Enterprise Resource Planning System in Business Organization

Running head: - ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING SYSTEM
ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING SYSTEM
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion of Organizational Context.......................................................................................2
Discussion of Internal and External Environment:....................................................................6
Identification of the Problem and Opportunity for IS/IT...........................................................7
Justification of the Chosen System............................................................................................8
System Analysis and System Design.........................................................................................9
Development, Testing and Implementation.............................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) commonly refers to the integrated management
of all the primary processes within a business organization in real time that is mediated with
the help of a software along with that of an existent technology. The software in accordance
to an ERP system performs the primary operations of collecting, storing, managing as well as
interpreting the data that belongs to a respective enterprise within the field of business
(Chofreh, Goni and Klemeš 2018). ERP systems installed within a business organization
provisions the same with an integrated as well as a continuous upgradation of the core
processes of the business having a proper utilization of the commonly existing databases used
for tracking the business resources such as the like of revenue, raw materials, as well as
production capacity. An ERP system particularly refers to an application that carries out the
primary responsibility of sharing various data from one department of the organization to that
of the other taking the form of a messenger and working for the respective business
organization. This report primarily puts forward a brief introduction of various process,
visions as well as missions of a business organization while implementing the enterprise
resource planning system into its various procedures of business (Chofreh et al.2020).
Following this, the report again identifies various problems as well as opportunities for the
ERP system when implemented within a respective organization of business. Lastly, the
report finalizes the identification procedure by carrying out an analysis as well as a design of
the ERP that has been chosen for the various benefits that it accompanies with itself.
Discussion of Organizational Context
A business process in terms of the ERP system can be identified as a collective set of
activities that takes place or is carried out within an enterprise throughout the course of the
day on a daily basis to keep the process running and to keep generating revenue for the

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business to properly be carried out. With the help of these procedures of business, the
enterprises successfully achieve the primary objectives that had been laid down during the
initial phase of the organization (Chofreh et al.2016). Each individually existing business
process starts with the help of a trigger that has been properly explained with the help of the
following figure.
Figure-1: ERP system business processes
(Source- Chofreh et al.2016)
In reference to the implementation of an ERP system within a business organization
that carries out the process of manufacturing, the important processes of business that occur
are,
 Process of Procurement.
 Process of Production.
 Process of Fulfilment.
 Process of Financial Accounting.
Procurement process of business has the primary inclusion of all such activities such
as the likes of buying all the required amount of raw materials that is required for the

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procedure of making products. However, this particularly process can also have the shared
inclusion of procedures such as purchasing of consumables, assets as well as equipment.
Production process has the inclusion of processes such as events that belong to the production
of products manufactured by the respective business organization or enterprise utilizing the
already installed ERP system (Shen, Chen and Wang 2016). Fulfilment procedure includes all
such activities such as the creation of sales order, invoice as well as delivering of products to
the customers in particular. Lastly, the procedure of financial accounting includes the primary
activity of managing accounts payable delivering products along with the receivable accounts
belonging to the customers in particular. However, the selling procedure for a manufacturing
enterprise has been described in brief with the help of the following diagram.
Figure-2: Selling process
(Source- Migdadi and Abu Zaid 2016)
Whenever, a respective enterprise inculcates the decision to implement an ERP
system within its business process, the recommendation that is highlighted by the ERP

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experts is to begin with the learning procedure of the information in relation to the business
procedures along with the resources typically needed to perform the same (Migdadi and Abu
Zaid 2016). This in particular refers to the fact of understanding the ERP system and its usage
in relation to the resources that is required on a primary basis by a business organization to
get hold of successful outcomes with the proper usage of the ERP system that has been
incorporated into the same.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems properly integrate the internal as well as
the external management of information across the entire organization embracing the
activities such as the likes of Finance, customer relationship management, sales and services
(Balakrishnan, 2019). ERP systems carry out these activities in an automated manner with the
help of an integrated application software. The primary motive of the ERP system is to
provision with the allowance of facilitating the particular flow of information between all of
the existing business functions within the boundaries of the enterprise as well as to carry out a
successful management of all the connections with that of the stakeholders present externally.
In reference to the current situation of the business organizations, the targeted ERP
system solutions are considered to be successful regarding all the primary features that must
be typically addressed as well as backed with the help of technology that is leading in the
industry world. Provisioning with ERP solutions, certain things that should be considered by
the enterprises are the likes of the key features of a business (Hasan et al.2019). These are
human resources, financial management, manufacturing, business intelligence as well as
supply chain management that will necessarily help for keeping all the data organized into a
singular comprehensive environment belonging to the business organization.
The ERP systems taking into consideration the internal as well as the external
environment of an enterprise should also provision with the necessary solutions for ERP in

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the form of a modular format enabling the organization to particularly make a choice of the
modules that is required by the respective business organizations in the current prevailing
scenario (Costa et al.2016). This will specifically act as a necessary addition of much more
capabilities as a part of the growth that is visibly identified and aimed while carrying out the
business.
Discussion of Internal and External Environment:
SWOT analysis of Vodafone
Telecom industry is a highly competitive market. There are various major telecom
brands that are looking for taking market share in UK, which is a leading market for
Vodafone. However, in order to stay relevant in the market and ensure majority of the market
share, Vodafone invest significantly in research and innovation. In this context, a SWOT
analysis has been provided for a comprehensive idea regarding its strengths, weakness,
opportunities and threats as an organization as well.
Strengths:
Brand equity:
Brand equity is an important aspect to analyse consumer trust for a particular brand
and if any company has high brand equity, then it specifies that company has significant trust
and reliability. Vodafone is not only a popular brand, but also a consumer oriented brand
which makes it one of the leading telecom service provider worldwide. Therefore, brand
equity is a significant strength for Vodafone as well.
Marketing:
Vodafone invest heavily for its marketing. It not only consider printing media
advertisement, it also consider digital marketing along with celebrity brand promotion.

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Vodafone advertisement are so popular in market, that competitors have little idea regarding
how to manage this popularity. Innovative marketing has helped Vodafone in becoming one
of the most popular brands in telecom industry as well.
Quality of service:
This is one of the most important reasons for Vodafone to become one of the leading
telecom service provider with millions of consumers in international markets as well.
Weakness:
Although Vodafone has strong market share in various international markets
including UK and some Asian countries. However, even after ensuing research and
innovation, it is still not successful in establish itself as an significant telecom service
provider in US markets, which is also an important telecom market for telecom service
providers including its competitors as well.
Opportunities:
If Vodafone integrates advanced technologies like AI and other digital technologies in
telecom industries, then it will provide them context to enhance consumer satisfaction for
enhancing its market share as well.
Threats:
There are significant competition in telecom industry and it is increasing of new
telecom companies entering into market and this is an important threat for Vodafone as well.
Identification of the Problem and Opportunity for IS/IT
In the current context the Vodafone Australia is facing various problems within their
organization as management of the organizational service has become very much critical in

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nature. Also, there are problems in running the business operations of Vodafone in smooth
manner. Thus, it is important for the Vodafone to find appropriate solution so solve the
current existing problems. Thus, in this aspect implementation of IS/IT solution can help to
mitigate the current issue faced by the Vodafone Australia (Ali and Miller 2017). Thus, in
this aspect there is great an opportunity for the IS/IT systems. Regarding the IS/IT solution,
particularly in this case the ERP or the Enterprise Resource Planning systems can be
implemented. Specifically, the ERP system has been selected as this is having certain of
benefits that can helpful for mitigation of current business issues faced by the Vodafone
Australia. By the implementation of ERP system in Vodafone all the department and the
functionalities of the organization can be merged together within a single system while
specific demand of each of the department can be easily fulfilled (Alcivar and Abad 2016).
The ERP system can also help the Vodafone Australia by helping the organization to make
smarter decisions, working more effectively and efficiently and by helping to better serve the
customers. Also, by the implementation of ERP system in the organization Vodafone will be
achieving effective communication among all the departments of the organization and this
system will be allowing the organizational employees to gather the required information from
wherever they want. In this way the ERP system can help the Vodafone in their business and
will improve the overall business process (Jagoda and Samaranayake 2017). Thus, it has been
assessed that the IS/IT solutions are having a vast opportunity in this context.
Justification of the Chosen System
Considering the current condition of the Vodafone Australia there are several of
improvements that are required for ensuring proper business operations. Thus, to solve the
identified problem and to improve the overall business process of the organization, ERP
system has been selected (Efe 2016). In the following context justification is provided behind
the selection of ERP system for Vodafone Australia.

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 Currently, Vodafone Australia is having different types of departments within the
organization and management of all these department together is very much complex
task. Thus, to solve this problem ERP system can be utilized in this case as it will be
helping in integration of all the department within the organization.
 In the current context, the Vodafone is also facing business related issues as they are
failing to properly forecast the current market. The ERP system can also solve this
problem. In this way, Vodafone will be able to perform more realistic forecasts (Jamal
2017).
 In the current market there are various of customers and demand of these customers is
also different. Considering this factor, Vodafone needs to bring flexibility of their
business operations so that demand of all types customers can be fulfilled (Nwankpa
2019). To achieve this flexibility, Vodafone might needs to changes in the
organization. While the ERP system are available this changes can be adopted easily.
In this business problem of the Vodafone can be solved.
 Vodafone is also facing organizational issues due to the high amount of cost. In this
case also ERP systems can be helpful (Li, Chang and Yen 2017). ERP can help the
Vodafone to reduce the operations and the administration costs by providing accurate
and real time information. Also, operations within the organization can be managed
easily.
Thus, in this way ERP system can benefit the Vodafone Australia and can help to
improve their business process. So, the selection of ERP system is justified in this context.
System Analysis and System Design
Based on the understanding of the analysis of the system, it can be discussed that the
ERP system that would be designed for Vodafone, Australia would consider the following

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aspects within their design. A conceptual model based on the analysis and implementation of
ERP system would be helpful for addressing the four primary aspects of implementation.
These are: process, product, people and performance (Tarhini et al. 2015). In relation to
Vodafone, it can be discussed that Process is defined as the change management issues within
any desired project. The Product would be considered as various software modules, which
would be implemented within Vodafone based their growing needs. People are defined as
customers, which help towards the representation of the organizational mindset or
requirements. On the other hand, Performance is considered as similar to data flows, which
are in relation the processes of business.
Based on understanding of the business needs at Vodafone, the functional
specifications that would be designed for the proposed ERP system are:
1. Centralized Modules – The implementation of an ERP system at Vodafone would
allow their users to manage different grouped tasks without the need of switching between
multiple screens and applications (Shen, Chen and Wang 2016). Every possible information
that would be required for performing a specific operation would be accommodated within
the same section of the ERP system.
2. ERP Database – A centrally connected database would be incorporated within the
Vodafone application. This would reduce the need for software developers to incorporate
various databases for different functionalities. ERP systems would help different modules to
be connected to a central database from where all teams would be able to perform and collect
the similar set of information.
3. Integration – The applications working over an ERP system are designed in such a
manner that they would remain integrated and work together in a seamless manner. This
would mean that users of the Vodafone application should be able to move from one module

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to another without the feel that they would be lost within the application. Free sharing of
information is highly required and in real-time (Rajan and Baral 2015). Hence, the ERP
system would be able to eliminate system redundancies and support real-time information to
all employees.
Development, Testing and Implementation
Acquiring of Required Hardware and Software – During the design process of the
ERP system for Vodafone, it can be discussed that there would be a need for including
hardware and software modules. The potential ways based on which the hardware and
software systems would be set up for an ERP system are:
1. Vodafone could implement an ERP system within their own data centers, which are
located within the premises of the company. The software system that would be integrated
could be either leased for a certain fee or be purchased (Bonaparte, Austin and Okoro 2015).
Other factors that needs consideration includes hardware acquisitions, servers, permanent
backups and maintenance functionalities.
2. The company could also flexibly use a particular cloud service provider who would
supply the beneficial hardware, which would further help in reduction of additional costs
when purchased from outside.
The testing activities that would need to be discussed for the implementation of an
ERP system within Vodafone are:
1. Unit Testing – During the process of unit testing over the ERP system, software
developers would need to validate and test each of the included components. Based on proper
kind of this testing approach, it would help in catching any defects in individual software
modules.

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2. System Testing – This testing approach would be adopted after the full kind of
implementation of the ERP system within the company (Dong and Yang 2020). The main
purpose of the system would be based on the evaluation of end-to-end specifications of the
desired system.
3. Integration Testing – After the individual components would be tested and
brought under an umbrella, the whole group of the system would be tested. The primary
purpose of using this approach is to detect different faults after the full integration of the
several integrated units.
4. User Acceptance Testing – This testing approach is only performed at the end-
user side based on verifying of the ERP software system (Venkatraman and Fahd 2016). The
UAT based testing approach is utilized after full integration of ERP system within the
company. Security checks would also be conducted for each of the modules.
In order to fully implement an ERP system within the organization, there would also
be a need for implementing proper training activities and approaches for the employees
within the workplace. These activities or approaches are discussed as:
1. A training module should be designed. Based on that different training manuals
would be supported and would be provided to all employees (Al-Jabri 2015). Practical
training sessions, one-to-one mentorship activities and hands-on training activities would also
be supported.
2. External trainers could be hired based on providing training sessions to all
employees within the organization.
3. Documentation of the various processes that needs to be designed should be presented in a
proper format. Redundancy of various activities needs to be presented in a proper format.

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