Essay: Vietnam And Nigeria Analysis For Cisco Factory Opening.

You are the new supply chain manager at Cisco Inc. (one of the major electronic contract manufacturers).

Cisco factories in China are experiencing an increase in wage costs, and you have been asked to decide the location of the next 5000 people factory.

The last two short listed locations for the factory are Vietnam and Nigeria.

Assuming wages are at the exact same level for both countries, conduct an analysis of both Vietnam and Nigeria and then recommend and justify what is the best location for the new factory.

In your analysis, please also consider Cisco markets/customers and non-economic factors such as cultural and social traits as these may influence your decision.

You can research the web for additional information.

1. Using the web, research some background information on Cisco factories - What do they do? What do they produce?

Research information on setting up a factory in Vietnam and Nigeria – consider Cisco markets, who their customers are, economic and non-economic factors such as Economy, Politics, Infrastructure, Competence, and Cultural dimensions. See for example Google search parameters: “offshoring to Nigeria”, “culture and work in Nigeria”, “offshoring to Viet-Nam”, and “culture and work in Viet-Nam”.

2. Your analysis can be presented in a table format similar to the one below.

3. Using the analysis you have conducted and in no more than 200 words for each country, provide an overall review of each country’s potential as the best location for the new factory.

4. Based on the analysis and review, recommend the country you would select for the new factory and in 400 words, justify your selection.

For this task we need to:

Read the two papers provided. There may be sections in the papers that we find hard to understand, especially in terms of the research methods used in the analysis. We will assume that these have been carried out with competence.

For paper “What is ERP?”, please note the following:

• Read Sections 1.1 (first paragraph); Section 2, 2.1; Section 4 (first paragraph), 4.2, 4.3, 4.4.
• Give a brief introductory statement on your understanding of what ERP is.
• Comment on the meaning of the following:

1. a) The dream of integration was too complex for in-house development
2. b) A desire to fulfil the promise of BPR / move to a process-orientation/recognition of ‘best practices’

1. c) Best practice' process models
2. d) A need to integrate across functions for competitive success
3. e) Cross-functional integration (intra-organisation)
4. f) Cross-enterprise business processes (inter-organisation)
5. g) Componentization of ERP

For paper “Developing an ERP Triggered Business Process Improvement Cycle from a Case Company”, please note the following:

• Evaluate the information provided in the paper. In particular, take note of what the paper claims it will do and why, how the paper is going to achieve what it set out to do, what the findings reported in the discussion section (if there is one) are, and what the paper concluded.
• Based on the evaluation, we then adopt a position statement on the relevance of some of the benefits related to ERP adoption.

Overview of CISCO

As a company, CISCO seizes opportunities that could only be seized in the future by illustrating that connectedness is the way to innovation. The core operational strategy is to ensure that clients are best served and also creating work partnerships that are long-lasting. CISCO also believes that peaceful co-existence within its working environment will fuel the identification of customer needs and thus, solutions provided towards achieving success. Such keen focus has been provided and preserved for solving internal and external issues within the corporation since its inception (Laihonen, Lönnqvist & Metsälä, 2015). The mission statement of this company is: having the future of internet shaped via the creation of unprecedented opportunity and value for the investors, customers, ecosystem partners, and workers. From the mission statement, the company is keen on shaping Internet’s future through the creation of unprecedented opportunity and value for the investors, customers, ecosystem partners. The company has also become the global leader in the transformation of how individuals communicate, connect, and collaborate – also referred to as networking (Management, 2017).

The company was founded in San Francisco, California in the year 1984. By the end of FY’17, CISCO had raised revenue of $48.0 billion with an employee count of 72900. Such profit was as a result of a number of products and services provided by the company. Products are categorized according to technological advances. Product categories are security, wireless and mobility, networking, data center, collaboration, analytics, software, interneting, and video management. The table below shows products by categories.

• Market Analysis

Nigeria boasts of having the biggest population in Africa as well as being the leading GDP power. The country also provides significant resources of hydrocarbon as well as agricultural potential. According to reports provided by the World Bank, Nigeria has a low external and public debt. Also, it has reformed education policies and institutions of learning to boost the economy. Vietnam on the contrary, has high attractivity levels together with presence of international trade. Also, the population is high thus, boosting trade. Also, there are a lot of education reforms that would help boost the country’s economy (Coface, 2018).

Having gone through the factors of interest for the two countries, CISCO would be better of going for Vietnam as the new market destination and not Nigeria. Such is because Vietnam has high attractivity levels together with presence of international trade. Also, the population is high thus, boosting trade. Also, there are a lot of education reforms that would help boost the country’s economy. On the contrary, Nigeria is politically unstable; the infrastructure is poor; there is a high rate of corruption and insecurity which puts pressure on the atmosphere of business performance and low capacity for distribution as well as energy production.

1. “What is ERP” Journal

According to the journal named “what is ERP,” ERP is basically defined as systems of resource planning that integrate business functions and processes to come up with a holistic stand point of the business from a single IT architecture. The system is adopted by several large corporations globally. The paper also argues that through tight integration and the breadth of ERP, the system possesses a pedigree in packaged application software for a long duration (Allen, 2008, p. 330).

Politics

There are a number of perspectives that can be used to view the concept of ERP. One is that ERP is commodity in the form of software. The other concept is that ERP is a development objective for the purpose of mapping processes and data for a given company into a structure that is integrative and comprehensive. Another concept is that ERP is a key infrastructural element that delivers business solutions. This is the concept that Information Systems take into perspective and of which the journal also takes to formulate its discussion throughout (Weider, et al., 2001, p. 2).

For any sort of software like the ERP that is charged with the delivery of key business solutions integration is important. Such also means that business problems are diverse, dynamic and universal thus leading to the statement that “the dream of integration is complex enough for in-house development.” Also, the recognition of best practice or movement to a state that is process-oriented involves opting for the best out of a program, a policy or the ERP. Best performance or practice models for processes are those that ensure ethical conducts with maximum efficiency and output in processes requiring the use of ERP. Another phrase is integration across functions for successful competitiveness (Chang, 2006, p. 277). Such means that a program or policy used, in this case, needs to be effective enough to be used to solicit solutions for a variety of simple and complex problems concurrently to ensure that the organization is in a position to successfully compete in the market. Intra-organization or cross-functional integration means developing a program or formulating policies to be used in different levels or departments within an organization. Inter-organizational or cross-enterprise business processes are programs or policies that are used to offer solutions for different organizations. Last but not least is ERP componentization. Componentization of ERP is all about sectioning of ERP functions to enhance efficiency (Bocij & Greasley, 2006).

1. “Developing an ERP Triggered Business Process Improvement Cycle from a Case Company” Journal

According to this article, there are a lot of opportunities that ERP systems offer towards consistent provision of information to company. Such information provision is done in a manner that is centralized, standardized, and cost efficient. The article also argues that among the main reasons for installing ERP include the capability of integrating business processes. When organizations have used ERP for a given timeframe, they usually begin improvement ventures within the fields they operate. Such improvements are also are also business processes related. For the purpose of collecting improvements, system functions would be required. Preventing systems of ERP from processes’ disconnects needs an audit cycle (Bingi, Sharma & Godla, 2012, p. 9). However, this audit cycle needs to be integrated with on-going processes of business reengineering functions. This journal has, therefore, the types of user requests as well as case company structures. The journal has also come up with a model for the analysis of ERP request. The model is then integrated into projects of Business Reengineering Process after which the sustainability of the system is checked with regards to the audit cycle (Klaus, Rosemann & Gable, 2000, p. 15).

A lot of interests from scholars and researchers have been realized regarding ERP studies. Issues about ERP (as well as its emergence) have helped in understanding concepts of “computerized systems of business information” within the domain of IS/IT. ERP has been important in recognizing and understanding issues within systems programming and design, process reengineering and mapping, and business configuration (Carr & Johansson, 2015). By employing the SDLC (systems development life cycle) as conceptual point of reference, it would be worth noting that the weight and efforts of ERP projects’ critical success factors were shifted. The shifting is from design of systems to implementation of systems. The system has also had its logic imposed on companies as employees are forced to think in a different manner (Bancroft, Seip & Sprengel, 2008).

References

Allen, L.E. (2008), Where good ERP implementations go bad: a case for continuity. Business Process Management Journal, V.14 (3), pp.327–337.

ASEAN. (2017). Strengths and challenges of the Vietnamese economy. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://aseanup.com/strengths-and-challenges-of-the-vietnamese-economy/ 

Bancroft, N., Seip, H. and Sprengel, A. (2008), Implementing SAP R/3: How to Introduce a Large System into a Large Organization. Greenwich, CT: Manning.

Bingi, P., Sharma, M.K. and Godla, J.K. (2012), Critical issues affecting an ERP implementation. Information Systems Management, V.16 (3), pp.7–14.

Bocij, P. and Greasley, A. (2006), Business Information Systems: Technology, Development and Management for the e-Business. Prentice Hall, NJ.

Calvert, C. (2006), A change-management model for the implementation and upgrade of ERP systems. 17th Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Adelaide, Australia.

Carr, D.K. and Johansson, H.J. (2015), Best Practices in Reengineering, McGraw-Hill, New York.

Chang, H.H. (2006), Technical and management perceptions of enterprise information system importance, implementation and benefits. Information Systems Journal, V.16 (3), pp.263–292.

Coface. (2018). MAJOR MACRO ECONOMIC INDICATORS. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://www.coface.com/Economic-Studies-and-Country-Risks/Nigeria 

Klaus, H., Rosemann, M., & Gable, G. (2000). What is ERP? Information Systems Frontiers, 2(2), pp. 1-28.

Laihonen, H., Lönnqvist, A., & Metsälä, J. (2015). Two knowledge perspectives to growth management. Vine, 45(4), 473-494. Retrieved 22 March 2018, from https://queens.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?url=https://search.proquest.com.queens.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/docview/1732776855?accountid=13379

Management, S. (2017). SMS | Strategic Management Society. Strategicmanagement.net. Retrieved 22 March 2018, from https://www.strategicmanagement.net/

Weider, B., Booth, P., Zoltan, P,. Matolcsy and Ossimitz, M., (2001). ‘The impact of ERP systems on firm and business process performance. University of Technology, Sydney, Faculty of Business, School of Accounting, Broadway, Australia. (63) pp. 1-17.