Understanding the role of enterprise resource planning system implementation
Project closure is of same importance that other phases involved in the implementation of the ERP system within the ABC Company as it will declaring the efficiency and effectiveness of the project being delivered and releasing the stakeholders from their responsibility. The purpose of the report is to though light on the aspects related to the elements those are related to the project closure. This report emphasizes on the Postmortem methodology in manner to determine and evaluate the methodologies and risks associated with the delivery of the project. This report evaluates the project status including the objectives issues and recommendations those can be proposed for the successful delivery of the ERP implementation within ABC Company. Future enhancement, Implementation support, and maintenance plan have also been proposed in this report considering the fulfillment of the future requirements and upgrade in the current system.
The proposed solution as the implementation of the ERP can be beneficial in addressing the issues being raised because of the expansion and increased strength of the organization. It will allow the organization to automate all the operational activities and eliminate the human error in manner to execute the operational activities in an efficient and effective manner.
Feedback collection: The feedback from the stakeholders will be gathered through the means of the survey based on the questionnaires distributed among them. It will be helpful in getting individual responses without any announcements and thus, everyone will freely reply from their own perspectives.
Feedback Evaluation: Every questionnaire will have certain values and the customers will be rating as per the satisfaction they received from the services being implemented in the existing system. Based on the ratings satisfaction level ca be determined and hence the efficiency of the implementation.
After the deployment of the system, it has been of great use to the Company since the time used to process different kind of services such as locating employee file, processing of the pay slips, evaluating business progress in terms of profit and maximizing profit since the number of the personnel required are minimal (Ramakrishnan, 2015). Despite all these success, deploying the system had to face some challenges to ensure that it worked as required. At first, the system went into a failure due to compatibility issues as the hardware available, which was a 32-bit processor, could not run the program that was meant to run on a 63-bit machine. Budget allocated was minimum, so I had to work under a tight schedule, which proved to be straining.
Proposed solution for beneficial ERP system implementation
At every stage, different methods were used to analyses whether the system met requirements and standard. During the Analysis stage, waterfall method was so important to analyze the resources needed such as work force, finance, software and hardware (Ruparelia, 2010). Prototyping was essential tool in coming up with the replica model of the proposed system during the design phase. It helped in ensuring that the system was broken into units, which would be easy to work on. It has five phases that needs to be executed in an efficient and effective manner for the successful deployment of the ERP for the ABC Company. It includes requirements, design, implementation, verification, and maintenance those are helpful in delivering the project efficiently (Pratt, 2018). Firstly, the requirement analysis was carried out that stated about the necessary and hardware required for the delivery of the project. Analysis phase resulted in the identification of the business rules and setting the goals and scope for the delivery of the project. It was helpful in focusing towards the ultimate output and deliver, the necessary contribution in an efficient and effective manner (Kazim, 2017). Next phase was design and coding that was executed considering the software architecture and integration of the software within the existing system of the ABC Company. Testing and operations was last phase that needs to evaluate the functioning of the ERP implementation and whether the system is capable of fulfilling the needs and requirements of the operational activities or not and the operation being performed are as per the expectations or not.
In addition, we were able to reuse waterfall approach to test the units of the systems before compiling them into a single system, testing the acceptance of the system, its interface, and the wholesome testing of the system functionality. Training of the staff was to be carried out by the team and some of the staffs who understood well its functionality (Merhout & Kovach, 2017). Training is a necessary element for managing the efficiency at the highest level as new implementation will definitely be needing the training for the employees and staffs in manner to introduce them with the features and options available for the successful delivery of the implementation.
With the right team, it is easier to work on any system and implement it. Also, when the right kind of resources are available from the hardware and the software and better understanding of the system requirements, it makes working on it even much easier. Helping the users understand what the system implements is the key to ensure that there is no system apathy among the users. It focuses on whether the existing system and proposed system are compatible in the sense of the stakeholders application and output of the organization (Alshamrani & Bahattab, 2015). It will be evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of the system being delivered from the implementation of the ERP and ensuring that the software is capable enough for delivering the necessary output. It will also be considering the changes need to be implemented for managing the growth and development and assuring that the project will be delivering the objectives and goals of the project in an efficient and effective manner. Evaluation is not only the determination of the factors those are contributing in the transformation rather it also focuses on the identification of the changes those are capable of delivering the project objectives in an efficient and effective manner.
Feedback collection and evaluation
Gargeya & brandy (2005) in the journal Success and failure factors of adopting SAP in ERP system implementation 501-516 stated that any the success of the project, there are things that the programmer needs to address before deploying the application. They include:
- How well are the users familiar with the system?
- Are the necessary resources available?
- Future expansion or integration of the system
- The team works
If the programmer can be able to articulate those issues, all users will be able to work well with the system thus making the work of deploying easy. With the right resources available, it makes deploying work even easier and with minimum errors such as compatibility error. Future expansion is the key as any software should be expandable and able to integrate with other soft wares that are available in the market. Teamwork is the key in any project, different personnel are gifted at different areas, which may be another one’s weakness thus, working on units and later integrating them (Gefen & Lichtenstein, 2008). It will include three phases including the identification of the risks, risk prioritization, and risk handling. The risks associated with this project include the escalation of the budget and schedule, overrun of the resources, resource lacking, outdated hardware, insecure software, natural calamities, cyber threats and many more. A risk prioritization matrix can be delivered for the identification of the risks influencing the project mostly. Thereafter, the final stage comes stating the risk handling that focuses on many options such as neglecting risk, eliminating risk, and identification of the opportunities in the risks (Rani, 2017). The risks with highest priority should be eliminated in the prior of the execution phase of the project in manner to make sure that the implementation will be delivered successfully and influence of the risks on the project is minimum.
The system was successfully launched and proved to be a key tool in helping the staff to do arithmetic calculation fast than previous manual work and timely roll out of the pay slip of the workers. Back up of the company files was created with ease of retrieving the files. The problem encountered at first with the infrastructures was well handled by purchasing upgraded systems that made easy for the installation of the system.
Staff and the board were completely happy with the system as the system maximized the profit and minimized the work, which forced some staff to work extra time to complete assigned work in time. It also provides access to the data or information saved in the database and users can access those data or information from anywhere connecting via internet. The ERP will be managing all the operational activities at an instance and thus, boosting up the operational activities’ efficiency and ensuring the accuracy of the mathematical calculations (Kazim, 2017). This can be alternatively reflected on the overall revenue of the organization considering the output and profits made through the application of the ERP.
Challenges faced during the deployment of the ERP system
The primary objective of the project was to identify and propose a solution that can be utilized for the proper and effective management of the operational activities in an efficient and effective manner. The project objective was to successfully implement the ERP system within the existing system of the organization and manage the operational activities in automated manner. It was successfully identified as the ERP was proposed as the necessary software that can be utilized for the elimination of the problems needed for the management of the operational activities and hence, it is applicable for the existing system. Thereafter the requirements necessary for the implementation of the ERP within the existing system of the ABC Company that was accomplished in an efficient and effective manner.
The identified issues were the transformation of the IT infrastructure that needed to be made for the implementation of the hardware and software identified in this transformation. Infrastructure transformation was successfully transformed considering the implementation of the ERP. Thereafter, automating the existing operation was another concern for the delivery of the project and that was eliminated through the implementation of ERP for managing the operational activities. Understanding of the individuals utilizing the system about the functionality and options were necessary for the effective implementation. This was eliminated through the training that could be provided to the employees considering the information sharing on how the employees and staff could utilize thee system with complete efficiency.
The third party can be asked to implement the ERP system and hence, the whole responsibility can be transferred to that party who taken the responsibility of the project. However, the recommended SLDC is applicable for accomplishing all the objectives of the project if delivered as per the steps mentioned in the above report. Regardless of the budget, SAP can be recommended for the ABC Company that can be used in place of the ERP for the management of the operational activity with higher productive and output. SAP is more complex and thus, can be utilized for accomplishing the current and future needs of the ABC Company without any drawbacks and issues. It can cost much but is capable of handling the future expansions those will be introduced in the company for the efficient and effective e accomplishment of the operational activities. Everything in SAP is stored over the cloud and thus, the operations can be accomplished from any sector of the world via connecting to the internet.
Necessary stages for successful deployment of ERP
Project is at the verge of the completion and all the stakeholders can be informed about the implementation and changes being transformed for the management of the operational activities. Regular meetings can be arranged for introducing the stakeholders about the changes, transformation, elimination, and their benefits in their respective. It also includes the distribution of the questionnaires identifying the satisfaction of the stakeholders. The stakeholders can also be asked to feed their suggestion and question in the valet box and suggest the company about the feedback on the system being implemented. It can also be distributed and customers can be asked to provide their feedback on the social media web pages and provide their perspective about the implementations made.
The system was installed with the prospects that there would be future enhancement of the system if need be. Since changes are inevitable and technology keeps changing, if the future upgrade was to be done the system gave a room for it such as connecting to the external sever to make it a distributed system as the company intends to open branches countrywide hence the need for a distributed system in future. Security will be more emphasized in the next phase of the project in manner to secure the data or information being collected and shared on the network. Encryption can be used on the files in manner to restricting and limiting the data usage that will alternatively allow the individuals with cryptographic key to access the data or information being saved in the database.
To make the system successful, it was not without some of the staff who helped in testing process to ensure that all the requirements are met, as they would be the one to be using the system. They also helped in training other staff on how to use various functions and be acquitted with it. Proper training on the usage and functioning of the ERP can be delivered for making the employees and staffs understandable about the changes being implemented for boosting the productivity and performance.
In case of any setback to the system, the IT staff were to work on it and reach for support in case the problem seizes. Proper documentation of the system step by stem helped the IT staff understand the logic fast. The IT team will be responsible for regular audit of the system and eliminating the bugs and glitches identified during the audit in manner to manage the efficiency of the project and keep it out from the bugs and glitches.
References
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