z., Ahmad, M. N., & Zakariya, N. H. (2016). Factors Influencing Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning Adoption in SMEs. In Information Science and Applications (ICISA) 2016 (pp. 235-245). Springer, Singapore.
Weng, F., & Hung, M. C. (2014). Competition and challenge on adopting cloud ERP. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 5(4), 309.
Weng, F., & Hung, M. C. (2014). Competition and challenge on adopting cloud ERP. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 5(4), 309.