Discussion
An ERP/AIS systems are basically the enterprise resource planning and the accounting information systems of a business organization. They are systems that are used by organizations in planning, scheduling, managing and controlling of business operations with a specific aim of achieving its objectives and goals. The systems have become a very important part when it comes to carrying out business operations in the current business world. Nowadays, many business are using them to conduct operations to do with sales and marketing, supply chain, financial and investment decisions, production processes and many other operations (Zambon, 2011). The systems simply make these operations easier and be conducted at a faster rate than when doing them manually. In addition to that, these systems are able to ease the responsibility of recording and documenting the operational details in a simpler, clearer and detailed manner without much effort. However, these systems have always used technological support for their functionality and effectiveness. These means that businesses must be able to avail all the requirements; besides the technology support, like the technical, human resource, financial, organizational and operational support that may be needed by the systems (Tsai et al, 2009). On the hand, these systems may be pretty challenging for the SMEs to implement simply because of the high costs incurred during their purchasing, installation and implementation stages. However, they care basically being used by a large of businesses now more than ever.
In this report, I will concentrate on the public transport industry and the selection process it should follow to be able to choose the best ERP system for its operations. The public transport businesses like airline services, bus transportation, cargo services, ferry services, shipping and railways among others certainly need these kind of systems to help the facilitate their operational improvement. Therefore, this report will concentrate more on the railway transport system in Australia.
Business process
The railway transport system is one of the most commonly used public transport systems in Australia. It is actually one of the transport systems that is growing and developing at an extremely high rate in the country. Apparently, the industry has a large number of networks that connect a number of railway stations and rail transport trains themselves. Some of the networks include the trams and light rail, commuter rails, rapid transit and the intra-city rails that connect almost all the towns and cities in the country. Of all these, the intra-city rail transport system is the most developed. With this in mind, it is clear that there are a lot of operations that are performed in such an industry. For instance there is the transportation of people, goods or products, raw materials among other things. These are the main business processes of such an industry and business. Therefore, to help it run effectively, it needs the assistance of an ERP/AIS system to be able to perform better and deliver better services to the customers (Alpers et al, 2014). Considering the fact that the public transport system is spread all over the country, then it has to serve a very large number of people (Pitic et al, 2014). With that in mind, the ERP/AIS system will help them manage the supply chain operations, customer demand of the service, business investment options, development and growth decisions, financial expenses especially in services quality improvement to name just but a few. The industry’s business process will definitely be improved with the installation and implementation of the ERP/AIS systems.
Business process
Generally, for a business to be able to install and implement an ERP/AIS, it has to be able to define its own requirements as well as challenges. The business requirements basically refer to the objectives, goals, aims and values of the organization. These are the aspects that entirely determine the ERP/AIS system choice as well as its effectiveness. Therefore, the business should be in a position to evaluate and analyze both the future needs apart from the current ones. In addition to that, the business should be able to recognize its challenges including those that are relate to any support systems that should be available for the sake of the systems’ functionality (Grabski et al, 2009). This means that the business should be aware of its operational, organizational, financial, technological, human and the technical support challenges. In that case, the public transport industry is supposed to be aware of all these issues and aspects to be able to purchase and implement the right kind of ERP/AIS system. In addition to that, the business should be ready to change either its business process, culture, beliefs among other things that it will have been used to and will probably affect the effectiveness of the potential system (Jinno et al, 2017). For instance, the rail transport system in Australia should be able to identify problems like demand, number of customers, rail stations status, security status, employee requirements and qualifications, financial, status of the businesses to name a few.
These refers to the exact qualifications or characteristics that the system should have to be able to be fit for the business. The transport industry can have expert consultations to help them determine the requirements of the system by getting professional advice from them. However, this is entirely determined by the business requirements and how specific they are. To add to that, these requirements should be focused on achieving the business objectives and goals no matter what (Acar et al, 2017). In general. Many business are always focused on making the operations easier and faster in speed. This is apparently one of the things that affect some transport system businesses. Most of the businesses would want to be faster for the customers and especially the rail transport system. Also, most of the rail transport system would like to be more effective by reducing their charges, increasing their stations and trains themselves and increasing their overall numbers (Cinquini et al, 2011). Basically, this is a simple way to give the industry a better competitive advantage over its competitors like the bus and cab transportation. The use of the ERP/AIS system will definitely be able to achieve most of these objectives and therefore increase the industry’s service provision and operational activities.
ERP/AIS Systems Selection Process
For a business to make a correct choice of the ERP/AIS system, it has to follow the following steps:
In this stage, a business has to identify and state its requirements. Also, it has to accept the fact that it has to change its internal systems and many other things. The business requirements may include things like changing the business culture, believes, political interests, business processes, production processes, investment changes among other things. In addition to that, the business should also be aware of its past, current and future challenges involved in its business processes. It should be able to make the changes that are needed or device solutions for the current and upcoming challenges.
Business requirements
This involves the characteristics that the ERP/AIS systems should have. The systems should therefore be able to fulfill the business needs, expectations and objectives accordingly. For instance, in the case of the transportation systems like the rail transport, it should be able to attract more travelers, increase the speed and quality of the service offered.
The management team should carry out a research on the ERP/AIS system to find out which types are suitable for its operations. This involves knowing and understanding every possible system that is viable for the business’s use. Includes considering all the advantages and disadvantages, benefits and challenges involved the systems. A business can opt to consult an expert to help it carry out the research or can also opt to do the research on its own. For instance in the transportation industry, the rail transport business can consult vendor experts who are more developed, skilled and experienced on such systems especially people like engineers.
This involves the selection of different ERP/AIS system vendors who will have applied for the job. Also, the vendor should tag along their systems as well to find out whether it is suitable for the purpose it is supposed to in the business. In that case, the vendor costs, software structure, technology advancement, how the vendor has changed its systems are some of the aspects that should be deeply considered (Upadhyay et al, 2011). Most importantly, the business should consider its financial, technical, operational, human and organizational support that it is able to offer at that time.
This is whereby a business is supposed to get the opinion of other businesses that have been served by its potential vendor. This involves getting their ideas on how the system works, how effective and efficient it is, the costs charged during implementation as well as system purchasing among other things. With that, the business will be in a position to choose the best vendor for the job.
The business should focus on selecting the vendor who is completely qualified to fulfil its objectives and requirements.For instance, it should consider the less costly but effective system, experienced, skilled and knowledgeable vendor etc.
This stage is where the business puts the chosen system into place with the help of the chosen vendor. The system is therefore put into business operation and stats to perform the business activities.
This is a vital process because the vendor is simply one of most important people to be involved in a business ERP/AIS system implementation. Therefore, the following are the steps to be followed by businesses that want to install and implement ERP/AIS system usage:
This includes the identity and situation of the possible vendor. Apparently involves knowing issues like: what is the vendor’s future plans about his/her service growth and development, what experience he/she has in the system implementation industry, what kind of skill he/she has, his/her current or new products among other things. This will help a business know whether the vendor is a good partner for such business.
System requirements
The business should research on the different kinds of solutions offered by the vendor’s ERP system. This includes the scalability of the system, flexibility, how customized the system is and whether it can fulfil the business needs accordingly (Yazgan et al, 2009). Every business should ensure that its vendor is able to provide the best technological system available for the success of the organization.
The vendor’s system should be easy to use irrespective of the business size or challenges. Therefore, the system should be able to accommodate all the functionality situations of the business and give possible solutions to the problems.
This involved the cost that the vendor will charge the business for the installation and implementation process. The business should be able to analyze the system’s costs either the purchase or the implementation costs. It should also consider the system maintenance costs in the future. Therefore, it should choose a vendor whose system costs will be within the business’s budget range.
The vendor should be able to own a system that is suitable for the business support considering all the fields. For instance, the human resource, financial support, technical and most importantly, the technological support. The vendor should be able to avail a system that will not cause a lot of pressure for the business. The technological support involves the business software applications.
This stage is where the vendor is actually selected according to all of the above qualifications. The chosen vendor must in apposition to achieve all of the above aspects of the system and business requirements as well.
Figure 1: efficiency graph of transport system in Australian towns
Figure 2: transport industry service in KM per town
Conclusion
From the report, it is clear that businesses are currently the ERP/AIS systems now more than ever. The fact that these systems are becoming extremely advantageous to businesses has increased their popularity. They help carry out various business operations and make the easier as well as increase the business operating speed. In the public transport industry, these kind of systems are very important and therefore should be acquired by all the transport businesses available. This is simply because they will lessen the work and make their operations more effective and efficient than before.
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