Recommendation for CTS Company to Implement an ERP System

This article provides a recommendation for CTS Company to implement an ERP system to automate stock and sales management operations. It suggests the modules that should be included in the ERP system such as inventory, sales and marketing, purchase, supply chain management, and CRM. The article also provides other recommendations for successful implementation such as consulting with SAP and focusing on ERP success factors.

1 RECOMMENDATION
By analyzing the given case scenario, it has been found that business operations of CTS
company are not effective due to paper-based manual interdepartmental communication and
ad-hoc IT systems. The Board of Directors of CTS organization have been recommended to
embrace new technological advancements into their business operations to achieve business
gains. In order to automate stock and sales management operations, the adoption of advanced
ICT solution is essential (Ranjan, Jha & Pal, 2016).
CTS’s senior management has been recommended to implement an ERP system as it has the
ability to manage highly complicated business processes properly. This system can be used
by the company for inventory management, product planning, scheduling of cloth production,
parts purchasing, capacity utilization, tracking orders, logistics management, accounting,
human resource, marketing, and financial planning, and management. The results of the case
study analysis clearly showed that existing business processes of CTS company are
inappropriate and ineffective which result in
 inaccurate stock racking
 time-consuming marketing strategies
 Wastage of time due to the manual generation of Sales and Return Report,
crosschecking of documents
 Improper stock updates
 Inaccurate monitoring of targets and performance
All problems which are being faced by the stakeholders of CTS company will be resolved
effectively by implementing an ERP system because this system covers all functional units of
business such as accounting, CRM, stock management, report generation, marketing, and
promotion, etc. The implementation of ERP is very challenging and expensive as well.
However, the company has been advised to include only a limited number of modules as per
the business requirements (Zouaghi & Laghouag, 2016). Based on the project requirements and
project scope, following discussed modules should be included by the CTS organization into
the proposed ERP system.

Figure-1 Proposed ERP solution (Source: Self-developed)
Module Description Benefits to CTS company
Inventory module Inventory management
module must be included in
the ERP system as it will
overcome the problem of
stocking tracking and
monitoring. This module
will be used for many
purposes such as stock
utilization, master units,
inventory control, special
procurement, issues of
goods, physical verification
of goods, the rule for goods
receipt, etc.
When customers will ask the
availability of any item, then
staff will track the stock
within seconds by using an
ERP system. However, the
customers will be served
efficiently and effectively
which will help the CTS
company to grow the count
of its loyal and regular
customers.
In addition to this, the
problem of stock outdating
and overstocking will also
be managed.
Sales and marketing module For automating the
marketing and sales
The inclusion of this module
in the ERP will reduce the
ERP
Inventory
module
Sales and
marketing
module
Purchase
module
Supply chain
management
(SCM) module
CRM
(Customer
relationship
management)

processes, there is a need to
include marketing module in
the system. This module
stores information about
invoices, quotations,
customer inquiries, and
orders. In addition, the data
of the marketing campaign
will be stored and tracked by
this module (Patil, 2014).
workload among marketing
and sales staff members.
The marketing team would
measurer the success rate of
an email campaign, client
engagement, and statistics of
search engine optimization
effectively by using an ERP
solution. It has been
expected that CTS company
will optimize its sales cycles
and escalates lead
generation by automating
marketing processes with
the use of an ERP system.
Purchase module This module will cover all
processes related to
procurements of raw
materials or other items.
This module supports
various functionalities such
as item and supplier linking,
recording and receiving
quotations, prepare purchase
orders, prepare GRNs, stock
updates, tracking purchased
items, etc.
The senior management has
been recommended to
integrate inventory module
with the purchase module in
order to streamline sale
processes. As some of the
suppliers of the company
prefer online ordering, so
the implementation of a
purchase module will be
beneficial for it.
Supply chain management
(SCM) module
SCM module includes
various functionalities like
shipping, replacing sales
return and replacement
processes, demand and
supply management, etc.
(Chatzoglou, Chatzoudes,
With the use of the SCM
module, CTS organization
will manage the flow of
goods from manufacturer-to-
consumer and consumers-to-
manufacturers.

Fragidis & Symeonidis, 2016).
CRM (Customer
relationship management)
The detailed information of
customers like calls,
meetings, communication
history, contract duration,
orders purchased by
customers, etc. will be
managed and tracked
effectively with the use of
the CRM module.
This module helps the
organization to improve the
quality of customer service
and boost sales performance
by establishing good
relationships with its buyers
(Azevedo, Romão & Rebelo,
2012).
1.1 OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
The senior management of CTS organizations should consult with SAP which is a famous
ERP vendor all across the world.
ERP implementation is a very challenging task, so the senior management of the CTS
company has been recommended to focus on ERP success factor. For example,
1. Clear and concise IT strategy
2. Effective communication between the IT team and managers
3. Support for senior management
4. Training
5. Proper change management strategy
6. Skilled project team (Gandhi, 2015)
2 REFERENCES
Azevedo, P., Romão, M., & Rebelo, E. (2012). Advantages, Limitations and Solutions in the
Use of ERP Systems (Enterprise Resource Planning) – A Case Study in the Hospitality
Industry. Procedia Technology, 5, 264-272. doi: 10.1016/j.protcy.2012.09.029
Chatzoglou, P., Chatzoudes, D., Fragidis, L., & Symeonidis, S. (2016). Critical success
factors for ERP implementation in SMEs. Proceedings Of The 2016 Federated
Conference On Computer Science And Information Systems. doi: 10.15439/2016f37
Gandhi, A. (2015). Critical Success Factors in ERP Implementation and their
Interrelationship Using TISM and MICMAC Analysis. Indian Journal Of Science And
Technology, 8(S6), 138. doi: 10.17485/ijst/2015/v8is6/71298

Patil, D. (2014). INTEGRATED ERP SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING THE FUNCTIONAL
EFFICIENCY OF THE ORGANIZATION BY CUSTOMIZED
ARCHITECTURE. International Journal Of Computer Engineering And
Applications, 6(3). Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1407/1407.8515.pdf
Ranjan, S., Jha, V., & Pal, P. (2016). Literature review on ERP implementation
challenges. International Journal Of Business Information Systems, 21(3), 388. doi:
10.1504/ijbis.2016.074766
Zouaghi, I., & Laghouag, A. (2016). Aligning key success factors to ERP implementation
strategy: learning from a case study. International Journal Of Business Information
Systems, 22(1), 100. doi: 10.1504/ijbis.2016.075720