Strategic Information Systems for Business and Enterprise

This document discusses strategic information systems and their benefits for businesses. It focuses on the case of Hydrix Ltd., a medical equipment manufacturing company, and explores the key business processes, potential weak internal controls, and recommended control techniques. It also outlines the software features and functionalities that can support Hydrix Ltd.'s business activities and compares three ERP software packages to identify the most suitable option. Additionally, it provides insights into the history of ERP and its relevance in the modern manufacturing world.

Strategic Information
Systems for Business
and Enterprise

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
BACKGROUND OF HYDRIX Ltd................................................................................................1
Brief discussion about HYDRIX Ltd.....................................................................................1
Discuss the key business processes for Hydrix Ltd................................................................2
Evaluate the business process of your clients to identify potential weak internal controls and
the risk associated with these potential weak controls...........................................................3
Recommend the control techniques that will reduce or eliminate these potential risks.........3
SYSTEM REQUIRES.....................................................................................................................4
Outline the software features and functionalities that your client should consider supporting
its business activities..............................................................................................................4
SOFTWARE SELECTION.............................................................................................................4
Discuss the history of ERP, particularly the history of ERP in the modern manufacturing
world.......................................................................................................................................4
Compare and contrast the features and functionalities of three ERP software packages offered
by the ERP vendors................................................................................................................5
Identify the most suitable vendor and ERP software package for your client and explain why
it is the best option..................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Strategic information system is specifically being defined as an effective process that
helps an organisation in gaining ample number of competitive advantages while considering
different updated technologies. It has been found that, strategic information system aid in
focusing on information techniques and technologies that helps companies perform different
range of tasks in an integrated IT system (Alkhaldi and et. al., 2017). Under this report,
organisation that has been taken into consideration is Hydrix Ltd., which is a medical equipment
manufacturing company and specialised in product development and kept its focus on medtech,
cardiac, mining, connected technologies, along with different industrial markets as well.
Away with this, Hydrix was specifically being established in the year of 2002 and in
order to understand the concept of strategic information system, various queries are going to be
addressed considering Hydrix Ltd.. Including this, major questions that are going to be asked
considering key processes for the software feature, client and so on that may lead to perform
different tasks in rightful ways. Lastly, Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) is also going
to be explained in same way and it will be recommended to Hydrix Ltd., for better outcomes in
near future then the existing situation.
BACKGROUND OF HYDRIX Ltd.
Brief discussion about HYDRIX Ltd.
An Australian organisation named as Hydrix Ltd. was launched and established in the
year of 2002 and since then it is giving competition to companies that are performing business in
product development and engineering field (specifically who are focusing among different areas
like cardiac, medtech, connected technologies, mining and industrial markets). On the other
hand, this organisation is also providing some of the other services like product design, unit of
in-house regulatory consulting, software engineering services and so on, which helped Hydrix
Ltd. in grabbing a unique position within highly regulated marketplace.
Away with this, Hydrix Ltd. delivers different range of design services to Hewlett
Packard’s Melbourne-based calculator division (Asmussen and Møller, 2020). While delivering
these services, this organisation also grabbed a stronger reputation considering different
innovative approaches along with the different solutions considering complex project challenges.
On the other hand, different sought of localized medical and surgical technology based
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organisations seeking a development partner on their challenging projects. Away with this, it has
also been found that 18 years of history has specifically showed that this organisation is growing
in much effective and efficient manner and realised through unique design along with innovation
abilities (Chang and Seow, 2016).
Also, considering more than 200 successful designed products along with IT solutions,
Hydrix Ltd. has become Australia's one of the leading product development companies. It has
also been found that Hydrix Ltd. partnered with clients to take into consideration of a unique
design, develop and commercialise transformative technologies. Company is also offering
unique services in relation with clinical, regulatory and quality systems expertise combined with
complete in-house product development capabilities to support clients along the entire
development journey from blank sheet of paper to product distribution. Most of all, it’s Hydrix
Ltd.'s collaborative approach that is key to success, which has also helped firm in gaining
competitive advantages and so on.
Discuss the key business processes for Hydrix Ltd.
In present time, it has been found that it is mandatory for every single business
organisation to understand that whenever a business company performs business activities, it is
mandatory for them to be aware that how different business entities are performing their business
activities in order to attain different range of goals and objectives (Chofreh, Goni and Klemeš,
2018). It is required to be done because, it is mandatory for them to take right decisions in much
effective and efficient manner in order to gain competitive advantages. On the other hand, it is
mandatory to focus on various business processes that Hydrix Ltd., may take into consideration
at the time of focusing on different aspects like process improvement, quality assurance along
with change management as well. Including this, it can also be said that all these processes are
quite crucial for the business entity as it allows to accomplish the goals which company wants to
attain. Some of the crucial key business processes of Hydrix Ltd. are software, electronics,
mechanical design, industrial design, regulatory consulting, CAD, Physics, Thermal Analysis,
robotics, rapid prototyping & 3D Printing, transfer to manufacture, manufacturer selection and
management, supply chain audit and product supply as well. Also, powered robotic exoskeleton
for stroke victims along with next generation site protection, treatment for Alzheimer’s disease,
IVF assistance device and so on (Dang and Pekkola, 2019).
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Evaluate the business process of your clients to identify potential weak internal controls and the
risk associated with these potential weak controls.
Business process of clients of Hydrix Ltd. is focusing on different aspects in order to grab
the good position within the market but then also it has been found that medical associations are
going through different range of difficulties while achieving different objectives and goals.
These aspects are process improvement, quality along with change administration as well. The
processes that has been followed by clients of Hydrix Ltd. are considered to be potential weak
points that pulls a range of risks that may majorly impact negative on performance levels. In
relation with quality, it is said that it is not that much effective in nature of the different machines
built by Hydrix Ltd. And this resulted into reduction in satisfaction level of customers (DeLone
and McLean, 2016). Away with this, there are various processes followed by clients of Hydrix
Ltd. which involves different tasks that are required to be enhanced in much effective and
efficient manner. Under this situation, it can be said that less efficient data base management
system of Hydrix Ltd. is considered to be the potential weak internal control which is required to
be managed because then only problems faced by clients of Hydrix Ltd. can be reduced to
minimal. Some of the crucial risks that are associated with potential weak internal control is
reduction in optimum utilisation of all the IT resources and this may result into loss of clients
which Hydrix Ltd. cannot afford. Away with this, IT staff members of Hydrix Ltd. goes through
various problems and this is considered to be the major reason behind weak internal control as
organisation is lacking in considered updated technology.
Recommend the control techniques that will reduce or eliminate these potential risks.
In present context, it has been found that there are a number of control techniques that
can be taken into considered to reduce or remove the risks that are present in the scenario that
has been presented of Hydrix Ltd. In this situation, it can be said that organisation i.e. Hydrix
Ltd. would require to take into consideration of management. by objective technique (González-
Rojas and Ochoa-Venegas, 2017). On the other side, whenever a situation takes place like this it
is mandatory to focus among different aspects. Including this, programming technique i.e.
Management Information System (MIS) may be helpful for the purpose of obtaining the desired
results effective. It is specifically being considered because at the time when any of entity faces
or goes through a range of problems a couple of different controlling techniques can be taken
into consideration to improve the overall performance level of the organisation.
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SYSTEM REQUIRES
Outline the software features and functionalities that your client should consider supporting its
business activities
Hydrix Ltd., is considered to be the Australia's fastest growing organisation but then also
in recent times it has been found that company started facing different range of difficulties in its
business activities (Korhonen and Halén, 2017, July). Including this, primary explanation behind
happening of the different range of issues are simply general, which impacted negatively on
business performance level of the organisation. Including this, it is also said that Hydrix Ltd.
Would need to focus like whenever any sort of situation that takes place, it will be important for
company to look among different solutions. Including this, major reason behind Hydrix Ltd. Is
going through difficulties is because of the consideration of inefficient DBMS system followed
by them while attaining different range of goals and objectives. While focusing on a particular
situation, Hydrix Ltd. may effectively consider Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP). This is
said to be one of the most advanced software that will lead Hydrix Ltd. to improve overall
performance level of the company in much effective and efficient manner.
SOFTWARE SELECTION
Discuss the history of ERP, particularly the history of ERP in the modern manufacturing world.
Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP) is considered to be a sort of programming which
for the most part business substance utilizes for achieving the objective. It is important to
comprehend that the kinds of business action which can be performed with the assistance of ERP
is bookkeeping, acquisition, venture the executives, hazard the board and satisfying the entirety
of the compliances which are basic. This as well as there are various kinds of extra undertaking
which can be performed with the assistance of ERP, for example, it permits to design the
spending plan, expectation can be additionally done effectively, monetary report can be readied
which is very vital for any of the substance to recognize about the presentation of the
organization. Furthermore, it is among the product which is significant for the substance since it
just assists with taking out the duplication of information or data which can make issue for the
element (Qu and et. al., 2019).
In the year of 1990, ERP (Enterprises Resource Planning) was introduced by Gartner,
anyway its inceptions go back to 1969. By when, the term alluded as the executives and
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oversight of inventories with in assembling industry. Programming specialists have made
frameworks to follow stock, equalizations and progress announcing. Indeed, even by 1970s, it
has formed into some sort of Enterprises Resource Planning (MRP) technique for orchestrating
creation strategies. Also, in 1980s, MRP extended to join a few mechanical techniques, driving
number of names it MRP-II or Manufacturing Resource Planning.
In the year of 1990, such structures developed across stock administration just as other
operational attributes to numerous other back-office jobs, for example, money and care staff,
giving a stage to ERP as companies have come to get it. Other than that, ERP implies for
"association," high-development and mid - go organizations are as of now progressively
executing ERP frameworks. Software as a Service (SaaS) strategies was likewise begun to
decide as distributed computing and it had additionally helped cultivate this development. Cloud-
based applications to permit ERP applications more available, however it likewise make things
simpler to fuse and keep up such projects (Sen, Bingol and Vayvay, 2017). Perhaps more
essentially, Cloud ERP permits ongoing observing and BI, permitting them considerably more
alluring to directors and laborers requiring market presence. By the closures of 2015, it was
recognized that any of the business which are playing out their business action as indicated by
ERP framework is permitting them to draw in more number client through which organizations
can accomplish their objectives and focus in simplest way. It was the primary explanation that
association began to focus toward ERP as it was permitting to discover the most ideal
arrangement through which objectives can be refined.
Considering the overall information, it can be said that history of Enterprises Resource
Planning (ERP) is something within modern manufacturing industry that impacted in both
negative and positive sense. In other words, it is said that organisation's requirements may
effectively be taken into consideration where their part of work is to consider them efficiently
and failure in same may lead company to go through different range of difficulties.
Compare and contrast the features and functionalities of three ERP software packages offered by
the ERP vendors.
SAP S/4HANA, Sage Intacct and Infor are the three Enterprises Resource Planning
(ERP) software packages offered by ERP vendors. Basically, these software packages may help
companies like Hydrix Ltd. to make determinations and these are important for companies to
consider them in business activities as this may lead companies to gain competitive advantages
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in today's national and international market. In present context, various features along with
functionalities of ERP software packages are presented underneath:
SAP S/4HANA: SAP S/4HANA is considered as one of the most important system
software developed under ERP system. In present context, some of the features are Smaller total
data footprint, Higher throughput, Faster analytics and reporting, ERP, CRM, SRM, SCM, PLM
co-deployed, Unlimited workload capacity, SAP HANA multi-tenancy, All data: social, text,
geo, graph, processing, New SAP Fiori UX for any device (mobile, desktop, tablet) and so on.
These software features majorly being utilised by both large and multinational organisations as
these are developed for storing huge data. Away with this, it has also been found that different
types of intelligent technologies are being taken into consideration even when considering
Artificial intelligence. If Hydrix Ltd. will consider SAP S/4HANA then it may be helpful for the
organisation to start different activities in much effective and efficient manner (Tai, Wang and
Wang, 2020).
Sage Intacct: This is said to be one of the crucial system that helps an organisation in
performing financial management. Some of the tools like accounting system software and
advanced clouds based financial management may help Hydrix Ltd. to gather information in
much effective and efficient manner while attaining different range of goals and objectives. It
has also been found that, this type of ERP software may effectively be utilised within medium
and small sized business entities like Hydrix Ltd. where maintaining record is equally important
for determining that how their organisation is performing in current scenario. In present context,
some of the main features of Sage Intacct is to track history of each transactions, stop relying on
paper files, and deliver up-to-the-minute business insight.
Infor: This is another crucial ERP software package that consists of different features
that may help a company like Hydrix Ltd. to enhance or improve the proficiency level in much
effective and efficient manner. This type of software carries a range of features and these are
distribution management, enterprise applications, lifecycle management, quality control,
resource management, contractor management and may help in developing governmental
applications. On the other hand, mainly that may aid organisations in involving the different
fields of manufacturing and performing different operations where number of activities are
required to be performed.
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All the three different ERP software that are specifically being discussed plays there own
type of role for organisations and also features of these software also varies. These can be
beneficial for organisations like Hydrix Ltd. that are dealing at national level but these can be
less helpful for small business entities because these are costly in nature and companies dealing
at small level can not afford these.
Identify the most suitable vendor and ERP software package for your client and explain why it is
the best option.
Considering the information that has been presented above, various software packages of
ERP system can be taken into consideration by business organisations. If it is talked about
Hydrix Ltd., then it is said to be one of the crucial manufacturing organisation of Australia,
where it will be pretty much necessary for company to consider Infor in order to conduct daily
activities within operational and manufacturing department. In present context, this software aid
client’s organization as this would help them in performing all the range of software considering
different facts along with the data that are most essential for the company (Wu and et. al., 2018,
December). On the other hand, competition within market is said to be something which is quite
high and is essential for any business organisation to come up with different sorts of ideas. In
case of Hydrix Ltd. It is already going through different difficulties in its finance department and
in present context, Sage Intacct can effectively be taken into consideration. Including this, Infor
is also said to be the crucial option which would help Hydrix Ltd. in allowing themselves to give
tough competition to different organisations.
CONCLUSION
With the help of above mentioned report, it is being concluded that utilisation of different
technologies by the organisations is continuously increasing and this has helped them in
sustaining within the market for a longer period of time. Away with this, it is also summarised
that for a business organisation it is must to convey alterations in much effective and efficient
manner because then only performance level of the company may effectively be improved. On
the other hand, understanding of history of Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP) has helped to
understand the concept and along with this the importance for organisations in grabbing different
goals along with objectives. It is also concluded that Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP) can
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be helpful for an organisation in gaining ample number of benefits like firm can perform day to
day activity while controlling quality as well through performing data analysis.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alkhaldi, F. M., Hammami, S. M., Kasem, S., Rashed, A., & Alraja, M. N. (2017). Enterprise
system as business intelligence and knowledge capabilities for enhancing applications
and practices of IT governance. International Journal of Organizational and Collective
Intelligence (IJOCI), 7(2), 63-77.
Asmussen, C. B., & Møller, C. (2020). Enabling supply chain analytics for enterprise
information systems: a topic modelling literature review and future research
agenda. Enterprise Information Systems, 1-48.
Chang, K. C., & Seow, Y. M. (2016). Effects of adoption and assimilation of enterprise systems
on business performance: a senior executive’s perspective. Information Systems
Management, 33(4), 316-330.
Chofreh, A. G., Goni, F. A., & Klemeš, J. J. (2018). Sustainable enterprise resource planning
systems implementation: A framework development. Journal of cleaner
production, 198, 1345-1354.
Dang, D., & Pekkola, S. (2019). Institutional perspectives on the process of enterprise
architecture adoption. Information Systems Frontiers, 1-13.
DeLone, W. H., & McLean, E. R. (2016). Information systems success
measurement. Foundations and Trends® in Information Systems, 2(1), 1-116.
González-Rojas, O., & Ochoa-Venegas, L. (2017). A decision model and system for planning
and adapting the configuration of enterprise information systems. Computers in
Industry, 92, 161-177.
Korhonen, J. J., & Halén, M. (2017, July). Enterprise architecture for digital transformation.
In 2017 IEEE 19th Conference on Business Informatics (CBI) (Vol. 1, pp. 349-358).
IEEE.
Qu, Y., Ming, X., Ni, Y., Li, X., Liu, Z., Zhang, X., & Xie, L. (2019). An integrated framework
of enterprise information systems in smart manufacturing system via business process
reengineering. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal
of Engineering Manufacture, 233(11), 2210-2224.
Sen, D., Bingol, S., & Vayvay, O. (2017). Strategic enterprise management for innovative
companies: The last decade of the balanced scorecard. International Journal of Asian
Social Science, 7(1), 97-109.
Tai, C. F., Wang, K., & Wang, E. T. (2020). Performance Impact of Enterprise Systems
Capabilities and Improvisation Capability. In PACIS (p. 165).
Wu, Z., Yang, Z., Sun, J., & Zou, Y. (2018, December). Alignment Between Enterprise Green
Supply Chain and Green Information System: An Analysis of Four Cases. In 2018 IEEE
International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management
(IEEM) (pp. 904-908). IEEE.
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