Importance Of Business Processes And ERP Software In Bus Transportation

Types of Business Processes

Question:

Discuss about the Important Types Of Business Processes.

Business process is a group of linked tasks that find their end in the conveyance of a service or product to the customers or clients. Further it has also been explained as a set of activities and tasks which once finished will achieve a company’s goal. However, its processes must explain the inputs and its single outputs clearly. These inputs will thus, get build up with all the elements that contributes to the added value either directly or indirectly of a specific service or product. Therefore, these elements can be classified into management, operational and supporting processes of business. Business processes is however important in an organization as it helps in higher productivity, expand revenue. It also helps in lowering the expenditures, have a strong managerial control. Business process authorizes the company to respond to their customers and the requirements of the markets in a much faster way than the opposition. The most important part that it plays in any organization is that it improves the consistency and constraint outcome in a better service to the customers (Rosemann and vom Brocke 2015).

There are three important types of business processes which are primary or essential process, support process and management process (Becker, Kugeler and Rosemann 2013).The very first one which is the primary or essential process is the most crucial one. In this process there is a direct communication with the customers and thus, they are provided value directly. However, it always contemplates the value chain as a whole. It further helps in outstretching and outshines the standards of the organization. Then, is the support process which has been established formally for supporting the already mentioned primary processes. Support process however has no contact with the customers so it cannot supply any value to the customers instantly. Lastly, the  management process which has been formally established to any organization to collaborate the activities of the primary and secondary business processes. However it helps in measuring, monitoring and controlling the processes in an organization and like support processes it also does not allocate value directly to the customers. This report describes how ERP software can be used in bus transportation, its advantages and disadvantages and how it can be used in the security purposes in the bus transportation industry.

Business requirements are frequently listed in a Business Requirement Document or BRD. The importance in BRD is given on what is needed rather than in what ways it can be achieved. Thus, this is normally delegated to a System Requirements Specification or document or different variations like the Functional Specification Document. However, for a bus transportation industry the basic business requirements will be of strong reputation that must be supplied by two honorable references. Then, the requirement is to be fit and positive for the motive of accreditation. There must be necessary process knowledge and level of capability to manage a bus service. The business further requires financial viable so that it can manage the bus transportation service and the level of capability to run a bus transportation service. Further, they must have an access to sufficient maintenance opportunities for the vehicles along with an appropriate written approval from the local council. However, on the other hand the important software requirements in the buses must be driver online portals, VMS electronic job card and Driver walk-round check mobile app (Daniels and Mulley 2013).

Software Requirements in Bus Transportation Industry

The first and foremost is the Driver online Portal which is very much useful for the coach manager reservation and contract booking system. This helps the driver to securely log in to an instinctive desktop and websites that are mobile friendly from where they can easily look into an online dairy record of the bookings they have assigned to (Boyd and Boost3 2013) . However this can help enormously as just a click on the bookings will give the total details of the tickets that are generated. Drivers can also get advantages from this like they can print their own work tickets straightaway from this website or can easily download it. Clients can also verify their bookings from the website and can also pay online from their desktop or mobiles. The next software requirement is VMS electronic job card this will help in saving papers and keeping all the original documents in the electronic job card (Hommes and Holmner 2013). Lastly, the Driver walk-around check mobile app it has numerous benefits because of its improvements that is available to the Apple and Android mobile users in their devices. It highly helps in the driver and manager conveyance where the driver can let everyone know through this app if any crisis occurs like an accident or a service request and so the connection with the drivers are maintained.

When a software and hardware is obtained for any computer the thing that should be kept in mind is that whether it will support the requirements of the system that is the computer. However, there are few necessitate specifications that the computers must possess in order to be able to use any software or hardware. Thus, if the requirements are not met then there is no possibility to run the software. Moreover, it is equally important for the hardware devices to get a system requirement check before installing any software. ITS or the intelligent transportation systems is very important for the public transports as it is a holistic answer for the management of well organized transportation. This system helps in changing the desires and understands the particular requirements of the section. It further helps in the fleet operators to supply better experience to the passengers travelling and enhance the effectiveness of the fleet operator. The next is the intelligent transportation real-time system. This has been designed for application in the rural or compact urban providers of paratransit transportations. It is helpful to the passengers as it imparts them the capability to schedule a demand or acknowledgment to the bus trip to an appointed location or activity. Thus, the passenger to schedule any trip can contact the dispatch centre (Camacho, Foth and Rakotonirainy 2013). 

Benefits of ERP Software in Bus Transportation

Public transport for example bus requires a well-formulated technology to take care of their database and security breech. This is because manual formulation of data leads to a lot of confusion and complications in the business. Data are the most important part of an enterprise and it is through a proper database company can analyse its revenue, cost and profit. The software that can be implemented in the bus transport system is the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in all its operation. ERP is a type of business processes software that can be used in the management of the business processes. It assists the processes of the business in which it can integrate all the functions that is taking place in the back office as well as in the front office. The functions that are assisted by ERP are usually a technology or service related functions. However, to implement the software efficiently the organisation supplying bus services requires keeping a dedicated team that can help them organise the data and take future recommendations accordingly (Leon 2014). ERP software includes a number of modules such as distribution management, supply chain management, accuracy improvement, reduction of redundant task; manage pay roll activities and others. Thus, an Enterprise Resource Software will be useful for the bus transport as well to help them manage their daily data. The vendor from where the bus transport services can purchase the ERP software is Aquion. It is one of the best business and technology provider enterprise in Australia. It also offers network security along with its management solution to help the company. It is the best IT solution company the transport industry can get to protect their information and manage its business on a day-to-day basis. It has its business spread over three nits through it offers business solutions to the customer. The business involved in bus transport can avail the ERP software from this vendor for a comparatively less cost and lifetime free services (Koupaei and Movahedi 2014).

Implementation of software like ERP in the bus transport services can help the business benefit is various ways. The software helps the business to manage both its external and internal resources in a great way. The internal resources are the staffs, materials and financial resources of the organisation. Whereas, the external resources are the customers, vendors and other influencing the demand of the transport system. The ERP software puts a positive effect on the bus transport business in two major activities such as the ticket generation activity and the payroll activities of the constructors, drivers and others. ERP will be used in the ticket generation activity in a bus transport system in which the software will be put in a machine in the gate. The passengers need to generate their own ticket in the gate before entering into the bus. This will help the company to keep a track on the number of passengers travelling daily, as the software will automatically capture the number of tickets generated. This will increase the security rate of the organisation and will not allow the conductors or the drivers to deceive the company in any way. It will also give a sense of security to the customer and help the company to improve its customer relationship management (CRM) (Lasisi et al. 2017). On the other hand, it helps the mangers of the business to manage the payroll activity of the workers in the company. This is because financial accounting is one of the core activity offered by the ERP system. The software will automatically generate the number of leaves, late coming and other activities of the business. Thus, the company will be able to get knowledge about the cost it is incurring on the staffs of the business and other activities and the revenue of the business from the number of tickets getting generated every day. Thus, ERP can be used in these two activities of a bus transport business, which will make their work much easy and save them from any kind of falsification done by the staffs of the business (Feldman et al. 2015).

Ticket Generation Activities

Implementation of technology is a part of development strategy made by the company to help them grow in a positive way. Planning and implementing a technology has a lot of affect on the daily operation of the business. Similarly, implementation of ERP software in the bus transport services will have a lot of impact on its daily business and in its growth. The benefits that ERP will generate on the bus transport services are competition, efficiency, forecasting, cost savings, productivity, customer service and others. Competition is one such factor that is a concern for every business and its growth. Thus, ERP is a costly system that cannot be used by everyone and the usage of this software will put the bus business on top of other types of transport business. Efficiency can gained by using ERP because it makes the operation of the business easy and reduce the chances of insecurity caused in it. This makes the operation beneficial and less challenging for the business (Bindi 2016). Other benefit is cost saving as the business will not require many staffs to look after various activities and it can be done by the advance technology of ERP. Moreover, ERP also leads to increase in productivity and sales as customers can now generate their own ticket and the chances of the conductor to falsify the business are reduced. Customers gain a lot from this software, as they require cutting the ticket before boarding the bus. This saves them from any false charges asked by the customer for the same route. Lastly, the most important benefits for which the customer takes the ERP system is the security and the software helps the business to secure their data about the customers and its monthly finance. Thus, ERP has many benefits on the transport business in its both internal environment and external environment (Chofreh et al. 2014).

ERP is the software that helps any organization to improve its business operations, which include accounting, human resources, customer relationship, order management and supply chain. This software applies for Human Resource Planning. Before using this software in the transport systems of Australia there are many problems faced by the transportation authority (Zeng et al. 2012). However, this software has been applied in the business operations of the transport systems such as managing payroll for the employees of the transport business and automatic ticket production.

Payroll is the list of the transport corporation’s employees and the total amount of wages that are paid to them. Before applying this software on the transport organization, the payroll management would be done on paper. The payroll stuff would manage the calculation by maintaining records on paper (Laudon and Laudon 2016). There are high chances of making errors in this process. There are some potential risk factors involved in this manual process of payroll management. The process of the payroll could be slow and laborious, as it has been done manually and it demands heavy concentration that would be necessary for maintaining detailed information of the payroll sheet. There are high chances of making mistakes in this process as it is related to checking, processing, reviewing, correcting and authentication of the individual employee’s payroll information, which would be done manually. However, ERP decreases the chances of errors.

Payroll Activities

Before applying ERP on automatic ticket production system, the conductor of the transport would collect it and maintain the information and the accounts of the ticket collection (Tirachini 2013). As the whole process is done manually, there are high chances of making errors in this process. There are chances of making errors in calculation while collecting the money for tickets. The calculation error could happen in case of delivering the remaining balance with the tickets. The conductor or the employee of the transport system who is managing the ticket collection method could even forget to ask for the ticket from the boarder, as he has to be very alert and aware while managing the process. He has to look at every detail in collecting the money for the tickets, maintaining a fare calculation and delivering the right amount of money while giving the tickets to the passengers. However, the risk factors could be removed or minimized with the help of the ERP software application on the ticket management system of the transport corporation.

The risk factors that are involved in manual payroll process and the ticket collection method of the transport systems could be removed by the application of the ERP software on the systems. Applying the ERP software helps to collect all the relevant data under one umbrella (White 2016). The software is useful for gathering important data, which are associated with the payroll system and the ticket collection method.

Applying ERP on the payroll system of the transport corporation will help in minimizing the human errors related to the complicated payroll structure, increasing the operational efficiency by providing correct and authentic data at right time (Kanellou and Spathis 2013). It helps in managing the whole payroll system effectively and efficiently. The software assists the organizational system in handling the important official data, which are related to calculation and wages of the employees. However, important information, like attendance and leave record, that are tracked for calculation of the monthly wages of the employees, PF details, other tax records and related calculations, can be jotted down together and updated whenever needed with the help of this software (Karunarathna 2015). However, the transport corporation authority can view employees’ data in one location. ERP solution gathers all the details and tracks records and evidences of the employees, associated with their wages, promotes pay-slips, calculates all the allowances and the deductions, determines salary adjustments, arrears and bonus, computes overtime, handles Gratuity and Provident Funds and supervises all types of MIS reports (Madapusi and D'Souza 2012).

Applying ERP on the automatic ticket production system will help to remove the risk factors associated with it. It provides security and authenticity to the authority of the transport system. The automatic ticket generated system with ERP software will help in minimizing the false entry of the passengers on the transports who do not pay the fare for their journey (Mudiraj 2013). However, it would not allow any passenger without tickets. The calculation would be done properly with the help of this software. The authority can keep records of the number of passengers and the total estimation of the fares collected from the passengers. It will help in profit making for the transport authority. The ERP software would allow those passengers who would correctly pay for their tickets.

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that the bus transport is a public transport and requires better software to track the daily activity of the customers as well as the staffs. Thus, the business requires keeping better software for both their internal as well as external activity. Enterprise Resource Planning is one of the best software that the business can use to take care of all its resources and make their daily operations quick and easy. ERP will be mainly used in two important activities of the business such as generating ticket by the customer and assisting in payroll activity of the organisation. With the help of ERP, the customers will be able to generate their own ticket before boarding the bus. This reduces the chances of falsification by both the company and their staffs. The most important benefit of using ERP software is to increase the security of the business while maintaining its database. Security is a concern that might lead to various problems in a business and this software will integrate all its data and secure it in a single place. This also reduces complications in the business process that was preset in the absence of the software.

References

Becker, J., Kugeler, M. and Rosemann, M. eds., 2013. Process management: a guide for the design of business processes. Springer Science & Business Media.

Bindi, M., 2016. A framework for implementing cloud based enterprise resource planning (ERP) in the transport business sector in Zimbabwe.

Boyd, R.T. and Boost3, Llc, 2013. Systems and methods for an integrated online portal and marketplace for event-related items. U.S. Patent Application 13/897,985.

Camacho, T.D., Foth, M. and Rakotonirainy, A., 2013. Pervasive technology and public transport: Opportunities beyond telematics. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 12(1), pp.18-25.

Chofreh, A.G., Goni, F.A., Shaharoun, A.M., Ismail, S. and Klemeš, J.J., 2014. Sustainable enterprise resource planning: imperatives and research directions. Journal of Cleaner Production, 71, pp.139-147.

Daniels, R. and Mulley, C., 2013. Explaining walking distance to public transport: The dominance of public transport supply. Journal of Transport and Land Use, 6(2), pp.5-20.

Feldman, G., Shah, H., Chapman, C. and Amini, A., 2015, July. Enterprise Systems Upgrade Drivers: A Technological, Organisational and Environmental Perspective. In PACIS (p. 83).

Hommes, E. and Holmner, M., 2013. Intelligent Transport Systems: privacy, security and societal considerations within the Gauteng case study. Innovation: Journal of appropriate librarianship and information work in Southern Africa, 2013(46), pp.192-206.

Kanellou, A. and Spathis, C., 2013. Accounting benefits and satisfaction in an ERP environment. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 14(3), pp.209-234.

Karunarathna, A.G.P., 2015. Payroll Management System (Doctoral dissertation).

Koupaei, M. and Movahedi, M., 2014. An investigation on the effects of business intelligence and enterprise resources planning on TQM. Uncertain Supply Chain Management, 2(3), pp.191-198.

Lasisi, M.O., Owens, J.D. and Udagedara, S., 2017. Key benefits of enterprise resource planning adoption within small family businesses: a conceptual framework.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education India.

Leon, A., 2014. Enterprise resource planning. McGraw-Hill Education.

Madapusi, A. and D'Souza, D., 2012. The influence of ERP system implementation on the operational performance of an organization. International Journal of Information Management, 32(1), pp.24-34.

Mudiraj, A.R., 2013. Erp: An Effective Resource Utilization Tool For Organization. International Journal Of Management & Behavioural Sciences (IJMBS).

Rosemann, M. and vom Brocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Tirachini, A., 2013. Bus dwell time: the effect of different fare collection systems, bus floor level and age of passengers. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science, 9(1), pp.28-49.

White, P., 2016. Public transport: its planning, management and operation. Taylor & Francis.

Zeng, H., Kazemian, P., Varghese, G. and McKeown, N., 2012, December. Automatic test packet generation. In Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Emerging networking experiments and technologies (pp. 241-252). ACM.