Change Management Of People And Technology - Benefits, Challenges & Solutions Essay.

Inappropriate Current Software Package

Discuss about the Change Management of People and Technology.

The object of this paper to respond to the queries asked against the case reference provided. The case reference particularly refers to the implementation of the ERP systems in a company. The queries subject to the case study relate to the typical benefits that the company would be able to gain out of ERP implementation and the challenges which are associated with this procedure, and the solutions to challenges (Edwards and Humphries, 2005). The responses to the queries have been provided by an in-depth analysis on the case reference and through knowledge gained from studying the various aspects of ERP implementation in the businesses.

The current software that IRCL is using as its primary accounting tool was developed by someone with a certified technical knowledge or skills. The software is incapable of providing accurate data and results against the input. In addition, the software is unable to process huge amount of data at a single time (Harwood, 2003). Therefore, as a growing industry the accounting tool that the IRCL is employing for accounting purposes is highly unsuitable for the organization.

It is well established that implementation of an ERP based accounting system provides multifaceted benefits to the organization. In the case of IRCL it has been observed that the company lacks proper accounting and resource integration tool therefore in such a circumstance the company would be able to gain benefits out of ERP implementation due to the following reasons:

• Gain Quantifiable benefits out of an ERP implementation.

Observation on the effect of ERP frameworks on organizational performance shows that organization size and industry do not influence the outcomes. This segment clarifies the quantifiable advantages regarding a few section of change (Murdick and Ross, 2007). Typical benefits out of this include:

Reduction of material cost.

Reduction of labor cost.

Reducing the inventory size.

Improvement of customer services.

Enhanced accounting management.

• Intangible effects of ERP implementation

The intangible or non-budgetary advantages of an integrated organizational resource planning (ERP) framework can be seen from a few points of view.

• Overheads of implementing an ERP system

Organizational resource planning with ERP usage expenses can be isolated into one-time costs and continuous yearly expenses (O'Brien, 2011). Both sorts of expenses can be portioned into software, hardware, inter personnel and external assistance.

• Replacing or re-implementing an ERP system

An assessment on the investment concentrating on big business resource planning (ERP) benefits as often as possible applies to those organizations at first advocating an ERP usage.

It has been already stated in the case study that the said project is constrained by not only time but also the monetary constraint is another critical issue that jenny has to keep in her mind. The project that is required to be undertaken in this regard will most certainly pose to be a challenge. This is due to the reason that the limited amount of time which has been allotted by the contractor will require additional the engagement of additional specialists. This is evidently proven that in order to accomplish an objective within a short duration of time an additional amount of employees are required (Pelphrey, n.d.). This additional amount of employees would further require additional amount of monetary expenses. In this regard Jenny has two options in her hand to complete the project without going for any further expenditure in regards to money or time. First and foremost the most viable option is to look for and hire cheap source of human resources who would be able to carry out the operations at low costs. This would on one hand accomplish the project without any extravagant cost requirement from Jenny’s end. However, this would result in poor performance and low end outcome of the entire endeavor (Rainer, Turban and Potter, 2007). Secondly, the most probable alternative is to engage the existing workforce in an overtime schedule. This would result in an optimum performance and overall good outcome. In addition, this would be accomplished within the stipulated monetary budget.

Investigating an ERP System

Prior to moving forward to installing an ERP system in the information system framework of the Jenny has to decide upon the type of ERP life cycle system she would be installing. This is a crucial decision on Jenny’s behalf as the contractor has already stipulated a limited amount of monetary budget and time duration for the completion of the project. Therefore, in such a situation it will not be possible for Jenny to develop and install an intricate system. In addition, intricate systems would require additional expenditure on the company’s behalf in the near future so; it is beneficial to both Jenny and the company that a traditional ERP systems life cycle model is installed (Salimi, 2005). Traditional ERP systems life cycle model includes the meticulous inclusion of definition of the project, study of the system, then design, subsequent to design is programming, thereafter installation and lastly post-implementation stages. This traditional life cycle of the ERP systems does not involve intricate level of ERP education in order to make the systems function appropriately. This would be rather benefitting to the company as it is apparently observed in the case study that the executives in the company along with the owner of the company are unfamiliar with ERP systems and its implementation in the accounting and inventory management of the company. As a consequence the other intricate life cycle methods of ERP systems would be difficult for the individuals associated with the company to appropriately comprehend and employ it in order to gain further benefits out of it (Sayood, 2006). Therefore, the condition of the organization and the state of its operations are evidently illustrate that the company would be more comfortable if Jenny would implement a traditional ERP systems life cycle which would comprise of a decision making process, an implementation process, stabilization process, and lastly process regarding utilization of the implementation process. Through this traditional life cycle method the company would be able to gain the most of the new ERP installation in their company’s information systems and make the most out of it.

Louis’s company is at present using unconventional and crudely developed software for the purpose of accounting and inventory management. The results of which are fluctuating, inaccurate and low capacity of processing in terms of huge data processing. The executives in the company are not very much aware of ERP implementation and the methodical use of ERP systems. In such a circumstance it is always advised that Louis makes use of the outsourcing methodology of the ERP implementation in the company’s information systems framework. This would benefit Louis in the following ways (Sheldon, 2005).

First and foremost benefit that Louis would be able to gain from this endeavor is that by using outsourcing methodology he would able to employ a team specialist, who are highly skilled in installation, configuration, and educating the existing staff in the ways the system should be maintained and the data should be processed. This would save him from extra expenditure which he would have required to provide to the executive employed for educating the employees in the functionality and operations of ERP systems.

Secondly, using an outsourcing methodology would enable Louis to get the job done professionally and any sort of dysfunction in the system would make that team of professionals liable, which in turn would require the team to perform a reinstallation of the software and without any additional (Shields, 2011). In case of hiring a team of professionals highly skilled in installation and implementation of ERP systems chance of malfunctioning of the system is less. In addition, this would further assist the company in getting the job done within a short amount of time as described in the job contract offered to and accepted by the outsourced group.

Conclusion

It’s a well known fact that ERP implementations require a perplexing demonstration of aptitudes and capabilities with the end goal that would be highly effective (Whiteley, n.d.). Companies setting out on ERP implementations are unable to amass venture groups that have an assortment of aptitudes, including a dream for how the business can advance later on, profound task administration and ERP usage experience, business process reengineering and authoritative change administration abilities, and a large group of other expertise sets that can are troublesome for most any association to grow inside.

References

Edwards, H. and Humphries, L. (2005). Change management of people & technology in an ERP implementation. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Pub.

Harwood, S. (2003). ERP. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Murdick, R. and Ross, J. (2007). Introduction to management information systems. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

O'Brien, J. (2011). Introduction to information systems. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Pelphrey, M. (n.d.). Directing the ERP Implementation.

Rainer, R., Turban, E. and Potter, R. (2007). Introduction to information systems. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Salimi, F. (2005). ERP implementation methodologies. [S.l.]: [s.n.].

Sayood, K. (2006). Introduction to data compression. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Sheldon, D. (2005). Class A ERP implementation. Boca Raton, Fla.: J. Ross Pub.

Shields, M. (2011). E-business and ERP. New York: Wiley.

Whiteley, D. (n.d.). An introduction to information systems.a