ERP Implementation: Benefits, Limitations, and Comparative Analysis

This proposal discusses the background and scope of implementing an ERP system, the definition and benefits of ERP, reasons for upgrading ERP, and a comparative analysis of top ERP brands. It also provides a cost benefit analysis of Microsoft Dynamics ERP.

Running head: ERP IMPLEMENTATION
ERP IMPLEMENTATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Enterprise resource planning definition, Benefits and Limitations.................................................2
Reasons of upgrading of the ERP....................................................................................................3
10 brands that provide ERP to SME................................................................................................4
Comparative analysis among them..................................................................................................5
Which brand should be used? Reason.............................................................................................6
CBA.............................................................................................................................................6
Microsoft Dynamics ERP Cost Benefit Analysis....................................................................6
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Background of the business organization Tumi Cut will be discussed in this proposal. A
proper discussion regarding scope definition of the business organization will also be made in
this proposal. Basic understanding of the functional process of the ERP system will also be stated
in this proposal. 10 brands that provides the ERP system will also be stated in tis proposals. A
proper comparison in between the ERP service providers will also be provided. This comparison
will help in better understanding the brand that must be used for getting the benefits of the ERP
system. Recommendation of the brand that must be accepted will also be provided. Cost benefit
analysis of the two compared brands of ERP system will also be provided. This Cost benefit
analysis will also help in better understanding of the brand that is to be chosen.
Background
Tumi Cut is a travel products manufacturing business organization. The fill rates that
were provided were 80% higher that affected the business organization. This was the main
reason that Tumi Cut decided to implement the ERP system and the brand that was chosen by
Tumi Cut was SAP. This helped Tumi Cut to expand in the global market.
Enterprise resource planning definition, Benefits and Limitations
Enterprise resource planning is mainly concerned with the utilizing the people that are
present in the business organization. This process is performed with the help of the increases in
productivity and implementation of software and hardware (Efe 2016). This will help in better
estimation of the profit that can be made. This ensures the fact that management of the business
process gets more efficient. This process helps in better completion of the complex tasks and this
is one of the major reasons that the usage of the ERP system is performed. the entire process can

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be performed with the help of the software packages and tools. ERP helps in completion of the
project seamlessly and efficiently.
The major advantage of using ERP system includes the fact that the cost that is incurred
in the implementation of the ERP system is fixed. This is one of the major aspects that the cost
efficiency of the ERP implementation process is very high. The main advantage that is gained
includes the fact that the time that an ERP system serves is very high. This neutralizes the high
initial cost (Li, Chang and Yen 2017). Withstanding the reduction in the cost in the IT training
cost, the effort that is to be put in the system and the time that is required in the completion of the
workings can be performed with higher time efficiency.
The major disadvantages that are present int the system includes lack of customization
process that is to be proclaimed includes the fact that the ERP software does not have proper
customization and hence the output that is generated from the project gets hampered and the
entire functional process goes out of control. Another major issue that is present in the usage of
the ERP implementation is inclusion of the cost that will not affect the business processing in an
active manner (Ali and Miller 2017). The benefit that will be gained in the process will be
passive in nature as the implementation of ERP system does not provide any kind of direct
advantage to the business organization in terms of earning revenue annually.
Reasons of upgrading of the ERP
Increasing automation in the business process is one of the major aspects that is gained
by upgrading the ERP system. The major aspect that includes better management of the projects
that are to be completed (Tenhiälä and Helkiö 2015). With increase in automation the time that
will be required for completion of a single task will get lesser and the accuracy level of the entire

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business management system will increase. Time incurred in the process will also decrease. This
will again help in increasing the revenue collection process. with regular upgrading of the ERP
system the main advantage that will be received is that the quality of service that will be gained
from the entire system will be much better than the initial model of the ERP system (Shatat,
2015). The main reason of this aspect is that the issues that are detected in the previous models
are detected and are mitigated in the latest model. Hence upgrading of the ERP system.
Brands that provide ERP to SME
Brands that provide services regarding ERP to required SME’s are as follows: -
1. NetSuite ERP
2. SYSPRO
3. Odoo
4. Oracle ERP Cloud
5. Microsoft Dynamics GP
6. Brightpearl
7. Epicor ERP
8. FinancialForce
9. Dolibarr
10. SAP ERP
The above stated brands are the top 10 brads that provide ERP services to the SMEs.

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Comparative analysis among them
Oracle, SAP and Microsoft are considered to be the most popular ERP service providing
brands. A precise comparison will be made among the different business organizations that
provides ERP services.
The ERP system that is used by SAP is a competitive module system. With the help of
SAP ERP system, the main advantage that is gained is that the main deliverables can be marked
and hence the functional process gets more efficient. This process is very unlikely in case of the
Oracle system. The major difference in between Oracle and SAP ERP system is that in case of
Oracle ERP system the no specific deliverable is stated whereas all the activities that are required
are for completion of the undertaken project (Jagoda and Samaranayake 2017). tasks that are to
be performed by the marketing department, HR team and other sectors are also taken into
consideration by the Oracle ERP system. In other hand Microsoft Dynamics has a separate set of
tools that takes care of different aspects and different sectors of the business management.
E Recruiting, Supply chain management, Financial accounting and pay roll management
are the main concerns of the SAP ERP system. Quality management is also performed by the
SAP ERP system. Whereas the main concern of Oracle ERP is cash management, portfolio
management, Cost management and BI (Shen, Chen and Wang 2016). Microsoft Dynamics is
mainly concerned with the CRM, Expense management, ledger calculation, Asset management
and Information management. These are the major differences in between the ERP systems of
different producers that can be stated.
Cost of implementing Oracle is very high. The cost incurred in implementation of SAP
ERP system is considerably low. But Microsoft Dynamics has its highlight in this stage. The cost

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incurred in implementing Microsoft Dynamics is the least. This is one of the main reason that
this ERP system is used at a very high extent.
Which brand should be used? Reason
Reasons of using Microsoft Dynamics over SAP and other ERP manufacturing brands are
as follows: -
 Helps in performing investments that are having well tested future proof due to immense
customization benefits (Nwankpa 2015).
 Upgrading process of the ERP system is easy
 Initial investment that is made is considered to be lower than the other ERP providing
brands.
CBA
Microsoft Dynamics ERP Cost Benefit Analysis
Input Values
Cost-Benefit - INPUT VALUES
Hardware $ 3,000.00
Software $ 27,000.00
Development team salaries $ 12,000.00
Training $ 4,000.00
Total Development Cost $ 46,000.00
Hardware $ 1,000.00
Software $ 2,000.00

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Operational Labour $ 1,000.00
Total Operational Cost $ 4,000.00
Approximate salary savings $ 54,000.00
Reduced operating cost $ 60,000.00
Total Benefit $ 114,000.00
Discount Rate Used 6.00%
Cost benefit
$0.00
$
114,000.00
$
114,000.00
$
114,000.00
$
114,000.00
$
114,000.00
1.0000 0.9434 0.8900 0.8396 0.7921 0.7473
$0.00
$107,547.1
7
$101,459.5
9 $95,716.60 $90,298.68 $85,187.43
$0.00
$
107,547.17
$
209,006.76
$
304,723.36
$
395,022.04
$
480,209.47
$
480,209.47
$(46,000.0
0)
$0.00
$
(4,000.00)
$
(4,000.00)
$
(4,000.00)
$
(4,000.00)
$
(4,000.00)

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1.0000 0.9434 0.8900 0.8396 0.7921 0.7473
$0.00
$
(3,773.58)
$
(3,559.99)
$
(3,358.48)
$
(3,168.37)
$
(2,989.03)
$(46,000.0
0)
$
(49,773.58)
$
(53,333.57)
$
(56,692.05)
$
(59,860.42)
$
(62,849.46)
$
(62,849.46)
$
417,360.02
6.6406
$(46,000.0
0)
$
103,773.58
$
97,899.61
$
92,358.12
$
87,130.30
$
82,198.40
$(46,000.0
0)
$
57,773.58
$
155,673.19
$
248,031.31
$
335,161.62
$
417,360.02

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Break Even Chart
0 1 2 3 4 5 0
$0.00
$100,000.00
$200,000.00
$300,000.00
$400,000.00
$500,000.00
$600,000.00 NPV of all BENEFITS NPV of all COSTS
Year
D
o
l
l
a
r
s
Figure 1: Break Eve Chart
(Created by author)
After performing the CBA, it can be stated that the invested amount on the ERP system
can be regained in less than a year in case of implementing the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system.
This is one of the major reasons of choosing this platform. Another main reason of choosing this
platform is to perform is that all the aspects of functioning is dedicated with different tools of
Microsoft Dynamics (Kilic, Zaim and Delen 2015). This is one of the main reasons that accuracy
of the entire process gets very high.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be stated that the functional process of Tumi Cut has
been highly benefitted after the implementation of the ERP system. This is one of the major
aspects that helps in better management of the business-related issues. Hence after
implementation of the ERP system has been gaining importance. After a proper analysis of the
different types of ERP system, Microsoft dynamics is chosen as the mot cost efficient ERP
system available. Hence recommendation of using the same is also provided.

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References
Ali, M. and Miller, L., 2017. ERP system implementation in large enterprises–a systematic
literature review. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 30(4), pp.666-692.
Efe, B., 2016. An integrated fuzzy multi criteria group decision making approach for ERP
system selection. Applied Soft Computing, 38, pp.106-117.
Jagoda, K. and Samaranayake, P., 2017. An integrated framework for ERP system
Implementation. International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, 25(1), pp.91-
109.
Kilic, H.S., Zaim, S. and Delen, D., 2015. Selecting “The Best” ERP system for SMEs using a
combination of ANP and PROMETHEE methods. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(5),
pp.2343-2352.
Li, H.J., Chang, S.I. and Yen, D.C., 2017. Investigating CSFs for the life cycle of ERP system
from the perspective of IT governance. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 50, pp.269-279.
Nwankpa, J.K., 2015. ERP system usage and benefit: A model of antecedents and
outcomes. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, pp.335-344.
Shatat, A.S., 2015. Critical success factors in enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
implementation: An exploratory study in Oman. Electronic Journal of Information Systems
Evaluation, 18(1), p.36.
Shen, Y.C., Chen, P.S. and Wang, C.H., 2016. A study of enterprise resource planning (ERP)
system performance measurement using the quantitative balanced scorecard
approach. Computers in Industry, 75, pp.127-139.

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Tenhiälä, A. and Helkiö, P., 2015. Performance effects of using an ERP system for
manufacturing planning and control under dynamic market requirements. Journal of Operations
Management, 36, pp.147-164.