Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems Analysis

This assignment delves into the complexities of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, focusing on their design and implementation. Students are expected to analyze various aspects of ERP systems, including key functionalities, system selection criteria, implementation strategies, and potential challenges. The analysis should demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing successful ERP system design and deployment.

Running head: SYSTEMS DESIGN
Systems Design
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Answer to question 1......................................................................................................1
Answer to question 2......................................................................................................2
Answer to question 3......................................................................................................3
Answer to question 4......................................................................................................5
References......................................................................................................................7

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Answer to question 1
Custom software has been built keeping in mind the needs of the individuals and the
employees of the enterprises. The software can be changed as per the business requirements
so that the business activities can be furnished. The custom software also can be incorporated
with the prevalent system to get the maximum output. With the usage of custom software,
one can get only the things what they need. The competitive advantage can be gained with
the help of custom developed software (Thüm et al., 2014). That is why the custom
developed software can be regarded as the best resource one can get. The custom developed
software is relatively expensive as it requires heavy investment at the beginning, besides the
software takes relatively long time to develop.
Packaged software is exclusively developed for vertical markets and the horizontals
markets. The vendors will have to spend heavily for the software for the individuals who
want to enjoy the software. The development of this software requires extensive effort as
well. Compared to custom developed software the packaged software has the capability to
cater the best-configured solutions (Highsmith, 2013). The packaged software can
accommodate change by making an adjustment to the table values to a greater extent and
greater degree. The packaged software has an advantage, the customers can use the software
according to their convenience, they can use it at any time, even can preserve for future use.
The packaged software takes comparatively less amount of time to install and also the
developers do not have to worry or give time for the development procedures. These features
can be incorporated into the custom developed software but it takes huge time and a huge
cost to install and configure (Turk, France & Rumpe, 2014). The packaged software is
somewhat complicated and very difficult to learn and implement. The software is bulky and
features heavy, the customers will have to choose those parts which are required for them.

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Answer to question 2
The best practices involved with the enterprise resource planning are-
Developing the best plan having clear objectives- The enterprise must have a clear
goal in mind before implementing ERP; otherwise, the ERP implementation can prove very
costly. Therefore, every department of the enterprise, even every business process of the
enterprise should have proper goals and deliverables they want to gain. The well-made
strategy can assist in successfully completing the goals related.
Getting commitment and internal support- All the departments of the enterprise
should support the implementation of the ERP software in office premises, the employees, as
well as the management team, should be knowing where and why the ERP software has been
planned to implement (Shaul & Tauber, 2013).
Selection of right software- Lots of ERP software and ERP vendors are available in
the market however the company will have to choose the one which suits best for the
enterprise, which will help to meet the desired objectives. Besides software, on-going support
and the vendor training must be provided for the best results.
Allocation of sufficient resources and assets- ERP implementation needs both
managerial commitment and the financial commitment. The financial resources must be
properly allocated for the ERP implementation and besides all that quality training must be
provided to get the results they want (Tian & Xu, 2015). The enterprise should appoint a
project manager who has sound knowledge of the software and the one who respect the
organization as well as the ERP team members.
Training and support- Training are crucial to getting the desired outcome. All the
team members must be proactive and should be willing to learn the various aspects of the

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ERP software. The ERP vendors should be consulted for best support package and also the
best training program for conducting the business activities. The managers of the enterprise
should consider that the employees are getting the quality training from the quality trainers.
Answer to question 3
ERP software is likely to facilitate every core areas and the organisations who want to
take the technical assistance ERP is certainly the piece of cake for them. The ERP vendors
can expand into the following functional areas-
Marketing sales- Sales and marketing department of the enterprise can keep track of
the customers’ data and the customers’ activities, that means contacting the customers, it
involves the dispatch of the customers’ orders. Via ERP implementation, the customers’
visits, customers’ expenses, the competitors of the enterprises can be traced. The workers of
the enterprises can contact the customers at their convenience and the workers can keep
follow up of the customers and also can keep track of the invoice, the customers shopping
patterns and wish list can be kept within the database (Hoch & Dulebohn, 2013). Thus ERP
can facilitate the marketing. Thus with the assistance of the ERP, the management team as
well as the marketing personnel can monitor the business process and the customer data flow
and can analyse the business partners.
Customer Relationship Management- ERP can embellish the customer relationship
management thus facilitates the enterprise so that they can communicate with the customers
effectively. The CRM involves the sales and marketing, call centre support, data associated
with communicating with the customers and ERP has the ability to cater the facility (Hunton,
Wright & Wright, 2015). The customer retention data, lead prioritization and sales pipeline
management can be get benefitted with the help of ERP implementation.

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Manufacturing- ERP implementation can benefit the product life management,
scheduling capacity, it can provide benefits to the engineering, scheduling capacity.
Accounting or finance- Via ERP installation and configuration, the accounting
functions or the finance functions can be kept track of, ERP can ease the budgeting and the
costing. The systems can cater the systems of the enterprise with the detailed insight and the
real-time data (Hunton, McEwen & Wier, 2015). The ERP application also assures the
conformity associated with relevant financial regulations.
Human Resources- The enterprise resource planning system includes the tools that
have the capability to simplify the training, recruiting, retirement management, the payroll
management and also the diversity management. The HR managers can keep an eye on and
can control the key performance indicators (KPIs) for each and every workers of the
enterprise and the job roles and the departments.
The technology is advancing, thus ERP is expanding, so far the expansion of ERP in
the human resource department, accounting and finance department has been discussed, the
expansion of ERP in supply chain management has been discussed, the ERP in the marketing
and the sales area has been elaborated in details (Hunton, McEwen & Wier, 2015). However,
with the advent, if cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things ERP software can be
utilized to gain more benefits. This cloud technology can give the enterprise the competitive
edge so that the enterprise can think and go to the next level.
Answer to question 4
Previously the enterprises relied upon the workforce, so there was a chance of errors,
the business activities took a longer time to complete, however with the advent of business
information system (BIS) things have changed greatly over the last fifty years. The BIS

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involves a group of components to collectively carry out the business activities of the
enterprise and the business activities involve the certain actions like control actions, storage
actions, input actions and the processing actions and these actions can be utilized to convert
data in to instructions and that can be used to assist forecasting, decision making, planning,
control and coordination (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). According to the components
undertaken, they can be divided into five resources and these five resources are data,
communication, hardware and the software. The human resources involve the developers and
the users and this human resource must be selected keeping in mind that the human resource
is capable to maintain the technical support staff as well as the IS managers. The hardware
resources involve the computers and the printers (Kasemsap, 2015). The software resources
involve the assets required in the software development and the documentation needed to
support the software. The documentation is helpful to demonstrate the instruction to use the
software efficiently. The communication resources associate the networks, the hardware and
the software that is required to complete the business activity successfully. Data resources of
the BIS involve the computer database and the paper files.
The advantages of the BISs are-
i. Communication- The BIS facilitates the video calls, voice calls, instant messaging
becomes agile and effective.
ii. Globalisation- The BIS can cut down the cultural boundaries, linguistic boundaries
and the linguistic boundaries (Rajnoha et al., 2014).
iii. Availability- The BIS has the potentiality to cater the 24x7 services, the business
activities can be conducted all over the world at any time, the business becomes simpler and
more convenient.

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iv. Profitable and productivity- BIS makes the entire business procedures cost
effective and with the BIS the productivity can be embellished.
The disadvantages of the BISs are-
i. Unemployment- The implementation of the business information makes the
business procedure automatic and thus reduce the workforce (Heinrich et al., 2017). The
reduction in workforce increases the chance of unemployment.
ii. Security issues- Since all the business activities are conducted online there is a
chance that the system and the database can get breached, the intruders can attack the system
over the insecure network.
iii. Implementation expenditure- Huge expenses can incur due to the BIS
implementation.

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References
Heinrich, R., Merkle, P., Henss, J., & Paech, B. (2017). Integrating business process
simulation and information system simulation for performance prediction. Software &
Systems Modeling, 16(1), 257-277.
Highsmith, J. (2013). Adaptive software development: a collaborative approach to managing
complex systems. Addison-Wesley.
Hoch, J. E., & Dulebohn, J. H. (2013). Shared leadership in enterprise resource planning and
human resource management system implementation. Human Resource Management
Review, 23(1), 114-125.
Hunton, J. E., McEwen, R. A., & Wier, B. (2015). Retraction: The Reaction of Financial
Analysts to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation Plans. Journal of
Information Systems, 29(2), 241-241.
Hunton, J. E., Wright, A. M., & Wright, S. (2015). Retraction: Are Financial Auditors
Overconfident in Their Ability to Assess Risks Associated with Enterprise Resource
Planning Systems. Journal of Information Systems, 29(2), 235-235.
Kasemsap, K. (2015). The role of information system within enterprise architecture and their
impact on business performance. Technology, innovation, and enterprise
transformation, 262-284.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2016). Management information system. Pearson Education
India.
Rajnoha, R., Kádárová, J., Sujová, A., & Kádár, G. (2014). Business information systems:
research study and methodological proposals for ERP implementation process
improvement. Procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 109, 165-170.

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Shaul, L., & Tauber, D. (2013). Critical success factors in enterprise resource planning
systems: Review of the last decade. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 45(4), 55.
Thüm, T., Kästner, C., Benduhn, F., Meinicke, J., Saake, G., & Leich, T. (2014). FeatureIDE:
An extensible framework for feature-oriented software development. Science of
Computer Programming, 79, 70-85.
Tian, F., & Xu, S. X. (2015). How Do Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Affect Firm
Risk? Post-Implementation Impact. Mis Quarterly, 39(1).
Turk, D., France, R., & Rumpe, B. (2014). Assumptions underlying agile software
development processes. arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.6610.