Enterprise Computing Challenges and Enterprise Resource Planning

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion and Learning Outcomes
Challenges of implementing Enterprise Resource Systems
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Information management systems play a crucial role in ensuring that the organisation becomes efficient and effective, but companies need enterprise planning to centralise data collection, storage and data processing. Enterprise resource planning is a technology that deploys computer technology to integrate various organisational resources—such as human resources, assets, information resources –across the organisation (O’Leary, 2000).The intention of ERP systems is to streamline an organisation’s data access, information sharing, business continuity, and revamping the decision-making processes.

When ERP systems were invented in the mid-1990s, organisations shifted their attention to embrace the capabilities of ERP components; and a decade later this technology still moves on strong (O’Leary, 2000). However, during their early days, ERP systems enjoyed acceptance from large manufacturers, a trend that has since shifted dramatically. Today, small businesses are able to deploy robust ERP systems in virtually every operational aspect.

ERP systems have grown from mainframe computers to more flexible, robust, and seamless applications (O’Leary, 2000). In this paper, the benefits of ERP systems are discussed to help comprehend how companies can leverage ERP systems to strengthen their Information management systems. This focus is important owing to the fact that it relates to the learning outcomes learned in the chapter.

Discussion and Learning Outcomes

No organisation can achieve its medium and long-term goals without a realistic resource plan. To guarantee effective implementation and realisation of the results, the organisation must remain faithful to identifying change agents and supporting them to deliver on the objectives of the firm. Technology has brought various functions together to achieve a more flexible and less costly centrally located system. Organisations have pulled their resources to ensure that essential systems are implemented.

This aims at connecting all departments using a single system that collects, analyses, stores, and disseminates information to respective functional areas. More than ever before, different functions can now seamlessly integrate with one another to improve how companies share and managed information across various departments (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011).

While all functions must be distinct from one another, organisations must recognise that no single function can deliver the desired results without the support of the other departments. The convergence and integration of functions mean that organisations can now easily work to deliver uniform results at the least possible cost (O’Leary, 2000). When discussing effective implementation of information management systems, an important aspect that comes into perspective is resource planning. The manner in which an organisation plans and executes its resource plans explains whether its goals can be achieved with minimum cost (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011).

According to Magal & Word (2012), an enterprise resource system is essential in streamlining the flow of data and provides internal users access to real-time information. This way, organisations are able to dramatically influence the speed at which various departments and users of information handle emergencies. On the other hand, enterprise systems involve centralisation and standardisation of processes and procedures. The role of ERP systems stretches beyond creating efficiency (O’Leary, 2000).

Enterprise systems integrate various Information Management Systems, which helps a company to achieve a flatter, more flexible and responsive management and control systems. Moreover, integration of information across the enterprise helps to cut cost since information sharing eliminates redundancies, eliminates potential system errors by ensuring scalability, visibility and better ability to share information across the organisation. Further, ERP systems translate into a more sound decision-making mechanism, efficient delivery of services (Magal & Word, 2012).

When ERP systems first made their way into the market, businesses rushed to leverage their capabilities arguing that an integrated relationship between various departments was the only solution to their problems. For instance, ERP systems have been able to project demand and costs, to place orders, to design new production systems, to track resource utilisation, and to envisage the organisation’s financial landscape in the short and long-term (O’Leary, 2000).

ERP systems have evolved over the past years to include a number of new functional and operational areas. To illustrate this point, ERP’s application has the capacity to link different software in the supply chain management. In addition, enterprise resource systems have been implemented to facilitate e-commerce by ensuring that processes are simplified and tracked for errors and customer satisfaction (Magal & Word, 2012).

Challenges of implementing Enterprise Resource Systems

Despite numerous benefits that come with the implementation of ERP systems, organisations, especially the non tech-savvy ones, face challenges when putting in place effective systems. The results of an ERP system cannot be achieved overnight. Effectiveness implementation of a working ERP system requires time, commitment and resources (Jessup & Valacich, 2006). IT departments are faced with challenges of allocating the right amount of resources to specific processes. Additionally, because enterprise resource systems change the way various departments operate, they tend to change routines in ways that allow for growth (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011).

Implementing ERP systems requires an organisation to amend its procedures, introduce employee training programs and revamping internal technical support. Organisations also face challenges in implementing changes from traditional systems to modern ERP systems. Resistance to change or the slow changeover process is often responsible for the slow implementation of ERP systems in an organisation (Jessup & Valacich, 2006).

For effective implementation of ERP systems, it is important for organisations to retain passionate leaders, so as to constitute a dedicated team to implement the IT agenda of the business. Small businesses are supposed to engage the entire team of employees in the implementation process. O’Leary (2000) observed that the failure to involve employees during the early stages of implementation can drag or stall the process.

System analysts have pointed at the challenges of implementing enterprise computing. One major challenge has been a lack of or insufficient technical capacity of pushing the IT agenda on the forefront. Additionally, ERP software demands that an organisation mobilises its resources to build capacity.

According to O’Brien & Marakas (2011), both large and small organisations are held back during the implementation stages. For small businesses, lack of sufficient resources has been the major undoing while large organisations have suffered little motivation from the top leadership.

Comprehending the future of the organisation can be a tricky affair, especially where an organisation does not have the capacity to project the situation with accuracy that is needed. Therefore, while some organisations have expressed the goodwill to change their systems approach, they have been constrained by their inability to accurately assess the organisation’s capacity based on the available data as well as future changes. Before designing a custom enterprise resource system, the design team must engage in meaningful discussions to establish the readiness of the employees to adopt the changes (Jessup & Valacich, 2006). Often times, culture change and employee readiness has slowly crippled the efforts to implement new systems in most organisations.

When organisations approach ERP systems in short, measurable and focused steps, desired results are likely to be seen. ERP and change management experts recommend that organisations implement change techniques to help manage the human aspects that often threaten to reverse the process (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011). Once the company puts in place an ERP system, it should interpret data and relay the information to relevant stakeholders.

The number of companies implementing ERP systems is increasing with each passing day and experts attribute this trend to improved productivity and reduced cost of installation and running ERP systems. In addition, businesses do not need to worry about the lengthy process of designing ERP systems (Jessup & Valacich, 2006).

Today, businesses can find pre-configured and pre-tested ERP systems meaning that businesses can effectively cut the cost of acquiring and running IT projects without having to expose the business to risks. Technically speaking, advancements in technology are making it possible for businesses to deliver a fully functional system. The good news is this methodological approach keeps evolving to allow businesses register high value results (Laudon, Laudon & Brabston, 2008).

Conclusion

ERP systems are becoming increasingly popular across all business segments, from service, automotive to manufacturing sectors. Hosted services ride on the vendor’s IT infrastructure, where the client company can seamlessly connect to a secure platform and manage its resources hassle-free. By accessing all the resources via a single ERP system, businesses can reduce their overall investment in IT by a huge margin.

The cost of running ERP systems can significantly be reduced when companies host all their resources on a vendor’s mainframe computers to support its processes. In this case, client companies pay for only what they use and leave the rest of the cost to the hosting company. Although implementing ERP systems can be daunting, especially to start ups and non tech-savvy businesses, many organisations are slowly increasing their investments in these technologies to keep up with fast-paced business world.

References

Jessup, L. M., & Valacich, J. (2006). Information systems today. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Laudon, K. C., Laudon, J. P., & Brabston, M. E. (2008). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Magal, S., & Word, J. (2012). Integrated business processes with ERP systems. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

O’Brien, J. A., & Marakas, G. M. (2011). Management information systems. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

O’Leary, D. E. (2000). Enterprise resource planning systems: Systems, life cycle, electronic commerce, and risk. New York: Cambridge University Press.

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